Fashion news, compiled by Deidre McQuillan
Grand designs
Two interesting fashion shows are taking place over the next few weeks. The Art of Fashion will run at the Dock in Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim, on Tuesday, November 11th. Craft Meets Catwalk will run at the Highlanes Gallery in Drogheda, Co Louth on Thursday, November 20th, and will feature John Rocha's winter 2008 collection. Both shows will showcase designers such as Erika Marks, Helen James, Ellis Boyle, Colette Mulholland, Heather Finn, Cathy Prendergast, Mel Bradley, Maria Cardenas, Edmund McNulty among others. Leitrim tickets, costing €45 are available from Anna Marie O'Rourke, tel: 071-9650550. Louth tickets, costing €40, are available from Ciara McFeely at 041-9803283.
Wartime allure
For those who love 1940s fashion, a must-have book has just been published, called S imply Forties Fashion: From Siren Suits to the New Look.Author Jonathan Walkford explores the continuing power of a period when fashion was considered "not a frivolity but and aesthetic expression of the circumstances of the time" and the pursuit of beauty was a patriotic duty. The book, priced at €33.70, is rich in illustrations of clothes and accessories, many of which look as alluring today as this did more than 60 years ago.
It's in the bag
A talented Irish designer is to launch her first handbag collection, called Ana Faye, at the RDS Craft Fair in December. Anna Vahey Casey, an award-winning graduate of the Limerick School of Art and Design (LSAD), now based in Lissadell in Sligo, has produced a great collection. Her Masters degree in pattern cutting from Central St Martins College of Art and Design in London certainly shines through in her collection.