At yesterday's haute couture show by the Paris fashion house of Dior, models appeared wearing clothes made from hand-woven yarns created by Irish knitwear designer, Lainey Keogh.
Following her own presentation last February in London, Keogh was approached by a number of international houses interested in working with her. Less than two months ago, she accepted a commission from John Galliano of Dior to produce cloth for the collection shown at Paris's Gare d'Austerlitz.
Keogh now enjoys a global reputation for her innovative fabrics and fibres, many of them developed exclusively for her in Italian mills. All hand-weaving and knitting is then carried out in this country. She often incorporates unusual materials such as seed pearls, amber and metallic thread into her designs.
In May, she showed examples of such work in Cairo as part of a spectacular fashion evening on the banks of the Nile.
This is not the first time a knitwear designer and couturier have collaborated: in recent seasons, Chanel has included pieces made by Welsh knitter, Julien MacDonald, in its shows. Lainey Keogh will be unveiling her own collection for spring-summer 1999 in September as part of London Fashion Week.