Peter O'Brien back in Arnotts window

A NEW capsule fashion collection by couturier Peter O’Brien for Arnotts made its debut yesterday in the store where in 1971 the Dubliner got his first job in window display before going on to study fashion design in London and New York.

The 23-piece collection in more luxurious fabrics than those used for A|wear has the same rigorous line and attention to detail for which the designer is known and a restricted colour palette of black, navy and camel.

“My aesthetic is the same,” he said. “My point of view is the same, my approach is the same. I know the woman who wears my clothes.”

Items include a fitted and flared wool cashmere coat and another cut like a chesterfield as well as a peacoat in navy or camel.

There are two trouser widths, a pencil skirt, a pin-tucked pleated chiffon blouse and another in white poplin along with four dresses completing the small but well-focused collection.

Prices start at €110 for a silk shirt up to €495 for a wool cashmere coat. Only 70 of each item have been made.

The designer who worked in Paris with Dior, Givenchy, Chloe and Rochas was the only St Martin’s graduate to design his own haute couture collection under his own name in 2000. In recent years his work has included a number of costume designs for the Gate Theatre as well as illustrative commissions.

Next Tuesday, October 12th, Irish Ambassador to the UN Anne Anderson will launch The Peter O' Brien Workbook, a fine art limited edition publication by Stoney Press of O'Brien's sketches spanning 30 years.

“He was one of our star pupils”, writes milliner Stephen Jones OBE in his introduction, a fellow student in St Martin’s in 1976 with O’Brien.