It is a truism that nothing stays still in fashion. That applies not just to clothes but equally the places selling them. If they are to hold onto their customers, shops need to be regularly updated, their stock reassessed, their decor reevaluated. Which is just what is happening right now at the Design Centre in Dublin's Powerscourt Townhouse.
Occupying the same site for the past decade and almost unaltered since first opening, the centre had lately started to look its age. Most retail outlets are now completely redecorated every five years, so that date had long been passed. Similarly, a thorough examination of the labels being carried was long overdue. When Shelly Corkery took over the premises a few months ago, she wisely decided to undertake a complete revamp.
Corkery is no stranger to the Design Centre; she worked there for seven years before moving to Havana in Donnybrook. Her new job is something of a homecoming therefore. The centre, originally set up in the Galleria on St Stephen's Green before moving to its present location, was always intended to be a showcase for the best of Irish fashion, the starting point for many now well-known names, and a shop where their full collections could always be found.
Today, it offers a mixture of established labels and what Corkery hopes will be rising stars. For the new season, she has engaged in a certain judicious editing, whereby some designers have been relinquished and others given their own space for the first time. Naturally, best-sellers such as Mary Gregory, Miriam Mone, Lyn-Mar, Louise Kennedy and Allicano still remain. In the centre's Innovation Section, for example, newcomers for autumn/winter include knitter Liam Grier, along with Rosalind Duke, Sonia Gaffey and Ali Malik. Accessories is another area undergoing expansion, thanks to the addition of Charlotte Selka's Rose & Crown line, together with evening bags and belts by Louise Raymond and scarves from Lorraine Bowen. Last week, just as the new collections were arriving, so too did the builders.
Corkery is overhauling the entire centre over the next couple of months with a provisional finish date of mid-to-late October. Given that the intervening period is traditionally one of the year's busiest for a retailer, she will not be closing doors at any time but tackling the 3,500 square feet interior in stages. When all work is eventually finished, she promises the centre will have a very simple, clean but luxurious appearance with plenty of large mirrors, wood and limestone floors and big, comfortable sofas.
In the meantime, Corkery will be working on further plans for the centre as early next year she intends to introduce a non-Irish element into the fashion being offered to customers. While domestic designers will continue to be given pride of place - for many of them, says Corkery, the Design Centre is home - adding an extra section devoted to overseas labels ought to boost overall business.
What matters most is that the shop and its reputation as a centre of excellence is revitalised. "I want to get new names, designers who aren't available here and are a little bit different," Corkery explains. "We need to turn around the way people think about the Design Centre." Now is the time, she believes, to make the fresh start.
