Fashion Homewares: Fashion designer Helen McAlinden will open a 'lifestyle concept' store in Dublin's trendy Castle Market area in August. Edel Morgan reports
Fashion designer Helen McAlinden is to open a fashion and homewares store at the junction of Castle Market and Drury Street, Dublin 2, in early August.
McAlinden says she had her eye on the 221sq m (2,378sq ft) premises - which is an amalgamation of two former fashion wholesale units at 6-7 Castle Market and 43 Drury Street - for a long time .
"I think it is a real landmark property, exactly right for the lifestyle concept of clothing, home furnishings and furniture in one store."
She says she didn't want to locate on Grafton Street "with its mobile phone stores" and UK multiples, and chose Castle Market/Drury Street because "it's a nice street with a nice atmosphere and it is in an area that is really coming on, with Fallon and Byrne on nearby Exchequer Street as well as a really good quality Dunnes Stores".
McAlinden will pay a rent of €160,000 per annum for the premises, which was let through Ben Pearson of Douglas Newman Good Commercial. It is a new long-term lease incorporating five-yearly upward rent reviews.
Her profile has soared in recent years with the opening of a store on the Lisburn Road in Belfast and shops in Cheltenham and Rutland in the UK. Her clothes are also available through Brown Thomas in Dublin and Cork.
The homewares she designs for the Co Mayo-based Foxford linen company have been unavailable in Dublin to date, but will be stocked by the House of Fraser in Dundrum shopping centre at the end of this month and in her new store.
The "lifestyle" concept of the Castle Market store will mean the two retail floors won't be "rigidly segmented" into fashion and homewares sections. There will be a mix of each on both floors, with the less expensive scented candles, rugs and throws located downstairs with fashion basics.
Her more expensive clothing range, bedlinens and heavier homewares will be on the upper floor. The ground floor retail area is 82sq m (883sq ft) while the first floor is 76sq m (818sq ft). The basement storage area is around 63sq m (678sq ft). McAlinden sees this as a major move forward for her business.
"We want it to be a friendly place that Dubliners will want to shop in and that people outside Dublin will want to visit. We hope people will see it as something new."
