Where's me jumper?

FASHION: Loud, kitsch and always eye-catching – the Christmas jumper is as traditional as a wet kiss under the mistletoe

Styling: Aisling Farinella, assisted by Sarah Ruxton and Javier Josef Griesser Make-up: Eimear Sweeney, assisted by Emily White Hair: Lindsay McLoughlin, Toni Guy, Dame Street, Dublin 2 Shot in the Powerscourt Centre, Dublin 2, www.powerscourtcentre.com

Blá Ferry, Simon Cullen and Lauren Kavanagh

Blá Ferry, interior designer with O'Donnell O'Neill, Lauren Kavanagh, graphic designer with Totally Dublinmagazine, and Simon Cullen, musician and founder of recording studio Envelope, are friends and graduates of DIT in Mountjoy Square who host an annual Christmas Jumper party for their friends.

They started it five years ago, and it has steadily expanded in popularity. “It’s a really cheesy Christmas party,” says Lauren, “with mince pies and egg nogs and everyone has to wear a new jumper – the variety is unbelievable.”

The zanier the jumpers, the better. One sported the name Brian Kennedy in a tinsel love heart, while another woolly lit up at sporadic intervals. “The cheesier, the better,” laughs Ferry. Her alpaca sweater is from Bolivia. Kavanagh’s red jumper with sequin beading was bought in Urban Outfitters. Cullen’s sequined Santa Claus waistcoat, which was made in Indonesia, is the star of the show. He inherited it from a friend who emigrated to New Zealand, and it is one of three unique pieces, each with a different Christmas theme.

Aisling Hamill

Aisling Hamill is a primary school teacher in Porterstown, Dublin 15. Her class of six-year-olds are a mixture of African, Sudanese, Moldovan, Russian, Romanian and Irish nationalities, “and they watch everything I wear,” she says with a smile. There’s a Christmas party on the last day of school to which the girls wear big party dresses. The boys sport Christmas jumpers, often made by their grannies. Hamill dresses up for the occasion, too, in lots of bows and hairbands and glitter. “They’ll always comment – ‘teacher, I love your shoes and your bag’ – and they love it when I put flowers in my hair,” says Hamill. According to her, the children are good storytellers and love writing stories about Santa and reindeers.

Cathy and Isobel Shah

Cathy Shah is a big vintage fan and her online shop pixiepievintage.ie, which launches in the new year, will sell vintage clothes and accessories with a contemporary twist. She promises lots of high-waisted “ditsy” mini skirts and floral shifts and woolly batwing tops and sweaters. “I love sewing, so a lot will be reworked in a modern way – clothes are about how you express yourself and each vintage piece has a story which makes it special and different from the high street.” For Christmas, she loves mohair cardigans and batwing sweaters and adores this red vintage sweater with its embroidery and its sleeve settings “and I am mad about the silver buttons”. She likes dressing her daughter, 23-month old Isobel, in colourful knits, too “like a pixie, because she’s real outdoors girl and loves nature.”

Ruth Guy

Ruth Guy (left) is fundraising and marketing director of Barnardos. Her Christmas Jumper Appeal was so successful last year that it’s being run again next month. “People donate unwanted Christmas gifts – they don’t have to be jumpers – to the shop and we sell them to raise funds for our work with vulnerable children.”

Barnardos is also appealing for toys before Christmas – “preferably new, not electronic and not wrapped,” she says. (See barnardos.ie.) Guy’s fundraising ideas also include the popular teddy bear raffle scheme, which has been running for 20 years. Barnardos sell Christmas cards designed by children, which can be bought online or by phone, tel: 01-7080479.

Gavin Brunker

Gavin Brunker, menswear manager at Urban Outfitters in Temple Bar, trained in fashion design and worked for three years as a pattern draughtsman with June Verdon in Bray, before joining Urban Outfitters. “It’s on-the-pulse, fast paced and dynamic,” he says of his job. Here he’s wearing a vintage Nordic jumper from JC Penney, a once-off offer from the shop which at this time of year is packed with warm winter woollies, from mittens, headpieces and scarves to Peruvian and fisherman-style knits. “There’s a very outdoorsy look to the season and a back to nature feel,” he says. Best-selling items at the moment are Lyle Scott’s slim-fit lambswool jumpers, he adds.