Franziska Hensel talks to up-and-coming designer
Áine Kilbride
It can’t be easy, being a young designer,
fresh out of
college, facing a country knee-deep in recession.
With the prospect
of having to use those talents, which have
been nurtured, but hidden, behind the walls of the Grafton Academy.
Making a name and living for yourself, is a whole other
issue. Many young designers face an uncertain future in a country not
well
known for its fashion business; including Áine Kilbride.
This girl, dressed and acting much like any other student or
young urbanite, is something very special.
She won a DCU Fashion show only weeks before I met her,
something she says was completely surreal. She will also work under the
tutelage of a design team at Avoca, for the next six months, and is
creating
her own ten-piece collection for Om Diva as part of the prize.
She is no novice to entering design competitions.
In the
last number of years, Áine has entered everything and become a finalist
in the
UCD, DIT and DBS fashion shows, all in 2008, the Gillette Venus Embrace
Your
Dream Dress Competition also 2008. She was a finalist in the DCU
fashion show this year and
last, along with becoming a finalist in the Nokia Young Fashion
Designer Awards
in the last two years. Entering competitions seems a natural process.
“As a designer you want to get your stuff out there, even if
you are just in it; it’s exposure,” she remarks with surprising
assuredness.
What is most striking, apart from her talent as a
designer,
is an awareness of the business and her own place in it.
Though barely out of college, she has a maturity and savvy
business-sense of someone many years her senior.
She timidly professes that her future goals are: ”to
continue doing what I love and at some stage have people wearing my
clothes. I
just would love people to get enjoyment out of my clothes.”
She may well be further along that path than many of her
peers.
She explains how her collection for Om Diva has
ended up
being a natural step from her winning designs and will focus on the
work of
Gustav Klimt.
The
ten-piece collection will consist of separates,
something she is doing by herself.
Is she nervous of the entire process?
“Yeah, it’ll be pretty tough, but hopefully it will all work
out in the end. There will be a lot of sleepless nights though,” she
giggles,
perhaps a little daunted by the task at hand.
Even though Áine is aware of how incredibly
unusual it is
for her, and how lucky she is in this economy, there is a modesty about
her and
it becomes quite obvious that she is realistic about her situation.
“I am extremely lucky that it all fell together in a week
with the DCU show and Avoca.”
Although
we are all facing unsure times ahead, and Áine
herself doesn’t know where the future will see her six months down the
line
when her run working for Avoca will be up, but she is still optimistic.
“Even if I’m not successful, as long as people enjoy my
clothes, I’ll be happy,” she beams.
henself@tcd.ie
