When Gemma Shiel appears on our video call, she’s framed by exactly the backdrop you hope for from the founder of Lazy Oaf: scribbles, scraps of in-progress illustrations taped to the wall. It looks like a studio mid-thought, mid-colour palette, mid-chaos, the perfect setting for the designer who just helped Guinness launch its first-ever London streetwear collection.
The 25-piece Guinness x Lazy Oaf “What’s The Rush” line nearly sold out online within 24 hours, before its second wave even reached the new Guinness Open Gate Brewery London store in Covent Garden.
“It was mind-blowing,” Gemma says. “We launched on Thursday, and by Friday, the majority had gone. Then we flew to Dublin for the pop-up, and it was the same story, completely surreal.”
Surreal, it turns out, is something of a theme.
How Guinness found Oaf
Before the archive trips and cheeky illustrations, it started with an email Gemma really wanted to open.
“I was so excited,” she tells me. “My dad’s Irish, so I grew up around a big Irish family. A pub, especially a Guinness pub, always felt like a community to me. And then my parents ran a pub in Soho for years, so it was like… all my worlds colliding. It didn’t feel alien. It felt like home.”
Growing up in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Gemma was obsessed with Guinness’s famously surreal advertising. “It was brilliant, so playful, so strange. I kept thinking: There’s so much to dig into here.”
She wasn’t wrong.
The surreal Dublin deep-dive
Guinness didn’t just hand over a brief. They handed over the archives.
“They were honestly so accommodating,” Gemma says. “We went over to Dublin, to the Storehouse, and the archivist, Leanne, a massive Lazy Oaf fan, had prepped everything. Bottle designs from all over the world, Guinness adverts in Vogue from the ‘70s and ‘80s, bits of old myths… It was wild.”
She describes the experience the way other designers describe Paris runway week, half awe, half giddy hysteria.
“They didn’t interfere or steer us,” she says. “They really wanted our interpretation. I wanted something nostalgic, but still totally Oaf, totally London.”
That’s how the “cheeky pint” was born.
Designing a cheeky pint
“One of the illustrations, they’re all done by me, is a pint glass with a little cheeky bum,” she says, grinning. “It’s such a London thing, right? ‘Fancy a cheeky pint?’ So I made one.”
She expected Guinness to reject it. Naturally, they didn’t.
“They were hesitant,” she admits. “But I’m so happy they embraced my cheeky pint. Honestly, I thought it’d be the first thing cut.”
The wider collection leans into brewing heritage: pint-shaped pockets, drayman-inspired jackets, ingredient cameos, custom Guinness buttonholes. “It was about making something that felt like our London, their London, and still respected the heritage,” Gemma says. “I wanted my Irish side of the family to be proud.”
She pauses. “I think I’ve done that. I hope I have.”
London heritage, Irish pride
There’s an emotional weight to this project for Gemma, more than you might expect from a fashion drop.
“There’s such a huge Irish contingent in London,” she says. “And Guinness is everywhere. Everyone has a different relationship with it; that’s what’s so special. You have to acknowledge where it comes from. That mattered to me.”
At the Dublin pop-up, she had a moment that caught her off guard.
“It was a pinch-me thing. I thought I’d be mobbed by family, only one cousin came,” she laughs. “But the feedback was so lovely. Then at the airport back to London, I rang my dad in Galway and just… had a cry.”
She shrugs. “It felt big. Bigger than a fashion thing.”
Guinness, Oaf, and why the internet is obsessed
Part of the collection’s appeal is timing. Guinness is deep into a cultural resurgence, the Devonshire in Soho practically runs on foam and quiet smugness, and Lazy Oaf’s community always had an affinity for the brand’s oddness.
“Guinness has an irreverence and humour that other drink brands just don’t,” Gemma says. “It’s not a new marketing thing. It’s always been there. The surrealism, the play… that’s a playground our community understands.”
It helps that this is just the start. Guinness Good Things, the new retail space inside the Open Gate Brewery in London, will host a rotating roster of limited-edition collabs. Oaf is simply the first, and will be a tough act to follow.
What Gemma thinks London will wear next
Before we finish, I ask her for some 2026 fashion rules. She fires them out like someone who has absolutely discussed this in the pub.
“First: elastic waistbands. No one needs tight trousers in January. Ignore them,” she says. “Second: stop reinventing yourself because the year has changed. Slow down. Be lazy. Turn your jumper inside out if you want to switch it up.”
There’s more.
“I’m loving the nan-style headscarf, knot under the chin, ears covered. Big do,” she says. “Massive, don’t? Saggy beanies. They belong to 2011. Though knowing fashion, they’ll probably come back in 2028. This is a pre-emptive fear.”
She shakes her head. “The Russell Brand beanie… I just can’t.”
The collection
We’re big fans of the Guinness x Lazy Oaf ‘What’s the Rush’ collection, it’s playful, irreverent, and packed with those cheeky Oaf touches we know and love.
The majority of the pieces online have already sold out, so if you want in on the action, you’ll need to head down to Guinness Good Things on Neal Street, Covent Garden, where the exclusive Drayman’s Jacket, Ingredients Cap, Workman Dungarees, and Emotions Pint Gloves drop.
Prices range from £9 to £145, making it a surprisingly accessible way to add some high-quality, conversation-starting streetwear to your wardrobe.
While you’re there, don’t forget to check out the new Guinness Open Gate Brewery London, which opens this month. Expect guided tours, top-notch dining, a courtyard bar, and a constantly rotating lineup of limited-edition collaborations, the perfect backdrop to snap your new Lazy Oaf gear in the heart of London.
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