'Skin Deep', Sunday Independent - 13th Jan 2008
Sunday Independent, Lifestyle, January 13 2008
Skin Deep
Constance Harris
Spring/summer 2008 fashions may be in the shops right now, but the fact is we still have another few months of really cold weather left. Now, more than ever, you need some real luxury and warmth to get you through.
Roisin Gartland is undoubtedly the leading designer in Ireland when it comes to shearling and skins. She has a spiritual understanding of her fabrics. Her method is to spend time feeling her raw material and then, when she has come to that place of complete understanding, she starts working with the skins to fashion them into clothes.
"I think the earth is so far gone we need to come back to natural ways," she says of her ethos.
The results of her organic approach are garments for both women and men that are beautiful, interesting and often a little wild.
"Men tend to go for classic pieces and they love Japanese-hide leather, probably because it is lightweight, soft and can be dressed up or down. Women are very tactile. They love the feel of Merino shearling," she says.
Colours tend to be constant -- ebony, mocha, vanilla, tan. Skins don't date and rarely wear out, unless you dry clean them, that is. Dry cleaning is the kiss of death to a beautiful sheepskin.
Roisin works mainly to order producing bespoke, hand-sewn, hand-cut pieces from her studio in Dublin. Her Limited Edition collection, which consists of just 100 pieces, is sold exclusively in the Design Centre, Dublin, at Liberties in Westport and at In Vogue in Limerick.
There is a new lease of life in Roisin's work and it shows. Despite success, in 2003 Roisin packed in her fashion business to follow her heart's desire to create art. It had unexpected results: "When I stopped working, life began," she tells me. "It really is a truthful cliché. I made room for things to come into my life and they did."
Roisin worked hard for three years preparing her exhibition, called The Hook and Eye, about the journey in search of harmony and balance. It was during this period she met Stephen, who is now her husband.
"Our relationship is the best thing in my life. It has transformed me. I struggled for so long on my own, being the one where the buck stops -- with business, everything -- and it sucks the life out of you. Now, with Stephen, everything is shared and it is so much more natural and life has never been better."
Roisin now combines art and fashion. "I spend 80 per cent of my time in creativity," she says.
And the result? Wonderful garments.
- Photography by Mike Bunn
