Fashion Trade Fashion City, a sleek minimalist complex in a business park on the M50, has replaced Drury Street/South William Street as the centre of Dublin's rag trade. Edel Morgan reports.
Brother and sister team Donall and Marion Booth moved to their smart purpose-built unit at Fashion City a week before the glitzy official launch - a full 10 years after they had realised that operating their wholesale fashion business, Avalon, from South William Street, Dublin 2, was becoming an ordeal.
"I'd have moved out of the city centre years ago if I could," says Donal Booth. "Loading and unloading were a major hassle because of the traffic and customers had difficulty getting parking nearby. But leaving town on our own would have been a disaster; the only way it could be done was for a group of fashion wholesalers to move out of the city centre together."
Marion Booth describes the process of getting others excited about leaving town en masse as a chicken-and-egg situation. The initial response to the idea was lacklustre but as soon as a few big names were on board "it snowballed".
In 1999 a group of wholesalers from the city centre - Adrian Murphy from French Dressing, Cathal Leddy from Endora, Colm O'Rourke from Steilmann, Dermot Kelly from Bellina, Larry and Michael Byrne from Fashion Developments and Myles Cunningham from Decollage - approached Hamilton Osborne King to find a site near the M50.
After long negotiation, the team, represented by Ed Lyons of Mason Owen Lyons, did a deal with Michael Cotter of Park Developments.
He is behind the M50 Business Park in Ballymount where Fashion City is located.
Planning permssion for a first phase of 14 units designed by Scott Tallon Walker was granted swiftly by South Dublin County Council, and they were sold off the plans.
After an initial lukewarm response to the concept from the trade, Hamilton Osborne King was inundated with enquiries and South Dublin County Council later gave the go-ahead for a second and third phase.
There are currently 32 units, and a fourth phase of another 13 units planned.
Scruffi, Lucinda Grey,Traffic, Moffet R&S, Regine, Flamingo, OC Fashions,Vogue Agencies and Euro Fashions are among the mostly Irish-owned businesses which have moved there. A number of fashion agents have also decided to locate there and a 185 sq m (2,000sqft) office complex has been designed for their needs.
Donal Caulfield of Park Developments says it is likely the fourth phase will be the last. "There are not a huge amount of wholesalers left in the city centre and it will eventually get to saturation point, although we've had enquiries from Cork and Galway, so who knows how that will work out."
He says some businesses have been pressured by their clients to move to Fashion City, which opened in July.
"All of the big guys are out here now and the customers of the remaining ones were trying to persuade them to come out here too. They don't want the hassle of town, when they can come to a place with parking, where it's very slick and well-presented and they can spend time looking at the clothes and not have their cars clamped."
The concept is one-stop-shop, where wholesalers have their display area, showrooms, offices and warehousing under one roof. Previously many of the city centre businesses had their warehouse miles away in the outer suburbs. The Fashion City look is matt steel and sleek minimalism, with a landscaped central courtyard and a café with outdoor decking over a rock pool.
Before this, many of these businesses had to operate from the poky upper floors of Georgian buildings, with only a couple of rooms to show their range. Now it is all purpose-built and open-plan, with plenty of parking for customers and staff.
For some of the staff, being wrenched from the buzz of the city centre has been an adjustment. But the benefits to business are already evident, says Gwen Chapell of Fashion House, the biggest and choicest unit in the park. Its owners, the O'Rourke family, have noticed a 10 per cent increase in business since they moved to Fashion City because customers have more time and inclination to browse.
Fashion House, which since 1968 has managed the distribution of Steilmann in Ireland, formerly traded under the name of Grainne O'Rourke Models Ltd; its main operation was in Exchange Street, opposite Dublin Castle, and its warehouse was in Swords, Co Dublin.
The interior of its new headquarters is all white walls, clean lines, terrazzo flooring, light oak panelling, matt aluminium surfaces and frosted sliding glass panels designed by Lewis & Hickey architects.
At 2,000 sq m (21,527 sq ft), its three storeys house the vast two-tier automated warehouse which holds 12 collections, airy open-plan offices, facilities for its staff of 56 and a cash-and-carry area laid out like any smart boutique.
The average unit size at Fashion City is 929sqm (10,000 sq ft) says Donal Caulfield and costs around €1,883 per sq m (€175persqft).
In the fourth phase there will be three retail units, possibly a hairdressers, dry cleaners and a shop, and the café is likely to expand its premises as more people move in.
Marion Booth says the fashion business has changed over the last decade. "Gone are the days almost when customers will come in and fill their car with stock; it is now 90 per cent forward ordering. We would like to bring that back 10 per cent."
She believes Fashion City has seen the Irish rag trade leap ahead of its counterparts on the continent in terms of state-of-the-art facilities.
"It is better than anything I've seen in Germany, for instance, and far more progressive than the UK, where rag trade is still largely operating out of back streets."
