Mary Grant set up her fashion business over 20 years ago in Kildare after studying in the Barbara Burke College of Fashion. She has weathered the many challenges that has entailed while also rearing three children, now 21, 18 and 16. This hardworking and determined mother who designs from a studio in her back garden attributes her longevity and success in this testing industry to "never giving up and giving people what they wanted". Her easygoing style with its mix of knit, fluid tunics, dungarees and trousers has always been based on comfort and satisfying market demands. They are, for the most part, the kind of clothes she wears herself and have attracted an appreciative and loyal fan base allowing her a certain safety in her design approach.
Last year she opened her first Dublin shop in the Powerscourt Centre. This season she has thrown caution somewhat to the wind by creating a capsule collection which, she says, "is what I want to do instead of everybody else telling me what to do. Up to now I have been afraid to make the kind of clothes with the same quality as our customers have come to expect but considering nobody else's wants but my own." She adds that Shelly Corkery of Brown Thomas has been a great encouragement. The pressure to repeat what people like can often stifle creativity.
Italian knitwear
Called Urban, the collection (photographed by Grant herself) is strong on knitwear made by a small family company in Italy and includes her familiar pinafores and dungarees, but with the addition of lightweight faux fur coats and skirts with flirtatious shots of tulle underneath worn with Doc Martens and over-the-knee socks. “I want to have fun with clothes and hate when people leave things for ‘good’ wear. I always look at what people are wearing on the street and that’s the kind of style I would be drawn to,” she says. One of the items featured here is a hand-crochet top that she made herself worn with a dramatic ballerina-length tulle skirt, “pure indulgence”, she says.
Elsewhere the mix of boyfriend-black jumper, cropped trousers and bovver boots is a familiar street combo bound to appeal to her fans. While she has kept to a neutral palette of grey, white, cream and black, later in the season she will be adding some green and red prints to liven up the collection. It is sold in her Powerscourt shop in Dublin, at 7 Cutlery Road, Newbridge, Co Kildare and online at marygrant.com
