Orla Kiely
| Orla Kiely | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1963 (age 53–54) |
| Residence | London, England |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Other names | The Ultimate Artist |
| Education | Masters' degree |
| Alma mater | Royal College of Art |
| Occupation | Fashion designer |
| Notable work | Pear and stem design floral flowers acorn design |
| Home town | Dublin, Ireland |
| Spouse(s) | 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 |
Orla Kiely (born 1963) is an Irish fashion designer based in London. She began her career designing hats, and moved on to design work on handbags and a variety of other items including kitchenware and cars. She received a master's degree from the Royal College of Art. She worked with several companies before setting up her own business.
Kiely credits her grandmother with being the creative influence in her life. Her father was an accountant; her mother studied science before being forced to give up work by her employers after she married.
Kiely qualified as a textile designer at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin and moved to New York to work for a wallpaper and fabric designer. She moved to England to work for Esprit while studying for a Master's at the Royal College of Art in London, primarily in knitwear. In her exit show at the RCA, she displayed a range of hats which were purchased by Harrods. She did design work for Marks & Spencer and Habitat.
She began designing handbags after her father noted during her first London Fashion Week that everyone was carrying a handbag, but no one was wearing a hat. In the late 1990s, she had the idea to laminate cloth for handbags: "At the time, no one was doing anything like it. Laminated fabric, in those days, meant tablecloths."
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. Kiely was consulting for other companies and designing her own collection at the weekend, which she would give to me to organize. 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!" Kiely showed in London Fashion Week and secured her first export orders. The following year, they took the collection to Premiere Class.
...
Wikipedia