How the Irish are shaping River Island

It is 9.30 on a Monday morning and a steady stream of people is heading into Chelsea House, a huge corporate building on an industrial site in west London, home of the British high street giant River Island. Formerly known as Chelsea Girl and the UK’s first fashion boutique chain, the company began life as a small family business founded by Bernard Lewis in a bombed-out site in London in 1948.

Today it’s known for its young, cool fashion and high-profile collaborations with Rihanna, Julia Reston Roifeld, Jean Pierre Braganza, Zoe Jordan, Sibling and others that keep it newsworthy and fresh with recent plus size and active wear collections adding to the mix. The company is still owned privately by the Lewis family, has annual sales topping £932 million, operating profits of £145 million and a new digital office with a hundred staff recently opened in Shoreditch to boost online sales.

Its success speaks for itself. It has 350 stores worldwide, six online websites in four currencies shipping to over a hundred countries – and in Ireland the first of its many shops here was opened in 1993. In the headquarters, some 900 employees work in vast open-plan floors with onsite design, marketing and production facilities, meeting rooms and a studio with store and window display installations. There are racks of clothes everywhere and tables are laid out weekly with items that have sold alongside those that have underperformed.

Since 2004 when River Island launched its NCAD fashion bursary, the Irish have been making their mark here. Worth €3,500 with a three-month placement, the bursary has enabled many winners to remain on in permanent positions in the company and thrive. Five Irish designers work there at the moment, chief among them top-star Lucy Moller, a 2006 winner now design controller;  Anne Marie Rigney, a 2007 winner, now design manager of childrenswear; down to newest arrival William Shannon Doyle who started in October after graduation and whose contract has already been extended. The other two are Claire Lynam, designer of ladies’ tops, and Clarissa Walsh, working on outerwear but currently abroad on a design trip.

Fashion team

A member of senior management at the company, Lucy Moller heads up a team of 26, looks after the pattern room and supervises an inhouse atelier – a rare facility in high street companies. “I get to direct trends, create stories a year in advance. We use trend forecasters, WSGN, we filter information from customers, from blogs, from the street, from different magazines, from different continents and hotspots – so it’s global,” she says. “The catwalk comes right at the end because we work so far in advance – we are really proud of that.”

So what are her takes on future trends? “There are still a lot of 70s references in New York. I feel that the trend will be for historical influences – pirate history girl with big, exaggerated sleeves, corsetry and an emphasis on the waist. Frills are not going anywhere, but ruching is getting bigger and that combination of history with an urban streetwear vibe – seen in Preen this season – will be important,” she reckons.

The influence of cult label Vetements is also having its effect. “I think what they have done is very interesting – reforming and reclaiming clothes, making them super long and super oversize. They have collaborated with Juicy Couture and Champion, two brands that have seen better days, and made them cool again.” She also reckons the “bricks and mortar areas in retail are declining across the industry “and online and multichannel are the way it’s going”. But she also believes there will be a kickback to having paper: “Fashion magazines are not going anywhere, people still want them and some retail park stores will remain because it’s easy to park, you can bring your family, it is somewhere to eat – but despite that everyone is having to up their game at the moment.”

As to the power of social media, she cites the trend for bomber jackets started by a few influential people “and then it went to being a forest fire trend, went completely viral and then burnt itself out – which is why all the stores are full of them now”. The Olympic Games last year in London also had its effect – sending hoodies and tracksuits back in fashion. “The Olympic Games always create interest in sportswear and they affect different areas of fashion – I love that forging of cocktail and sportswear together.”

Work ethic

A striking figure in a hoodie and a full-length vintage Japanese kimono, she is clearly in charge and loves what she does. “I have learned so much since I have come here, the most important being resilience and the ability to bounce back. It’s important not to be swept away by praise nor demolished by criticism. Irish students are very creative and we are really proud of their calibre. Their work ethic is second to none.”

A great-great-granddaughter of Molly Childers (mother of Erskine Childers) who was involved in the Asgard gun-running operation in 1914, Moller’s graduate collection which landed her the job was inspired by this remarkable woman. “I started here sewing on buttons, photocopying and doing research and learned from the ground up.” Now she travels all over the world both for inspiration and development and is responsible for recruiting new people and developing them inhouse. “Doing different things constantly suits my personality.”

A huge industry growth area is childrenswear with a market worth £4.6 million in the UK and Anne Marie Rigney who manages childrenswear in River Island argues “it has to have strong links with womenswear and most designers of kidswear come from womenswear. The trends – like hoodies, full sleeves, frills are often the same. Even the colour palettes – nudes, pinks, head-to-toe tonal dressing are linked,” she says. One of her first successful womenwear designs to go into production when she started nine years ago was a black-and-white pencil skirt with military buttons. “To be a good designer you need to know what works and what doesn’t work. You need to be flexible and think of new ways of working and always try to find the next best thing.”

Their childrenswear range, introduced five years ago, is now one of the biggest on the high street. As the mother of a small toddler, Rigney feels she can relate to what is needed “because I have been there and I understand a lot more. There is a lot of technical training with childrenswear and you have to address certain issues with a lot of things you can’t use. The tie pull on a hoodie, for instance, can only be 7cm long and must be fixed, so all these things mould your design.”

Choosing fabrics

Dubliner William Shannon Doyle, winner of last year's bursary, started working on accessories and then in handbags (including choosing fabrics for luggage sets, carry-ons, wallets and make-up bags) then shoes. He scored his first success with a fake-fur-and-jewelled mule which was shown at River Island's London press day last November and was instantly seized on by the influential stylist and senior fashion editor of ID Julia Sarr Jamois. The shoe will be on sale in River Island in the summer.

“We work with the buyers and that’s very interesting. I am learning to design under an aesthetic that would not necessarily be my own, so what the customer wants may not be what you would like, but I can see myself growing here and there are so many opportunities. I always wanted to do commercial womenswear and there are days when we go to the shops, see what’s happening and take photos, seeing what the trends are and what people are wearing,” he says, adding that he is part of a team of 14 and loves the social aspect of the company.

This year’s winner has already been selected from the six finalists “and the calibre is phenomenal” according to Moller who will come to Dublin at the end of March to announce the name of the successful candidate. Like the others, he or she will receive €3,500 and a three-month internship with the company where, like Moller, if they are ambitious they will learn to make themselves indispensable. It’s a tough and demanding business with clear directives and challenges.  According to Ben Lewis, the boss of River Island, “people don’t need more clothes, they have got to want them”.