There's possibly no cooler label right now than Chloe. It's got rock girl connections, a dash of French chic, a client base that includes Madonna, and that's even before you even look at the clothes. When you get an eyeful of the artlessly tailored corsets and pants, the waif-like camisoles teamed with sharp hipster suits, and the halter-girl meets cow-girl ethos, you start to realise that there's a whole lot more to Chloe than a famous name.

For ever since Chloe, an ailing French fashion house, hired 24-year-old Stella McCartney as principal designer in March 1997, all eyes have been on the daughter of Paul McCartney and his late wife Linda. Initially there were accusations of publicity-seeking on Chloe's part by critics who felt that the 24-year-old couldn't possibly fill the role formerly held by such designers as Karl Lagerfeld and Martine Sitbon.

But both the fashion press and a growing number of fans soon began to agree that the latest chip off the McCartney block was doing a fine job incorporating the traditions of four decades of Chloe identity into her own unique style. The pages of Vogue, Elle and W magazines are littered with Chloe pieces but, notably, they are just as likely to turn up in the "spotted around town" sections or the paparazzi shots as they are in the fashion pages. Hot stuff indeed but, until now, stuff that Irish fans had to travel abroad to buy.

In recent weeks, a new boutique called Urbana in Greystones, Co Wicklow has started to put the Chloe range on its rails. Astonishingly for a small venture which only opened its doors last September, owners Louise Martin, Joan Griffin and Sheena Griffin are exclusive stockists of the range for the whole of Ireland. It's already attracting customers from as far afield as Cork, Kilkenny and the North. They insist that holding such exclusives on design ranges is very much part of the philosophy behind the shop. "We called it Urbana," explains Louise Martin, "from the word `urbane' because we wanted to show we were not only bringing city to the country but also the international into Ireland. There's so many ranges that we've never had in Ireland that women are demanding now." The trio also exclusively stock Jasper Conran's main line and New York designer Kathleen Madden, with Cerruti Arte coming in the autumn, the first time this line will be sold in Britain or Ireland. "Chloe were delighted when we approached them, as they liked the look of the shop," muses Martin, "while on our part we knew that the interest was definitely there - everybody in Ireland probably knows who Stella McCartney is." When they made their final buying trip to Paris, the private show at the house of Chloe was attended by all three women, another element they believe sets them apart from other shops. "Between the three of us, we span the three decades, from your 20s through to your 50s," points out Joan Griffin, whose daughter Sheena has a small share in the business and is the youngest of the three.

Certainly, Chloe is an unabashedly youthful label that often seems to be designed with Stella's mates - model Kate Moss and rock scions Jade Jagger and Minta Townsend - in mind. McCartney has said of herself: "I don't intend to dress intellectuals, but rather intelligent women, women who are sensitive, energetic and feminine," while Joan points out: "I suspect she would have young professional women in mind, and there are certainly a lot of them in Ireland right now, women who want to look classical without being stuffy." Certainly you'd need to have a professional's salary in your pocket to afford the whole look, but then, as every good fashion chick knows, it's much cooler to mix and match, rock girl style, than to buy the whole shebang.