About SUBC™ x Jill&Gill

This inaugural campaign is a very special one. In collaboration with Jill & Gill, I wanted to create, not just a fashionable piece, but a style staple that would act as a means of creating conversations amongst women of all ages about the importance of being breast aware. The design for this beautiful, limited edition piece was created when five incredibly strong women, and fellow Breast Cancer Ireland Ambassadors (Paula McClean, Olivia Carpenter, Denise Ashe, Georgie Crawford and Emma Cassidy), came together and shared their brave and powerful stories around their diagnoses.

Our vision was clear, we wanted to do something powerful that would create awareness, provoke conversation and raise funds for a charity close to all of our hearts. Thus, “Embrace” as a design concept came into being. Jill & Gill captured the essence of the stories in their design and the T-shirt was created. Everyone who wears this piece is essentially helping to generate conversation, raise funds for further research, and in this way ultimately help to save lives.

Love it. Be Fabulous x

Learn More

Meet The Designers

Jill & Gill is an award-winning Irish brand with a fresh approach to illustration and print across fine art,fashion and design. We aim to create meaningful and impactful products and experiences that give a sense of value in what it means to invest in Irish Design.

Gillian Henderson of the design duo Jill & Gill, speaking about the SUBC collaboration, added: “As designers we tell stories visually. When Paula approached us to create artwork for a design to raise funds for Breast Cancer Ireland we knew that whatever we created needed to speak to everyone, not just to those women that have experienced this disease.”

Gillian continued “We sat and listened to these five incredible women tell us their personal experiences of breast cancer. It was an emotional, courageous and real conversation that gave us both a personal insight into the impact that breast cancer has on a person’s physical and mental wellbeing. We were taken aback by how each woman considered those around her, the impact this would have on family members before considering herself, they talked about feeling unravelled, how you can lose your colour, that brightness, that glow. Most importantly, the concept of ‘The Embrace’ came from the raw and honest discussions about how a hug became far greater than a simple embrace – each hug became tighter and longer, largely because of the fear of leaving loved ones, children, parents and partners – an embrace that came to mean so much more. Through form and line we illustrated two figures hugging, embracing, intertwined together. Through pattern and colour we illustrated the ribbon as a whole, woven into the two figures embodying support, colour and glow.”

Find Out More

The Campaign

Breast cancer is the most common of all cancers amongst women in Ireland with 3,100 new cases every year. Thirty per cent of these women are aged between 20-50 years. Through research, mortality rates are reducing by 2% annually and survival rates increasing year on year to 85% currently. Almost everyone in Ireland knows someone close to them that has been affected by breast cancer. 1 in 9 women will be affected in their lifetime.

The SUBC™Campaign aims to unite the world of Irish design as a force against breast cancer. The campaign will be launched on International Women’s Day 2021, bringing Irish designers together to unravel breast cancer. This inaugural campaign is a very special one. Paula wanted to not just create a piece of fashion, but a piece that would create conversation and mean something to all those who have been touched by breast cancer. This beautiful piece was created when five incredibly strong women, Paula, Georgie Crawford, Olivia Carpenter, Emma Cassidy and Denise Ashe, came together and shared their brave and powerful stories about breast cancer.

Our vision was clear, we wanted to do something powerful that would create awareness, provoke conversation and raise funds for the charity close to their hearts, Breast Cancer Ireland. So here is how “Embrace” the 2021 SUBC™ campaign came to be. Jill & Gill captured these honest stories in the design and the T-shirt was created.

Jill & Gill on the SUBC collaboration, in their own words: “As designers we tell stories visually. When Paula McClean, founder of SUBC™, approached us to create artwork for a design to raise funds for BCI we knew we wanted to be a part of this incredible campaign. We knew that whatever we created needed to speak to everyone, not just those women that have experienced breast cancer and we wanted to create awareness and raise funds for breast cancer research at the same time”

“We sat and listened to five amazing women tell us their personal experiences of breast cancer. It was an emotional, courageous and real conversation that gave us both a personal insight into the impact that breast cancer has on a person’s physical and mental wellbeing. We were taken aback by how each woman considered those around her, the impact this would have on family members before considering herself, they talked about feeling unravelled, how you can lose your colour, that brightness, that glow. A hug became more than a simple embrace, each hug was tighter and longer.”

Love it. Be Fabulous x

Buy The T-Shirt

The Design

After listening to each woman speak about her experience we knew that this design, the artwork for this T-shirt needed to create a conversation beyond the pink ribbon.

Through form and line we illustrated two figures hugging, embracing, intertwined together. Through pattern and colour we illustrated the ribbon as a whole, woven into the two figures embodying support, colour and glow.

The T-shirt
Each T-shirt has been sustainably sourced and ethically made using 100% organic cotton, screen printed across five colours with all proceeds going to Breast Cancer Ireland.

The fit, modern and unisex, the style, cool and casual.

This T-shirt will be a forever piece, a style staple, created to the highest standard, unique to the SUBC™ Campaign, limited edition and with one purpose to raise awareness and funds for Breast Cancer Ireland.

We hope you love it.

Love it. Be Fabulous x

Buy The T-Shirt

About Paula McClean

SUBC® is the brainchild of Paula McClean, passionate fundraiser and breast cancer survivor. Her goal is to ensure that this passion is visible in each and every SUBC™ project.

“I adore fashion and how a beautiful piece can make you feel and the memories that it can create. Over the last ten years I have been involved in fusing fashion and breast cancer awareness together for a greater purpose. My vision was to use fashion to generate a conversation, but also to create something tangible that could fit into everyday life and make women smile. Female breast cancer is now the most commonly diagnosed cancer worldwide and it is more important than ever to self check. I founded SUBC™ in the hope that I could make a difference to women of all ages, and wanted to help create unique fashion pieces that helped to do this. To do this I looked to Irish design and a piece that could be worn and loved for a long time. After many conversations with the amazing Jill & Gill, the first collaboration was born and I hope you love it as much as I do.”

Love it. Be Fabulous x

About BCI

Breast Cancer Ireland is a registered charity (CHY 19926) established to raise significant funding to support pioneering research programmes nationally as well as to promote education and awareness on the importance of breast health amongst women of all ages.

Our Vision

We want to transform breast cancer from often being a fatal disease into a treatable long term illness.

Read More

About SUBC™ x Jill&Gill

This inaugural campaign is a very special one. In collaboration with Jill & Gill, I wanted to create, not just a fashionable piece, but a style staple that would act as a means of creating conversations amongst women of all ages about the importance of being breast aware. The design for this beautiful, limited edition piece was created when five incredibly strong women, and fellow Breast Cancer Ireland Ambassadors (Paula McClean, Olivia Carpenter, Denise Ashe, Georgie Crawford and Emma Cassidy), came together and shared their brave and powerful stories around their diagnoses.

Our vision was clear, we wanted to do something powerful that would create awareness, provoke conversation and raise funds for a charity close to all of our hearts. Thus, “Embrace” as a design concept came into being. Jill & Gill captured the essence of the stories in their design and the T-shirt was created. Everyone who wears this piece is essentially helping to generate conversation, raise funds for further research, and in this way ultimately help to save lives.

Love it. Be Fabulous x

Learn More

Meet The Designers

Jill & Gill is an award-winning Irish brand with a fresh approach to illustration and print across fine art,fashion and design. We aim to create meaningful and impactful products and experiences that give a sense of value in what it means to invest in Irish Design.

Gillian Henderson of the design duo Jill & Gill, speaking about the SUBC collaboration, added: “As designers we tell stories visually. When Paula approached us to create artwork for a design to raise funds for Breast Cancer Ireland we knew that whatever we created needed to speak to everyone, not just to those women that have experienced this disease.”

Gillian continued “We sat and listened to these five incredible women tell us their personal experiences of breast cancer. It was an emotional, courageous and real conversation that gave us both a personal insight into the impact that breast cancer has on a person’s physical and mental wellbeing. We were taken aback by how each woman considered those around her, the impact this would have on family members before considering herself, they talked about feeling unravelled, how you can lose your colour, that brightness, that glow. Most importantly, the concept of ‘The Embrace’ came from the raw and honest discussions about how a hug became far greater than a simple embrace – each hug became tighter and longer, largely because of the fear of leaving loved ones, children, parents and partners – an embrace that came to mean so much more. Through form and line we illustrated two figures hugging, embracing, intertwined together. Through pattern and colour we illustrated the ribbon as a whole, woven into the two figures embodying support, colour and glow.”

Find Out More

The Campaign

Breast cancer is the most common of all cancers amongst women in Ireland with 3,100 new cases every year. Thirty per cent of these women are aged between 20-50 years. Through research, mortality rates are reducing by 2% annually and survival rates increasing year on year to 85% currently. Almost everyone in Ireland knows someone close to them that has been affected by breast cancer. 1 in 9 women will be affected in their lifetime.

The SUBC™Campaign aims to unite the world of Irish design as a force against breast cancer. The campaign will be launched on International Women’s Day 2021, bringing Irish designers together to unravel breast cancer. This inaugural campaign is a very special one. Paula wanted to not just create a piece of fashion, but a piece that would create conversation and mean something to all those who have been touched by breast cancer. This beautiful piece was created when five incredibly strong women, Paula, Georgie Crawford, Olivia Carpenter, Emma Cassidy and Denise Ashe, came together and shared their brave and powerful stories about breast cancer.

Our vision was clear, we wanted to do something powerful that would create awareness, provoke conversation and raise funds for the charity close to their hearts, Breast Cancer Ireland. So here is how “Embrace” the 2021 SUBC™ campaign came to be. Jill & Gill captured these honest stories in the design and the T-shirt was created.

Jill & Gill on the SUBC collaboration, in their own words: “As designers we tell stories visually. When Paula McClean, founder of SUBC™, approached us to create artwork for a design to raise funds for BCI we knew we wanted to be a part of this incredible campaign. We knew that whatever we created needed to speak to everyone, not just those women that have experienced breast cancer and we wanted to create awareness and raise funds for breast cancer research at the same time”

“We sat and listened to five amazing women tell us their personal experiences of breast cancer. It was an emotional, courageous and real conversation that gave us both a personal insight into the impact that breast cancer has on a person’s physical and mental wellbeing. We were taken aback by how each woman considered those around her, the impact this would have on family members before considering herself, they talked about feeling unravelled, how you can lose your colour, that brightness, that glow. A hug became more than a simple embrace, each hug was tighter and longer.”

Love it. Be Fabulous x

Buy The T-Shirt

The Design

After listening to each woman speak about her experience we knew that this design, the artwork for this T-shirt needed to create a conversation beyond the pink ribbon.

Through form and line we illustrated two figures hugging, embracing, intertwined together. Through pattern and colour we illustrated the ribbon as a whole, woven into the two figures embodying support, colour and glow.

The T-shirt
Each T-shirt has been sustainably sourced and ethically made using 100% organic cotton, screen printed across five colours with all proceeds going to Breast Cancer Ireland.

The fit, modern and unisex, the style, cool and casual.

This T-shirt will be a forever piece, a style staple, created to the highest standard, unique to the SUBC™ Campaign, limited edition and with one purpose to raise awareness and funds for Breast Cancer Ireland.

We hope you love it.

Love it. Be Fabulous x

Buy The T-Shirt

About Paula McClean

SUBC® is the brainchild of Paula McClean, passionate fundraiser and breast cancer survivor. Her goal is to ensure that this passion is visible in each and every SUBC™ project.

“I adore fashion and how a beautiful piece can make you feel and the memories that it can create. Over the last ten years I have been involved in fusing fashion and breast cancer awareness together for a greater purpose. My vision was to use fashion to generate a conversation, but also to create something tangible that could fit into everyday life and make women smile. Female breast cancer is now the most commonly diagnosed cancer worldwide and it is more important than ever to self check. I founded SUBC™ in the hope that I could make a difference to women of all ages, and wanted to help create unique fashion pieces that helped to do this. To do this I looked to Irish design and a piece that could be worn and loved for a long time. After many conversations with the amazing Jill & Gill, the first collaboration was born and I hope you love it as much as I do.”

Love it. Be Fabulous x

About BCI

Breast Cancer Ireland is a registered charity (CHY 19926) established to raise significant funding to support pioneering research programmes nationally as well as to promote education and awareness on the importance of breast health amongst women of all ages.

Our Vision

We want to transform breast cancer from often being a fatal disease into a treatable long term illness.

Read More

Gallery

We would like to thank the amazing Teodora Sutra for giving her time to this campaign and the gorgeous Muireann O'Connell for being a part of this special project x

Previous Shows

It’s not the dress, but the woman inside that makes it beautiful so our entire design process is driven by net fabrics that feel good against the skin, fits that bring confidence and head-turning trends are all integral to our shows. Check out our show reel highlights below.

Get in Touch

This is a community project, built through shared experiences and a vision to achieve a common goal. If you’d like to get involved, contact Paula at styleunravels@gmail.com or use the form below.