London-based Irish fashion designer Paul Costelloe, official dresser of the European Ryder Cup wives and girlfriends, starts the first of his two-day fittings with them in the K Club in Straffan, Co Kildare, next Monday.
Each woman is being supplied with a wardrobe of 18 pieces, including rainwear and umbrellas. They can pick and choose what they want to wear at the opening ceremony next Thursday and on other occasions during the competition. A tailoring team will be on hand to make any necessary adjustments.
The collection has been designed to offer various options in jackets, blazers, skirts, trousers and shirts in the classic Costelloe style, along with some heavy-gauge Scottish cashmere knitwear.
"There are 17 women and we have to try to fit them and make sure they are all happy," Costelloe told The Irish Times yesterday, speaking from Milan where he is working on his winter 2007 collection.
Unlike the US Ryder Cup wives and girlfriends, who all wear the same outfits, Costelloe's idea is "to give a sense of continuity rather than uniformity".
The collection draws from a unity of style and a harmony of colour that includes shades such as aubergine, old rose, pale blue and the season's ultra-fashionable grey.
Costelloe admits to being a "dreadful golfer", a sport he finds "boring", but has worked hard over a number of months on this high-profile collection with Glen Woosnam, wife of team captain Ian, who asked him to design it.
The collection will go on sale in Brown Thomas after the event.
The fact that the Ryder Cup clashes with London Fashion Week means that Costelloe will not be showing on the catwalk there next week, but instead will preview his spring collection in Spain in October.
Next Tuesday, however, in a dedicated marquee on the racetrack at Ryder Cup Race Day at the Curragh, he will introduce his current autumn/winter collection at a private lunchtime Brown Thomas fashion show.
As for golfers themselves, all the US team will sport Ralph Lauren, par for the course in every sense as he is America's top designer. For the European team members, clothes have been supplied by Paolo Canali, the well-known Italian suitmaker, through Louis Copeland and his tailors.
