On The Town: The well-dressed and well-heeled sipped cocktails and engaged in some serious shoe-spying at the grand opening of Jimmy Choo's first boutique in Ireland at Brown Thomas this week.
While outside the night was gloomy, wet and cold, Brown Thomas's shoe emporium on the first floor, where fashion aficionados mingled with ladies who lunch, was the hottest ticket in town.
Opening her 34th store, the president of the iconic Jimmy Choo shoe brand, Tamara Yeardye-Mellon, said that Dublin was synonymous with fun, Grafton Street with prestige and Brown Thomas with style.
The Dublin boutique joins others in locations such as London, New York, Milan and Hong Kong. Stores in Paris and Madrid are now in the brand's sights.
Artist Helen Steele eyed up the array of shoes and boots on display. She has chosen a pair of Jimmy Choo snakeskin boots to form part of an unusual exhibition in Brown Thomas next month, focusing on "coveted" items of clothing and accessories.
She had certainly coveted her only pair of Jimmy Choos - a pair of gold sandals, which, she said, were surprisingly comfortable.
Kay O'Connor, of Kelli boutique in Ranelagh, said her first and most important pair of Jimmy Choos was for her wedding three years ago. She now has six pairs. The Jimmy Choo recipe for success is moving with the times, according to O'Connor. "Each new season's style is very elegant, but still very trendy," she explained.
Mother and daughter team Sophie and Christine Fredericks are keen Jimmy Choo fans and, having the same shoe size, have the luxury of sharing their sizeable shoe collections. They fondly recall their first pair of Jimmy Choos - a black leather kitten heel with fur pom-pom, which they bought in Brussels in 1997, and which, they say, still looks and feels good today.
Also at the party were broadcaster Gráinne Seoige, designer Ian Galvin, publisher Michael O'Doherty and designer Louise Kennedy.