Tim Roberts and Little Patrick Street
"IRISH tweed in a contemporary sense," is how Tim Roberts describes the dazzlingly bright fabrics produced by his company, Little Patrick Street, of Holywood, co Down. The business's name comes from a street near Belfast Cathedral where Roberts took a business course after graduating in 1989 from the University of Ulster with a degree in textiles. Little Patrick Street "was a great marketing tool for the United States always wanted something with a bit of a connotation". He briefly worked with Ulster Weavers as a damask designer but "I made my first freelance break selling cloth to the old couture house of Lachasse in London. It gave me the motivation to go out by myself."
Encouraged by this response, Tim Roberts took his textile designs to Milan where he won business from Gianni Versace for the latter's couture and ready to wear collections. Since then, he has continued to produce cloth for fashion houses in London, Milan and Paris; early next year, he will be visiting both Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent. One of his most loyal clients is Rochas which is on record as saying: "We loved these fabrics because they were rich in colour and texture." Little Patrick Street's hallmarks are boldness of pattern and imaginative use of colour "bright, bold, eccentric and vibrant" are the terms Tim Roberts employs to describe his designs, which only use natural fibres such as wool and cashmere.
The pre eminently conservative nature of the Irish market means that these brilliant toned fabrics tend to sell better abroad than at home. However, Little Patrick Street produces its own line of fashion and furnishing accessories which sell through a number of outlets here including An Tain, the Kilkenny Design Centre, Design Ireland Plus, O'Reilly & Turpin and Blarney Woollen Mills. These carry the company's waistcoats, shawls, hats, bags, throws and cushions. While the company's gorgeous cloths cannot be found in any shops in this country, some of them are for sale directly from the Little Patrick Street which usually has lengths left over from its overseas commissions. These cost
£30-£54 per metre.
Terence Doyle Menswear
THE fact that both his grandmother and mother trained in tailoring may have played a part in determining Terence Doyle's own choice of career. "My mother gave up full time work when she got married," he explains "but a tailor used to give her jobs she could do at home." Since his studio is in the family home, maternal assistance is conveniently to hand should it ever be needed. Doyle graduated from the Belfast Institute for Higher Education in 1990 with a final year collection exclusively devoted to menswear, none of it terribly conservative. "There were things like see through net shirts and everybody said 'oh, no one is going to wear those kind of things'."
Terence Doyle's work is still not going to have mass market appeal. For a short period after graduating, he was employed by a company in Northern Ireland which produced shirts, waistcoats and ties. However, he preferred to branch out on his own and for the past few years has depended on private commissions. "I did a few ranges of shirts and waistcoats for Craftworks in Belfast, which was fine but after a while I was making more money at commissioned work." Doyle always tries to put together one small but representative collection of his work each year, the latest features lots of deep hued velvets with elaborate stitching details on sharp tailored suits and coats. While obviously happy to hear from new clients "to be honest I don't like people coming to me if they want an ordinary three piece suit. There are loads of menswear shops doing lots of basic stuff. I like to do something that definitely has a design input and looks as though it has been individually made."
Agreeing that his clothing is "not mainstream", Doyle also accepts that his client list will always remain relatively small. "If I was doing ladieswear, I'd be making an absolute mint. But for men, there are only a certain number of people happy to pay the kind of price range commissioned work costs." Were he to move to a larger city perhaps Dublin or London, he would probably attract more orders "but the thing is I'm quite happy in Belfast. When I first started I expected everything to happen at once. I've got through so far and I really like what I do."
Michelle O'Doherty
JUST a fortnight ago, Derry based designer Michelle O'Doherty was announced as winner of Britain's "Masters of Linen" young designers competition which will take her to Naples next spring to show her clothes alongside 10 other European labels. This will be a return to Italy for O'Doherty. After graduating from London's Royal College of Art, she moved to Milan to work for Byblos later moving to another company Gerani where she designed for Iceberg. Coming back home, she spent some time with Paul Costelloe before setting up under her own name in 1992.
For a house barely four years old, Michelle O'Doherty has managed to secure an impressive number of orders from retailers both North and South. Her clothes reflect the experience she gained both in Italy and with Paul Costelloe; the lines are clean, with little fussy detail but plenty of attention given to strong tailoring. These are the kind of items many working women want to buy because they are sufficiently versatile to be worn both in the office and outside, show awareness of contemporary fashion but are not too heavily reliant on transient tastes.
"Ease and wearability" are the words O'Doherty used to describe her collection last winter, but they apply just as well to recent ranges. A year ago, she introduced evening wear in rich velvets, thereby demonstrating that her clothes are not just for practical days. The simplicity of her designs is visible both in the current line (suits in pin stripe, stone and midnight blue) and next spring/summer's collection, where cool ice blue and mint look like being particular favourites. Prices run from £150 to £300 for separates which fully justify their price by happily working from one season to the next. Suits are a particular favourite in O'Doherty's designs.
"Even if I wanted to, I couldn't move away from suits," she commented last year. "Buyers keep coming back to suiting - it continues to sell and sell." And if suiting sells to shop buyers, that's because they know this kind of clothing is just as popular with their customers.
Winnie Magee
"RAINWEAR has a rather dreary image," is how Winnie Magee explains why she started her coat manufacturing company seven years ago. After studying both in Belfast and at the London College of Fashion, she sensibly took time for business training in Harvard before returning home in 1990. While her move to the raincoat market therefore looks well planned, in fact "it kind of evolved rather than anything else, although I had designed some stylish coat prototypes in yellow and red".
Magee's most important innovation was the development of a new waterproofing technique for linen using a light and dry wax. This allows her to create garments in Ireland's most famous fabric which are not heavy or cumbersome. Indeed, her raincoats are distinguished by their easy weight and durability; two examples are in the wardrobe of the President, Mrs Robinson. At the moment, the range encompasses six different styles in different lengths and some featuring hoods. The present line is trimmed in soft moleskin on the collar and sleeves.
"I've now got a very secure market in the South," she says, with her coats selling in the £250-£299 price range. Although she has some overseas accounts, she finds that shops such as Blarney Woollen Mills "get me the European customers that I aim at anyway".
Much of Winnie Magee's success springs from her long standing association with the corporate uniform market, for which she has a separate company label called Bonaparte. She designs coats for airlines, banks and building societies "which will work along with the existing uniform. When this really started to take off, I was able to diversify into the retail market for myself."
While she tries to produce something new every year, "I think it's important to keep the styles as classic as possible because people don't want to buy something quite expensive that's going to date quickly." While she occasionally designs other items of clothing, "I'm very practical and commercial in my thinking. I don't want to be tied in knots producing separates just now if I can't be sure there's a demand."