A LIFE IN COLOUR

Helen Steele has spent her life exploring colour. From her eponymous fashion line to her ongoing Dunnes Stores collaboration, colour is her language, her tool, and her signature. For Helen, design is not just about clothes, it is about experiences, energy, and how the spaces around her influence her work.

“I’ve dedicated my life to colour. What I do with colour is 80% instinct, and I trust that.”

FINDING INSPIRATION EVERYWHERE

For Helen, inspiration is found in movement, in travel, and in the quiet corners of everyday life. Hiking along the Wicklow Mountains, walking the Howth Cliff Walk, or exploring Killiney Hill sparks ideas. Walks out to Poolbeg every Sunday, and Dublin Port’s shapes and colours are important too. 

“I kind of find beauty in the mundane and the daily experience. Inspiration is everywhere, from galleries to street style, from the coastline to London’s Shoreditch graffiti.”

Travel and fashion weeks offer additional sparks. London and Paris provide textures, colours, and moods that Helen absorbs and translates into prints and patterns. Fashion, she says, is an art form that is deeply personal. How people dress tells a story about their mood and their personality.

Ask Helen which creatives she’d love to sit with and her mind jumps from O’Keeffe’s Arizona light to Turner’s wild seas, from Da Vinci’s genius to Rembrandt and the Dutch Masters. She’s fascinated with how they created colour hundreds of years ago, mixing pigments by hand and still achieving perfection. She says she can spend hours in the National Gallery, nose practically to the canvas, stepping back, leaning in again, noticing new details every time.

Francis Bacon is another artist that Helen returns to again and again, visiting his studio at the Hugh Lane often. She loves how he pushed colour into tension and chaos, yet always held emotional truth at the centre. His work encourages her to trust instinct over neatness.

“I’ll sit in front of Francis Bacon’s interview and listen to him speak, every time I listen and every time I look in his studio I see something different. I look at the mess of his studio and it really reminds me of my own studio in Monaghan and that his process seems kind of similarly chaotic to mine. His use of the color pink and how he painted flesh was so interesting… How he mixed paint on the door of his studio – I do that the whole time.”

THE ROLE OF LOCATION

Helen has learned that the right shoot location can transform her designs. A space is more than a backdrop. It can be a collaborator, a character, a force that shapes the energy of a shoot.

Coal Lane House is a perfect example. The collection Helen brought to this location was bold and vibrant, but the grey cement walls grounded everything, giving it a slick, modern, and elegant edge.

“The energy in that location was amazing. You can feel it, and it elevates your work.”

The Greenhouse offered an entirely different experience recently. Every room surprised and delighted Helen and her team.

“Walking through The Greenhouse was like Dorothy seeing Oz. Every room had its own life. Spaces like that feed into the designs.”

The Woodland Lodge provided a colourful, eclectic backdrop, full of character, while The Vibrant Eclectic overflowed with energy and personality. For Helen, each location provides a different palette, a different mood, and a different opportunity to bring her work to life.

DESIGNING FOR ENVIRONMENT

Environment is central to Helen’s philosophy. Whether it is athleisure for Dunnes or silk dresses for her fahsion line, her designs respond to context, movement, and comfort.

“Environment dictates design. Comfort, colour, freedom. If people don’t feel good in what they wear, I haven’t done my job.”

Her athleisure line celebrates movement and energy, but also rest and self-care. Clothes should suit your life, whether walking the dog on a freezing morning or working out in a studio. Meanwhile, her silk dresses, sent mainly to the Middle East, flow effortlessly under abayas, combining lightness with elegance.

She mentions seeing people online wearing her Dunnes collab doing aerial pilates:
“Seeing them move in those hoops just blows my mind every time. So cool.”

Helen believes that the choices people make in their clothing are among the few things in life they can control, and that brings joy and confidence. Colour, freedom, and comfort are non-negotiable in her designs.

CREATIVITY AND PROCESS

Helen’s creative process is immersive and dynamic. She has two studios: one beside her home for her Dunnes collaboration, and a larger studio in Monaghan for her fashion line.

The Monaghan studio, a converted duck hatchery, allows her to work at a grand scale. She rolls out huge canvases, layers paint, throws colour onto walls, and photographs the results. Every piece is alive and in motion before she digitally manipulates it into a print.

In the studio beside her home, she works on smaller-scale prints, often late into the night when inspiration strikes.

“One night last winter, I woke at 3:30 a.m. with an idea, ran outside in excitement, and nearly broke my ass on the ice. But that is how it is when creativity hits.”

Both studios carry energy from the people who inhabit them, from builders who care about craft to children who add playfulness to the space. Helen feels that positivity remains in the room and contributes to the work.

ADVICE FOR CREATIVES

For anyone starting out, Helen has a clear message: trust yourself and fight for your creative ethos.

“Take advice, but apply it to yourself. No one knows you like you do. No one has your creative DNA. Fight for it. Keep it safe and protect it.”

It took her twenty years to build a sustainable career, learning patience and persistence along the way. The path is long, but maintaining your vision is essential. She also acknowledges the support of Dunnes Stores, which has made it possible to sustain a fashion career in Ireland while staying true to her style.

THE IMPACT OF COLOUR AND PLACE

Helen Steele’s career is a testament to the power of colour, environment, and thoughtful design. Her work comes alive when paired with the right space, as demonstrated in her shoots at Coal Lane House, The Greenhouse, Woodland Lodge, and The Vibrant Eclectic.

“The right location can elevate your work. You can feel the energy of a space, and it feeds into the designs.”

Her designs celebrate freedom, colour, and joy, showing how creativity, craft, and environment intersect to produce something vibrant, alive, and unmistakably Helen Steele.

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