Somebody fingers a long suede coat. A model's hipster pants are tugged and twisted. Two people peer at a pair of woollen bootees. This is the judging of the Smirnoff Student Fashion Awards and it's a serious business.
There is no sense of the amateur about this process; indeed the chair of the judging panel, Eddie Shanahan of Arnotts says firmly: "These are designers, not student designers and we have to treat them as such". So that means there's very few allowances made by the nine members of the judging panel, who are designers, members of the fashion industry, last year's prize winner, and the fashion press. A puckered seam will not be tolerated. A split zip causes a few raised eyebrows, and badly finished garments are quickly dismissed.
Still, these moments are few and far between in a process that concentrates on the good, the imaginative, the well-finished and the well thought-out, and there's a lot of it about. "Now we're getting creative" cries designer Lainey Keogh as two gorgeous multi-coloured outfits appear. The theme for this year's awards is "Liberation", with each student asked to provide one avant garde and one commercial outfit interpreting the brief. The rules are pretty simple - measurements are supplied; using none-too-subtle references to Smirnoff branding is banned, and, after an incident in the past in which one student created an outfit entirely from beef steaks, the designs must not incorporate perishable materials.
Fifty-eight hopefuls supplied storyboards back in March, complete with swatches of material, lines of poetry, line drawings and pieces torn from magazines. The judges narrowed those down to 18, who were each given £150 by Smirnoff to make up their two outfits. After months of pinning, dyeing, stiffening and stitching, models sashayed down a catwalk in the RDS last Thursday to a hooting and enthusiastic reception by the audience, and a rigorous scrutiny by the judges.
It's not just frail designer egos that are at stake. The winner receives a cheque for £1,250 as well as an all-expenses paid trip to New York to represent Ireland in the Smirnoff International Fashion Awards later this year. The prize here is a bursary of £10,000 stg and a placement at the prestigious Central St. Martin's School of Art & Design in London. "It's a really great atmosphere," reminisces Aoife Burke, winner of last year's Irish heats, who went on to come fourth in the finals in Hong Kong. She admits to enjoying being on the other side of the fence this year.
After the 36 outfits have been paraded, it's time to start awarding points, and there's a lot of food for thought. Steven Kiely's dyed sheepskin coats and hipster leather pants combine a sense of the Irish with contemporary shapes; Isobel Sarsfield stitches simple undyed calico with minimal embroidery into a superbly unwearable dress which attaches your hand to your head. Sinead Kane has printed her own material with wild drawings inspired by the patterns her kid sister drew in the condensation on a car window. Then there's Giordana Giache's mohair skirt and tiny wings; the marvellous tailoring of Colette Wright, and Anne Stack's fluorescent leather. The judges chew their pencils and scribble furiously. "It's very hard isn't it," whispers English designer, Karen Millen.
After all the points are totted up, there's a clear winner and two runners-up. Third place goes to Limerick School of Art and Design's Sandra Murphy whose immaculately cut skirts and tops use soft shades of pink and brown wool and cleverly twisted panels. Lesley Quinn from NCAD comes in second with two astonishing dresses and wraps created out of layers of latex, lace, feathers and wool. But the winner is LSAD's Joan Hickson who is one of the few designers ever to display menswear in the finals. As soon as Joan's pieces - super-baggy pants that sit on the hip, a long funnel-necked jacket with exaggerated jeans pockets on the back, woolly hats and cuffs, skinny printed t-shirts, all with beautiful stitching creating an almost 3-D effect - appear, the judges start scrambling for superlatives. The designers on the panel are highly impressed with Hickson's finish - pockets are inserted in surprising yet logical places, collars are perfectly lined - while the lay members are blown away by the sheer wearability of clothes which are so innovative in design.
"It's amazing, a dream come true really," says Hickson, who took a year out from her degree and did work experience with Dexter Wong and French Connection. She hopes to be working in New York by the time the finals take place. "It's been a long hard slog but this is really encouraging."
