It is safe to say that things have changed. With an increasingly vigorous market for designer duds, democracy has begun to permeate the fashion world. Once-average Janes have been keeping up with what designers are offering and deciding trends for themselves.
This increased interest in fashion has opened doors for three Irish designers who have been putting their own unique mark on the industry — and their loyal followings would not have it any other way.
These women stand out for their innovation as well as drive. Covering all corners of the fashion globe, they are making their presence known.
An adopted New Yorker who grew up in Belfast, Fiona Walker has recently expanded her line to include bridal wear and is putting the finishing touches on a new store in Hell’s Kitchen.
Dublin’s Orla Kiely’s bags and accessories are sold in such swanky shops as Henri Bendel and Brown Thomas in Dublin. Her whimsical style and recognizable prints have garnered this accessories maven attention from around the world.
Sharon Wauchob, a Tyrone native, has been lauded for her creative use of draping and color, as well as her modern materials. Based in Paris, she has made a permanent mark on the fashion capital of the world.
Though all three have taken different routes, the common thread is clearly success on their own terms.
KIELY: FROM DUBLIN TO LONDON
It is something about how the patterns and colors, both quirky and orbital, come together on an Orla Kiely bag that makes it so easily recognizable. Orla Kiely is the woman behind the name that is the brand — and she is causing a global storm.
Kiely, who met her partner in life and business, Dermott Rowan, as a schoolgirl in Dublin, began her career studying textiles at Dublin’s National College of Art and Design. After receiving a degree, she then left Ireland to attend the Royal College of Art in London.
It was Rowan who launched Kiely’s brand out of Canada in 1995 with little more than a fax machine. Almost 10 years later, the company is based in London, and is established in more than 300 stores worldwide. She can also boast shops in London and Tokyo.
Kiely is most well known for her bags, but produces everything from wallets to galoshes. The fabrics she works with are often given a waterproof laminate overlay, making her pieces functional as well as fun.
Kiely is not all accessories. At London’s Fashion Week in 2000, she debuted a clothing line. It has grown to include shift dresses and knitwear, all bearing the same patterns and prints that Kiely is known for.
She has also found success by working as a consultant, where her color sense and design smarts have made her a valuable resource for shops such as Marks and Spencer and Debenhams.
Kiely has seen some of her biggest achievements come in Asian markets, where her wares are extremely popular. She recently signed a multimillion-pound investment contract for Itochu Corporation, a Japanese company.
Exports exceed 70 percent of Kiely’s sales, and her profits are evenly split among U.S., UK, and Japanese markets. Her pieces are available in many specialty shops as well as high-end department stores in the U.S., her first export here going to Saks Fifth Avenue.
While Kiely is not showing at London’s Fashion Week, which is under way this week, she is holding an open house to showcase her newest designs.
Kiely’s theme for next spring and summer is “Houses and Numbers,” according to her publicist, and we can expect the theme interpreted with a signature Kiely approach.
WALKER: FROM BELFAST TO HELL’S KITCHEN
When Fiona Walker landed in New York in 1989 from Belfast, were she had attended what was then Belfast Art College, the budding fashion designer wasn’t sure she would stay.
After some deliberation, Walker decided to attend midtown’s Parson’s School of Design, and the rest, as they say, is history.
“I had actually made an appointment for what I thought was an informal information session,” Walker said, “and it turned out to be a portfolio review, and they told me on the spot they would offer me a place.”
After graduating, Walker honed her skills for the next 10 years with famed designers such as Donna Karan and Michael Kors. She then decided to strike out on her own.
Her pieces feature knits such as tweed, which is looking to be big this fall, and color concepts that illustrate her feelings that the future of fashion resides in its past.
She maintains the experience to go it alone was a learning one, and cautions young designers going out on their own.
Launching her signature line in 1999, Walker first sold only to stores, which she likened to “a nightmare.”
“We’d be chasing down money, shipping COD, there were many bad checks written to us. . . . We’re now pure retail,” she said with the knowledge of someone who now knows better.
By “us,” she means herself and her husband, architect Mark Dieffenbacher, who helps Walker with her line as well as designing a line of hand-made bags under the label Bags by Boris.
Walker recently opened her first boutique in Hell’s Kitchen, where she also lives. She made the move after her old design studio, which doubled as a store, became too cluttered.
Along with the new location, Walker has entered into another realm of fashion- bridal gowns.
“There can be a lot of bridezillas,” she said. “I had shied away from bridal in the past. People would always ask and we were like, ‘no!’ “
Walker rethought her stance when she started looking for the new space. She tried restructuring some of her evening gowns into bridal gowns, and the results pleased Walker enough to try it seriously.
“It made sense because fashion is really an eclectic process for me,” she said.
Walker settles into the new space in her old neighborhood (“It’s a home base for us,” she said), looking forward to what success will come through her door.
WAUCHOB: FROM TYRONE TO PARIS
Perhaps the most cutting edge of Irish-bred designers is Sharon Wauchob, who hails from Newstownstewart, Co. Tyrone, and launched her own label, S. Wauchob, in 1999.
Wauchob also looked to London for training in fashion design. She attended Central Saint Martins College of Art in London, because she felt it had the best reputation.
The Japanese designer Koji Tatsuno saw her degree show at the college and liked it enough to invite her to Paris to work for him. She later enjoyed a stint at Louis Vuitton, where she did everything from designing a logo to traveling to gather fabrics.
It was while working in Paris that Wauchob learned the nuts and bolts of the fashion business, and she credits experiencing the mechanics of a large fashion house with enabling her to start her own.
Upon launching her line, she decided to stay in France and continue to show in Paris’ Fashion Week, and will again this year when it begins in early October.
Wauchob’s ethos of “fashion a reaction to social trends” determines her direction in designing clothing. She constructs pieces that work as a product, as well as relate to her aesthetics, but considers the fashion industry a business first.
Dubbed a “hyper-realist” by critics, it was only recently that Wauchob allowed retro looks to be wedged in beside her notoriously modern silhouettes. She credits that to the public’s constant draw to familiarity in fashion.
Her pieces are built on simple shapes, added on to with things like a collar that can be removed, or sleeves that open up.
Textiles are vital to Wauchob as well, and she prides herself on being active in every aspect of the design process. She has traveled as far as Japan for silk, and then to Ireland for tailoring.
She says the highlight of her work is seeing her creations on the catwalk, although with accoutrements such as a fragrance and accessories line in the works, she will have a lot to look forward to.
Wauchob, who travels to Ireland frequently, notes that her being Irish has most influenced her color sensibility. Noting the flat light of the North that she grew up with, it has now enabled her to note subtleties in color.
Wauchob has said that while Ireland is lacking the industrial infrastructure to become a fashion mecca, the country’s youth and vitality is one that embraces creativity, and in turn, affects her work.