Not many fashion designers can combine both a clothing brand and a separate curtain business. But that is exactly how Cork-based Angela O’Donnell prepares to mark a 20-year career.
After graduating from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, she worked for a while in Scotland before returning home to Ireland and starting a fashion label in Dublin on Dawson Street in 2012 called Angela Beaumont, selling leather jackets, silk shirts and trousers in twice-yearly collections.
When that closed, she moved back to Cork and in 2021, following some years working as a consultant, started afresh with a new lifestyle and activewear brand called Yawuw (you are what you wear) made from sustainable fabrics. Last year, seeing a gap in the market, she founded Curtains and Co providing bespoke curtains, blinds and home furnishings for the southern counties. It now has a full production team based 30 minutes from Cork City.
Her most recent collection for Yawuw called Breathe – Part 2, in 100 per cent sustainable textiles, takes her work to a new level, after securing ethical manufacturing partners in Lithuania.
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Nature may dictate the colours of the season, but in these dark February days, black still dominates the winter wardrobe and it features prominently in this athleisure collection, with black quilted coats and jackets in waterproof organic wax cotton filled with raw wool.
Cleverly uplifted with bright green leopard print jersey trousers or shirts, the same print specially designed by her is used for recycled silk scarves and headbands that add a flamboyant finish to any black outfit. The collection also includes large bags made from the same organic cotton that can be worn in three ways – across the body, with the handle, or on the back for those on the move.
O’Donnell has her own studio and high-end showroom furnished with floor to ceiling curtains in the Marina Commercial Business Park in Blackrock in Cork. She also teaches a design and development course at Cork College of FET every Thursday. She is planning a fashion show in Cork in September to mark the 20-year anniversary which will be one to watch.
