TRADITIONAL homespun dressing is pushed to the limits at An Tain, a small shop in Temple Bar. Owned by The Dublin Woollen Mills, but with entirely different merchandise, the intention is to wrap as much of the population as is willing in hand loomed blankets, fleece lined canvas smocks, and huge herringbone trousers.
These are the country clothes not many country dwellers subscribe to but which are very well liked by townies, especially sophisticates in France and Italy. They know a good bit of weaving, a fine bit of knitting when they see it. There has been a very positive response to "blanket coverage".
Everything is the creation of an individual with a very personal outlook. There are Tim Robinson's "Little Patrick Street" (Belfast) boude tweeds, made into dresses and mini skirts. And shawls, which are very difficult to wear without becoming entangled in everything and everyone (£74.50).
There are Pat McCarthys boiled wool jackets, so stiff they would stand erect on their own (£159.00), and his penitential wool shirts, or the fine white linens, with, or without collars (£39.95).
And then there are the fleece lined hooded smocks (£79), by "The Big Blue", and a marino wool variation, beautifully light and warms (£109). All this is traditional, bordering at times on the homespun. So too are all the various roll necked wool tunics (under £40), and the very big scarves.
Everything seems to be a not so distant relation of the blanket, and you can't get more trad than that.
But one label, "Weavers of Ireland" has been producing great little boude jackets, with black collars and cuffs (£64), that fall somewhere between a jacket proper and a cardigan, capturing the best of both garments, which are very good indeed.
Up to date lightweight yarns make clothes like these much more comfortable than their formidable forebears.