CLOTHES LINES:Rory Duffy, from Monaghan has won the highly coveted Golden Shears tailors' contest in London, sponsored by Merchant Taylors' Company. His winning outfit was a navy and cream windowpane-check frock coat and kilt, for which he received a cheque for £2,000. Tailor Joseph Martin in Sligo, with whom Duffy started his career as a trainee, remembers him as "extremely keen and determined to succeed". Duffy is currently working with Henry Poole in Savile Row. He is the grandson of a tailor and is carrying on the family tradition. "Savile Row tailoring methods may not have changed in a century," he says, but cloth has. "What was considered lightweight by my grandfather was 16oz cloth, now it's 6oz, and you need softer hands."
This lovely textile print is the work of designer Pamela Quinn, who has just opened a high fashion Irish textile design studio in Dublin. Quinn, a graduate of the National College of Art and Design, set up her business – quinnconfrey.com – a year ago, after working in design studios in London, New York and Paris. She has already secured international clients such as Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Michael Kors and Abercrombie Fitch.
Her inspiration comes from a wide variety of sources, and her recent collections have featured man-made patterns reworked into finer geometric shapes. Her designs, using multicoloured lines like spirographic patterns, made using a combination of hand- and computer-generated imagery, were favourites with buyers at the recent New York and Paris textile fairs. Quinnconfrey is at Space 28, North Lott, Dublin 1, tel: 087-6745846, www.quinnconfrey.com.