NOSE FOR FASHION: Really good buyers are like fashion bloodhounds; they flush out with their unerring eyes exciting finds that everybody wants to buy. Róisín Walsh of Millers in Clifden is a prime example.
Amongst the many labels in this spacious shop, she has the biggest stock of Oska in the country, with familiar pieces alongside more fashion-forward items including, this season, some terrific striped taffeta summer coats and cute knits, that attract a whole new customer base.
She has also just brought into Ireland a new label called Sub Couture from London, from the same company that owns Paul Costelloe. It offers some great dresses, one with an unusual buttoned bucket front, flattering to any figure, and another with a pintucked bib front (pictured). Though dresses major in the collection – and there are none with v-necks or spaghetti straps – there are also really chic black jackets lifted by good detailing, and summery striped number like abstracts of cricket jackets.
CALLING CREATIVE TYPES
NCAD graduate Simone Rocha, daughter of John Rocha, who is doing an advanced fashion degree in London, was one of the 30 inaugural finalists of the Createurope fashion award last year. More than 1,000 young talents from 39 countries submitted sketches and designs, and this year the award is being extended to designers from North Africa and the Middle East. Finalists will attend a gala event at the end of October in Berlin, where the best collections receive awards from the jury. There are four awards: Best Upcoming Designer Award, Best Avantgarde Award, Best Student Award and Audience Award. Closing date for entries is June 15th and further information and application forms can be had from
www.createurope.com
BAGS OF APPEAL
Pauric Sweeney's spring collection of bags is his most colourful ever. Maybe it's the Italian influence as the Donegal born designer now lives and works in Florence? But it's more the Memphis effect, in keeping with the current preoccupation in fashion and accessories with the 1980s. Memphis was a collective of avant garde furniture and product designers, using unconventional shapes, colours and fabrics, set up in Milan by the veteran Italian architect Ettore Sottsass in the early 1980s. In Sweeney's new collection the use of space age materials in bright, vivid colours such as electric blue, pink, purple and red, echoes that zany exuberant spirit. Prices range from €400 upwards, but later this year, his winter collection will introduce a new range at lower price points.
SECOND-HAND ROSE
“Buy My Dress” is a novel fundraising idea from the Down Syndrome Centre in Dún Laoghaire. It’s a sale of more than 1,000 used but much-loved dresses from both high-street and designer labels, which Irish women from all walks of life have been invited to donate. It could be a dress, according to Jennifer White of the Centre, “that is too small, too big, too long, too short, or one that has been worn once too often. It could have been worn once to a family wedding, a black-tie affair, or indeed may have been bought and never worn at all.” Royal College of Physicians, Kildare Street, Dublin 2, on Thursday, June 11th (10am-9pm).
A BUNCH OF FLORALS
* Fans of Elle Shocking by YSL will like this lighter version. Notes include peony and raspberry. It costs from ¤48.
* DKNY Summer (from ¤42) is a feminine, sparkly scent which uses fresh pink pomelo with a heart of pink jasmine, to give an airy, holiday scent.
* White Linen Pink Coral (from ¤45) is a combination of pink peppercorns and cherry blossom in this new addition to the Estée Lauder range. A delicate scent, reminiscent of old-school, American class.
* As you'd expect from Paul Smith, Rose Summer (from €52.06) is just a bit different. It's a modern, sensual scent which uses the rose named after the designer himself.
* With a bottle inspired by a bud vase and ingredients such as petalia and pink iris, this fragrance could be nothing other than feminine. Pretty by Elizabeth Arden is €36.
* The fragrant atmosphere of a night in May gave L'Occitane the basis for new scent, Rose Nuit de Mai (€43.95). Rose petals mixed with woody aromas result in a well-rounded floral.
* Lancôme has released a lighter version of Magnifique (€40), a modern floral which uses rose, saffron and nagarmota for a glamorous summer scent.