Frances O'Gorman travelled far before setting up her chic Dublin shoe shop, she tells Eoin Lyons
Were she a different sort of person, it might be easy to dislike Frances O'Gorman. She is the owner of the Cherche-Midi shoe shop on Dublin's Drury Street, has a wonderful home in Booterstown and often travels on business to Paris, Milan and New York. Add to this her attractiveness, a creative instinct, two beautiful children and you have a fine feast for the green-eyed monster, envy.
Except that Frances is charm personified: modest, spirited, funny, gracious, elegant, genuinely interested in the person she is talking to, and generous with sharing the insights that life has brought her. In short, it is impossible not to be fond of someone so engaging.
Hardly a procrastinator, she has led a varied life. Leaving Dublin at the age of 19, she moved to New York where she stayed for 10 years, managing restaurants and nightclubs. By this time she had married to Shane Donnelly of the Hickey's Fabrics family. The couple spent five years in Miami where their daughter Alison was born. They moved back to Ireland seven years ago and had a son, Shane.
After her marriage to Donnelly ended, she opened a hairdressing chain called Kiddies Kuts with four branches in Dublin. After selling this business, she opened a shoe shop on Drury Street with the idea of offering an alternative to the same-y shoes available in certain other stores. Some of her shoes are fanciful, some are everyday, some are expensive and others less so.
The same week she opened the doors of Cherche-Midi in October 2003, Frances was diagnosed with breast cancer. "It seemed such bad luck but it gave me something to think about other than the cancer. One of the hardest things was that this business is about style and it was such a struggle to make myself look good because, as the months went on, I was fat from steroids, and had no hair." She now organises a fundraiser each year for cancer charities.
In Frances's home, there is a combination of traditional and contemporary things that touch on nearly every aspect of her life. "The house was built in the 1930s," she explains, opening the door to the kitchen, "and it was lived in by students for years because it's close to UCD. So by the time I moved here it was in a bad way."
A renovation job involved extending the kitchen and replacing floors and bathrooms.
In the new kitchen, she turned to her friend, furniture retailer Helen Kilmartin of Minima, for advice: "I was thinking of going for a ye olde kitchen kind of style," she says, grinning, "but Helen convinced me to go high gloss. Initially I thought it could be cold but it's not." The units are from the Panelling Centre - a great place to get a smart looking kitchen that doesn't cost a lot - and Helen supplied the grey marble countertop and handles. The units aren't expensive, but these details give it a feel of luxury. "Always have the handles facing the same way - it makes everything look neater - and try to only have pull-out drawers so there's no digging about at the back of a press.
"I used a traditional tile on the splashback to link it to the rest of the house, which isn't as modern - I think it worked okay; they soften the whole thing. For once in my life I got the floor right - large slate tiles that are easy to keep clean and don't show wear and tear. Big tiles make a floor seem larger."
Recessed into one wall of the kitchen is a 5ft long fish tank: "We bought it from Fish Antics in Dún Laoghaire. But it's not like buying the tank and that's the end of it. You've got to build it into your monthly bills, there's always something . . . I never would have bought it had I known how many ongoing costs there are. But it's a great hobby for the kids and I'm glad I didn't know because it's such a beautiful, relaxing thing to have in the room - I've no regrets. This is a saltwater tank. The regular tanks would be fresh water but you can get much more beautiful fish with these."
Next to the kitchen, Frances built a wetroom, a tiled space with open shower. "It's funny but it takes a while to get used to the freedom of having nothing boxing you in. I visited a spa in Thailand and wanted to re-create something similar. The tiles on the floor are set with large pebbles and stones - they come in squares but when laid they blend into one another. I got them at Tilestyle. The fittings came from Elegant John. The whole lot cost thousands and thousands. Most of the cost was the pump behind the wall but the showerhead and so on are the best too. A shower is something used every day, so quality fittings are worth it."
In the livingroom the colour scheme is subtle: "The wall paint is from MRCB on Thomas Street, and the ottoman is by KA International. An Israeli artist called Daniel Lipstein came into the shop one day selling prints and I bought a few; I really liked them because at first glance they look Eastern European but are actually scenes of Dublin."
Frances learnt something about art from her mother-in-law, Joan Donnelly, a well-regarded collector. "She brought a pair of gilded wood panels back from a trip to India in the 1960s. They tell a story but don't ask me exactly what it is!"
Lined up beside a low table are a collection of shoes by Sonia Rykiel, Armani and Kate Spade, all of which she stocks in her shop. If it were up to Frances to explain it, no more than luck and pluck has lead to the success of Cherche-Midi but in fact, it's down to basic hard work and shrewd buying. Another element has been the support of other businesses in the Castle Market area. "It's a lovely place to be."
Cherche-Midi, Drury Street, Dublin 2. Tel: 01-675 3974
