Nobody is Doing Niche Irish Fashion Quite Like Gan Stró
Gan Stró is a brand reclaiming the peculiarities of everyday Ireland and channelling them into wearable pieces.
Founder, Darren, shed some light on what makes Gan Stró tick. When living away from home in Texas, Darren was able to have an outside perspective on his native land. “I was telling a bartender in Texas about how funeral homes in Ireland were usually the local pub, and he couldn’t get over this being a real thing. It got me thinking about how, as a nation, we’re chaotic but in a very fun way.”
The brand name itself is inspired by a proverb, unearthed in a Manchán Magan book, Thirty Two Words for Field. “Gan Bhó, Gan Stró”. It means no cows, no worries, a very Irish traditionalist take on “more money, more problems.”
The brand has worked on it all, from a jersey giving a nod to Limerick’s ever-iconic Chicken Hut to a tee highlighting
So what is a deciding factor in choosing the subjects to build pieces around?
“100% genuine mischief.” Darren told District, “Irish history is rife for inspiration, a lot of ideas are drawn from real things that existed in the generations before us. Some days it’s a line in a Kevin Barry book and others it’s my mother telling you about the butcher’s second cousin you never met meeting an untimely death by a tumble dryer.”
One of the guys’ most eye-catching works is “Hannan’s Fish Shop & Funeral Home”, an idea bread from the commonplace nature of funeral homes reclaiming bizarre rural Irish buildings.
Hannan’s came about from the duality of pubs and funeral homes in Ireland, like a lot of my tees. I placed it in Kilkee and named it after a dear friend of mine who loves it down there. He was breastfed until he was 4 and has a massive head, even by Irish standards.
A jewel in the Gan Stró crown is the brand’s Chicken Hut jersey. A piece to pay homage to a Limerick institution that has welcomed many an inebriated head.
“My favourite sport was filling myself with Beamish in Charlie Malone’s and rolling down to Chicken Hut for a feed. I chose to feature there because Limerick folks are religious about it – and rightly so. Rumoured to still feature the original KFC recipe, ‘Chut’ were sound in allowing me to use their logo and if that kit sends only one person to the discovery of their chicken, I’ll have made a meaningful impact on the world. ”
A signature part of the Gan Stró collection is their Eamon Dunphy tribute kit.
“The Dunphy kit is a homage to our country’s finest rogue sporting pundit, Eamon. Myself and friends regularly quote his outburst over Roy Keane in 2005. “This is a man who doesn’t showboat like Niall Quinn” is my favourite. The older version of the Beamish logo on the kit is a beauty too – it’s my go to choice for stout and Jim at Beamish HQ was really supportive. More people need to be drinking Beamish.”
Why does niche Irish fashion satisfy the soul of the Irish consumer so much? What is it about an inside joke that Irish people adore?
“The level of detail in what we find funny, you just don’t get it elsewhere. We’re comfortable with a bit of weirdness, we turn and face the strange. If you look at our sense of humour, it can tell you about the appetite for niche references. “
