MELISSA KISSES
Passengers travelling on Aer Lingus on August 1st will be the first to see new jewellery by Melissa Curry for sale on board their flight. The designer has partnered with the Irish airline to launch a new sustainable gift called PÓG, the Irish for kiss.
“It’s an alternative to the Claddagh ring” says the designer, “something new and fun to connect the millions of Irish around the world.” The centrepiece of the bracelet is the circular Póg made with sterling silver and which comes in a range of colours, red for Aer Lingus. The collection celebrates love in all its forms and how it’s worn sends its own message – wear it with the X upright and you are up for a kiss, says Curry.
Póg is made with sustainable materials and biodegradably packaged without plastic. As an advocate for mental health, Curry has arranged to donate €1 for each one piece purchased to Jigsaw Mental Health, an Irish charity focusing on the wellbeing of young people all over the country.
From Sligo, Curry launched her first collection in Paris in 1997 and became an overnight success, her jewellery selling in global boutiques all around the world. She will present new collections at the Saatchi Gallery in London on July 21st at Scoop. In Ireland find her jewellery in Havana and online at byosmelissacurry.com
PARNELL MOONEY
London based Irish menswear designer Rory Parnell Mooney who set up his label four years ago after graduating from Central Saint Martin’s made a big impact with clothes that drew from ecclesiastical vestments encountered in his Jesuit schooling in Galway and which he wore himself to dramatic effect. His work attracted the attention of talent incubator Fashion East where he showed three runway collections and a fourth as part of an intimate on schedule presentation at London Fashion Week Men’s.
“Each was preoccupied with the rituals of dressing combining various subcultural references with the excess and abundance of traditional couture,” he says. Now two years later in a new studio and working independently, he has launched a new collection for spring which is freer and more creative and which at its heart lies the idea of oppositions – masculine versus feminine, utility versus eroticism, hard versus soft.
Fabrics are equally contradictory from elegant moiré silk and paper-thin cotton organza to lumberjack check flannel, army issue canvas, skin tight jersey and denim. A key to the collection is the 1980 thriller movie Cruising About A Cop (Al Pacino) who infiltrates the queer cruising scene in New York to track down a serial killer.Roryparnellmooney.co.uk
QUITE ALL WHITE
Fashion designers often come from the most unlikely places. Rita White, a finalist at this year’s Golden Egg awards for her accessories has a background in nursing and psychology, but whose passion was always drawing and art. A few years ago, she achieved a first class honours degree in Art & Design, Textiles from GMIT and hasn’t looked back since.
Her colourful scarves in limited editions are digitally printed with her own original drawings on silk and silk/cotton mixes with hand rolled hems. The drawings tell stories of birds and nature or city life and some like Meditate draw from her professional hospital life and contribute to their depth of meaning. Visit ritawhiteart.ie
