Hot toast: Toast by post, our favourite mail order catalogue, has a host of lovely clothes for winter, all shot on location in Sweden.
There's a vaguely "little house on the prairie" look about the blouses (left) and apron-front skirts, offset by military-style cavalry twill jackets, double-breasted cardigans and lace-up leather boots. Shrug cardigans with soft, full skirts are sweet and girlish, while a wool and cashmere topcoat offers a more masculine alternative, particularly when worn with shirt and tie. Check out the website at www.toast.co.uk.
Glamorous aprons
Adelle Hickey's signature apron shapes take on a new shine this winter with the use of three fabrics - fine stocking net with strings of sequins; patterned net with a central frill; and jersey with trimming draped above the hemline. It all adds up to a certain delicacy, femininity and antique elegance. There are dresses with bell sleeves and jersey wraps threaded with metallic stitching. The small Dublin sewing factory Hickey used for her collections closed down earlier this summer, forcing her to focus on smaller production runs, so each piece is a limited edition embracing, quite literally, a hands-on approach, she says. The black sequined net halter-neck apron, pictured right, costs €190; the patterned net over jersey skirt is €160. Contact Hickey at 01-8069420 or www.fromnowon.ie.
Bradshaw's best
Laura Bradshaw, whose boutique, Aura, in Sandymount packs a punch well above its size, recently showed her winter collection to a very appreciative band of customers in the RDS. This season's stock included smart variations on an Aran theme from Yohji Yamamoto's "Y" collection (below), along with some great sequined dresses from Pocket Venus. Bradshaw has kept a sharp focus on trends, with lots of knitwear, bubble skirts and wide-leg trousers. Some items had the ethnic look of Dries Van Noten, but at inexpensive prices, such as the tan leather jacket by Raison D'Etre worn with a beaded panel skirt by iBlues. A horizontally-cabled Aran-style knit recalled Kenzo of the 1980s, but was worn with an up-to-the-minute empire line dress by Cacharel. The tweed jackets with silver and ribbon edging. and a taffeta jacket by iBlues were terrific winter buys.