DUBLIN designer Peter O'Brien, who designs for the Paris house of Rochas, recently explained why, couture fashion shows sometimes seem so daft, with see through dresses and trousers with no backsides. The reason, apparently, is not to sell the clothes on the catwalk but to sell all manner of designer label items, particularly perfume.
So the launch of an Irish perfume without all that international marketing and broubalia seems particularly brave. This week David Cox relaunched Irish made Innisfree in an entirely new formulation which he hopes will appeal to everyday perfume buyers and not just tourists. To show that his new scent can compete with all the others on the market, it is for sale in the very fragrant perfume halls of Brown Thomas, to name but one outlet.
The floral, lily of the valley like scent certainly looks as though it can compete - he got Jenny French of Designworks to create the packaging. Designworks is, of course, the graphic design company of the moment: it created the £100,000 shamrock logo destined to represent Irish tourism.