Tweed is trending

Paris-based, Irish-born designer Mary Shaw (pictured) celebrates her heritage with her creative use of Donegal tweed, writes ALANNA GALLAGHER

WHILE THE hullabaloo of Paris fashion week has died down for another season, Mary Shaw still hasn’t had time to catch her breath. The Co Down-born aesthete is in the middle of supplying her furniture and accessory designs to three chateau hotels in France. And things are not going according to plan. Her orders are missing some key pieces and she has far more important things to do than talk about herself.

The secret to her success is this reluctance to talk about her clients. “I find that the more discreet I am, the better it goes,” she explains. She does confess to having outfitted the Hotel Sainte-Beuve, a small three-star establishment in the sixth arrondissement, close to the Luxembourg Gardens, where many of the fashion set stay when in town for the shows. It’s relatively cheap and chic.

But she has no truck with the flighty fashion set. She says she’s not into fashion. “I’m into a style of life. That style just happens to have become fashionable.” Her by-appointment lifestyle boutique, Sequana, is off the beaten track and frequented by upmarket interior architects, designers and decorators. It’s a concept shop that predates Paris’s best-known concept boutique, Merci, by 13 years.

Within a large, classically Parisian apartment with wall panelling and parquet floors, she showcases her work. The apartment is situated on the second floor and the space brings the pieces to life. She changes the look and feel every few months. “Designers and decorators need ideas too,” she explains. Named after the Latin alias for the River Seine, she opened Sequana in 1997. In it, she celebrates her Irish origins by using fabrics such as Magee Donegal tweed in a tightlyedited collection of small pieces of furniture and accessories. The furniture is made in France and her glassware is made by local artisans.

One collection riffs Mackintosh’s signature chairs. Its elbow and dining chairs were designed for a Japanese client who wanted her to recreate her at-home concept using eastern and western influences. The dining chairs are slim – created for apartment living, she explains.

But it’s the tweed that’s really trending. She says that some years ago her clients didn’t realise Donegal was a place. “They had seen Donegal tweed at shows in Italy, but I had to explain that there was a place called Donegal, that there was a town of the same name and that using it in an Italian context was like buying champagne made in Scotland.”

In her display space, Magee tweed upholsters chairs and day beds. There are throws made in every shade of the Irish countryside. There are leather-trimmed tweed tote bags and Moroccan-style babouche slippers covered in tweed. They are delightful ways to add texture to a room and make wonderful presents.

Sequana is at 16 Avenue de La Motte-Picquet in the 15th arrondissement. Metro stop is La Tour-Maubourg. Entry is by appointment. Goods are available to order and can be shipped.

Tel: 0033-1-45665840, sequana.net