While Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud is generally tinged with an air of glamour, it was positively swamped with it on Wednesday night when Image magazine publicised its latest issue, devoted to the "Style of the Irish", which documents the distinctive look of more than 90 women. Many of them arrived at the restaurant on Wednesday despite the torrential weather, which left most people heartily agreeing with publisher Kevin Kelly when he described the Irish race as "a Mediterranean one, marooned in the Anglo-Saxon climate".
But then he looked around and said he imagined himself to be at a chic gathering in Paris or New York, given the presence of so many well-dressed women. Labelspotters noted that Marguerite MacCurtin, who recently returned from trekking in the Himalayas, was wearing a stunning Thierry Mugler piece; Maria Alice Plunkett was looking good in a Givenchy suit dotted with her trademark animal brooches; while Cecily McMenamin of Brown Thomas was wearing a Jean Paul Gaultier coat. Mafra O'Reilly, always included in style guides if only for her tremendous hats, wore a twirling feather creation from a young London designer. Many of the women on the list are involved in fashion retail, and the guests included a large contingent just back from London Fashion Week, including Deryn Mackay of Khan, who signed up a couple of new labels for her store, and designer Louise Kennedy, who has recently moved into her new salon on Merrion Square.
Isolin Mullion, another worthy member of the Irish style-brigade, was there with her daughter Emma Jane Mullion, who is heading off to cook for Damon Hill in Spain for the winter. Other young guns included film props buyer Jenny Oman, in the middle of a shoot for Dunnes Stores; designer Cyane Kingston and medicine student and mother Robin O'Reilly - Jean Butler and Lorraine Pilkington, also on the list, couldn't make it.
The few gentlemen present included one man who's going to make a big splash when his new store - BLUEiru - opens early in December. It's the brainchild of Pete O'Brien, who introduced Lainey Keogh to the US market, and it looks set to take a new approach to retailing beauty- and beautiful products including ranges from Kiehls, Philosophie and Diptyche. The painter Guggi also came along as his wife, Sibylle Ungers, was on the list.
The magazine's editor Jane McDonnell presided over the stylish gathering, which also included Catherine Donnelly, Helen Kilmartin, Monica Scott, Monika Murray, Dolores Delaney, Anna Coleman, and Anne Marie Nohl.