With
JAMES GIBBONS
Designer doyennes eye the catwalk
The members’ library at the RDS, Dublin, was like a busy railway station on Sunday evening as guests bustled about at the inaugural Showcase Ireland Fashion Show. It featured clothes by, among others, John Rocha, Peter O’Brien, Tim Ryan, Joanne Hynes, Louise Kennedy and Paul Costelloe.
DJ Mark Kelly played Todd Terje’s version of Diana Ross’s Love the One You’re With at full volume. Books lined the walls, alongside bronze busts of the writers Elizabeth Bowen, Austin Clarke and Denis Johnston by Marjorie Fitzgibbon.
Two doyennes of Irish fashion, Louise Kennedy and Joanne Hynes, sat on either side of the catwalk almost facing each other. Kennedy nodded to Hynes to compliment her designs as they sashayed by. Many eyed these two to get an idea of their reactions.
“Fair play to Sonia Reynolds,” whispered Image magazine’s Melanie Morris, “for getting such a crowd on a Sunday evening.” If she had known there were going to be so many high-powered names and so much style, she’d have dressed up, she said.
Louise Kennedy was planning to fly over to Paris on Monday for Paris Fashion Week and was looking forward to catching up with her friend Jeanne Beker, the fashion expert and television host. “She, to me, is the ultimate fashion professional,” said Kennedy, “and she’s as passionate now as when I first met her years ago.”
The photographer Mike Bunn told me he was working on a major project, on fossils, at the moment and intended to have a retrospective of his work in March before the new project was launched.
Garrett Pitcher, of Indigo and Cloth, on South William Street in Dublin, and Thread magazine, said he enjoyed the show, as did Kieran Molloy, of Molloy Sons Weaving, in Co Donegal. These two are now making jackets together. “They’re halfway between made to measure and tailor-made,” said Pitcher. Molloy was wearing a green one.
After the show, the guests went down the corridor to a rather chilly RDS Concert Hall, where they received a ticket “which entitles the bearer to one drink”.
What we heard"If we don't like the clothes, we can read a book," said one guest.
What we drankOne drink.
Who we spottedThe designer Peter O'Brien; dancer turned jewellery designer Jean Butler; Dermott Rowan, managing director of the Orla Kiely fashion brand; Food and Wine magazine's Ross Golden Bannon; Brian McGee of Showcase Ireland; Laura Magahy, chairman of the Crafts Council of Ireland; Susannagh Grogan, from Dún Laoghaire, whose scarves featured in the show; designer Natalie B Coleman, from Monaghan; and Ana Faye, a handbag designer from Sligo.
Going under the hammer for Haiti
Bill Cullen and Jackie Lavin were at the Art for Haiti auction at Noelle Campbell Sharpe's Origin Gallery, on Harcourt Street in Dublin, on Thursday. They are off to Las Vegas next week to celebrate Cullen's 70th birthday, joined by some friends, including the charity fundraiser Norma Smurfit, the solicitor Clodagh Hopkins Kean and the banker and Brand Haiti project founder John Cunningham and his wife, Audrey.
Cullen reminisced about making his parents very proud when, as an 18-year-old, he was on the front page of The Irish Times for winning a prize awarded by the College of Commerce in Rathmines. His father carried around the clipping in his pocket until the day he died.
John Cunningham organised the auction following a simple email to gallerist Gael Monnin, whose grandparents settled in Haiti from Switzerland and opened a gallery. He asked Monnin if she would be interested in helping him raise awareness for the two Irish foundations, Haven and Soul of Haiti in Ireland. Gael's parents, Toni and Michel, also travelled over for the auction.
James O'Halloran of Adam's conducted the auction. He had been at Adam's northern base in the Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava's estate, Clandeboyle, the night before, where the Charles Lamb Loan Exhibition went on view in the Ava Gallery.
Former racing and rally driver Rosemary Smith was doing a spot of bidding. She runs a driving academy at Goffs in Kildare. "I want to train people under 17 how to drive properly and the government asked me what I'd want to do that for," she said.
What we heard"Come on in, Jimmy," said John Cunningham to Minister for Arts Jimmy Deenihan, who arrived in the middle of Cunningham's speech.
Who we spottedNayeli Fanfan, a model from Haiti; solicitor Tom Honan from Arklow; Leslie Buckley, founder of Haven Partnership.
Stylists and sole survivors
Aisling O'Loughlin, of Xposé, brought her new baby, six-week-old Patrick, on his first outing on Tuesday evening. Patrick's dad, the photographer Nick MacInnes, was carrying him. He attended the launch of Dais II, a short fashion movie created by the Irish stylist Sonya Lennon and the Swiss-Irish film-maker Christian Ammann, in the Minerva Suite of the RDS. Sonya's mother, Deirdre Lennon, from Malahide, thought the film was fabulous and was proud of her daughter, as it has been selected for La Jolla Fashion Film Festival.
The four-minute piece follows model Vanessa Jobb as she moves through Bantry House wearing clothes by Irish designers, including Lucy Downes, Joanne Hynes, Sinéad Doyle and Claire O'Connor.
Meanwhile, spare a thought for Lorraine Keane, who was also at the showing. She was the subject of much criticism on Twitter during her appearance on The Late Late Show last weekend. Tweeters gave out about her showing off her red-soled Louboutins.
Keane told me she wasn't showing off, just nervous, and kept moving her foot. She was being interviewed about her role in Girls Night: The Musical, which opens in Naas, in Co Kildare, on Wednesday before touring, and was to sing I Will Survive "and try to remember 52 different dance moves" during a medley with her co-actors. "It was really scary. I'd never done it before, and I was completely out of my depth and out of my comfort zone."
As for those snazzy Louboutins, she says she's had them for four years but recently had them reheeled with new red soles.
What we ateWe looked at the fruit and French fancies decked out on a table amid flowers and candelabra, but were afraid to touch in case it was an installation.
Who we spottedWayne Cronin, of Quintessentially; Aisling Kilduff, of the Design Centre; stylist Sarah Rickard; and fashion photographer Barry McCall.
Preaching to the converted
The former dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, the Very Rev Robert MacCarthy, who retired this week, was in the Long Room Hub at Trinity College on Wednesday evening for the launch of two books, one of which is about Bishop Frederick MacNiece, father of the poet Louis MacNiece.
The former dean has had quite a reaction to his valedictory sermon at St Patrick's Cathedral last Sunday. It made headlines earlier this week. Trinity's professor emeritus of history, Louis Cullen, said he agreed entirely with MacCarthy on ecumenism and about different faiths preaching in each other's cathedrals. He felt, however, that the former dean should not have mentioned people's names in his sermon and that he should have gone easier on people within the Church of Ireland. "That's because you don't belong to the church," replied MacCarthy. "Would you have preferred me to talk about them behind their backs? If you don't talk about people you don't make points."
Prof Terence Brown launched the books, Solitary and Wild: Frederick MacNeice and the Salvation of Ireland by David Fitzpatrick, published by Lilliput Press, and Synge and Edwardian Ireland by Brian Cliff and Nicholas Grene, edited for Oxford University Press. The books brought the departments of history and English together.
The provost, Prof Patrick Prendergast, said that he's there six months now and is "getting the hang of it".
What we ateNibbles, paid for by the school of English.
Who we spottedDarryl Jones, head of the school of English; the poet and professor emeritus of modern literature Brendan Kennelly; psychoanalyst and senior lecturer Ross Skelton; the poet Michael O'Loughlin; John O'Brien of Dalkey Archive Press.
Love at first bite for Sam
The actor Sam Riley is enjoying filming Neil Jordan's latest vampire flim, Byzantium, which is being shot here. He was staying at the Shelbourne in Dublin this week and flew back to Leeds yesterday. He returns next week for filming in Castletownbere, Co Cork.
The former Burberry model said he preferred the Horseshoe bar to the No 27 bar in the hotel as it's quieter (well, it was Wednesday evening). He had been staying in Dún Laoghaire but asked to move into town as his wife, the actor Alexandra Maria Lara – with whom he acted in the film Control – was visiting for three days earlier this week.
Byzantium, which stars Saoirse Ronan and Gemma Arterton, follows a mother-and-daughter vampire duo who make a deadly pact. It is being shot here and in the UK, and Riley has been to Ardmore Studios and on location at Brittas Bay. He has been picking up the Irish accent and said he has developed a penchant for saying the word "grand."
