DUBLIN FASHION WEEK:As one of the hottest new knitwear designers, Tim Ryan was first hooked on his craft when he knitted a jumper at the age of seven: 25 years later, with a cult following and sell-out collections, he presents his first solo show at Dublin Fashion Week
THE VERY FIRST piece of knitwear Tim Ryan ever made was a tiny jumper for his toy monkey at home in Puckane, near Nenagh, in Co Tipperary when he was aged only seven or eight.
The youngest of six, he must have driven his hard-working mother mad as he tried to copy her on the knitting machine, playing with leftover wool, occasionally breaking her needles and chanting "chicken and chips" as the carriage swung back and forth.
That was how he learnt to knit (and crochet) more than 25 years ago. Today, the award-winning designer counts Hollywood actresses among his clientele who love his sexy, glamorous knits. Ryan will present his very first fashion show in Dublin next Tuesday during Motorola Dublin Fashion Week.
Winner of the €10,000 John Rocha bursary this year, London-based Ryan recently moved to a purpose-built home and work unit in Canary Wharf. There, he was completing the last of some 40 looks for the show when we spoke at the beginning of the month.
The spring/summer 09 collection was inspired by the famous Canadian folk singer Buffy Sainte Marie whom he remembers presenting Sesame Street when he was a child. "I was obsessed with her and I always wanted the Indians to be the winners, not the cowboys. Later, I discovered her music like Changing Woman and Street America. She's sexy, sophisticated and rooted in her own culture and that balance, that duality is what modern women are all about," he says.
Modern is a word that runs like a thread throughout his conversation and the idea of modernity directs his design approach.
Combining lurex, cotton and linen yarns, the collection with its heavy fringing and lacework is quite stark in colour, he says, going from neutral greys, beiges and flesh colours to black, white and red.
"It's like a rainbow seen through black and white, but it's modern, contemporary. People are looking for smart daywear and today it's either a suit or a dress. What I do is to merge day and evening wear. I've always preferred glitzy things without accessories for day and for evening, plain things are great with jewellery and statement pieces." Shapes include T-shirts and square cuts, and skirts vary from short to ballerina lengths. Trousers are flared, cuffed or in tracksuit-bottom formats. "For the first time, we are using superfine 12-gauge knits, so that some pieces almost look like dancewear and can be layered for high summer," he says.
Having studied fashion and later sculpture at Limerick School of Art and Design, Ryan moved to Dublin where he quickly acquired a private customer base and a cult following for his circular skirts and unusual constructed knits.
It was his move to London, however, that really propelled his career forward. "It really made a big difference because it changed my attitude. It made me think more internationally. It made me react more quickly and I found a team who could make things the way I wanted so that I could go out and sell."
As his label grows internationally, he now has to think about adapting his clothes to climates other than European. Knits suit the international traveller, he says. "We strive to make things that don't have to be dry-cleaned and our linen has a lovely lived-in feeling. It is easy to layer for different climates and for people who get on to to a plane in one climate and off in another. That's modern women's lives."
After Dublin, he will present his collection at London Fashion Week next month. His last spring/summer collection sold out in four weeks and one of his biggest stockists is now the Curve stores in New York and Los Angeles. In Ireland, Elaine Curtis in Carlow is his main stockist.
"I think my style is glamorous and sexy in a non-traditionally sexy way and there is an austerity to it that makes it a bit more modern. It is just fascinating to take a piece of thread and turn it into something you can wear, into something three-dimensional.
"It is incredibly satisfying when a customer says that they have never had so many compliments and it would be even more satisfying," he adds with a wry laugh, "if I could make some money."
His flattering knits have certainly found fame. Fortune may take a little longer.