FASHION:With its dark, dramatic flourishes and painterly use of lace, Eilis Boyle's latest collection was inspired, subconsciously, by her Spanish grandmother, Carmen, who died last year at the age of 91
"People say that my clothes have a strong Spanish influence, but [the reference] was not intentional. Last year I spent a lot of time in Spain with my grandmother before she passed away, looking at old photographs with her," Boyle says. "She always dressed well, always wore make-up, and loved to charm people."
There were pictures of Boyle's mother and her sister as children in Granada, their clothes all handmade by a resident seamstress employed by the family for that purpose. "Even when they were five or six, my grandmother dressed my mother and aunt in beautiful white lace dresses, and since she was born in the early years of the 20th century, the 1940s and 1950s were her years. She wore shirts and dresses and travelled a lot. Everything was custom-made.
"Even at 91, and after a hip replacement, she wore specially made high heels," recalls Boyle. "She was always very interested in my career because it followed her passion for fashion. The one thing I didn't inherit was her love of colour."
Boyle has called this collection Past, Present and Futurebecause some items are from her current collection, some are familiar shapes in new colours such as mink, and a few pieces are made to order. "There is a bit of everything."
Her signature soft empire-line dresses in chiffons, tulles and organzas in black, white or grey have a timeless quality, not hostage to any season, and she feels that designing is an ongoing process, "because it's about the colours I do and the fabrics I use. Some customers just order the same dress in a different colour each season because they like the fit."
Her experience on the shop floor in Brown Thomas last year, where she sold her collection for two weeks, taught her a lot about customer sizes and preferences. "I am now starting to think about taller women, and brides," she says.
Abroad, she is developing a following in Japan and more recently in the US, "and I am going to start making short dresses for a younger market there."
Next Wednesday at chq in Dublin's docklands, Boyle will join John Rocha, Richard Lewis, Joanne Hynes, Jennifer Rothwell and others at a group fashion show and awards event open to the public that will close Motorola Dublin Fashion Week, and which will offer a rare opportunity to see her work on the catwalk.
www.dublinfashionweek.com