Dress designer Pat Crowley is making the clothes that suit her followers. Her autumn collection, shown in her little salon in Molesworth Lane, in Dublin, is a very happy marriage of the practical and the pretty. It is for busy, glamorous women.
Fabric choice is important, the simple styles needing the richness of textured wools, chevron velvets, smooth, clingy jersey, soft animal printed silks, and the drama of some strong McNutt tweeds. Colours have been kept to the minimum, and apart from fire-engine reds, it is mainly in black, navy and dark brown. And it is the softly tailored, collarless, slightly fitted brown suit that best catches her concept of, "clothes that are for the life we are living".
There is nothing flighty or irresponsible about any of this: some seem rather appropriate for missionary work of some kind. Really sensible. But the tweeds worked well, especially in fuschia pink with its notable buttons, and promise that they would last for ever.
But co-ordination is the main point here, with a lot of mileage to be got from such as a brown, long-line, basket-weave wool jacket, prettily collared in velvet, worn with a slim skirt and cream blouse, a jacket that could equally well be worn with trousers, or with one of the wool crepe dresses. It is even possible to put a tweed jacket with a lace skirt, a convenient way of turning day dressing into evening dressing with very little effort. This is Pat Crowley's way of doing it. Great mileage and plenty of individuality.
On the other hand, there are dressy jackets in sequinned silk (£650), specifically intended for evening, but even these can be made less formal by putting them over a slim crepe dress. And a group of animal-printed silk blouses (£275) and jackets liven up plain black ribbed skirts and crepe trousers. And it is still a good idea to team the soft with the tailored: Crowley's chevron velvet blue/black jacket (£695) looks stunning with a black chiffon tunic and long swirly chiffon skirt.
There is little bared flesh, with even the long evening taffetas cut high. But this is not to say the collection doesn't have a strong feminine appeal. But it is about suggestion. Quite a clever act beautifully done by the designer.
Most clothes are made to measure here, but there is some off-the-peg which costs less. For example, a made-to-measure wool jacket costs £285, whereas off-the-peg the price is £195. But, of course, for many the whole point is that the clothes are made for you and you alone.