Fashion divas met in the Grand Lodge Room of the Freemason's Hall on Dublin's Molesworth Street to complete a mission this week. The room was packed. The time was right. All the women had one objective: to view the latest Richard Lewis collection.
Seated in the front row were Eithne Healy, Loretta Brennan Glucksman and Maureen Cairnduff. They all noted a chenille suit with crushed collar - It was particularly beautiful, they said.
Catriona Widger and her daughter, Carol Widger, from Killiney, said they "love his designs". In orange satin under a lime-green coat, Mary Haughey, the wife of Senator Eddie Haughey, was one of the most stylish attendees on the night. She and and her friend, Mary O'Hare, from Newry, said: "He's very skilled. We loved his colours." And all the while, Jim Greeley was recording the show on video for customers who couldn't attend.
Dressed in a butter-yellow suit, sex therapist Mary O'Conor said she has been a Richard Lewis Fan "since forever". Three Dublin friends, travel agent Rosalind Stein, schoolteacher Celine Fitzpatrick and estate agent Carolyn Collins, loved his cyclamen jersey dresses.
The designer himself peeped out at the end for a bow. After celebrating his 56th birthday this week, he'll be back in his shop on South Frederick Street on Monday. "I'm a Virgo, which means I'm a nit-picker," he says. Bhuel, breith lβ fΘ shΘan is fΘ mhaise duit, a Risteaird.