A new initiative to raise the profile of Irish fashion in the UK and northern Europe has been launched by Enterprise Ireland in London.
A group of selected Irish designers will travel to high-profile trade events in Copenhagen, Edinburgh and Antwerp in coming months with their winter '06 collections culminating in Paris at a gala show to be held in the Irish Embassy in September during Paris fashion week.
"Fashion is a sector which is growing and it is worth opening the door to sectors that are doing well and flying the flag," Marc Berman of Enterprise Ireland said.
The womenswear brands include Avoca Anthology, Aideen Bodkin, Quin & Donnelly, N & C Kilkenny and Deborah Veale, all of whom made their London debut at an Enterprise Ireland show held at the Irish Embassy in London during London fashion week last September.
"We want to nurture home-grown talent and give Irish fashion a much more international buzz," said Mr Berman. The UK is the most important market for Irish fashion - exports there in retail terms in 2005 were worth an estimated 350 million.
In the past year Enterprise Ireland has been developing links between key UK retailers and a number of small Irish womenswear brands. "For some of the seven designers working with us in 2005, business has improved by 50 per cent," Mr Berman said. "House of Fraser, for example, now has more than a dozen Irish products in its stores and Irish exports to it are now worth 2 million annually," he said.
In Edinburgh in April, a salon-style show will be held at the Irish consulate hosted by the consul general to show potential customers in Scotland and Northern Ireland the best of next winter season's ranges.
The group will also participate in the CPH International Fashion Fair in Copenhagen in February, an event that attracts some 26,000 visitors. In Antwerp, a major European fashion capital, a salon-style event will be hosted for the group in May.
Mr Berman said creative industries like fashion were good for the Irish economy. "Ireland has some fantastic designers. Irish fashion has moved on in the past few years and we have tried to instil some kind of business sense into the companies with which we have worked."
Designers were becoming "more polished in their presentations" he said. "There is a direct link between creativity and economic growth," he added.