A look back at Irish fashion in 2014

The Council of Irish Fashion Designers' chairperson Eddie Shanahan looks back at a year of achievement and recognition for the CIFD and its members.

The year 2014 was a very positive one for the Council of Irish Fashion Designers. The organisation grew both in terms of membership and international recognition.

Our seventeen designer members work across a variety of fashion disciplines - couture, ready to wear, millinery and accessories. They comprise some of the established names on the Irish scene alongside the best emerging talent, including names and labels like Niamh O'Neill, David O'Malley, Sophie Rieu, Delphine Grandjouan, We Are Islanders and Umit Kutluk.

One of our members – Richard Lewis – celebrated 50 years in business in 2014 and was honoured with a special exhibition at the 'Irish Designers Create' project in Brown Thomas. Rebecca Marsden, Lisa Ryder, Sean Byrne and Honor Fitzsimons also featured in 'Create 2014'. Their selection highlighting the ability of Irish fashion designers to sell side by side with the world's leading labels.

Rebecca Marsden also won both the Most Innovative Designer and Most Innovative Fashion Collection awards at the Irish Fashion Innovation Awards in April.

Several other members including Heidi Higgins, Emma Kate Manley and Niamh O'Neill performed well in the Local Enterprise Offices Young Entrepreneur of The Year program.

While quality in design, fabric, finish and detail is a common theme, members' collections appeal to a broad constituency of customers of varying lifestyles and lifestages.

The CIFD fashion designers offer choices from fun and experimental knitwear through sharp tailoring, dramatic red carpet and occasion wear, to luxurious and romantic wedding dresses.

Our milliners – Mark Burke, Martha Lynn, Aoife Kirwan and Aisling Ahern have all enjoyed a remarkable year where their creativity and craftsmanship captured imaginations at home and abroad, from the Curragh to Ascot.

In June the CIFD was invited to participate, with 19 other European countries, in the first ever European Fashion Summit. The event was held in Brussels and supported by the European Commission. It opened up opportunities for dialogue and international co-operation on a variety of issues and challenges for the fashion industry including the loss of skills and production in Europe.

We continued our education program for members with a series of workshops on business and product development and launched a Resource Guide for them also. This is a useful directory that includes information on suppliers and services relevant to the day to day running of a fashion business.

The CIFD Outreach Program for fashion colleges improved its reach in 2014 and we hope to dramatically extend this in 2015. The program provides free designer talks and workshops on the business of fashion for colleges running recognised fashion courses in Ireland.

Iconic Irish brand Peter Mark continued its support for the Council, hosting a special media event at its South William Street offices in October where we had our best media turnout and reaction to date. Based on the success of the event consideration being given to running 2 similar events next year.

The CIFD was also admitted to membership of the Design & Crafts Council of Ireland in 2014. We hope to stage an Irish Fashion Summit, for fashion professionals, as our contribution to Irish Design 2015.

Confidence is slowly returning to the market as the year ends. We believe Irish designers have a special opportunity to engage savvy consumers looking for quality, considered creativity and a point of difference from the ubiquitous offer on the high street.

We look forward to the positive initiative that is Irish Design 2015 and expect that some of our members may be able to create new jobs in the coming year. We also look forward to welcoming new members to our network where they can both avail of and contribute to a variety of supports.

Eddie Shanahan

David O Malley ENTROPY 14 from Samuel Foxton on Vimeo.