Irish fashion is on the boil right now thanks to champions of the cause, Enterprise Ireland, who are flying the Irish flag of fashion across the globe, working to promote an impressive number of innovative designers. Dublin-based Aideen Bodkin launched her label eight years ago after studying design at The National College of Art and Design, where she won several prestigious awards as a student designer.
Currently sold throughout the UK and Ireland, Bodkin’s label is fresh, smart and unique. Like many Irish designers she also likes to express a sense of playfulness through her clothes. She says of the arena in which she resides: “We tend to design clothes for more glamorous occasions. Irish women love to dress up and feel fantastic when they are going somewhere special.” This season Bodkin has married sophistication with fun in a look that boasts a slight Russian military edge. She says: “Throughout this season’s collection I have used elements of 1940s feminine tailoring teamed with Russian style military braiding. Fabrics are always the starting point for me and I believe the fabrics have a lot to do with the style of the garments. I tend to choose fabric with colour, texture and plenty of details such as embroidery or prints.” And it’s not just her choice of fabric that’s on the mark. As a woman, she’s well disposed to overcoming the obstacles that her sisters face in their wardrobes: “I’m very conscious of the challenges of designing garments that have individuality, are not overly reliant on passing trends, are of the highest quality and at the same time appeal to a customer who is looking for something special. I approach each season retaining all the feedback from customers and keep this in mind when I set out to design a new collection.”
Also Inspired by the glamorous Forties era is Deborah Veale’s collection for Autumn/Winter 2007. This range sees Veale encompass the richness of the season’s fabrics – luxurious, soft, draping and signature-sleek tailoring – fused together to highlight the simple and classic lines of Deborah Veale. Designed with the professional woman in mind, Deborah encapsulates sophistication effortlessly, capturing the perfect balance from day to evening and into relaxed weekend wear too. Tailoring brings style and sophistication into the office in the form of the sleek pencil skirt or wide trouser, while softly structured separates celebrate and accentuate the womanly silhouette for the evening or weekend. Other key trends incorporated include sharp tailoring blended with feminine fit and flared curves. Fabrics are rich, with delicate silks skimming the body, while embossed velvets with detailing add a sense of warmth and luxury to the collection. Then there’s this season’s sexy pencil skirt adding style and sophistication to the look as well as her high waisted designs which are bang on trend. Veale also has an extended selection of footwear for Autumn/Winter 2007. The range comprises boots and shoes as well as a full collection of accessories, all designed with this season’s style and colour palette in mind. The collective of designers under the Enterprise Ireland umbrella are certainly eclectic. And no designer epitomises this eclecticism better than Avoca, a family run company that has re-invented itself since its birth over 280 years ago in the picturesque Irish village that gives it its name. Their ranges are developed under two separate labels - Avoca Renaissance and Avoca Anthology. Anthology is an essentially feminine collection which is carefully designed with unique attention to quirky detail. It’s a beautiful, vintage-inspired collection that’s worn by a trendy audience of 25 to 50 year olds. Their most show stopping piece this season is a flock, floral coat that nips in the waist and floats down to the knees.
They also have a multi-coloured menagerie dress and pretty lace leggings. Other designers in the Enterprise Ireland loop include the fashion forward Joanne Hynes whose trademark draped pieces, with crystal features and luxurious embellishments, give rival designers from London a run for their money. This season vintage textiles and cloth from a bygone era have inspired her painstaking hand embroidery, outsized lacework and beadwork that are all brought to you with love. Irish sisters Nicola and Caroline Kilkenny, on the other hand, bless wearers with enticing casual pieces crafted from luxurious knits, laces, crushed taffetas and flocked organzas from Italy and France. Their label, N + C Kilkenny, is defined through casual pieces like loose trousers, unstructured separates and draping in muted colours with each collection determined by the fabrics that they use. They also juxtapose the old with the new, like Hynes. After the old and new comes a designer with a more worldly feel. Caribbean-born Eilis Boyle was raised in an Irish-Spanish family and has spent much of her life travelling the world and gaining an education in places as diverse as Bolivia and Japan. After graduating from the design college Instituto Europeo di Design, in Madrid, she quickly gained work with Spanish designer Isabel Berz.
Now based in Ireland, Eilis has her own three year old label that fuses her globe-trotting experience with an American sized portion of glamour. Her work has been showcased twice at Dublin Fashion Week and, for three seasons, at Pręt ŕ Porter Paris. Also loving travel, as well as art, is the customer of Quin and Donnelly, a womenswear brand that’s stocked in House of Fraser stores both in the UK and Dublin. Designers Elizabeth Quin and Carolyn Donnelly, who both trained at Grafton Academy, are the creative duo behind this individualistic label. This season they’ve produced a printed wool tweed coat in grey and a kooky gold printed pinafore dress. With so much style and innovation in Ireland it’s easy to see how Irish designers are getting hotter. As Bodkin reckons, the future is bubbling and bright: “I want to bring my label into other markets and strengthen its presence particularly in the UK. I’ve had a fantastic response to the latest range I showed at Pure in London and as a result have taken on numerous new accounts in the UK. I want always to have a fresh feel to every new season while maintaining the brand philosophy which is to produce beautiful clothes with classic elements and a quirky twist.” For more information visit: www.ei-irishfashion.com.
