Women who can't help acting on impulse now have an added incentive, courtesy of Arnotts. The Dublin store recently turned a large area over to Impulse, a shop-within-a-shop specialising in women's wear for 18-to-35s, and many of the new lines made their debut yesterday.
Naturally there was a profusion of jeans, but among the best of more interesting items were fulllength coats from Damo Donna; in a wool/cashmere mix with fur collar and cuffs or in all-enveloping teddybear, all under £160. Among knitwear is John Rocha's grey V-necked sweater edged with sequins (£69.99) and his turtleneck with a cableknit motif (99.99). Other knits come in chenille or feature multi-coloured horizontal stripes - made popular by Missoni.
Trousers came as part of a chalkstripe suit with finger-length jacket (by Fransa, £121.90 for the two) or as olive green suede pants by Jackpot (£169.95). Come weekends, according to Arnotts, trousers are black, maybe teamed with a printed top from Toi du Monde (£39.99).
But dresses and skirts are still proposed for parties; prettiest in this section were a long, semisheer black devore shirt (£59.95) and matching skirt (£69.95), both by In Wear. These are not impulse buys; consider them essentials.