WHAT do you do when you have some of Ireland's most glamorous women at your disposal? Hide them behind masks? It mightn't sound like the best of ideas but no-one was complaining when the Restaurants for Daffodil Day announced their campaign at Peacock Alley on Thursday morning.
This probably had a lot to do with the quality of the floral opera masks specially made by students of the National College of Art and Design for the event. The models included Martina Fox of the Baton Rouge restaurant and Ann-Marie Nohl of the Espresso Bar in Ballsbridge, who took to the catwalk in the presence of fellow restaurateurs such as Joan McManus of the King Sitric, Pasta Fresca's Mai Frisby, Mike Fitzgerald of The Commons and, of course, Peacock Alley proprietor Conrad Gallagher.
The 25-year-old culinary whizz kid - who trained at the Waldorf Astoria in New York and in Monte Carlo - has been attracting rave reviews for his food in South William Street. No less a person than Gourmet Ireland's Paul Rankin was loud in his praise of Gallagher on a recent visit to Dublin. Rankin's wife Jeanne is expecting the couple's third child and Roscoff's founders revealed they are planning to send their first two children to Belfast's famous Methodist College.
Restaurants for Daffodil Day is the latest addition to the Irish Cancer Society's successful series of fund-raising events and the coffee morning drew support from a wide spectrum. Minister of State Liz McManus was there while Senator David Norris made sure the Seanad was represented. Caroline Stephenson, Eileen Murphy and Norma Smurfit also popped along to Peacock Alley for the event, and James Fennelly of the Irish Cancer Society was widely congratulated for being chosen to chair the national forum of cancer services.
Brown Thomas donated designs from its spring/summer collection for the models to wear, which completed a busy couple of days for stylist Catherine Condell and the store's marketing executive Dolores Delaney.
The BT duo were also behind Paul Costelloe's unveiling of his spring and summer collection the previous evening. Costelloe flew in from London with his wife Anne and sister Cinnia McCaffrey to join over 250 devotees of his label.