THE HIGHLIGHT of Motorola Dublin Fashion Week, scaled down this season, was last night’s public spring/summer fashion show held in the Westbury Hotel. Earlier, guests were given a preview of the autumn/winter collections of eight designers, six of them Irish including Lainey Keogh, Joanne Hynes and Paul Costelloe.
It was a mixed selection dominated by a lot of black, with high and low points, the most forward-looking collection being that of Joanne Hynes, whose Byzantine luxuriance and dashing metallic urban turbans had a sleek modern polish. It hit all the key winter trends from the de rigueur leather jacket with tucked, squared shoulderline and quilt details to slim, silvered-black shifts and black velvet coats with Edwardian ruched collars. Equally opulent were Lainey Keogh’s figured black cashmere skirt suits and snow leopard print capes trimmed with marabou.
Most interesting newcomer was Sinead Doyle. Her black Victorian silhouetted shapes were severe but never too serious, such as an apron-front skirt with ruffled derriere, but such tailoring needs more rigour in the finish.
Rachel Mackey’s soft velvet coats and dresses carried her familiar decorative embroidery and print details while Avoca’s Anthology maintained its signature dolly mix of layered textures in shades of grey with the cheerful and practical additions of a splash print mac and coral hoodie.
Many were surprised at the youthfulness of Paul Costelloe’s collection where trapeze shapes in grey mohair along with silver and gold lamé pleated tunics with elaborate shoulder corsages were chic, short and sophisticated.
Tomorrow Costelloe will be the subject of an “In Conversation With...” encounter, open to the public at 1 o’clock in the Odessa Club, followed by Amanda Pratt of Anthology at 5.30pm, closing the week’s events.