Galway is a hothouse for hat designers, writes Lorna Siggins.
"It's no go the Government grants, it's no go
the elections,
Sit on your arse for fifty years and hang your hat on a pension."
- A Classical Education, Louis MacNeice
HATS ARE A STATEMENT, a work of art, an essential piece of clothing. Shakespeare depended on them. Remember how Lord Hamlet, with "his doublet all unbrac'd; No hat upon his head", was falling apart without one? "Hatstravagance" proclaimed the Guardian'sCharlie Brooker last month, commenting on Ladies' Day at Royal Ascot.
"The British press seems to view it as a harmless, tittersome annual tradition-cum-photo opportunity, a playful contest in which an assortment of leathery upper-class crones and willow swan-necked debutantes compete to see who can wear the silliest piece of headgear," he wrote. Their first cousin, crowns, are "hats with ideas above their station", Brooker ranted.
No such plaudits from Galway's Ryan family, who believe millinery to be an artform suited to the western capital's creative reputation. Think not just Philip Treacy, but think designers such as Emily-Jean O'Byrne, Suzie Mahoney and Jaime McEleney. All three were commissioned by the Ryans, owners of the Ardilaun Hotel, to design hats for an exhibition at Anthony Ryan's department store earlier this month.
The exhibition focussed on the work of other Irish and international designers, generating interest in this year's Ladies' Day at the Galway Races. Anthony Ryan Ltd is sponsoring the best-dressed contest and the Ardilaun sponsors a prize for the best hat, at Ballybrit.
EMILY-JEAN O'BYRNEused to take her beads and stones down to the Galway market every Saturday with her friend Deirdre Morahan. Both students at Salerno, they were only in their mid-teens at the time. "Dad would drop us in at 6am, we'd secure a pitch and spend all day. Deirdre always had a good business head, whereas for me it was creativity, I guess," O'Byrne recalls.
After the Leaving Certificate, the pair took separate career paths while keeping in close contact. Morahan studied engineering, and took a masters, while O'Byrne registered at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT). They have recently set up their own businesses several doors from each other in Galway city. How did this happen?
"I studied in between travelling a bit and working in Fallers jewellers in Galway," O'Byrne explains. "People wanted headpieces to match my jewellery, so I enrolled on a millinery course at the London College of Fashion. Then I did gemmology at NUI Galway. I've always been keen on updating my skills," O'Byrne says.
Last September, she opened her own shop, and her work was runner-up in the best dressed lady competition at the Galway Races. Morahan, meanwhile, decided to switch from engineering to fashion, and opened De Mora boutique in Cross Street, close to Abbeygate Street where O'Byrne is situated. "And now I design headpieces to match her clothes."
O'Byrne says women invest an awful lot in their outfit for the Galway Races, and she met her first ladies' day client back in April. "The season's clothes comes in around February or March, so people will have their clothes bought when they come to me. We have a chat about their outfit, the bag, the shoes, and then whether they want their headwear to stand out, or to blend."
SUZIE MAHONYruns her own design-wear business just outside Loughrea, Co Galway, having begun dressmaking at home. Her studio is beside the house - "essential when you have three children" - and it is "full of hats and headpieces". She has been going to Ballybrit since she was a child, and found herself fascinated by both horses and haberdashery from an early age.
"I started doing outfits for weddings, then race events - now I take orders for race meets in Melbourne, Australia, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Ireland of course." She took a diploma in interior design, but found herself concentrating more on millinery.
"I suppose an interest in colour and proportions can extend to just about anything in the creative field," she says. Her children are still at primary school - the oldest is 10 - and she believes that it may be one of the boys, rather than her daughter, who follows her in the business.
Her clients must always book well in advance, and race week customers must arrive with their outfit, shoes and bag. "Often, they are looking for advice on co-ordination, and that's something that I enjoy," she says. Orders from abroad come by email and a posted photograph. "Often, a relative travelling out to somewhere like Melbourne will call for the finished piece," she says.
She believes that Irish millinery does not begin and end with Philip Treacy. "We have an awful lot of talent at home, and there are many people working away quietly and doing wonderful pieces."
JAIME McELENEYis torn between a successful music career and millinery - he is vocalist with Cuckoo Savant, described as a "bluesy, mellow band", based in Galway. Originally from Dundalk, Co Louth, he moved to Galway just over a decade ago to study textile design at GMIT, and did a one-year fashion course there.
"I took a six-month apprenticeship with a milliner in Paris, followed by a three-month millinery course at St Martin's in London, and it was through working on costume design with Club Outrageous in Galway that I started doing headgear," he says.
McEleney grew up with the rustle of fabric - his grandmother, Kay McArdle, and mother, Rose McArdle, were both dressmakers. From age 12, he began making hats with his mother. "We sold them through a Dundalk shop called The Nak. It was great fun to see them going."
Increasingly, he found himself taking commissions from different companies to design and make headpieces for special events. "I was happy to stay in costume, as I felt fashion was far too competitive for me.
However, after a profile in Galway Now magazine several years ago, a reader contacted me to make a hat for her, and she won best dressed lady that year at the Dublin Horse Show."
He supplies ready-to-wear designs to Madison Boutique in Galway and Polka Dot in Nenagh, Co Tipperary, and is busy with further commissions.
Galway Race Week runs from July 28th to August 3rd.