sustainable vision for the future.Once a small-scale cottage industry with a rich history in fabrics and intricate patterns but not exactly, Ireland’s homegrown clothing industry has evolved in recent years. Customers are moving away from top-line trends towards high fashion, bespoke pieces with an emphasis on local fabrics and textiles. But its future remains unclear.
For years there has been an impression that Irish wool is not suitable for clothing – that it is too coarse – but Daly says this need not be the case with Ériu’s luxury blend of wool from Romney and Blue-Facedbreeds: soft with a wonderful lustre and drape. They’ve also created a farm-to-yarn network across Ireland that offers farmers ten times the standard rate for their fleeces, which is then spun by Donegal Yarns.
“It’s unfair that machinists, who are the real talent behind a brand, do not have any formal accreditation for the skill they acquire over a long period of time. Where designers have the opportunity to get a degree or a diploma, machinists, even if they’ve been working in the industry for 30 years, have no piece of paper to certify their skills or industry qualifications,” she says.
Opting to look at her business holistically, Aoife McNamara spent a year working to earn B Corp status, which verifies a business’ high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. Such a system would potentially be much easier for start-ups than for existing businesses. “If a framework was in place when people were starting up their businesses, it would make it so much easier for them to adopt sustainable practices from the beginning.”