Clothes Lines

DEIRDRE McQUILLANrounds up this week's fashion news in brief

KNOCKDOWN PRICES AND LUXURY LENDS

This ultra-glamorous Roberto Cavalli dress, originally costing €1,200, can now be purchased for €380 in Covet in the Powerscourt Centre, Dublin, where owner Suzanne Hourican is having a sale today and tomorrow between 12pm and 6pm. There are designer discounts of up to 95 per cent off brands such as Galliano, Diane von Furstenberg, Marc Jacobs and Stella McCartney, as well as vintage gems. Hourican’s boutique, which opened in August, is what she calls a “borrowers’ boudoir offering luxurious lends”, an idea she picked up in the US. Clients can hire high-end clothes at a fraction of their original price, the killer Cavalli number being just one example. Now she is selling off the samples to make way for new stock. See also www.covet.ie

SUSTAINABLE YARNS IN RATHGAR

99b Rathgar Road is fast gaining a reputation for cool clothes, particularly a strong selection from Margaret Howell whose well-bred, garçonne look has appealed to many stylish local residents, such as actress Jane Brennan. The shop is also the exclusive stockist of Untouched World, the award-winning, eco-friendly New Zealand label, which was the first fashion company to be recognised by the UN for sustainable clothing. Their yarns are made from “mountain silk”, (fine machine-washable 100 per cent organic merino) and brushtail possum fibre, which is as soft as cashmere but doesn’t pill, as well as organic cotton and bamboo. Ideal for travelling, the simple shapes (such as this wraparound cardigan, €250, right), are ultra soft and comfortable. Beuys and Beuys aka 99b Rathgar Road, Dublin 6.

A CUT ABOVE THE REST

Jewellery designer Monica Vinader likes a bit of rough. That’s not what you think, but a reference to the fact that this award-winning, London-based Spanish designer starts every collection with rough stones, which she then cuts and facets into the bold shapes and colours that have won her this year’s UK Jewellery Brand of the Year. In an haute jewellery presentation, the pieces look far more expensive than they are – but the prices are actually part of their attraction. Vinader was one of the first to introduce cocktail rings and the idea of stacking rings on the fingers.

“My collections are all about colour and stones,” she said on a recent visit to Dublin, explaining that each hand-cut stone is set in handcrafted sterling silver plated with 18ct gold. Vinader, from San Sebastian, trained in London with Tateossian (the former banker turned cufflink maker) and then travelled all over South America with her husband. She has enabled artisan craftsmen skilled in fine-cutting diamonds to adapt their skills to unusual semi-precious stones, such as labradorite and chalcedony, with interesting results. Find her jewellery in the Luxury Hall, Brown Thomas, Dublin, where prices of silver rings are from €50 to €220, and gold rings from €65 to €245.