Showing off the names all want to be branded with

A GUY might have felt conspicuous by his presence at the "Look to Our Own" autumn/winter fashion launch in Dublin yesterday. All that swagger and poise. And that was just the boys.

Organised by An Bord Trachtala, the trade board, together with 21 Irish manufacturers, it was aimed at encouraging us all to buy more Irish made clothes.

Only 20 per cent of the £1 billion spent on clothes in the Republic per year goes on Irish made garments. The figure used to be as high as 60 per cent in the early 1980s.

And spending per head on clothes here is lower than in Northern Ireland, said Nora O'Donnell, marketing adviser to the trade board. The reason has to do with a market that has greatly expanded, suggested Anne Flood, PRO with the board.

Most of that expansion has been towards buying what is fashionably foreign, and that is part of the reason why the "Look To Our Own" campaign was launched six years ago - to stem a swing away from what is Irish manufactured.

"It's all about image," explained Anne Flood. "For instance, you couldn't quantify the effect - at home and abroad - on Irish made fashion following John Rocha's success in Britain, or seeing the President wearing Louise Kennedy."

The campaign to date has generated over £20 million for Irish manufacturers, with increased sales of over £1 million hoped for this year. Their aim is to develop an even stronger Irish base for manufacturers with designs on the world.

Over the past three years, the campaign has shifted strategy. They've gone for branding. You don't ask for a dress, a skirt, a shirt, a suit, or coat, anymore. Now, you want a Regine, a Liza Lovell, a Brian Tucker, anything by Traffic, shirts by Oggo, lingerie by Glen Abbey.

It's the teenagers, it seems. They only want brands. And women, who buy most of the clothes for men and children as well as themselves, 80 per cent of which are made abroad. "Patriotism doesn't really apply" when it comes to fashion, explained Anne Flood.

John Trencey strolled in, wearing another of his many hats ("all Irish made"), as marketing manager for Goal, the Third World agency. The "Look To Our Own" campaign will be holding a number of fashion extravaganzas around the country, from which proceeds in Cork and Ballina will go towards Goal.

Then the aloof and very beautiful strutted their stuff, exuding the none too discreet charm of the catwalk, as they showed off all those names with which everyone who wants to be anyone is branded. Conspicuously.