FASHION: by Deirdre McQuillan
SOFT TOUCH Bags, bags and more bags! Latest to join the throng is an Irish label called Louloubelle designed by Louise O'Leary with a very feminine touch. Most come tied with satin ribbons or butterfly appliqués in fabrics such as silk, cotton, linen and cord, in mainly pastel colours. They are soft and sensuous rather than hard-wearing and cheeky in appearance. There are four bag types, feminine, decorative clutch-styles, hold-alls in two sizes and a "nappy" bag. Twenty-five-year-old O'Leary, who studied interior design in the Dún Laoghaire Senior College and fashion design in Boston, says she's inspired by everything that's feminine. Louloubelle bags cost from €70, and can be found in the Powerscourt Townhouse Centre, as well as Threadbare and Wilde in Wicklow town.
CHORUS GIRL Madonna admitted recently that she had spent 10 years taking her clothes off and being photographed "saying bad words on TV and that sort of thing". For her "Reinvention" tour, she has made up for lost time with a bagful of designer gear from Dolce & Gabbana, Chanel, Stella
McCartney, Alexander McQueen and others; 13 designers in all have contributed couture numbers. Her Chanel outfit in Act Three is not a shredded tweed ensemble but this "music hall"sequined bodysuit (left), which Karl Lagerfeld says makes her look like the sexiest chorus girl imaginable. In a stretch fabric, the suits come in two versions: black and white; and red and black. It took the "petit mains" of Paris more than 250 hours to make them; they applied each of the 200,000 sequins one by one