TV personalities and stylists Sonya Lennon and Brendan Courtney last night launched their debut clothing collection, Lennon/Courtney, at Arnotts with a fashion show for friends, family and press in the Henry Street department store.
Silk column dresses feature strongly, alongside calf-length pencil skirts and cotton-cashmere mix knits.
The collection, which starts at €30 for a collar and goes up to €390 for a full-length silk dress – which formed the show finale shown four times in each colour (black and white) – was designed off the back of the duo’s experiences on RTÉ’s Off the Rails.
“We wanted to make Irish women feel beautiful in easy-to-wear directional clothing for practical lives,” said Courtney backstage before the show, which featured 32 looks on eight models.
In muted tones with rare bursts of fuchsia and cobalt blue and a heavy emphasis on both black and white, theirs is not a trend-led collection – from shirts to skirts and dresses what they all have in common are clean lines and a pared-back style.
The duo said that their collections would consist of what they term “work horses” – the main stays of the collection, simple dresses, shirts, skirts and trousers in versatile shades – and “show ponies”, the accessories, this season in the form of removable peplums and white Anglican-style collars.
Austerity is the key word, with neither embellishment nor flamboyance to be found anywhere in the 32-piece collection. The collection is on sale in Arnotts and selected boutiques. lennoncourtney.com