Irish designer Robyn Lynch is riding the ‘green wave’ her own way

Guinness has been around for over 250 years, and yet its cultural cachet has reached new heights in 2025. Over the past two years, the black stuff has seeped into fashion collections, collaborating with JW Anderson, Labrum London and, as of this week, Lazy Oaf. In September, Steven Knight’s Peaky Blinders–style Netflix series House of Guinness took over our screens (quickly dubbed “the Succession of the brewery empire”). And next week, a huge new Guinness Open Gate Brewery opens in Covent Garden.

It might be the greatest glow-up in stout history, and with the brand’s popularity booming, it was high time that the staff at Dublin’s Guinness Storehouse had their uniform upgraded, too. Naturally, there was only one person for the job: Dublin-born and raised menswear designer Robyn Lynch. “It’s a cool drink to drink, but the [Guinness Storehouse] uniforms didn’t feel very cool,” she tells me from a cosy corner of The Auld Shillelagh, arguably London’s greatest Irish boozer.

Marking the Storehouse’s 25th anniversary, Lynch was enlisted to redesign the staff uniform over a year ago, spending months digging through the brand’s vast archive. “They used to give half a glass of Guinness to pregnant women in Ireland,” she laughs. “If you went into hospital, it would be prescribed to you – for the iron!”

Coincidentally, these aren’t the only uniforms Lynch has been asked to design this year. Before Guinness came knocking, the V&A was already on her doorstep, and in May, it was announced that she had designed the staff uniforms for the new V&A East. Known for her workwear-inspired, genderless silhouettes, electric colourways and sly, embedded humour, Lynch was the perfect pick to give institutional uniforms a modern edge.

After graduating from Westminster with an MA in Menswear in 2018, she enrolled on the British Fashion Council’s NEWGEN initiative, going on to produce a total of four on-schedule shows between 2022 and 2024. She hasn’t shown since AW24, not only for financial reasons, but because London Fashion Week Men’s ceased to exist this summer. If she wanted to return to the fashion week schedule, she’d have no choice but to follow her peers (Saul Nash and Grace Wales Bonner) and show in Milan or Paris. 

Below, the designer opens up about her conflicted feelings around fashion, the true cost of putting on a show, and why London’s recent “green wave” – the widespread embrace of Irish culture – feels like both a blessing and a curse. After catching up over a Guinness, we spent a Dazed Day Out together: visiting her new Mare Street studio, strolling through London Fields, and stopping in at Irish bookshop Donlon Books. Scroll through the gallery above to see what we got up to – or read on for the next chapter of Lynch’s story.

How would you rate The Auld Shillelagh’s pint of Guinness? 

Robyn Lynch: Oh, ten out of ten. I personally think it’s the best pint of Guinness in London. It’s our unofficial fashion show afterparty pub. 

Have you noticed that lots of Londoners seem to have become obsessed with Guinness lately?  

Robyn Lynch: Yeah, it’s funny. But I don’t think it’s just Guinness, there are loads of things having that same come-up. I don’t know how I feel about it; it’s a good thing, I guess. 

How is designing uniforms different to designing runway collections? 

Robyn Lynch: It’s so much harder. The functionality is so important, you can’t bullshit anything. It has to be worn every day, whereas I’ve designed things for runway before and they haven’t been manufactured in the best way – they look great on the runway, but they fit awfully, there are imperfections, but you kind of get away with it because it’s mainly used for image making and aesthetics. You can’t get away with adding a ‘Dry Clean Only’ label to a daily uniform! 

The last time you showed a collection was AW24. Do you have any plans to return to the fashion week schedule? 

Robyn Lynch: The honest answer is that I don’t know. AW24 was my last NEWGEN show, and with NEWGEN, they fund the location, the security, the WiFi, the bin removal, heating, everything, so when that ended, I had to really look at the costs. Even if I scrimped and saved, it would still cost £50 grand minimum – and that’s not including making the collection. 

I don’t come from tons of money. I’m super privileged to get to where I am, but not to the point where I can mess with that much of an investment, just for marketing’s sake. So for me, it doesn’t really make sense. But that doesn’t mean I don’t miss it, and I applaud Saul [Nash] for going to Milan. I would love to be able to do that. But the funny thing is that my sales are better than they’ve ever been. I haven’t invested in shows, but we’ve done mini moments, whether that’s been dressing Fontaines D.C., or throwing something on Instagram and putting up a few snaps. 

I don’t come from tons of money. I’m super privileged to get to where I am, but not to the point where I can mess with that much of an investment [in a runway show], just for marketing’s sake

I imagine Fontaines D.C. have helped bring in new customers too…

Robyn Lynch: They are incredible. As people, as human beings, their music is incredible. I’ve been listening to them since 2019, so it’s been amazing to see their growth and to have their support. 

If you were to show on schedule again, would it be in Milan?

Robyn Lynch: Yes, but then if we do go to Milan, my community isn’t there. Sure, the press and the buyers are there, but the people who fuck with my brand are not in Milan. They’re not there to give me that energy or to come to the pub with us afterwards and celebrate. 

What advice would you give to the current NEWGEN designers? 

Robyn Lynch: Don’t focus on wholesale. Focus on building direct-to-consumer sales and let wholesale be subsequent to your business plan. If you are beholden to someone’s payment plans and payment structure, you do not have the ability to grow. If you don’t have the cash flow to fulfil that production order, they will drop you in two seasons, no matter who you are. 

Do you ever feel like the industry is positioned against you as a female designer? Particularly as a woman designing menswear?

Robyn Lynch: For design, no. For selling and networking, yes. I’ve never felt penalised or different when it comes to design, but when it comes to selling, I’ve become aware of how much of a boy’s club it can be. That’s a bit alienating, but I’m trying to learn how to use that to my advantage. When I started to do my own sales, I realised that all the buyers are male and the crew that they operate within is very, very male-centric. 

Right, it’s not just the creative directors that are men, it’s all the people behind the scenes too…

Robyn Lynch: Exactly, it’s the whole business. It’s not the design element, but it’s what comes after that. 

Would you ever want to go to a brand? 

Robyn Lynch: I think everybody would. I love my brand and I love what I do, but I can only do so much because there are so many limitations. I’d love to be able to design and operate within a space that has unlimited resources – that’s the dream. To be able to get the nice fabric and not have to substitute it with the deadstock one. Imagine being able to sketch something and then handing it over to someone who can figure out how to make it happen.

What makes a collection a Robyn Lynch collection? 

Robyn Lynch: Irishness. It’s always been Irishness, whether that’s through cultural references, humour, graphics or music. That’s what I’m known for, but I’ve been toying with it recently because of this ‘green wave’, as people are referring to it. When I started doing it, I was one of very few people, but now it’s becoming increasingly popular that it’s making me second-guess it. Now I question, is it a bit embarrassing or a bit gimmicky now? We once did a collection that was all green, but that now feels incredibly embarrassing to me. 

I feel like this goes back to my question at the start, about Londoners adopting Irish culture. 

Robyn Lynch: Yeah, it is that. Because it becomes a gimmick. But Irish people play into it too much, and that’s when I have a problem with it. I sound so hypocritical – I had the Guinness harp on a knit in 2023! But I have a problem with people who really overtly play that card, because it harbours that gimmicky nature. 

How are you feeling about 2026? 

Robyn Lynch: Super excited. We have our first shoe coming out with Geox, we have our project with Guinness and I’ve just moved into a new studio – I’m trying to be more of a grown-up. Then it’s going to be about refocusing on the brand and figuring out which way to take it.