The new Quin Donnellys

FASHION:Liz Quin and Carolyn Donnelly, who are celebrating 30 years in the notoriously fickle fashion business, say their daughters' style is influencing their work, writes DEIRDRE MCQUILLAN

THEIRS HAS BEEN one of the most enduring partnerships in Irish fashion. As Liz Quin and Carolyn Donnelly mark 30 years in business with their proud claim that their label quietly outsells other big names in the home market, their daughters Hannah and Lily may be hot-tipped one day to carry on their success.

“My kitchen,” says Liz, “is full of 22-year-old girls about to embark on the real world and it has been great fun seeing them developing from being clones at 15 and 16 to becoming quite individual as they get older. Hannah has borrowed a lot of clothes from me in the last year, but wears them in a different way or asks me to take up the lengths. In the last few years she has really influenced me on the business sense of things.”

Hannah O’Leary is 21 and has just finished a business degree at TCD which included an Erasmus year in the US. She is going to Amsterdam in September to take up a marketing job with Jameson in Irish Distillers. “Maybe some day I will end up in fashion. I’m interested in business and obviously fashion is a huge international industry. Having a mother who is a fashion designer has given me a sense of creativity and colour. Growing up and having her second opinion, her fashion eye, definitely influenced my style. I know what looks good and what fits well,” she says.

Both girls have helped to shape their mothers’ ideas. According to Carolyn, her daughter Lily “is not fussy or frilly and is quite avant garde in what she chooses. The narrower shoulders and tighter armholes in a jacket that she wears tell me what is going on. As soon as you narrow that area you get a more modern silhouette. I learn a lot from her. She has a great eye and has always been interested in fashion.”

Lily Spain (18) has just finished her Leaving Certificate, and is going to the west coast of the US for six weeks this summer before returning to NCAD, where she will study fashion. “Fashion was always at the back of my mind,” she says. She loves style blogs such as Olsen Anonymous and Fashion Post, and her favourite shops are Topshop and Penneys, though she prefers to customise what she buys. “I think I am slowly getting more like my mum as I get older. She dresses stylishly and quite quirkily and I try to look different to other people. I know that she loves what she does and gets really excited about little things. I’ve always loved fashion and art, but I have learnt that the business is about commitment, so I am not entering into it lightly.”

That youthful enthusiasm is something that Carolyn recognises in the work experience students she takes on. “They have so much to learn and I think our knowledge after years of experience of what works and what doesn’t work has been key to our success. I know instinctively looking at fabrics which ones to choose. We can assimilate these things very quickly. We can’t sell green in Ireland, for example, unless it is a soft turquoise. We can sell any kind of pink, poppy red and blue. When the recession hit we sold a lot of strong and bright colour – our customers want that kind of exuberance. They want vivid colour and the stronger and more vivacious it is, the more it sells.”

Changes in Irish taste over the years have been reflected in their collections. “We are using less black and more navy suiting and we have definitely made fewer trousers in the past four years, and fewer suits. The dress is the backbone of the collection and leggings or jeggings are key.” Their winter collection will feature quilted coats and jackets “and a lot of dresses in sapphire blue, teal and raspberry.”

They are often asked to describe what has kept them together in business. Liz says that “it has really been quite amazing. It’s almost like a marriage. There were years when there could be a bit of competition because we were doing the same thing, but we are both great at just putting things behind us if there is any disagreement. We don’t overlap, we don’t really socialise, but we are very friendly and catch up over dinner on business trips. That’s been the key thing, it’s a balanced relationship.”

The clothes in the photograph are from Quin Donnelly’s spring/summer collection available from Brown Thomas and Kilkenny Shop, Dublin and Storey Womenswear, Moygashel, Co Tyrone