A|wear held its biggest ever fashion show last night at Custom House Quay, introducing its spring-summer 2006 collection and the l9th-century former tobacco and wine warehouse as a modern exhibition space.
Some 600 guests gathered in the cast-iron and glass building in Dublin as models showcased the forthcoming season's key looks.
"Our customers like pieces that are different," said Anne Marie Flood, A|wear's managing director.
"It's about wearing things your own way. We are women at the end of the day and want to dress like women."
There was plenty on offer, from inexpensive tailored items such as striped or denim pencil skirts and stiff little dresses to backpacker and nautical styles with a Chinese red sheath setting the shape and recurrent colour theme.
Modern city girls do not want gypsy skirts this season, according to Ms Flood.
Instead A|wear's customers are taking to high-waisted hot-pants and shorts (in black, red or white) with leggings and ballet pumps.
With a customer base aged l8-35 and an average spend of 50, prices only occasionally topped €90 or more, for a 50s-style collarless coat dress in red cotton and a fitted cream trench with heavy flared skirt.
Dresses came in shapes to suit all figures, from strapless prom styles to sleek jerseys and striped seersucker wraps.
The Bardot-style scoop necks, the new trapeze-line jacket and a host of white broderie anglaise dresses - the season's hottest items - underlined the continuing retro mood in fashion.
