Writer and activist Sinéad Burke has made a name with her powerful campaigning around accessibility.
Dublin-born Burke, 33, set up Tilting The Lens in 2020, a consultancy company aimed at making the world more accessible for disabled people.
She released her first book, Break The Mould, in the same year, winning the Specsavers Children’s Books of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards.
Burke has also become known as a fashion darling over the years. She first appeared on the cover of British Vogue in 2019, which was guest edited by the Duchess of Sussex and honouring women who were deemed ‘forces for change’.
She made a second appearance in British Vogue in May this year, in a series of covers celebrating disabled talent.
Her obsession with fashion started as a teenager, even though she said she felt left out by the industry due to her achondroplasia – a form of dwarfism.
“For as long as I can remember, I have been obsessed with fashion, but in a very authentic way – clothes made me feel something,” she said during a keynote speech at Inspirefest in 2016. “When I looked at Vogue magazine or any magazine, it wasn’t representative of me, I never felt included in the conversation.”
She started blogging about fashion and representation and her audience grew from there, then in 2019, Burke became the first little person to attend the Met Gala.
“It is surreal, inspiring and humbling to be gracing the infamous red carpet,” she wrote in Vogue of the experience. Burke wore a black Gucci gown for the event, studded with blue bows and paired with a gold headband.
She wrote in Vogue: “Looking ahead, it’s essential that fashion continues to improve its diversity drive. Fashion is perhaps the only industry that we each have a tangible connection to: we all wear clothes, they touch our skin and it is a legal requirement that we get dressed every day. Whether we invest in high fashion or the high-street, we each have a perspective and a desire to feel represented.”
Now, Burke is a familiar face on the front row, and she has built a relationship with Italian fashion house Gucci – wearing custom outfits from the iconic brand and consulting for it with Tilting The Lens.
She attended Gucci’s latest Milan Fashion Week show, and posted videos of her dancing at the after party alongside celebrities including Normal People star Paul Mescal.
These are some of her most memorable fashion moments…
A 2019 exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, called Body Beautiful: Diversity on the Catwalk, featured a custom-made green floral dress by Christopher Kane from Burke’s wardrobe.
The dress was fitted to a mannequin cast from her body and she posed next to it wearing another Christopher Kane creation – a high neck black gown with lace sleeves.
Burke is obviously a fan of florals. For the Summer Party 2019 at the Serpentine Galleries, she wore a bespoke pink Gucci gown in a floral print, complete with a Seventies-inspired collar.
Burke was front row at Victoria Beckham’s spring/summer 2020 London Fashion Week show, wearing a white polka dot dress from the designer.
She sat next to actor Helen Mirren at the event, later posting about their meeting on Instagram: “We shared a wonderful conversation about all of the things in the world that we wish could be redesigned: we touched on how great it would be if zips were at the side or front of dresses, we imagined a world where we could use radio mics without wearing belts or clipping it to our bras and we look forward to the era of newly designed knickers – because your waist measurement rarely equates to your hips.”
Channelling a more modernist take on florals, Burke wore head-to-toe Prada to the Stylist Remarkable Women Awards in 2022. She paired the blue shirt-style dress with an on-trend statement beige headband.
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Burke once again chose Prada for the 2022 Fashion Awards. She was sleek and sophisticated in an all-black ensemble, with feather accents on her sleeves and an elegant updo.
At the recent Vogue World event kicking off September’s London Fashion Week, Burke wore a statement dress from British fashion house, Alexander McQueen.
The apricot-coloured gown had a corseted bodice, ruffled neckline and voluminous skirt.
