“My want in starting a business is so deeply rooted in why — I want to help make change in the fashion industry. It’s a movement I want to create. It’s not just a fashion brand. So I have a long way to go,” she tells Magazine+.

The Limerick native started her own sustainable fashion brand, Aoife McNamara in 2019, just after graduating from Limerick School of Art and Design. Coincidentally, it was in those same hallowed halls that the first seeds of inspiration were planted.

“It really began when my mom brought me to see a show in the Limerick School of Art and Design. I saw the final-year students’ designs on the runway, and I couldn’t believe that humans had made these clothes with their hands. I was so mesmerised by it. I think that was the first moment that I really wanted to be a fashion designer…I never wanted to do anything else,” she remembers.

Now, the 28-year-old’s brand is one of Ireland’s most famous. Open Instagram and you’ll likely see an influencer or well-known face decked out in one of Aoife’s designs.

Most of the designer’s inspiration comes from the natural world, and it’s never in short supply considering she lives in Clare, on the rugged west coast.

“I love where I’m living at the moment. Like, it’s where I get my inspiration from: the Burren, the Cliffs of Moher, from swimming daily,” she says. “I’ve always had a love of nature, it’s so important to me as a person to be around it that much.”

For her latest collection, the inspiration is a little more industrial. Having been announced as an ambassador for car company Toyota earlier this year, the designer has now created some new looks inspired by the brand.

“It was a really fun project that really brought me back to what I used to do in art college — taking things from architecture and more structural shapes. It was definitely different from the landscape and the softer [looks] but I think I do always have, I suppose, that powerful element in my designs, like those big shoulder pads and that oversized and gathered sleeve,” she explains.

“I went over to Hamburg and I saw the car in person at the launch. It’s such a futuristic shape and you can really see those precision cut lines and all those different geometric shapes.

“The first thing that struck me from the inside of the car was that they used 100pc recycled polyester, innovation through sustainable materials is such a big passion of mine so I used 100pc recycled polyester also in my designs. The stitching is a lovely red on the steering wheel and there’s also a lovely yellow on the seats, and I brought that through.”

“Definitely as a young girl I would have been looking at myself like, ‘Well done, Aoife.’ So I am very proud of the collaboration,” she adds with a smile.

As a young woman in business, Aoife needs to wear lots of different hats and fight the pressure to spread herself too thin. “It’s definitely not easy. I’m not just a creative anymore, I’m a business owner. It’s taken me nearly four years to understand balance and I feel like I’ll take another 10 years to get there. If I ever get there,” she says.

“It’s such a hard thing, I think, in anyone’s life to really find balance. I don’t know if we ever do, but I think for me the most important part is to be organised with my calendar and making sure I’m not just working on the business all the time, but I’m also spending time in nature and with my loved ones, figuring out what I do. That keeps me happy. My Google Calendar is my best friend,” she laughs.

Of course, Aoife’s commitment to a totally green business “makes every single thing harder,” she admits. “But I would never do it any other way. What I do is so deeply rooted inside of me from an emotional point of view; I believe in earth logic and not growth logic, and that’s a decision I made.

“I know that by doing that it’s harder and makes everything a bit more challenging, but that’s what makes me happy and gets me out of bed in the morning —knowing I’m not creating another fast fashion brand that doesn’t have any meaning.”

Go to aoifemcnamara.com