| Orla Kiely | |
|---|---|
| Residence | London, UK |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Education | Masters' degree |
| Alma mater | Royal College of Art |
| Occupation | Fashion designer |
| Notable works | Pear and stem design |
| Home town | Dublin, Ireland |
| Spouse | Dermott Rowan |
| Children | Robert and Hamish |
| Awards | Irish Tatler Woman of the Year UK Fashion Export Awards (twice) UK Fashion Export Gold Award |
| Website | |
| www.orlakiely.com | |
Orla Kiely is an Irish fashion designer based in London. Although she started work on hat design, she has since moved into design work on handbags and her designs have been featured on a variety of other items including kitchenware and cars. She received a Master's degree from the Royal College of Art where Harrods purchased her exit collection. She worked with a variety of companies before setting up her own business.
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Orla credits her grandmother with being the creative influence in her life. Her father was an accountant while her mother studied science before being forced to give up work by her employers when she got married.[1]
Kiely qualified as a textile designer from the National College of Art and Design in Dublin and moved to New York to work for a wallpaper and fabric designer.[2] She moved to England to work for Esprit, while undertaking a Masters at the Royal College of Art in London,[3] primarily in knitwear.[2] She displayed a range of hats in her exit show at the RCA, which were purchased by Harrods. She did design work for Marks & Spencer and Habitat.[3]
She moved into handbags after her father noted during her first London Fashion Week that everyone was carrying a handbag, but no one was wearing a hat.[4] In the late 90s, the idea of laminating cloth for handbags came to her, "At the time, no one was doing anything like it. Laminated fabric, in those days, meant tablecloths."[2]
Together with her husband, Dermott Rowan, she formed The Orla Kiely Partnership in 1997. Her husband explained in an interview, "Nothing was planned, the whole thing started by accident. Orla was consulting for other companies and designing her own collection at the weekend, which she would give to me to organise. We had this chaotic situation where deliveries of her designs would come into our apartment and if I didn't get them out by 5pm, there was nowhere to sit!"[3] Orla Kiely showed in London Fashion Week and secured her first export orders. The following year, they took the collection to Premiere Class.[5]
She was featured on a stamp issued by the Republic of Ireland in July 2010, along with fellow designers Philip Treacy, John Rocha and Paul Costelloe. It is an 82c stamp, showing her name in large orange letters at the top along with an image of a handbag with her leaf design against a white background.[6] Her fashion line has been seen on actresses such as Kirsten Dunst[3] and Alexa Chung.
She has been awarded the title of Visiting Professor of Textiles at the Royal College of Art.[1]
Described by The Guardian as "the Queen of Prints",[7] she first started work on hats, but soon moved into design work on handbags.[4] Her designs have since been used for a variety of other objects, including kitchenware,[8] stationery, furniture,[3] wallpaper,[1] and a range of Citroën DS3 cars. The cars feature Kiely's design work on the roofs, rear tailgate and a signature in the middle of the rear spoiler. The interior features pattern work on the carpet mats, and on the seat headrests.[9]
She has also designed a refillable water bottle, called the "Wottle". A joint collaboration between her and the water filter company Brita, the bottle features her green-stem design. The bottles are made from high-density polyethylene, a recyclable plastic material, and are produced by a company in Suffolk.[10]
Her business operates out of a three-storey building in Clapham, South London, near to her home. Her studio occupies the middle floor, chosen specifically because of the availability of light.[7]
She is married to Dermott Rowan, and they have two sons, Robert and Hamish. They own a Labradoodle named Olive.[6][7]