The worst storm in history hit Ireland this weekend, and a virtual tornado hit the runway of Irish American designer Colm Dillane in Paris during his latest epic staging for his brand KidSuper.

 
A memorable gift from Daniel Wurtzel, the artist with whom Dillane collaborated, who created a mini-maelstrom of dry ice and feathers, and a staging of great bravura beauty.
 
Around which Dillane, a funky fine artist, sent his cast in a gutsy collection of patchwork panache, intriguing intarsia and striking imagery.

As a young man, Dillane studied mathematics at NYU. But had been sketching, painting and designing for many years, before his stop-motion mock runway show of fashion figures went viral on the web during Covid, suddenly seeing his profile explode.
 
So, even amid a soaking Saturday night, 2,000 fans headed out to the former slaughterhouse La Villette on the rim of Paris to catch this show. On their seats were mock blue KidSuper Citizen passports, featuring a map of the world. Within, the program note unveiled a series of partnerships.
 
Such as the white Bathing Ape collab’ T-shirts emblazoned with an image of spiky pre-teen Dillane with a painter’s easel. Or some fine black suits with Wildside Yohji Yamamoto – gangster chalk-stripes have occasional vertical stripes reading KidSuper.  And, in a Margiela-worthy conceptual twist Colm had his cast carry new sneakers inside clear plastic display boxes.
 

See catwalk

Though he opened with Geisha figures in humongous veils, and a series of massively cloaked nomads, huge cotton scarves coiled around their faces. Anything was a raw material for his down coats – embroidered nylon, intarsia, camouflage or tapestry. While his hand-painted designs of arty figures and the human form decorated some great bags.

Dillane can’t quite tailor like Giorgio Armani or drape like Alber Elbaz, but when it comes to runway theatrics and bold imagery, the likes of John Galliano or Alexander McQueen would be impressed.
 
Like all true Celts, he loves to talk, so much so he takes to the stage with a microphone for his ovations. This season, amid flying feathers in mini-swirl Dillane explained: “Building a tornado indoors is not easy, but I collaborate with amazing people and an artist called Daniel Wurzel… But I try to do the impossible every time. So, see you guys next year.”