Three Irish designers sponsored by Enterprise Ireland made their debut here in Belgium this week at a trade fair in Antwerp held in Waagnatie, a former storage hangar in the docks.
Deborah Veale, N&C Kilkenny and Avoca Anthology are part of the trade board's initiative to promote Irish design in northern Europe. The year-long campaign which started in Copenhagen in February culminates in a gala fashion show at the Irish Embassy in Paris on September 1st attended by press and buyers during the French pret a porter.
Dara MacMahon of Enterprise Ireland who has been surveying potential outlets in the Benelux countries for the past five months, says: "[ Retailers] are hungry to find new things and their openness is remarkable. There are 26 million people in the Benelux in an area the size of Ireland. People here don't think of Ireland in terms of fashion, but there is a big curiosity factor."
Over 200 brands were represented at the fair which attracted more than 2,000 buyers, mostly Dutch and Belgian, for spring/summer '07 collections. Deborah Veale and Nicola Kilkenny said orders had been mostly for occasion wear.
Buyer Barbara Brophy, who owns a shop in Brussels, said: "Irish fashion is still very classic and it may lack that edge, but having said that it is very well tailored in beautiful materials. It is time the Irish exported rather than imported fashion and this is a step in the right direction."
Antwerp, a long established centre of the diamond trade, has also developed a growing reputation as an avant garde fashion capital ever since a group of influential designers led by Dries Van Noten graduated from the city's Fine Arts Academy in the l980s. It will launch its first Antwerp Fashion Week in January 2007. For Deborah Veale, showing in a new country has been a useful experience.
"It changes your whole perception of what is possible. Every different market brings new ways of learning and doing business."