RÓISÍN PIERCE: NOTHING PURE CAN STAY

hube: Your latest collection, Nothing Pure Can Stay, explores themes of transience and gratitude in the presence of grief. Have these ideas appeared in your work before and why did this feel like the right moment to dedicate an entire collection to them?

Róisín Pierce: I wanted to bring a brand message of hope to appreciate the present and not dwell in the past. Losing something or someone is a sorrowful event that can make people stagnant in their lives as they try to recapture and relive what’s lost, but there is beauty, even relief, in the gratitude of loss for all that was shared together.

h: Your work often draws from literature, referencing writers like Vladimir Nabokov and Marcel Proust. Has literature always been central to how you imagine and shape your work?

RP: Their words resonate with me. The particular selection I chose for this collection tells a narrative I wanted to convey. Take Nabokov’s quote: “Beauty plus pity is a true definition of art, where there is beauty there is pity as beauty always dies, the manner dies with the matter and world dies with the individual”. The tension he writes of between beauty and its inevitable disappearance is at the heart of my collections: the snowflake, the spring bud, the forget-me-not are all preserved in rare silk scalloped designs. I’m constantly trying to preserve the fleeting, to give permanence to moments that would otherwise slip away, and Nabokov articulated this paradox with such precision that his words became almost like a philosophical foundation for my design approach. I find words and language inspiring, and they hold an important part in my world-building process.

I sometimes write poetry, and it can be so gut-wrenching, I have to delete it so I do not read how I was feeling at that present moment. Sylvia Plath is someone whose writing has inspired me since my teenage years, and this was the second collection where her words were part of the narrative building, while our fifth collection, ‘O lovely one’, featured a poem written collaboratively between me and a poet.

h: Stephen Jones, who recently had a retrospective at the Palais Galliera, collaborated on this collection to create a line of dreamy headpieces to be available at select Dover Street Market and Comme des Garçons locations. What brought this partnership about, and how does Jones’ ethos align with the direction you’re taking your brand?

RP: It was initially Adrian Joffe, president of Dover Street Market, who put us in touch. I’ve long been a fan of Stephen Jones and I was so pleased when we got on very well, and shared interests in the natural world. He is, of course, a brilliant and highly regarded milliner – so skilled in his artistry. His precise yet dreamlike approach to creation aligned so well with my own approach. We had a very open conversation and worked together on the design, on these sweet, sugar-like pieces that I had been wishing to bring to life for some time now. His direction is very fun and refined, and when it was mixed with our direction for gumdrop sweetness, I think we created something very special in the laced petal caps, swirling pintucked berries, and bows!

h: You’ve spoken about your Irishness as an integral part of your work, especially through the lenses of faith and ritual. Ireland—shaped by resilience, history, and rich storytelling traditions—holds a deep relationship with ideas of transition, remembrance, and the unseen. How has this cultural background shaped the emotional or symbolic language of your work today?

RP: There’s something mystic about what we do at the brand, it’s almost like catching the light. We are very driven by emotion, tapping into the metaphysical reference elements and historical emotions that may not be understood by all but have deep cultural roots from which others can grow their own symbolism.

h: The collaboration with Polène feels like a natural meeting of material sensitivity and sculptural form. What drew you to working with them, and what did you hope to express through this union?

RP: This collaboration was an extension of our dedication to innovation and a beautiful coming together of different yet harmonious artisanal skills. As a brand, we embrace a variety of crafts, such as crochet, smocking, patchwork, lacework, and embroidery, but our unique creative processes create sculptural forms that belie the delicate nature of the thread and cloth that make them. With the collection of bags, we are, in many ways, exploring the inverse – taking leather, a material that is known to be strong and robust, and imbuing it with the illusion of softness using new artisanal techniques.

h: Embroidery, which you’ve mastered with such precision, is the quiet art of weaving thousands of threads into meaning. It clearly requires patience – but what has it taught you about time, and the ways we choose to spend it?

RP: Both our embroidery and our crochet, created by traditional Irish makers, are time-consuming practices, but I have always cherished the time it takes to create our pieces. It’s a flow state of creation and an opportunity for reflection when we can learn from the process, plan other pieces, and apply the techniques in new ways. It feels like an infusion of meaning into cloth, reclaiming slowness as a virtue. I’ve learned, for me, time is sacred, and with commitment, you can turn something ordinary into extraordinary. I love a metamorphosis, from flat fabric to something highly detailed, with smocked flowers, rounded floating petals, with lace running through… It’s about a beautiful transformation, and that is where the stars lie, when something unimaginable is born.

h: Irish women’s history has long been a cornerstone of your work. How does femininity inform your practice today, and how has your relationship to it evolved over time?

RP: I’ve always found strength in the feminine and reference elements that are typically deemed as feminine in the derogatory, such as softness and emotion, but which to me signal strength, a beautiful resistance. Growing up around women who have immense strength and now working with them is continually inspiring. I like to think about the challenges women have faced and continually face alongside what women would treasure and cherish. I have always wanted to approach these elements with sensitivity, especially when retelling the darker and more sorrowful histories, and I’m humbled by the attachment our audience has to our work and that they can see the sensitivity in the textiles and design – the whitework, the airy tulle, the scalloped laces, and the tender loops.

h: When someone encounters your work, what lasting impression or feeling do you hope they leave with?

RP: Wonder, enjoyment, curiosity, and a sense of pureness. There is a sort of strict pureness and dedication to create the pieces we do, it’s like catching light, catching something hard to grasp. It’s also about being loose and flowing and open to exploration. It’s many things, and it’s real art to do it.

h: What can we expect to see next from you?

RP: Real beauty. I hope this upcoming collection will create truly challenging pieces that express a new version of what we do. I want to impress myself, and that is actually the hardest person to impress.