Candy couture

THE BRIEF FOR these Irish fashion student designs for an end-of-year dress project collectively titled "Candy Couture", was to choose a period of 20th-century dress and to experiment with silhouette, style lines and design details. Inspiration was diverse - from the Ballet Russes and the Moulin Rouge to the influence of 1980s pop culture.

One student decided to study the folds and fabric manipulation of turbans from the 1940s and incorporated those details into her whacky frock designs. Another created a "Quality Street wrapper dress" from ideas sourced from the Parisian underworld of the l900s. Students were given six weeks to complete the project.

Jane Leavey, course director of Griffith College's fledgling fashion design course, has nursed her first group of students through the initial year of their four-year degree syllabus with encouraging results. Before moving into second year in September, four of the 16 students will go on summer work placements with Avoca in Kilmacanogue, assisting Amanda Pratt, while another, who is an Italian speaker, takes up work experience in Veroli in Italy. Two others have gone to a/wear and to textile designer Ciaran Sweeney.

The students' next project will be tailoring, and again they will have six weeks in which to complete their garments, while also fulfilling related study requirements. "We want our briefs to enable students to develop their ability to respond creatively with their own individual interpretation," Leavey says. Part of the course will be to build up computer-aided design (Cad) skills. "Graduates with advanced Cad skills and with knowledge of liaising with offshore production facilities are a very attractive prospect for employers," she says.

With more and more Irish student talent travelling abroad, her hope is that some future graduates from this group, with finely honed creative and technological training, may find attractive employment not in London, New York or Milan, but at home.

[ dmcquillan@irish-times.ie ]