JARLATH MELLETT
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND
DESIGN DIRECTOR,
BROOKS BROTHERS, NEW YORK
GRADUATE of Limerick School of Art and Design, Jarlath Mellett worked for Fenn Wright and Manson before moving to his present position some 18 months ago. Before leaving this country, he very briefly tried running his own business, making what he describes as "frou-frou ballgowns" in a workshop over his father's garage in Nenagh.
Brooks Brothers presents a completely different scenario to this. The oldest clothing company in the US (it dates back to 1818) with 70 shops spread around the country, it has a rather traditional and hide bound image. Mellett is part of a team brought in lately with a brief to "totally revamp the look but keep its integrity". A member of the Brooks Brothers executive committee, he loves the challenge of his job.
He still comes back to Ireland a couple of times a year and says he finds the fashion scene here now "pretty awesome; the students are just fantastic and really creative". He might be tempted to move back here, if I had my own business". Nor is he preoccupied by fashion alone. "Now I'm more interested in the whole lifestyle rather than just clothing."
SIOBHAN BYRNE
LADIES SPORTSWEAR DESIGN
DIRECTOR/MERCHANDISER,
GIORGIO SANT ANGELO
COLLECTIBLES, NEW YORK
"I STARTED work here on a Monday and by Friday I was on my way to Hong Kong. I had 10 days to create a fall [autumn] line." This is how Siobhan Byrne summarises her present employment in a company which has a $90 million annual turnover.
"It's a great challenge mixing the design responsibilities with the business aspects and keeps me very busy."
A Dubliner, Byrne immediately got a job after graduation as an assistant buyer with Penneys, but left after a year to move across the Atlantic where she soon secured a position with a New York clothing company called Clementine Inc. Like her current job, the emphasis here was on sportswear which she regards as her forte. She has been in the US for the past three years but has now decided to return home, leaving for Ireland on July 4th. "I'll either set up by myself or wait for a while to see what the market is like. I think it's ready to explode right now." New York's garment industry is a highly successful and productive business and "I just feel the same can be achieved in Ireland. I'm nervous about going back, but I don't want to spend the rest of my life here."
MICHAEL MCGRATH
HEAD OF MENSWEAR DESIGN
SPORTS AND
LEISUREWEAR, HARRODS,
LONDON
LAST month, Michael McGrath was designer of product development at long established English menswear company Gieves and Hawkes; this month, he has taken up a newly created position at Harrods. Working with traditional businesses is clearly his speciality, since he has also spent time with Aquascutum and Alfred Dunhill. He describes his approach to design as being "quite clean and essentially British with a slight twist". His particular strengths are in knitwear and casual clothing, but obviously until now he has had to pay as much attention to suiting.
Having already finished working on a complete spring/summer 1998 range for Gieves and Hawkes, he now has to do precisely the same thing at Harrods. His job at London's best known department store is to create an in house collection for men, initially for sale only in Harrods "but eventually the plan would be to go wholesale".
Like most of his contemporaries, he still returns to Ireland twice a year and says he has seen "vast changes in Dublin for a seriously brighter future". Although settled in a large loft style apartment in the centre of London, would he be tempted to return to here? "I've never ruled out going back at some stage. I'd like to set up on my own in retail producing a capsule collection and then have other merchandising names with it."
KAREN LAVELLE
DESIGNER AT OLD NAVY
NEW YORK
THE fastest growing retail operation in the United States, two and a half years after being set up as a division of the Gap group Old Navy now has some 200 stores around the country. "I was very lucky," says Karen Lavelle, who joined the organisation in March 1996. "Because I was in almost at the start, I do all the women's denim wear. Gap usually likes to hire a certain type of person, but with this concept the company decided to take on a more diverse range of staff."
Unlike many other designers, Lavelle insists she has never had any desire to set up her own business. After graduation, she went to work as a design assistant with Ramsay of Dublin and then moved on to Irish company Natural Instincts before moving to New York last year. Her ambition was always to join the Gap group. "We have so many opportunities here; we travel a lot and get to go to the Orient which would never happen at home.
"Working as part of a team suits me. In Gap Inc, there are nearly 150 designers between Gap itself, Banana Republic and Old Navy. There are great opportunities for advancement and moving around in large companies." As a relatively recent emigrant, she has no intention of coining back to Ireland in the near future. "I do plan to do so - but not just yet."
ANNIQUE LAMBE
COSTER/TRIMS BUYER, STAR
CHILDREN/RARE EDITIONS,
NEW YORK
"I MISS being directly in design and do plan to get back into it, but I'm involved in production right now because I feel it's something I should know about. It will make me a very cost efficient designer." For the past year, Annique Lambe has been looking after costings and trim buying for a New York based childrenswear company but, as is usually the case in the United States, her resume shows a considerable degree of diversity and movement within the industry.
Before moving to Star Children, she worked with two different women's clothing labels: helping to set up one of these she describes as "invaluable experience for my training and possibly the biggest challenge yet." And before moving to the United States, she had spent two years with Eirlaine Fashions in Dublin, a company manufacturing clothes for Irish chain stores. "I got an overall look and feel of the business I was pursuing as a career."
But having got a Green Card, she took up the opportunity and now has no plans to return, particularly since she plans to get married next spring. More than any of the other designers featured today, Annique Lavelle represents the reality of working in the massmarket garment business. "I'll be returning to design soon, but this time more in a managerial capacity."
AND let us not forget, among many others: Jim Coughlin, daywear designer for Christian Lacroix, Paris; Lucy Downes, shoe designer for Donna Karan, New York; Paula Flynn, director with Gap Kids, New York; Aisling Ludden, designer with Pepe, Amsterdam; Catherine O'Toole, product development manager for womenswear at Polo Ralph Lauren in New York; Murray Scallon, designer with Diego della Valle, Milan; Eileen Shields, shoe designer for DKNY, New York; and James Waldron, designer for Giorgio Armani womenswear, Milan.