Irish fashion designers reveal their plans for 2008 to Deirdre McQuillan
EILIS BOYLE
"I am focusing on developing the export market this year. I have done really well in France, and picked up shops in Paris and in Cannes, so I am going to concentrate on expanding there. I will also be showing in Barcelona on January 15th and doing Showcase in Dublin. My clothes will be selling in Havana in Dublin 4 in the new season, which I am really pleased about. This is my third year in business and it is really hard because you have so many costs, but I am trying to make it sustainable for the next few years. But, generally, it was a great year."
JOHN ROCHA
"I will launch a new optical eyewear collection in London in March, and in Paris the following month. It will include both reading and sun glasses. My new luggage collection will also be launched in Paris. It's a collaboration with the luggage company, Tripp, and will be a combination of leather and leather trim. The second phase of my Budapest interiors project involving the restoration of apartments will be completed by the summer."
PHILIP TREACY
The Irish milliner, who received an OBE from Queen Elizabeth last year for his services to the British fashion industry, held a menswear show in Tokyo last month. This month he will design the hats for Valentino's grand finale show at the haute couture in Paris, and in March he will create the millinery for Alexander McQueen at the Paris ready-to-wear collections for autumn/winter 2008. In the US, he will be designing for the Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan autumn/winter collections at New York fashion week. In 2008 he will also be acting as design director for two more hotels, the former Bow Street Magistrates' Court in London and another in Dublin.
LOUISE KENNEDY
Kennedy faces a very busy new year. This month her new collection for Tipperary Crystal, called Oceania, will be launched at Showcase. After that she travels to India and Italy to get prototypes ready for her next clothing collection. In February she has been invited to show at Toronto fashion week, following the success of her clothing and crystal in Hazel, the city's first luxury designer boutique, which opened in December. Back in Ireland, her autumn/winter 2008 collection will be previewed in Merrion Square in late February, and her boutique in the Ritz Carlton at Powerscourt will open the following month. June will see the launch of the Mandeville showhouse, for which she has done the interiors, in Streamstown, Malahide, Co Dublin. September 25th will mark the 25th year of Kennedy's range being stocked in Brown Thomas. A ceramics collection for Tipperary and a new homewares collection are also in the offing before the year ends.
SHARON WAUCHOB
"We have a number of projects in the pipeline for 2008. We're discussing the possibility of opening our own shop and will be visiting markets outside Europe, mostly in Asia, to set up more of an identity there. We are already in Lane Crawford (an upscale department store) in Hong Kong and Beijing, and now we are considering the idea of a Sharon Wauchob shop in Korea. I am also thinking about launching a new product line - it is important for us to have new products, but done in a new way, maybe lingerie or leather goods. I will be showing my next collection in the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and am considering an event in Ireland."
PAUL COSTELLOE
"My menswear will be coming to Ireland in early spring to House of Fraser and afterwards to Arnotts. It is predominantly suiting, with casual wear gradually improving. I am relaunching Paul Costelloe optical wear, mainly reading glasses, which will be developed in the late spring or early summer. I will be the first to show again at London Fashion Week in February; it's a slot that takes courage! My new spring range of interiors for Dunnes will also be in store by the end of January."
LAINEY KEOGH
"My new collection has to be ready by the end of February and we'll travel to Paris with it. I am also in discussions with Los Angeles County Museum about a charity event there in the latter half of the year. I am hoping to do something with Donna Karan and bring our 50/50 energy to her new Urban Zen centre in New York. We brought the 50/50 exhibition there, which was received very well and has taken on a life of its own. I have also been talking to Paulette Cole, co-owner of ABC Home & Planet in New York. She has transformed that store and brought a holistic vision into her retail philosophy. She has chosen designers, including me, for half of the ground floor, which is dedicated to clothes, jewellery, adornment, potions, lotions, massage and literature."
ORLA KIELY
Kiely has just been appointed Visiting Professor of Textiles at the Royal College of Art in London. The Orla Kiely brand is now an expanding global business, growing by 25 per cent each year, with an annual turnover of $48 million. There are some 300 stockists all over the world, with flagship stores in London, Paris and Hong Kong. A second shop is to open in Hong Kong this month to be followed by two more in Tokyo and Osaka later this year. Clothing now represents over half her business. Her new stationery line has already sold to MoMA and Selfridges. Her new luggage collection goes into 16 stores this month, and she will be launching a homewares range of bedlinen, towels and aprons in August. There are plans for furniture and ceramics.
PETER O'BRIEN
"I will be doing my third collection for a wear for winter 2008 and selling in the UK, if awear's proposed new shops open there next year. Designing the costumes for another play at the Gate may also be in the offing. And I might finally get around to providing a real couture service for all these people who keep ringing me wanting me to make them dresses. I have found a couple of people who may be good at making toiles, but I need to find a frock angel to finance it. Who knows? I might have something up my sleeve. My 2008 diary is on sale in a wear in Grafton Street and in the Tramyard Gallery in Dalkey."
EILEEN SHIELDS
"My big news is the opening of my store in New York in early March or April. We will be participating in London fashion week and Dublin fashion week, and having launch events in both London and New York. I am also launching a new label, Eileen Shields for Zero Maria Cornejo, at New York Fashion Week. On the celebrity front, we are doing shoes for Samantha Morton and Amy Ryan, who have both been nominated for Golden Globes."