Metamorphic
Shooting winter knitwear on a hot summer’s day can often feel jarring but this time it was different. With our lives slowed almost to a halt, so many of us were seeking purpose and comfort in whatever way we could. And yet, when you think of Ros’ cashmere - in its slowness, its purposefulness and its comfort - it’s the very embodiment of a life meaningfully lived. At a time when regular work had paused for two thirds of the shoot team, planning a cashmere shoot in the middle of a global pandemic, during a surprisingly hot June, felt oddly right.
Metamorphic was created during Dublin’s first lockdown of 2020 with photography by Simon Walsh and art direction by me. The name (‘meta’ meaning change, and ‘morph’ meaning form) is a nod to the metamorphosed rocks that form a backdrop to the images and elements of Ros’ creative process.
The shoot took place on White Rock beach in Killiney, Co. Dublin, the designer’s local. Sheltered by steep rock faces, there is a certain stillness to White Rock not easily found along Dublin’s busy coastline.
For Ros, the beach makes for an ideal escape from her knitting machine; a place for unlocking ideas. For us, when dreaming up this series, it felt like the sort of place where inanimate objects (in this case Ros’ sweaters and cardigans) might retreat for a moment’s solitude. In these images and film, Ros’ pieces are brought back to their roots - the very beach where the seedling of an idea inspired a pattern, which informed a colour palette which was then rendered in cashmere to form a collection.
Ciana March
Art Director
