Kaitlin battles to be ‘one to watch’

A WEST Clare designer will feature at the Irish Fashion

Innovation Awards in the Radisson Blu Hotel,Galway later this month.
Kaitlin McGrath from Farrihy, Kilkee was shortlisted in this competition last year and won a prestigious award for her final-year collection, Still Grew the Beat of Our Wings. She was also named the overall winner of the Contour 2012 Fashion Degree Show at the Limerick School of Art and Design/LIT Gallery.
Kaitlin is a past pupil of Scoil Réalt na Mara, Kilkee and St Joseph’s Community College, Kilkee and Limerick School of Art and Design.
Katilin has been shortlisted in the “Ones To Watch 2013” category where she faces competition from Galway’s Zoe Wong, as well as Riona Treacy, Honor Fitzsimons, Jane McKenna, Rebecca Marsden, Angela Beaumont and fresh from the Oscars, Laura Jayne Halton.
Galway designers are well represented at the awards, which will take place on Thursday, March 28. Milliner Mary White, jewellery designers Aoife McGough and Lynsey de Burca will share the catwalk with some of Ireland’s hottest young designers.
They have made the shortlist of 30 aspiring designers who will showcase their top designs in the hope of being crowned the winner across one of four categories: Accessory Designer of the Year, Jewellery Designer of the Year, Millinery Designer of the Year and Fashion Designer of the Year.
Students Fiona Bulfin, Sabrina Fallon, Aislinn Kerr and Claudia Taheny from Galway Technical Institute will also showcase their designs in the Student Designer of the Year category, alongside Limerick School of Art and Design students Tatsiana Coquerel, Michael Stewart, Svitlana Andriyets and Ciara Erin O’Toole, as well as entries from the National College of Art and Design and University of Ulster.
Awards organiser Patricia McCrossan of Goldenegg Productions believes the awards offer an unrivalled opportunity for the work of young designers to be shown to a jury of fashion-design experts.
“For some years now Galway has been a creative hub for design. There is a vibrant fashion scene in the city and county, particularly with our milliners, who have been attracting headlines nationally and internationally with their work.
“The Goldenegg Irish Fashion Innovation Awards were established to give visibility, support and a voice to young design talent and I’m proud to see our Galway designers up there with the crème de la crème of fashion design. I wish our young designers every success on the night and with their future careers.”
The adjudicators on the night are Eddie Shanahan, chairperson at the Council of Irish Fashion Designers; Lisa Brady, Sunday Business Post fashion journalist and Patricia McCrossan, managing director of Golden Egg Productions.
In a show-stopping finale to the night, award winning French-born, Kerry-based Delphine Grandjouan, who was the recipient of the Irish Brides Magazine Bridal Designer of the Year Award and also the Kerry Designer Award, will display her new collection.