"A writer on style in all its forms" is how Robert O'Byrne is described in his new book, which accompanies his current television series. It is an engaging and stylish contribution to a fascinating subject which is a neglected part of our history and material culture. Covering the period 19502000 in his own easy style, he gives an account of those who have made a name for themselves in Irish fashion and particularly those achieving international acclaim. His thematic consideration is whether an "Irish style" exists.
The book is more popular than scholarly, the main sources being interviews with some of the designers, obituaries for those who have died, fashion coverage, mainly from The Irish Times, and, most usefully, Elizabeth McCrum of the Ulster Museum. Early on, he comments that "Irish fashion can be seen as provincial". He then goes on to prove this by quoting Terry Keane without introduction, and talking about Paula Reed (style director of Conde Nast Traveller) and Godfrey Deeny (former editor of Vogue Hommes) as if any reasonable reader would know they are both from Ireland.
The intended audience appears to be "everybody" as understood by the fashionable: discussing Patrick Howard's career in the 1970s, "Marguerite MacCurtain remembers `this was the time when trouser suits were the only thing and Patrick's were really beautifully cut and made, so everybody bought them' ". The less knowing, interested and monied "everybody" may have been buying skirts in Clerys (never mentioned) or Dunnes (mentioned once). While these less glamorous retail outlets may be ignored when considering Irish high fashion, in a history of "the Irish fashion industry" they surely have some place.
The fashion designers alone do not constitute this complex industry. The photographers and stylists, for example, deserve more than a mention. The textile mills are included briefly as part of this history but the textile designers such as Lorraine Bowen and Mel Bradley - whose work for the stars such as John Rocha and Louise Kennedy is often so significant - are left out. Even the cover models remain anonymous and only those with special claims or social connections are identified. The analysis of Irish fashion is simple and stylish. "Looking back over the last half century, Irish fashion emerged wonderfully and unexpectedly around 1950, thanks to the efforts of a small group of designers, predominantly women."
This ignores the centuries of fashion in Ireland currently on view in Collins Barracks in the exhibition "The Way We Wore". Perhaps his unexplained distinction between clothes and fashion accounts for this dismissal. The book's approach to the history of design is one that charts change as emanating from a series of genius designers. It does not consider the contribution to Sybil Connolly and Irene Gilbert's success made by a post-war crisis of confidence in technology and mass production, or the flowering of appreciation for the rural and the handmade, embodied in, for example, The Quiet Man and in lace, linen and crochet.
Many ideas are more complex than presented here, for example, claims that the 1950s saw the emergence of "the distinctly ethnic character of Irish fashion". What is "ethnic" about a linen haute couture ball gown, in the style of Dior's New Look, made in Merrion Square and worn in the White House? Similarly, the implied link between our eight million sheep and Irish knitwear is catchy but not wholly accurate. Enterprise Ireland may see "knitwear as a key export product and . . . practically synonymous with Ireland. A lot of Europeans think the sheep is the Irish national animal." However, the majority of wool used in producing Irish knitwear is imported.
Robert O'Byrne's contribution to Irish fashion is considerable in his international awareness, presence and his easy style and wit in journalism. The television series greatly benefits from these qualities and contributes a wonderful record of voices and images to Irish fashion history. The book, without bibliography, footnotes and very few references, will act more as a highly popular and engaging record of the series than as academic scholarship in the area.