Sinead Gorey SS25
For Spring/Summer 2025, Sinead Gorey looks to the great British prom, reimagining the age-old tradition through her own, party girl lens. Leaning into her punk sensibilities, the designer departs from the silhouettes and templates of late noughties and early 2000s teenage style, building a story whose main character is not so much the prom queen, but the prom anti-heroine.
Harking back to a bygone era of house parties, Facebook albums and an altogether more tethered relationship with social media, the show unfolds in a school sports hall, an apt, otherwise conventional setting for the Gorey girl to kick out against her status quo.
“Prom is that time in your life when you’re finally finding your style, so I wanted to recreate that using luxury shapes and constructions,” says Gorey. Working closely with corsetry, evening wear and the broader codes of her youth – school uniform, aerodynamic rave gear and denims – the South Londoner makes way for new fabric innovations while updating the classics for this season’s antagonist. “She’s the outcast of the prom, ditching the archetypal prom dress. In fact, she’s probably not even going to prom – just the afterparty,” adds Gorey.
Gorey signatures, such as her Haçienda-esque stripes, appear across the offering, colouring cowl-neck mini-dresses, felted cardi-short co-ords and cool lycra gowns that drape across the head. More rebellious iterations of occasion dressing manifest in studded, ribbon-fastened o-ring bodycons – real, printed or bejewelled in diamantés – in a nod to the visceral corset piercing trend of yesteryear. A typically bratty palette of candy floss pinks, crimson and canary threads together the cutesy, chi-chi and coquettish designs. Trompe-l’oeil digital renders of cleavage, wet t-shirts and archetypal prom satins enhance the kitsch appeal.
Throughout, familiar pieces are given high-low treatments. Gorey’s beloved, faux Mongolian fur jacket loses its sleeves, arriving in a shade of meringue, accented with frosted ochre trims, or in another instance, a bubblegum and emerald tweed body, specced with polar cuffs and hem – ideal for throwing over a frock as the limo pulls in. Meanwhile, plaid three-quarter leggings and boyfriend-style patchwork shirting recall the borrowed sleepwear that has long outfitted a post-prom sleepover.
Elsewhere, Gorey features her spin on Converse’s newly relaunched, knee-grazing XXHi, the Chuck Taylor All-Star and the Chuck 70 Wedge, which comes with a hidden 2.5-inch heel. For each, she applies a custom flourish, be it fluoro belly button bars wrought into the canvas or decorative tidbits.
Now that school is out, the tie patterns, skirt tartans, and blazer stripes of past are transposed onto panelled midis and shirts, complete with school regulation no-nos, such as sweetheart necklines, lace-up fronts or lingerie frills. The swimwear – a growing enterprise for Gorey – is equally detention-worthy. One-piece cozzies are primed the scripted SG, ruched across the chest or in the case of bikinis, riveted along the waistband and the bust.
Merging tech, fashion and nostalgia, Gorey highlights the HMD Skyline as part of her recent ‘Phonecore’ collaboration with Human Mobile Devices, equipping girls on the runway with bespoke spiked belts to carry their new device. The smartphone comes with a 108MP hybrid OIS triple-rear camera and capture fusion, plus a 50MP selfie camera and eye-tracking autofocus – a handy way for the renegade it-girls to snap their evening antics.
Naturally, the protocol for more formal dress is entirely eschewed. UV-reactive leatherette sets, exposed fly skater jeans – splashed with an ‘I Love SG’ barbel piercing overlay – or nostalgic military micro skirts and admiral jackets become the uniform for this high school graduate, free to roam into the night.
Still, meticulous details further keep it a proposition of luxury. Spiked silicone and ball-closure earrings are worked into the fabrics with couture-level finesse, offering the attitude of an English adolescent and finery to boot. Gorey’s girl is broaching the next chapter in her youth, ready for the party that awaits.
Words Courtesy of Lobby PR
Images By: Ines Bahr
