If there’s one fabric that ticks all the boxes when it comes to sustainability, durability and beauty, it is linen, and more and more Irish designers are using this fabric in their collections. At Kindred of Ireland, Amy Anderson’s gold linen coats are showstoppers. Jennifer Slattery has moved from table linen to tumbled linen clothing. The Tweed Project, Stable of Ireland, Cleo Prickett, Feri Design and the Linen Shirt Company are all using the fabric, and more recently Amo & Pax, where Amanda Pratt is making shirts in checked linen of all colours.
The linen comes from Emblem Weavers in Wexford, where the Conway family have long associations with the yarn, which they dye, weave and wash. According to Stephen Conway, their sales of linen have gone up more than 250 per cent in the last six years. Elsewhere, Magee in Donegal weave linen and use it in their summer collections in oversize shirts, coats and trousers.
Latest to use the fabric is Triona in Donegal, with its first summer collection incorporating it with lightweight Italian wools and tweeds woven by Hanlys in Tipperary. They have called it the Coastal Awakening Collection, and the colours echo those of the land and seascapes, from soft sky blues and greens to pinks, sandy neutrals and earthy browns.
Designer Emma Quinn, a Limerick School of Art and Design graduate from Bellaghy, Co Derry, has been with the company for 10 years, after Triona opened a shop in Donegal town. “Before this [collection] we weren’t doing seasons,” she says. “It was all year round, but we wanted to broaden our horizons and attract new customers.” Quinn, who is based in Barcelona but travels back and forth to Donegal, says the experience of living abroad “has opened my eyes to the heritage of Donegal, but being in Barcelona as well has given me the best of both worlds – when I think of the rugged textures of tweed and then the new lighter fabrics like linen and lightweight wools.”
The collection consists of 19 pieces in different weights and textures. At the factory in Ardara, loom samples are handwoven by Denis Mulhern, a fifth-generation handweaver and founder of the company. Finer wools cannot be woven on their machines, so they have used lightweight Italian fabrics and linens from Baird McNutt, Ulster Weavers and Spence Bryson, refreshing popular tweed styles in linen.
There are oversize blazers, new boyfriend jackets and high-waisted wide-leg trousers. Everything is designed to be interchangeable. “We wanted to give it an ocean vibe,” says Quinn.
Find the collection in Ardara and Donegal town shops, Flying Solo in New York, Wolf & Badger in London and online at trionadesign.com
Production and styling by Paula Hughes, photography by Eilish McCormick, hair and make-up by Mary Ellen Darby
