Compiled by Deirdre McQuillan.
DESIGNER SALE
Location may be everything when it comes to property, but it can make or break fashion, too. Multi-faceted designer, writer, model, filmmaker, actor and musician, Antonia Campbell Hughes has chosen the revamped Clarendon Bar in Dublin's Clarendon Street as the venue for her one-day fashion sale today. "It's focused on being a designer sale rather than a sample sale," she insists. Many of the items are specialist pieces made for press shows and stock from previous seasons, as well as current items sold in Japan and Hong Kong where she has an enthusiastic fan base. Her winter collection is an artful mix of crochet patchwork, graphic striped dresses and low-slung silk jersey pinafores that can be worn in whacky, offbeat ways or more discreetly by the less adventurous. Designer Leigh Tucker will also be joining her and supplying a number of specialist pieces for the sale. The day provides an opportunity not just to buy the clothes, but also to check out this bar, owned by the Bang brothers. The sale takes place from noon to 5 p.m. upstairs in the Clarendon and prices are from €30 to €300.
PEARLS OF WISDOM
Jennifer Kinnear is the kind of woman who can wear both fine and bold pieces of jewellery with equal style and aplomb. Creator of the Vanilla jewellery line fashioned mostly from freshwater pearls, she is to open a jewellery studio in Temple Bar in October, in which all her collections will be shown. These include a new wedding range called "Tu", made with pearls and nuggets of silver and gold, and sprinkled with accent stones in all sorts of colours. She imports contemporary resin bracelets, rings and pendants from Italy and has made special one off-pieces such as ultra-long ropes of pearls and rhinestones for designer Joanne Hynes. Her new shop will also have information about stones and will be a place to listen to jazz as well as bone up on precious and semi-precious jewels. See www.vanilla.ie or www.kinkbijoux.com
PLANS AFOOT
September sees the long-awaited opening of Eileen Shields's first shop on 5 Scarlett Row in Temple Bar. The Irish shoe designer from Dublin was head of footwear at Donna Karan in New York for 10 years before branching out on her own. Her chic new winter range will include her classic updated vintage styles in colours from red suede to antique silver, at prices from €80 to €280. The shop, a collaboration with art curator Vaari Claffey, will also include selected New York and London designers, including Eley Kishimoto, Lucy Barnes and A Detacher. Plans for the shop include art exhibitions, film festivals and personal appearances by well-known stylists and designers. Shields's second store, along the same lines, is due to open in New York in the spring of 2005.