Family values

A new Irish fashion company is using local materials and local labour to produce clothes that are both classic and cutting edge, writes DEIRDRE MCQUILLAN

ASK FASHION DESIGNER Charlotte Cargin who her style icon is and her immediate reply is her Dublin grandmother, Emily Irwin. “She was one of five sisters, and incredibly stylish. A tailor would come twice a year to the house on Merrion Road and make three outfits each for them. My grandmother didn’t buy clothes in shops and didn’t have much, but what she had was beautifully made. She was a star. And her clothes from the 1950s have been my starting point,” she says.

Cargin, a graduate in knitwear design from Central St Martin’s in London, and Jane Skovgaard, an artist and textile designer, are the twin forces behind Charlotte and Jane. Their newly-launched Irish label is reviving the use of native Irish fabrics, such as linen and tweed, and also, in a reversal of current trends, manufacturing everything in Ireland. Their dresses, modern takes on trim 1950s styles, are playful and colourful rather than stiff and ladylike and free of self-conscious nostalgia.

Cargin acknowledges her three-month internship with Lainey Keogh in Dublin as instrumental in giving her the courage to set up a business using local skills. “I learnt a lot from her and did a lot of customising for her. I remember, for instance, customising knitwear for Sting and his wife Trudie. Lainey let me have free rein. She trusted me and I had a great time.”

Charlotte and Jane’s collections have become known for the variety of their fabrics, their hourglass shapes, their boning, quirky buttons and intricate detailing. They are based in Kinsale, where their studio is a converted coach house. Eight seamstresses work full time for them and plans are afoot to employ 20 by the end of next year.

A lot of attention is paid to detail. “We topstitch every seam and every dress is beautifully lined and made to last,” says Cargin. “I like clothes that are elegant and timeless.” Their collections can be bought off-the-peg or online and customers can choose dress design, fabric and sleeve length in sizes from six to 16.

They like to do things their own way and do their own rather off-beat styling. Models in their fashion shoots are usually family and friends rather than professionals, and they use nearby locations, such as the one in this shoot – Compass Hill House, which belongs to their next-door neighbours. The models are Cargin’s sister, Louise, a TCD graduate, actor and lead singer in jazz/soft rock band Uncle Monty, along with Lily de la Cour from Kinsale, a European kick-boxing champion, and Barbara Venn Moore, another friend.

Charlotte and Jane’s friendship goes back some years to when Cargin did a portfolio course in painting and drawing in Kinsale with Skovgaard, a fine art teacher who is originally from Zimbabwe and has a degree in textile design from Durban. “She was one of the best teachers I have ever had,” Cargin says. Since setting up together, they have sourced fabrics from mills and weavers all over Ireland. They use linens from Baird McNutt in the North, tweeds and wools from John Hanly in Tipperary, Kerry Woollen Mills and Cushendales in Co Kilkenny. “There are amazing fabrics in Ireland,” Cargin says. The wool/angora mix used in the new collection was dyed exclusively for Charlotte and Jane by Kerry Woollen Mills. They plan to design more of their own textiles.

They hope to expand their collection and increase their Irish stockists next year as well as develop exports to Canada and the US. They admit that it’s hard work and a lot of hurdles have been climbed, but the love of fashion pulses deep in Cargin’s blood.

“I was always, absolutely always, from the age of two or three, interested in fashion. All I ever wanted to do was try on my grandmother’s dresses and see how they were made. I have a black ballgown of hers with a tapestry skirt lined with red silk, and when I wear it now, I feel as stylish as she did 60 years ago. She was so inspiring.”

See charlotteandjane.com