From junk shops to auction rooms, Oriental to art deco, good design is good design fashion designer Helen McAlinden tells Eoin Lyons
Designer Helen McAlinden, who's from Belfast but lives and works in Dublin, formed a new fashion business six years ago under her own name and over that time, the label has thrived. Her clothes sell in Brown Thomas and last year she opened her first stand-alone shop on the Lisburn Road.
She lives in Blackrock, Co Dublin, on a terrace of two-storey-over-basement houses facing Dublin Bay. "They were built in 1860 as holiday homes for the British military," she explains. "A plaque midway along the terrace reads 'Idrone sur Mer'. It sounds pretentious but it was fashionable at the time to mimic the French."
The DART station is close by and Helen uses the train every day to reach her office on Wicklow Street. Idrone Terrace has many attractions: proximity to Dún Laoghaire where she goes sailing during the summer, some good shops and of course, one of the best views in the city.
The decoration of the house is varied. "I love going to junk shops and auctions. Some of the things in my home are valuable and others are worth nothing at all - that's what I like, putting the high and low together. It's important to mix things, I don't like to be too rigid or follow one style. Good design is good design - if things are beautiful they can work together even though they might be very different. "
Helen's great love of travel has yielded many treasures for her home: "I'm a magpie when I travel. Lots of things here are from places I have visited."
In the second floor livingroom is an Oriental tea chest found at Adam's auction house, which has showrooms around the corner from the house. "I wander in there on the Sunday before an auction to have a look at what's coming up. When I first moved here I wanted the livingroom to be quite modern but I just fancied this piece, even though I still never quite know whether I love or hate it.
"In the 1920s it was fashionable to mix Oriental furniture with art deco so a lot of pieces like this were brought into England, and subsequently Ireland, at that time." The chest has a silver gilded carved base with painted doors and drawers behind. The French chair is also from Adams: "I bought four with the intention of recovering them in grey fabric, but I haven't got around to it yet".
A low tray table sits on a white rug in the middle of a group of chairs. "It was one of several things I bought at the auction held in Sybil Connolly's wonderful house on Merrion Square after she died. I also got a couple of bolts of coral pleated linen fabric that I have in my office - I like the way they look just sitting there - and some moulded plaster shells. Anyway, this is a painted papier mâché butler's tray lacquered black and painted with flowers. At the time I was already collecting small lacquered objects - the small vases on the table were bought on an early trip to Japan."
A white ash table, bought from an American friend, holds a collection of interesting objects. "The circular wooden plate is 400 years old and was bought in an antique shop on an excursion to Gloucestershire in England. It would have been used for presenting food and I use it for parties, piled high with fruit." Old black boxes contain classical music records, given to her by an elderly aunt, and next to them is a piece of uncut Waterford glass. The vase is from the former Czechoslovakia and the flowers she chooses are always blue, purple or white to complement the colours of the rooms.
Helen stands by a couch in front of the livingroom fireplace. "When I bought the house it was divided into flats. The white marble fireplace was covered in black paint and had to be taken out, stripped and put back in - quite a job. I keep the grate filled with fresh ivy during the summer. The walls here are painted grey and are a little textured - but not in a 1980s way, I hope.
"On the mantelpiece are chunky white pots. I think in big rooms you need things that make a statement. Be bold and not too precious, no bitty little things. Groups of the same object also look strong".
The art deco style lamp on the table was bought at a junk shop in Schull and the library table is from her mother's old home in Kildare. Next to the lamp is a Habitat pewter vessel, a sculpture of a glass head and a stack of Vogue magazines. These objects are grouped together because they have similar metallic tones.
Rolled beside the arm of the couch are two Foxford throws. This is a small part of a project Helen has been working on with the Co Mayo company. Acting as a creative consultant and designer, she has come up with several ranges of bed linen as well as modernising the throws and blankets for which they are famous.
There is also a towelling range and a room scent and candle, hopefully to be launched in Dublin this autumn at House of Fraser. "I really enjoy doing things for the home. At Foxford the quality is very high so we've tried to bring up the look of products in line with that - it's cooler than you'd expect".
Most of the art Helen has collected is by Irish artists but above the piano hangs a painting by Bob Crosley, bought in Cornwall: "He's 85 years old and was part of the original St Ives group." Thrown across a gilded French stool is one of the sweaters from her collection for this winter. Resting on a 19th century table, another Adams buy, is a recent treat to herself - new Chanel sunglasses.
• The Helen Mc Alinden autumn/winter collection is available at Brown Thomas, Dublin and Cork, and in her Lisburn Road shop in Belfast. Tel 01 6790355. Foxford stockists: tel 094 9256104
