Joanne Hynes talks about how she became a fashion designer, with a lucky break from Nicola Formichetti, Lady Gaga's stylist.
Joanne Hynes is a clothes and accessories designer. She designed some of the much-talked about dresses worn by meteorologist Jean Byrne, including the silver futuristic dress Jean wore to deliver the RTÉ weather forecast on Christmas Day 2009 and the slashed black dress from her forecast on 5 January 2011.
Joanne Hynes is from Tuam in Co. Galway. She talks about growing up in the country in this radio interview with Miriam O’Callaghan. She didn’t realise she could be a fashion designer, but she liked expressing herself through dress and when she went to Limerick to study art, she was “like a fish to water in the fashion department”.
Her lucky break came when she walked into a shop in Soho in London wearing her own designs while on a year off college. The shop’s owner, Nicola Formichetti spotted her and placed an order and things took off from there. Nicola Formichetti went on to become Lady Gaga’s stylist.
Joanne says she designs for women, but is often surprised by the different types of women who buy her clothes.
