The Irish fashion edit
Barber and designer Paul Mac Special isn’t your typical milliner. You may not see his headpieces at the Galway races, but they are on international stages. Having designed for Bambie Thug, he’s determined to push the boundaries of art and fashion
‘I’m a barber day to day, but I’ve always been into creative and editorial work,” Paul Mac Special says. “During lockdown I watched McQueen, the Alexander McQueen documentary on Netflix, and saw his collaboration with Irish milliner Philip Treacy in the 1990s. I was just blown away and I knew I wanted to try it. With everything shut down during Covid-19 I had all the time in the world to learn.”
The avant-garde designer found a connection to his past through his work. “My grandmother was a dressmaker. I think that’s where I get my creativity from. Although she died when I was quite young, I later realised she was a night owl just like me,” Mac Special says. “I start working at midnight and I can be up to 3 or 4am. I feel a lot more creative than in the day time.”
As the witching hour is when Mac Special experiences his creativity, it’s no surprise he has collaborated with mystic singer Bambie Thug, who represented Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest in May and was seen in Mac Special’s designs on the cover of this magazine in April.
“Funnily enough we’re both from Cork, but I was only introduced to Bambie Thug when a make-up artist I’d lent a piece to in London sent me a picture of Bambie wearing my head dress and told me they had found the perfect model.”
A likely pair was made and Bambie Thug has since been seen in many of Mac Special’s designs. He found a kinship with the singer as they both went against their hometown’s status quo.
“I’m a bit of a black sheep where I live in Cork; it can be a bit conservative and GAA-focused… then there’s me,” Mac Special says with a laugh. “Even in hair competitions, when I began to do more alternative stuff I was told to tone it down. But then Paul Stafford [of Stafford Hair, Belfast], who was a mentor, encouraged me to keep doing what I was doing. He said once I got the recognition from Britain and America, Ireland would be all about me. And that’s exactly what happened. I had a three-year period of not even placing in hair shows to then being inducted into the Irish hairdressing hall of fame. I was on the men’s British hairdressing team. I travelled in the States as well to teach master classes. I was also a guest judge on the Irish Glow Up semifinal. The contestants worked with my pieces. It was such a great opportunity. Love Island’s Maura Higgins was the presenter.”
Mac Special is a creative force and we can’t wait to see what he does next.