It all began with a hat, handmade from fake fur with a silk lining. Rachel Maguire was in her final year studying fashion at the Grafton Academy when she decided to make “one big bold hat” during Covid, and was taken aback when suddenly everyone who saw her wearing it wanted one too.
“I felt it expressed me and made me feel better, and was a way of coming through Covid. People broke the two-metre rule to touch it. My hats are talking points now – these things make me happy, so I want to make other people feel empowered through my clothing,” she says when we meet in Blackrock in Dublin, a few weeks after her thrilling debut show in the Douglas Hyde Gallery.
In the four years since she launched her label Rashhiiid (the name comes from a childhood nickname), Maguire, who is now 27, has shown extraordinary resilience and determination, demonstrating how a wild imagination can create desirable clothing. Her designs – expressive, zany and often daring – have attracted the attention of superstars like Doja Cat, who has endorsed not just her hats, but her coats and bags too, and commissioned a custom-made denim outfit. Rapper Megan Thee Stallion wore her faux Mongolian lamb boot covers performing in Boston. Her floor-length fake fur bubble coats in bright blue or pink are similar scene stealers.
Her hats, her best sellers, continue to make statements. With titles like Grand Dollar Bill, Tower of Fantasy, Silver Bucket or Rainbow Racoon, they form dramatic furry frames around the face.
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Last year she moved to Paris, bought the best industrial sewing machine she could find, and along with two Irish interns in her studio, she completed orders, “working and doing photo shoots”, with a French PR company helping with promotion.
In August, when Paris shut down, she took off for Guangzhou in China, a key area in textile manufacturing, checked into a three-star hotel in the city. “I spent the whole month there – no one spoke English, there was no internet, but I found a family-run factory making for luxury European brands that was good quality. I was lonely, with noodles for breakfast every day, and I was sewing from Monday to Sunday through the week to create my own custom pieces from fabrics I could source there. It was a dream come true.”
The long grey/green dress she is wearing from her new collection is an example of the fabrics she found – a soft jersey suede which she has embellished with patch pockets. She came home laden down with pieces handmade from quality fabrics for her first collection, recalling the hotel room with fabric samples strewn all over the floor – “it looked like a drug den”.
Her tireless use of social media to promote her work has ensured a following of 35,000 on Instagram. With her porcelain skin and long auburn hair, she is the best walking advertisement for her own designs. “I love using other models, but when I [model] it myself, it gets such a good response,” she says.
Her debut streetwear show “I Survived Myself” in the Douglas Hyde Gallery in Dublin in September, billed as “blending bold fashion design, personal expression and cultural influence”, was a tour de force. The long unisex faux fur coats, printed suits with faux fur trim, lace dresses, ruffle skirts, cargo pants, camouflage and pop art prints delivered great impact. Woolly mammoth coats or sexy skintight bodysuits with Davy Crockett-style headgear created a look of feral femininity with occasional bondage accents. Fake fur duffle bags, furry boots and couples connected by fur ropes were par for the course.
Sections of the show called Strength and Rebirth were references to her previous mental health struggles; statement print leggings were composed of personal messages, and another outfit was a patchwork of newspaper headlines. “I am truly passionate about what I love and what I do, and that saved my life,” she says. “Money will come in due course, but it will come in the right way. I am not going to churn out T-shirts that are going to a landfill dump. My clothing tells a story about who I am.”
Maguire comes from an interesting background: her father is a solicitor turned winemaker of Les Deux Cols, co-owner of 64 Wines in Glasthule in Dublin; her mother, Lucy Gaffney, is a well-known businesswoman and equality advocate. Both are great supporters of her work.
She is very clear about priorities. “I want to stay making and in my own world – I would never get out of bed if I was scrolling all day. I want to stay unique and get inspired by real things, not what’s on my phone.”
Plans include arranging events where customers can view the collection first-hand – “I like that idea of interaction – I want to build a community and talk to people through my clothing.”
Visit www.rashhiiid.com or follow her on Instagram @rashhiiid
