It may not sound stunningly irresistible but the trouser suit is the key to everything. And at Khan, an upmarket dress shop in Blackrock, Co Dublin, it turns out to be completely irresistible.
The black silk number from Max Mara (£579) says it all - so simple and so perfect. And like everything here, a lot of the attraction is in the feel of the fabric.
Deryn Mackay, who opened Khan three years ago, knows the power of the trouser suit and she revels in black. She also knows that more must be offered. With 33 labels, 22 of them Irish, she has picked her way fastidiously. Her mantra goes: plain, simple, structured and classic.
The result is the last word in refinement, in which a recurrent, bias-cut, unadorned dress, coming under various labels, keeps cropping up. Very wary of colour, she allows certain minks and coffees, buttermilk and pale blue to infiltrate among the dominant black and cream.
If the trouser suit is all-important - and the latest trousers are bias-cut hipsters with flares - the next most necessary thing is a little tunic top. John Rocha does them in colour-splashed chiffons. Otherwise, it is waistcoats and devore shirts for under the jacket.
Lainey Keogh makes the ordinary seem fantastic. A sapphire blue and black knitted sheath (£569) is a little masterpiece. Louise Kennedy's rather uptight suits stand out for their perfect narrow tailoring. And Michael Mortell's nylon raincoats have great style.
The Khan balance is good, with international names livening up the place. Like Renee Lezard and Jenny Packham, both using browns and creams for silk suits, and Soap Studio, with a lovely little slip of a satin dress with a draped cowl (£149).
It begins to read like Who's Who in fashion. But the joy is that Deryn Mackay has done the hard work and creamed off the classics.