Hats off to Fiona

FIONA Mangan, a native of Ennis and based in Athenry, set up her millinery label less than one year ago. Since then, her works have been getting her noticed and she was recently shortlisted as a finalist for the second annual Golden Egg Fashion Innovation Awards.

With three young children and a busy career as an architect, Fiona rarely found the time or energy to work at the one thing she was passionate about; fashion design and hats. The recent downturn in the economy resulted in redundancy in 2008 and after a spell in catering, she decided to hone her creative talents in her life-long passion. Prior to her career in architecture, she attended Grafton Academy where she carried out a dress design course focusing on millinery. Constantly upgrading her skills, in 2009 she completed further millinery classes in GMIT Galway and more recently by attending private millinery tuition.
“After I was made redundant, I set up a catering business before I went back to making hats. I enjoyed the catering but ultimately, I wasn’t going to stick at it for ever so I went at the hats full-time. It has been a busy year for me. A friend of mine owned a boutique in Athenry, Gúna Geal. I put some of my hats in her window and my business began to grow through word of mouth originally. I get some business now from my website and some from my Facebook page. I have a studio in my house now and show pieces there. I had a lot of people coming from Clare last year for weddings and that. I would have got a lot of that from word of mouth and with the new motorway to Gort, Athenry is a lot easier to access,” she commented.
Fiona traces her love of millinery and design back to her early years in Ennis. She attributes her basic needlework skills – sewing, knitting, crochet and even macramé to her grandmother from Donegal who was a seamstress to the nuns at the Holy Family School, Ennis. “I am grateful for all the crafting skills that I was taught in primary school, it is something that is sadly lacking in the education system today,” she stated.
“Every day, I kind of think I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t got that from the nuns, they were brilliant,” she added.
“I only did home economics for one year at secondary school but I still managed to get involved in a craft exchange programme to France. I did some of the sewing for that. It was always something I enjoyed,” Fiona recalled.
Fiona’s passion for form, composition and structure came from her career in architecture with a lot of her inspiration owing to the vintage styles of the ’30s and ’40s. It is by adding contemporary influences that each piece becomes a truly original and one-off creation. She uses traditional millinery techniques along with both traditional and unconventional materials to create contemporary pieces.
“I love the freedom of millinery. Coming from working as an architect, there are so many regulations and rules and in millinery, you can just do anything if it looks good. You can really express yourself in something someone is going to wear rather than being tied down by building and planning regulations and whatever else,” she commented.
“Before being made redundant, I was coming to a point where I was a bit disillusioned. It was hard to make a career of it with three kids. I wanted something that was all mine and I could do it myself in my time and the architecture for me was maybe coming to the end of its term anyway,” Fiona acknowledged.
Fiona works primarily with sinnamay in the summer time and felt in the winter but is not limited to the two media.
“I like every aspect of millinery. I like working with sinnamay and felt and other materials that are not typical hat materials. I pick up things all the time that I can used in millinery in boutique shops and ordinary shops and I like working with beads too,” she said.
The fashion innovation awards presented by Golden Egg Productions is a big step for the Ennis woman. It is a contest for fashion designers throughout Ireland, to showcase the highest expression of creativity from the most innovative designers in Ireland. The judging panel includes some of the most respected names in the Irish fashion industry including fashion guru, Eddie Shanahan, and The Irish Independent’s fashion editor, Barbara Power.
Members of the public are invited to view the finalists in all categories of the Fashion Innovation Awards on www.goldenegg.ie and to cast their vote.
“Being shortlisted for Accessory Designer of the Year came as something of a surprise to say the least. To be up there with some of the longer established designers is an honour,” said the budding designer.
The finalists’ fashion show and awards ceremony will take place in the Radisson Blu Hotel Galway on April 5. This year, the public can cast their vote in the four categories by logging onto www.goldenegg.ie. Ultimately, the winning designs will be chosen by the panel of judges on the night of the awards.
For now, Fiona has yet to start work on a fabulous headpiece that she will wear herself on the night. Clare women got the opportunity to view her work close up this week when she took part in the St Flannan’s College fashion show, in The West County Hotel in Ennis on Thursday.