New York-based Dublin shoe designer Eileen Shields last night won the Accessory Designer Innovation Award sponsored by Brown Thomas at the opening of the third Dublin Fashion Week.
The three-day trade event at the Fitzwilliam Hotel showcases the spring/summer 07 collections from 21 Irish designers. Exhibitors include established names such as Deborah Veale, Aideen Bodkin and Joanne Hynes.
Newcomers featuring are Yasmin Velloza, an Irish designer who has been based in Shanghai, and Jennifer Rothwell, an NCAD graduate who worked in New York for 12 years. Both are launching their first collections.
Buyers like Mary O'Flaherty of Chic Boutique in Listowel, which celebrates 25 years in business this year, were enthusiastic about the event.
"Our customers are from l8-80 and they want to look contemporary. The average spend now for a family wedding outfit is around €1,000-€1,500 and the big trend is the morning-after outfit," she told The Irish Times as she outlined what she was buying from designer Rachel Mackey.
Showing her fifth collection, 33-year-old Eileen Shields, former head of shoe design at Donna Karan, set up her own label in February 2004. She now has her own showroom in New York, a shop in Dublin and her "edgy but beautiful" shoes are sold in over 40 high-end boutiques and department stores across the US, Europe and Asia. "We chose Eileen because of her design integrity," said Shelly Corkery, Brown Thomas's head of fashion. "We believe she will enhance our existing shoe business and we hope to have a capsule collection in early November in time for Christmas."
Juvi Jewellery also received a special commendation for jewellery design. Dublin Fashion Week, of which The Irish Times is the main media sponsor, continues today with two public talks in the Fitzwilliam Hotel, one at 12.30pm given by Helen McAlinden, fashion and interiors designer, and the other at 6.30pm by Godfrey Deeny, European editor of Fashion Wire Daily.Tickets are €5 at the door.