Nicky's Rag Tales

Carrying a camera and announcing that I’m a blogger lets me indulge wonderfully in one of my great enjoyments, having a nosey around beautiful shops. Castle Market in Dublin (a stones throw from my Showrooms and Grafton Street) is home to No 6. This beautiful store houses both the Foxford Home Collection and Helen Mc Alinden’s beautiful range of women’s clothing. Warm pure wool Foxford rugs (from that wonderful Irish heritage woolen mills) and throws jostle for space with lavish Christmas decorations and sumptuous scented candles. Upstairs houses the bed linen and bathroom range of beautifully co-ordinated sheets and quilts. Long dressing gowns hang on a rail and a beautifully dressed bed looks altogether too comfortable.

Helen McAlinden is a multi focused designer who launched her own label in 2001. Helen collaborates with Foxford designing the full Home Collection, hence there are fabulous black and white hounds tooth throws alongside all the colours of the season. Alongside the home wear is a quieter space which houses Helen McALinden’s clothing range. Beautifully cut dresses, skirts, jackets, blouses jeans and coats. Great weekend classics and special occasion wear with accessories to compliment the clothes all combine make up a unique Irish collection. I personally love the wrap cardigan which comes in several colours and can be worn many different ways, the red dress and the great short tweed jacket with a removable faux fur collar.

Table laden with Christmas goodies

Throws, Foxford

Beautiful blankets and rugs from Foxford @ No 6

Purple Wrap cardi 99 euro (comes in black and grey)

Mink jacket and skirt with Black Bag from Anna Faye

Tweed Jacket with removable collar

The LRD (little red dress)

All clothes from Helen Mc ALinden @ No 6 Castle Market Dublin 2. Homewear from the Foxford Collection at No 6. helenmcalinden@dawsonridge.ie t- 00353 1 670 8846

Up at an ungodly hour I headed to the RTE radio headquarters in Donneybrook this morning and with Deirdre Mc Quillan had a long chat with Ryan Tubridy looking back at the noughties. The researcher had sent me a list of questions last week which got me thinking back over the last nine years.

Peppered with re-inventions from the past no new trends emerged but fashion changed on a daily basis and it was a both exhausting and liberating period. Sex and the City launched onto our screens and we couldn’t get enough of those four friends. ‘Monolo’s and Jimmy Choo’s became household names. Corsages were on every lapel and we learnt how to experiment with our clothes. We learnt to mix vintage with new. Wear evening for day and use accessories. Is there anyone who doesn’t have a name neckchain?

Those girls

At the beginning of the decade many Fashion websites launched and flopped and no-one thought you could sell clothes on the Internet. Digital photography got better and Net a Porter and My Wardrobe along with ASOS grew to enormous online businesses. We could shop or window shop from our living rooms in the click of a button.

Celebrity endorsements grew to enormous proportions, Victoria Beckham shed her WAG tag and was photographed in that Roland Mouret Galaxy dress, which shot through the stratosphere. It was followed by copies in every high street store. Talking of the high Street, Zara copied all the key trends and had them on the hangers in a matter of weeks. Other High street chains were quick to follow Designer collaborations gave us affordable fashion which started with Karl Lagerfeld for H&M continued by Stella McCartney and a whole host of others.

The Strokes launched their album ‘Is this it ‘ in 2001 and the skinny jean took off. Jeans got lower and lower and the thong toppled over the edge. Jeans were huge and we paid more and more for the latest ‘It’ style. Talking of ‘It’, Mulberry brought out the ‘Bayswater’ big bag and the ‘It’ bag was born with every luxury brand bringing out a new and more expensive one each season.

Kate Moss sloshed around Glastonbury in those shorts, waistcoat , wellies and mud while Beyonce wore bling.

Kate Moss at Glastonbury

Boots worn over our Skinny Jeans and shoes in every colour bar black. Heels got higher and higher (bunions grew bigger and bigger!) and ballerina flats were pulled out of those big bags when we couldn’t take the pain any longer. Ugly Uggs and Comic Crocs were everywhere and Gladiator shoes made our legs look like tree trunks.

We slathered and then sprayed on the fake tan and had too much flesh on show. Little girls dressed like their mothers and leggings became and remain a staple worn with tunic tops and allowing those oldies to wear shorter dresses. This was the decade of the dress and we wore them in all shapes and throughout the day and night. Before 200o you could only get evening dresses. Opaque tights were and continue to be a fantastic addition which meant we didn’t have to shave our legs all Winter.

Irish women embraced all the changes, glued to ‘Off the Rails’,’ Trinny and Susannah’ and ‘Gok Wan’ we discovered shapewear. Spanx and now Yummie Tummie let us wear those beautiful sheath and shift dresses without showing all those bulges. Size 0 and 00 was huge news and a very ugly moment. Kate Moss snorted Cocaine and got away with it and we all learnt the name of the ‘Stylists’.

Ethical fashion was just starting to become serious when the recession hit and now it’s all down to Price, Price Price. As we travelled the world we bought tons of Fakes, Bags, Jewellery, shoes.

Oscar Wilde said fashion was ‘A form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months’. It seems that in the noughties that was every 10 minutes.

As we enter 2010 we are somewhat poorer but one thing’s for sure we will still be trend watching and buying whenever we can.

Out and about last week end I spotted several women wearing LBD’s . For this season the Little Black Dress isn’t so little and adding drama to it seems the on trend way to go. For the best of the Winter Accessories the Net-a -Porter video above tells us all we need to know. Sparkle is everywhere but looks best if worn as one piece only. Don’t put sparkly tights with a sparkly dress and use tights as a ‘must have’ reasonably priced accessory.

Dramatic LBD’s by nickysragtales featuring Milly

First up is the Fashion Awards from the UK. I was delighted to see that Christopher Bailey, Creative Director of Luxury Brand Burberry took the title Designer of the Year. When he was here a couple of weeks ago he wouldn’t answer whether Burberry would show at London Fashion week next season. Burberry showed in London to much acclaim last season. Well the answer as announced last week is that Burberry will grace the London Catwalk again next season.

Christoph Bailey in Trinity College Dublin two weeks ago

Enjoy this link and watch Hilary Alexander from the Telegraph newspaper doorstep V. Beckham and Kate Moss at the British Fashion Awards Ceremony in London Last week. We don’t get to hear Kate Moss talking a lot and this short video gives us a glimpse of exactly what goes on outside these do’s

In New York the Great Fake debate took another twist last week as a huge clampdown took place. $1 million dollars worth of fake bags and jewellery were seized in a big raid on Canal Street in Manhattan’s Chinatown. In a city that takes it’s Fashion Industry seriously this at least is an interruption and a serious move to show that this lucrative fake business is not wanted.

I have been a confirmed cardigan lover from about the age of nine when I was givena chunky hand knit Native Canadianjacket/cardigan. It belonged to an uncle who had given it to my father and like all girls rooting in their parents wardrobe I commandeered this. It felt like wrapping myself in a blanket with attitude. All grown up now but the versatile cardigan is an absolute essential piece in my wardrobe. I buy a V neck fine cotton Vanessa Bruno one each Spring and it is used as a top or an evening addition and is always on my holiday packing list. Winter time means the chunky cardigan doubles as a coat and is worn over skinny jeans. Evening sequined or glitter ones are worn over cocktail dresses adding a soft look to an otherwise too polished ensemble

cardigan comfort by nickysragtales featuring Lipsy

This season there are great Cardigans in every shop and in every length and many colours though grey seems the most versatile so take your pick. It’s truly a Cardigan Season and one that I’m really loving. It’s the whole warm comfort factor that when added to edgy pieces gets my vote hands down.

DIOR (the real deal)

I’ve been thinking about ethics and morality and everything in between in the past few days. Penney’s AKA Primark being cited by ‘Friends of The Earth’ for paying their Bangladesh workers so little they were starving. A visit to a friends house where ‘Fake’ Bags were on sale and my purchase of shoes (in Penney’s, see earlier post) for 5euro. I think I’m a little shallow as I’m a sucker for a bargain and am still felling a bit guilty about the Penney’s puchase. But I think that for me it’s not about the law or even about the ethics. I apply the same principals to food. I buy organic and free range not because of the poor animals but because of the quality of the products and the taste on my plate. I would love to have strong ideals that wouldn’t allow me to darken Penney’s door or buy clothing which wasn’t made of organic cotton hand picked by well paid happy people and transported by boat powered only by wind.

The truth is I love good quality clothes and accessories. A ‘fake’ plastic bag at 70 euro just doesn’t do it for me and anyway I can’t see that those bags are in any way competing with the real thing.

By the way I couldn’t bear to take a photo of cheap fakes hence the Dior picture above….. Have a great weekend everyone.

One of the great things about working in town is the regular walks I take through the streets when I need to leave the showroom to take a break (that’s my excuse anyway). A couple of years ago I temporarily took up residence in Fashion City which is just off the motorway and hated every moment. Being stuck in an industrial setting was about as inspiring as watching paint dry.

Thursday’s market on Coppinger Row just off Grafton Street is small but perfect. Breads, organic fruit and veg, crepes and gorgeous sweet treats sit alongside Reichhold Originals. Richard Reichhold is an unusual designer who does not watch fashion trends but manages to produce a delectible display of jewellery. Collaborating with Italian lampwork bead makers he uses sculptural form and manages to make individual statement pieces. Priced from 15 euro up these make perfect gifts.

This one WILL be mine, sterling silver and Italian glass in ruby red

Necklaces Galore

Reichhold Originals can be found at the People’s Park Dunlaoire every Sunday, Coppinger Row every Thursday and Ranelagh Village Market Thurs-Sun. email reichhold@gmail.com www.reichholdoriginal.ie

I spent some time today in my local shopping centre, just browsing and sifting my way through the rails in all the chain stores. I bought a beautiful pale gold shift dress from young Irish designers Kate and Ava some weeks ago. A classic shift with lovely detail on the shoulders and a deep V at the back. This dress will be worn over and over and was well worth the money spent on it. Clever accessorising of classics are what will take a dress like this to different events and so when I picked up a pair of shoes in Penney’s I instantly thought that these would be perfect with the dress. I tried them on and they fitted like a glove. It’s not true that expensive shoes are somehow comfortable and my collection of hardly worn designer shoes is testament to this. These babies ( I’m a sucker for leopard print) were marked at 19 euro and I thought that’s cheap. When I got to the till the assistant said ‘that will be 5 euro please’. 5 euro !!!! You wouldn’t have much change from that if you bought a cappuccino! I think I just found my inner recessionista.

Kate and Ava dress (mine is in pale gold)

Shoes 5 euro Penneys

I am preparing for a radio slot on Tubridy RTE Radio 1 next Tuesday morning. I got a call from the researcher yesterday who asked me to join Deirdre Mc Quillan, Fashion editor of the Irish Times Newspaper and discuss Fashion in the noughties, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. I’m really enjoying the research about this particular subject and more of that later.

One thing that has been bothering me for a while is the dressing up of little girls as little women. Something I find distasteful and downright wrong. In my opinion children should be allowed to enjoy their childhood, get messy and not become mini clones of their mothers. Little girls love to ‘dress up’ of course and I remember we had a dressing up box at home where my mum’s old clothes, shoes and junk jewellery were encased. I spent lots of time enjoying the games played from the contents of that box.
Suri Cruise is a prime example of this ‘lamb dressed as mutton’ trend and I can’t help thinking that not only are her parents robbing her of something very precious but the message this gives out will ensure lots of other little girls may follow suit.

Well Heeled little Girl

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The wonderful thing about this business is that you don’t know what is going to happen each day. You have plans and lots of ‘must do’ lists but the rest is a movable fashion feast. Today was a prime example. It started with a phone call from a good customer whose stylist needed a Yummie Tummie Shapewear top for a fashion shoot at the Morgan hotel in an hours time. Stylists sometimes leave things to the last minute so I found myself racing to Brown Thomas (borrowing a top) and running to the Morgan Hotel. Mission accomplished but a voice mail which I listened to while thinking about getting a coffee was from the Irish Times magazine who needed some Falke tights for a feature shoot tomorrow. Another mad dash back to the showroom and another stylist got her tights!

In between I did a quick run around Arnotts to check out the new Falke consultant and see if the stock had arrived on the floor. No sign of either but as I jostled between hoards of shoppers (which I was delighted to see) I spotted some great chunky knitwear from Kookai on the first floor. I don’t know what it is about knits but I love them. Maybe it’s the comfort factor, like custard and rice pudding. Memories of childhood and wrapping up warm. Perfect for this time of year when here in Ireland it is bitterly cold. The Kookai website doesn’t do their offer any favours with poor photography but for my money they have the best of the chunky knits in all the medium priced ranges.

Chunky Knits by nickysragtales featuring Kookai