A young designer from County Tyrone has had her dream moment — seeing her work worn by one of Ireland’s most celebrated actresses in the pages of Vogue.
Karen Hegarty, 24, founder of Sperrin Design and a 2024 graduate of Ulster University, was part of a team of Northern Ireland creatives who collaborated on a fashion shoot featuring Derry Girls star Saoirse-Monica Jackson. The shoot took place at a property on Lawrence Hill in Derry, where Jackson wore Karen’s heavily patterned blue dungarees — a piece originally created for Ireland Fashion Week.
The dungarees form part of Karen’s Na Tonnta Poirceallaín — translated as The Porcelain Waves — a collection that draws deeply on her upbringing in the Glenmornan valley, nestled in the heart of the Sperrin Mountains. For Karen, the connection between homeland and craft is inseparable.
“Even though we’re such a small place, it shows that you can still make it,” Karen told The Irish News at a recent Queen’s University Fashion Society showcase, where the piece was on display. “And the fact that it happened here in Derry — in a house on Lawrence Hill, without having to go to London or Dublin — that means everything.”
Karen described the experience as wholly unexpected. The production team made contact in February, “just before the shoot”, before revealing that the collaboration would appear in Vogue. She called it simply “a dream come true”.
Her designs blend a deep sense of Irish heritage with a contemporary edge — textures and patterns inspired by the rugged hills, ancient valleys, and community spirit of County Tyrone. The Sperrin Mountains, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, have long stirred the Irish creative imagination, and in Karen’s hands, that landscape becomes wearable art.
Karen praised platforms like the Queen’s University Fashion Society for nurturing emerging Irish talent, noting that such spaces allow young designers to reach audiences who might never have encountered their work otherwise.
It is a story that resonates far beyond fashion. In a small glen in northwest Ireland, a 24-year-old looked at the hills around her and turned them into something the world’s most iconic fashion magazine chose to publish. That is what Irish creativity looks like in 2026.
Image Credit: Shutterstock
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