The Irish at London Fashion Week: Attracta Courtney

Now based in London, her impressive client list including Cara Delavingne, Natalia Vodianova and Pippa Middleton

She was once called the best kept secret behind Irish designers' shows at London Fashion Week. Attracta Courtney from Fermanagh is an international makeup artist who has worked with Zoe Jordan, Orla Kiely, Paul Costelloe and John Rocha but whose reach in the fashion world is much wider.

A former health professional who threw over that career to retrain as a makeup artist in London, she assisted makeup artists like Pat McGrath and Val Garland in haute couture for Galliano and McQueen at Dior and Givenchy in Paris and has worked with celebrated fashion photographers like Arthur Elgort, Perry Ogden, David Bailey, Patrick Demarchelier and Lord Snowdon.

Though she has lived and worked in New York, she is now based in London and her impressive client list includes supermodels Cara Delavingne and Natalia Vodianova to Nigella Lawson, Pippa Middleton and Sam Taylor Wood amongst others. A consultant for many cosmetic brands, Prada Beauty among them, she has worked on major fashion editorials all over the world and is also in demand as a speaker on beauty empowerment. She will giving a lecture in Dublin next month.

Deirdre McQuillan

Deirdre McQuillan

Deirdre McQuillan is Irish Times Fashion Editor, a freelance feature writer and an author