Fashion Week on Instagram and chatting with Helen Cody: Smart Casual is now live

Smart Casual is IMAGE’s first fashion podcast, in collaboration with Kildare Village. In our bi-weekly chats, we examine why we wear the clothes we do and deal with personal style in a way that speaks to you. 

As Fashion Month draws to a close, our hosts are discussing the new politics of Fashion Week coverage. If we look back on the month and our standout sartorial memories, what jumps out? The Harper Beckham/ Anna Wintour matching bobs? The Molly Goddard fuschia tulle dream dress? How many of us remember entire collections, the vibe of a show, or the trends that they indicate for AW 19? And what does that say about how we’re consuming fashion week coverage?

For this week’s episode, Dominique, Marie and Édaein discuss how social media, especially Instagram, has influenced how we look at Fashion Week shows. Has Instagrammable moments and social media-friendly pieces taken over from traditional reportage? Are people as interested in what fashion experts think of full collections as they are in street style inspo? It can sometimes be difficult for our hosts, as women who work at a fashion magazine like IMAGE, to discern what women outside of the fashion sphere are interested in from these shows. But as we looked at what was getting the biggest reaction from our readers, our findings were very interesting.

Related: The standout moments from London Fashion Week

Our guest this month on Smart Casual is Irish style stalwart Helen Cody, who chats to Marie about her vision as a fashion designer. Helen began her fashion career at the top of her game — working between Vogue Paris and the studio of Azzedine Alaïa when she was in her twenties in Paris. Her career has brought her across the world to New York and back to Ireland, where she has now settled as one of the premier designers of the Irish fashion scene. Her unique and beautifully feminine pieces are all finished in her Dublin studio, where she works with just one other person. In this episode, Helen talks about her career to date, her choice to settle in Irish design, and her journey with cancer, and how fashion and design made her feel throughout.

Episode 12 of Smart Casual, in collaboration with Kildare Village, is available now on SoundCloud and iTunes – make sure to like, subscribe and rate us wherever you enjoy your podcasts. Smart Casual is hosted by Dominique McMullan, Marie Kelly and Édaein O’Connell, and produced by Erin Lindsay. If you can’t wait to download, have a listen to the new episode below: