CLOTHESLINES

Rocha Bargains:Fashion hounds, take note. From next Thursday to Sunday, John Rocha will be having a womenswear and menswear sample sale at 15 St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2. As this happens only once every four years, it is a real opportunity to buy something from his collections at significantly reduced prices. Items include a lace embellished black wool coat (right), reduced from €980 to €375; a washed silk satin dress (black or navy) was €825, now €295; and a red velvet coat for €375, down from €980. A man's coat in a wool mix in black or navy down is reduced to €260 from €715. The sale takes place from 10am to 8pm on Thursday, 10am to 6pm Friday and Saturday and noon to 5pm on Sunday.

Go get some Gant

For those in the know, a double decker isn't a bus, or a sandwich, but a pricey and durable alternative to a waxed jacket. It's a Gant staple made from a fabric whose yarn has been impregnated with resin to keep it waterproof, but minus the sticky handle from conventional waxed outerwear. It comes with an inside quilted gilet, hence the name, and is just one of many handsome items in Ireland's first Gant store recently opened in Dundrum Town Centre, Dublin 16. It costs €530.

The company was founded in the US in 1949 by Bernard Gant, a Ukrainian immigrant who sold shirts to Harvard students. Today its preppy menswear and womenswear has a more European edge, and is less pricey than Ralph Lauren. Items that caught our eye were the striped shirts - Oxford, pin and Breton, long cable knit coats and biker boots.

Pearls of Wisdom

A renovated cut-stone building in the courtyard of her home in Co Louth is where jewelley designer Dorothy Corona Mathews houses her collection of more than 800 pieces made with pearls, crystal and semi-precious stones. Mathews, a former occupational therapist, gained a scholarship to St Alban's College of Art & Design, which launched her present career. She has been designing and selling jewellery for the past 14 years. Her necklaces of freshwater pearls mixed with semi-precious stones, along with original silver pieces hand-set with semi-precious stones and Tahitan pearls are particularly popular. See www.coronasilver.ie.