Fashion season kicks off with a stylish swish
Socialites gathered in D4 to catch up after the summer and to look ahead for the latest designer trends from Brown Thomas’s new collections, writes Liadan Hynes
THERE is pandemonium at The Continental Hotel Ballsbridge at ten minutes to show time on the day of the ISPCC Brown Thomas annual lunch and fashion show. Ali Hewson is in the car park waiting for a spot, Caroline Downey arrives on the red carpet and is almost swallowed up by journalists and photographers. Inside, Paul Kelly, chief executive of the Selfridges Group, strides through the lobby, the sound of 370 women catching up after a long summer rising around him.
The event, which essentially kicks off the new season on the Dublin social calendar, is held in support of the ISPCC. The highlight of the day is the fashion show Brown Thomas put on, a behemoth of 150 looks showcasing their coming season.
“Everyone makes a really good effort on the day,” says Brown Thomas fashion director Shelly Corkery, who along with ISPCC president Caroline Downey hosts the event. “Everyone’s home from the summer, and dying to catch up with friends they haven’t seen. I think it’s probably the biggest lunch in Dublin that women go to. People make a big effort to dress up. It’s also lovely for everyone to see what’s coming up for the winter, and to start planning their wardrobes after the summer.”
Lorraine Keane, looking bronzed after the summer, was out for the afternoon with her best friend Deborah Veale. Morah Ryan displayed her typically individual slightly gothic style in a pale green lace dress, and chatted animatedly to Keith Duffy’s wife Lisa throughout the show. Yvonne Keating sported a khaki two-piece — “tan fail all my own” she posted sportingly later on Instagram of the failure to put fake tan on her tummy. Green was a popular choice on the day — knitwear designer Lucy Nagle wore a bright green lace dress. Stylist Lisa Fitzpatrick sported a shorter hair length which really suited her. Alison Doody nipped in just after the lights went down, wearing a beautifully simple fitted black midi-length dress.
Best dressed on the day goes to TV presenter Jenny Buckley, in an oyster coloured silk pussy-bow blue and navy skirt. It was the sort of self-styled, interesting outfit that summed up the fashion of day, and the season.
“With social media obviously we’re all much more aware,” says Shelly of how women’s style has changed over the sixteen years of the show. “I think people are looking for a change. We had the hourglass dress and the simplicity of it, but I think people need more now; the dress with the frill detail on the sleeve, or the embellishment. Some volume — that fuller shape is much stronger. Or if you have the hourglass dress, which
we all still love, maybe a really quirky shoe sets off a different mood for a very understated dress.”
On the day, many of the women wore Gucci and Dries van Noten, designers who have produced two of the seasons more outré collections. Customers attending this show have been buying from the new season since late June — the Gucci bomber jacket, and Chloe cape coat just two of the pieces which this season have attracted an early, dedicated fashion customer who knows what she wants.
“I think people are buying in a different way, thinking of wow pieces. The way fashion has gone, with the focus on all of the new designers leading the way with retro, vintage, grunge and layering, there’s so much more change, and I think people are styling up differently. Feminine glamour is still the underlying common denominator,” says Shelly.
The show opened with Prada, which set the tone for Brown Thomas’s take on this season, a celebration of individual style, embracing an approach that mixes and matches the unexpected. “I think what she has done this season is quite genius,” says Shelly of the Italian label. “With all her layering, it’s a genuinely new, cool effect. The brocades with the military coats with the corsetry, it was a masterstroke.” Prada’s pairing of unexpected fabrics, especially in daywear, is one of the biggest influences trickling down to the high street, and the reason we will all probably have a piece of brocade or velvet in our wardrobe by the time winter has properly set in.
The show closed with Maticevski, an evening-wear brand new to the stores for this season, whose white wedding dress worn by model Yomiko Chen received an ovation.
The buying team had been looking for some time for a new eveningwear label, explains Shelly. “Something that’s different. We have all the big boys — Gucci, Prada, Stella, McQueen — and they’re all fantastic, but it’s nice to have a few little unknowns, and a few little finds that not everybody has. That point of difference.”
In between there was beautiful slouchy knitwear by Stella McCartney, eclectic prints from Dries van Noten, ladylike printed separates from Givenchy, 1970s femininity from Chloe, psychedelic prints from Gucci, bold colours from Preen by Thornton Bregazzi, and simple 1990s style layering from Celine with dresses over wide trousers. For an Autumn Winter season show, it was particularly strong on colour and print.
Pieces that received a particular reaction this season include the Stella McCartney knitted two piece, the full-length Alexander McQueen red dress worn by Thalia Heffernan, and Dolce & Gabbana, always loved by the Irish customer.
The original Irish supermodels, Marie Staunton, Sheila Eustace, Beverly Keegan, Vivienne Connolly, Sylvia Meyers, Lisa Cummins, and Olivia Treacy appearing on stage midway through, wearing looks from the season’s collection, was a show-stopping moment. As each woman took to the catwalk, the crowd cheered and wolf whistled. Women supporting women. It sums up the day.