It is more than 20 years since Paul Costelloe picked up the phone and rang Margaret Heffernan of Dunnes Stores to suggest a collaboration.
This was a time when the big names at what was then called The British Designer Show (precursor of London Fashion Week) like Jasper Conran, John Rocha and Betty Jackson were part of the trailblazing Designers at Debenhams initiative introducing designers to the high street.
Costelloe, who was also part of that British design group, had not been approached, but “they are all gone now and I am still here”, he observes wryly at the recent celebratory salon show in his home at Richmond Hill in Monkstown in Dublin, marking two decades in partnership with Dunnes Stores and showcasing AW25 womenswear, menswear and the Living Christmas collections.
Now 80 years old, the veteran designer recalls that he wanted “to show Margaret what we could do”. He produced a homeware collection first, with womenswear and menswear collections following a few years later.
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The initial homeware line designed was “too exuberant and probably over the top, so after it was reviewed, it became a little calmer. Homeware is still the strongest of our collections”.
Another recent SS25 catwalk collection shown at City Hall (a year after its presentation at London Fashion Week in September 2024) is indicative of the exuberant colour and shapely silhouettes of his free-form style, but “it is not realistic, and [for Dunnes] you must keep price and quality right. It requires a different brain, and I couldn’t produce [the catwalk collection] unless I got a big backer. What I show in Richmond Hill is reality.”
This season, women’s fashion in his collection for Dunnes features sweaters, hoodies and joggers in cashmere and merino, along with tailored blazers, long pleated skirts, dresses, tuxedos and equine print shirts, at prices from €35 to €100. It’s relaxed and elegant, with some lovely dresses. The menswear is strong too with gilets, jeans, sweaters and waterproof jackets.
“It’s not easy being an Irish company with so much competition from Mango, M&S, H&M and Zara, which are enormous, but the fight is not over,” he says with a smile.
Looking back, what stands out from his first womenswear for Dunnes? After a pause, he remembers the linen and shirt dresses which recall some of his most memorable early creations in the 1970s, which were dreamy white dresses made from everyday table and tea cloth linen.
“That might come full circle and happen again,” he says, though he is reluctant to reveal any details of a new collaboration that may be in the offing later this year.
He remains totally dedicated to his work acknowledging the increasing support of his son William, an artist whose prints inform the collections, and his daughter Jessica.
“When I started to work with Dunnes, it was a great leveller, and I like that part of it. I love it when I walk down Henry Street and a woman will say ‘I slept in your sheets last night’ or a man will say ‘I am wearing one of your jumpers’. I really love Irish people for that – they are so quick to pay you a compliment.”
