What a doll Dubliner Petria Lenehan is the owner of Dolls in Clarendon Street, a chic boutique popular with the city's gilded set.
Having taken Fashion Institute of Technology's fashion course in Florence and New York because she wanted to study abroad, she later set up a studio in Brighton and started to sell on a small scale in London. In London she worked in a boutique, clocking up buying experience, while continuing to sell some of her own work. Just before Christmas, she returned to Dublin and opened Dolls, which sells a mixture of labels including Karen Walker and Louis da Gama, along with jewellery from Tatty Devine, and shoes from Swear. The shop is very much a reflection of her own taste and approach to fashion. "My style is very romantic. I am interested in new shapes and forms. It is very feminine, but not too girlie and quite subtle." Dolls will be the sole stockist in September of Sumfortune shoes, a new label set up by Kerry woman Cynthia Fortune Rainey and Shirley Sum, who made Jasmine Guinness's shoes for her recent wedding.
Watch out for these Longines, a Swiss watch company founded in 1832, is sponsoring the Grand Prix at the RDS Dublin Horse Show on Sunday, August 13th. Among the company's current collections are updated revivals of former classics, which reflect the prevailing retro trends. One such is the "Clous de Paris" collection which takes its inspiration from early 20th-century French jewellery. The BelleArti collection, inspired by Art Deco, is very beautiful, with cases of pink gold or steel and dials in either mother-of-pearl, silver or black. Longines can be found in Weirs of Grafton Street, Dublin 2; Paul Sheeran's of Johnson's Court, Dublin 2 and Dundrum Town Centre, Dublin 14, and Appleby Jewellers of Johnston's Court, and Powercourt Town Centre, Dublin 2. Prices start from around €800.