Following up with Irish printmaker and designer Lainey Whelan, she talks about the resurgence of Irish culture, her favourite street in Dublin, and her plans to make tights work for the Irish summer weather.
Lainey’s brand, T-Lainey, has only been in business since December 2025, but has already seen multiple sold-out launches, a pop-up event in the city, and Ireland’s own CMAT wearing them on tour.
This resurgence of Irish culture and all of these kinds of Irish fashion brands doing so well, did that kind of motivate you to keep going? Are there any of them that are your favourites at the moment?
Of course, Taippe, an Irish Portuguese brand, I worked with them, but I remember looking at their stuff being like ‘my god’, just obsessed with their work and I really love that it’s a brand but there’s so much more behind each piece and how they make it and they show how they make everything, and it feels really familiar or homely or something. Working with them was something I had only dreamed of, with the Irish brands, I don’t want to be a ‘plastic paddy.’
I hate that thing, I’m trying hard not to fall into that. But also be true to myself and what I like and what people want, I suppose I literally get inspiration from the lamp post outside my bedroom window, and that’s why I make these things, and I was always doing them when I was in the Netherlands, as well, when I made tights.
There’s an artist called Beibhinn Eilish, she makes insane art. Her stuff is beautiful. She’s not a designer, but she’s an artist, a painter and stuff. And I would love to work with her. Her stuff is just, I could see her work on my tights, do you know what I mean? So, she’s someone I would love to work with. But I think it’s super special what’s going on at the moment in Dublin and Ireland.
Cupla Designs. I chat to them a lot. They’re up in the north.
It’s surreal what’s going on right now, and I think people are looking in at it. I have friends from other countries, who say, “My god, there’s some stuff going on in Ireland,” so it’s just super nice that I don’t feel like I have to move away, which I always thought I did.
It’d be silly for me to go away now, I don’t actually want to, when you kind of feel forced to. Just supporting what’s going on now with people is the most important thing, and actually turning up to things in person or supporting artists instead of just complaining about the country.
Did you always kind of have the Dublin lamp posts in mind for printing on tights?
I feel like I had always seen them before, but then there was one really near Flux Studios, and I took a picture of it, and then I had to join them together. It kind of reminded me of when I did my claddagh ring stuff, like the details. Naturally, I can never really pinpoint when my ideas come to me.
They mainly come to me when I’m actually making other pairs of tights or when I’m cutting or doing something. But it is just such a beautiful thing. And I also think people don’t really actually see them, and then when you see them everywhere. And there’s one outside my window now, which is so nice. I don’t know. I love them.
All of them are slightly a little bit different. Some have different bases, and some have different poles. I really like them. It’s something you can’t see until you actually realise they’re there.
Do you have a favourite street in Dublin?
Clanbrassal Street, my friend has her studio just across the road from where I used to always hang around, and it feels so lovely. I actually sublet her studio for one month because, over the past six months, I’ve had four different studios. I love Clanbrassal, it’s kind of an in-between space.
I hate that saying, but it’s perfect for the busy town, the canal, Rathmines, and other areas. It’s a nice, long road to walk up to St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Have you been anywhere and you’ve seen someone wear your tights, but they don’t know it’s you who made them?
Yeah. A few times. I was at Big Thief last week, and there was someone wearing my tights. That is insane. There was something really weird about it. I was in a pub, and a girl came up to me and said, “Oh my god, I love your tights” I was like, “Oh my god, thanks so much. I make them.” And she was like, “No, I know.” I was thinking, ‘How do you know that?’
It’s surreal, it’s also so cool. I love it. Nine Crows Vintage and I were always saying, picturing the girls walking through town with their tights on. That’s what I love.
You seem really headstrong about your brand. It would be so easy to just kind of give in and be like, “Let me give away all these tights and let me do the trends that are trending right now, you seem really intent on having your own brand and your own kind of thing.
That’s nice to hear, because I feel that at the beginning, things were coming to me, and I really had to sit there and decide whether it was actually worth my time, what they were actually getting out of me, and stick to what I think is right. I just can’t do the kind of fake thing, because I feel like people would see through it if it wasn’t authentic to me.
Which I really tried to keep. So it’s nice to hear that you said that. I’m feeling a lot less stressed because I feel like I was firefighting for a few months there, and now it’s like I’m back in control, which is really nice.
I do have a few things where I think, ‘Who buys tights in summer?’ Do you know? So, I feel like there’s this timer on me.
I feel like, with Irish weather, we’re not guaranteed a heat wave. People will still be buying them.
Going back to the festival tent in the summer and it’s cold… perfect.
Was that inspired by your latest launch of tights with festival tents on them?
Yeah, I’m making tent ones because I wanted them for festivals, but also I think it would be funny, it’s almost like Where’s Wally?
When you go to a festival, and you’re not able to find your tent at all, I think it’d be funny if you’re sitting there and looking at them. Even the way I print them, like these, are A4 sheets, and then I have to tape four pages together, and then heat-press it. So, it does take a lot of time, but I also think that’s kind of the point. Things take a little bit of time, and that’s okay.
I remember last year looking at my friend’s legs coming out of a tent, and I wanted to have someone’s legs coming out of a tent, but also have tent tights for the launch photos. That’s where the idea came from.
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