Paris a vital place to be for this Dublin-based designer

PARIS FASHION WEEK: Founder of the successful knitwear label Sphere One by Lucy Downes in 1999, the Dublin-based designer has been showing in Paris for the past seven years at Paris Sur Mode in the Tuileries gardens – a trade event known for being very selective in choosing exhibitors.

Downes also shows in New York “for smaller US buyers”. She worked there as a designer and consultant with Donna Karan for 12 years straight after graduating from NCAD. The twice-yearly shows in Paris represent an annual investment of some €20,000, but the French capital “is really important as a centre of business in fashion. London may be known for innovation, but it doesn’t have the same commercial power as Paris, which is an international hub even more important than Milan,” she says.

Her clients come to Paris from the US, Japan, Australia and Ireland, and 80 per cent of her sales are exports.