Two years after first setting up his own label, Cuan Hanly is going solo. The Irish menswear designer was fortunate in being backed by A.Wear when he made his debut with a well-received collection in the autumn of 1996 and has been sold in the chainstore's outlets ever since. However, now that A.Wear is phasing out men's clothing, he has taken the opportunity both to re-examine what he wants to produce and where that should be stocked. For the season ahead, Hanly has come up with a fairly eclectic range, in part because he had to see what Irish retailers would like to buy for their customers. His strength has always lain in tailoring, and this looks likely to be what is mostly carried by shops over the next few months.
Casual and sportswear is a very crowded market; there are plenty of manufacturers coming up with lines which are larger and cheaper than anything someone new in the game could manage. This is also difficult territory to conquer. Men tend to be cautious about new labels, preferring the familiar and inexpensive. So no matter how good the quality of Hanly's polo shirts and sweaters, for example, they can never hope to compete with what the giants in this field are doing.
Suiting and coats are another story. Only a handful of Irish players operate here and they tend to be as conservative as their clientele. What Hanly can offer is tailoring a little bit sharper and more fashion-conscious than his competitors, nothing too extreme but with a few touches to set the clothes apart. From the start, his eye for fabric has been particularly acute and for the coming autumn/winter - as in previous seasons - is proposing bold checks and pinstripes in tweed and lightweight wool. Corduroy and moleskin are two popular choices this time around.
Although he intends to aim for a softer outline next year, at the moment the Hanly silhouette remains long and lean. Colouring sees a preponderance of browns and blues, with splashes of red and green plus the perennial black of course. Hanly sums up his collection as "urban classics" and the clothes are certainly more suited to town than country life.
At the moment, his principal stockist is Dublin department store Arnotts, but several other outlets around the country will also be carrying the Cuan Hanly range over the months ahead. That number should grow next year as his company and reputation become better established.
