By James McLaren

*Creative direction and Photography: Adam Gaffey (@hoodedshooter)*.
Model: Pádraig Noone (*@padraignoone* / *@assetsmodels*).

At Ireland Fashion Week 2026, Tom Stapleton introduced a menswear label built around 1970s proportions, rich textures and a distinctly personal point of view. We meet the designer behind the collection.

There is a difference between wearing clothes and having a point of view. STAPLETON MENSWEAR understands this.

“I always knew I had a point of view, and I wanted to share,” designer Tom Stapleton tells me at The Irish Edit during Ireland Fashion Week 2026. “This is me launching my point of view and my designs.”

It is a straightforward introduction to a collection that has little interest in blending in. Wide-legged, high-waisted trousers. Oversized collars. Textured wool in shades of rust, brown, moss green and cream. The proportions are deliberately exaggerated, the palette drawn from the landscape, and the overall effect feels closer to a character study than another exercise in seasonal menswear.

For Stapleton, these are the clothes he wants to wear himself. The collection takes familiar wardrobe staples and gives them a different silhouette, finding its identity in the details rather than a conspicuous logo.

“I feel like there was a real gap in the market for menswear in terms of things that were different,” he says. “Different proportionally, giving a nice cool silhouette to a look, rather than just a straight-down trouser. And telling a colour story as well, rather than just black, white, grey.”

The collection made its debut at The Irish Edit as part of Ireland Fashion Week 2026, a week shaped by the theme Coming Home. Stapleton's interpretation is rooted in the Irish landscape, but the clothes aren't bound by nostalgia. This is heritage filtered through a more individual eye, with a seventies sensibility that feels considered rather than costume.

A Wardrobe With Character

Stapleton's background is in television and film, where he spent years creating clothes for different productions. It is an experience that gave him a foundation, but this collection marks a shift from designing within somebody else's story to putting his own into the world.

The accompanying editorial, Up The Mountains, was photographed by Adam Gaffey in the Wicklow Mountains. Rust-coloured bracken, moss, stone and wind-swept grass establish the setting. A vintage Volkswagen Karmann Ghia, named Matilda, brings another layer of seventies character, while sheep appear against the landscape in fleeces that echo the cream tones of the collection.

The visual references are deliberate, connecting the garments to the environment that inspired them. The result feels cinematic without becoming overly polished. The clothes belong in the landscape, but they have enough presence to hold their own away from it.

The four-look collection is built around interchangeable three-piece combinations, allowing the pieces to work together or independently. Premium wool jackets come in collared and collarless designs, with raglan sleeves and gold hardware. Cotton shirts feature exaggerated collars and ribbed necklines, while the trousers move between denim with a visible selvedge detail and wool crepe chosen for its drape.

Texture is central to the story. Hand topstitching, visible fibres and considered finishing give the pieces depth without demanding attention. The wider silhouettes do the rest.

“I love using textured wool, nice natural fibres,” Stapleton explains. “And I love the hand details, doing the topstitching.”

There is something refreshing about a collection that understands the power of a good trouser. A wider leg can change the balance of an entire outfit. A collar can give a simple shirt a different kind of authority. These are familiar garments, but the proportions make them feel personal.

As we look along the rail, the cohesion becomes obvious. Every piece feels as though it belongs to the same wardrobe, yet each has enough character to work alone. It is the kind of collection that makes you reconsider what is already hanging in your own wardrobe.

“That was the aim,” Stapleton says. “That the pieces kind of just fit into any look.”

Made To Measure, Made To Matter

Every piece is available to order, with a bespoke, made-to-measure service at the centre of the offering. Stapleton sources the fabrics and trims himself, working directly with clients on the selection and fit. It is a more personal proposition than buying into a conventional seasonal collection, and one that suits the label's emphasis on individuality.

Rather than producing clothes designed to look identical on everyone, Stapleton wants to work with the person wearing them. The silhouettes may be distinctive, but the intention is practical: key pieces that can become part of an existing wardrobe and remain there.

Jackets start at £300, wool crepe trousers at £270, denim trousers at £250 and shirts at £200. The collection is made to order, with hand finishing giving each garment its own character.

For Stapleton, the next stage is less about making grand declarations and more about getting the clothes onto people. He wants to spend time in the studio, meet clients, develop the business and show the collection again. Above all, he wants to see how other people make the pieces their own.

“I'd love to see them on some bodies,” he says. “That would really inspire me, to see people wearing them, get them out there.”

It is an honest ambition for a label at the beginning of its life. The collection is a statement of intent, but the real story will unfold in how it is worn.

A New Chapter

Stapleton moved to London at the start of the year and has spent much of that time working on the collection. Based around Dalston, his studio puts him among the city's creative community, offering a new environment in which to develop the label.

For now, the focus is on building something with a clear identity. There is no need to chase every trend when the point is to establish a signature of your own.

That is what makes STAPLETON MENSWEAR interesting. It takes the familiar language of menswear - tailoring, natural fibres, considered layering - and shifts the proportions until the clothes begin to say something different. The seventies references are there, but so is a modern understanding of how a wardrobe needs to work.

At Ireland Fashion Week, under a theme about returning to your roots, Stapleton presented a collection that felt unmistakably personal. The Irish landscape supplied the colours and textures; years working in film and television supplied the experience; the rest came down to his own eye.

The result is menswear with a sense of place, but no desire to stand still.

Explore the collection and enquire about made-to-measure pieces via @stapleton.menswear.

Up The Mountains: Stapleton Menswear Finds Its Roots

A Wardrobe With Character

Made To Measure, Made To Matter

A New Chapter