Irish designer Paul Costelloe: "If I can do it, anybody can do it"

Journalist Victoria G.L. Brunton goes backstage at London Fashion Week to speak with celebrated Irish designer Paul Costelloe.

Marking his 41st year presenting at London Fashion Week, Paul Costelloe showcased an Autumn/Winter 2025 collection bursting with Irish culture.

The show opened with a powerful track by the Chieftains, and Irish folk music continued to be the soundtrack throughout. Looking to dressage and his life-long admiration of equestrian skill for inspiration, the edit reflects strength, space, and energy.

Traditional heritage fabrics from Magees of Ireland and Harris of Scotland are expertly architected into structured suits and voluminous outerwear.

Costelloe's painterly skills arise through a colourful dressage print - illustrated in-house - in a palette of chestnut browns, amber yellows, winter creams, berry reds and midnight blacks.

Bags and accessories echo the line-up’s equine inspiration with iconic saddle bags sculpted from soft, grained leather and fitted with bridle hardware, full-waisted leather belts and classic riding gloves.

We snuck backstage pre-show to catch-up with the legacy Irish designer as well as his team of hair and make-up stylists. Watch it in the video below.

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It's your 41st show this season. How are you feeling?

I think it's quite exciting. Particularly, the opening scene - it's the Chieftains. We've got this wonderful little piece of music opening the scene with a lot of McGee's tweeds, Harris tweeds, my son's designs, my S-O-N-S, plural. So it's very much the expression of what I want to convey.

It really is [an] important period for our creativity, whether it's movies, whether it's writers, I think I'm kind of jumping on the Irish bandwagon, maybe a little late at the age of 80 - I think I should be well dug down into Deansgrange maybe, there’s a plot there waiting for me - but in the meantime going to give them a good, strong show.

The inspiration behind this collection is dressage, tell us about that?

Yes, it was something that I launched in Ireland way back in the late 80s, early 90s. It used to be so popular in places like Brown Thomas - they’d pour in on a Saturday looking for a Paul Costelloe tweed jacket.

Well, I've relaunched it a little more extreme. Not looking on the commercial side at all. So it's got quite a lot of excitement, some very extreme short skirt, baggy, baggy trousers, great cut jackets with velvet trims, etc, etc.

I came from a family in Booterstown where we had horses in the back garden (backfields, maybe not the garden). Why not dig back? I don't like looking back, but from many points of view, I think you have to go forward. But I do have a heritage at this point in my life, and I kind of introduce the more extreme side.

Do you have a word of inspiration for aspiring Irish designers?

Well, no, I think we can all do it. If I can do it, anybody can do it. And it’s great to see the Irish designers appearing at the very, very top. I think it's a positive. It really is. And as long as we can resurrect some of our textile industry as well, the linen industry, etc, which I'm hoping maybe to do something in the future.