The Gloss Magazine

capital story: a dublin house restored / blues & bootcamps & brilliant beauty

MAGAZINE march 2011 / t4.50

onth with m y r e v e w no Es risH Tim

THE i

emotional extremes the Mother-Daughter equation

going back for more a tale of prescription Drug aDDiction

a riot of brights lose your inhibitions about wearing colour

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OBSERVER 8 Gloss-ip BOOKS, BLOGS AND A SEXY SPIN DOCTOR 14 20 Questions ANN HORAN’S LIFE LESSONS SHOPPING 17 Hunting A CLASSIC COMBINATION UPDATED

18 Gathering ALLEZ LES BLEUS! 20 A Good Look FOOLPROOF STYLE 22 Deep Blush THE HOT NEW HUE 24 Euro Zone CASUAL CHIC 26 Wardrobe Update OUR SPRING WISH LIST 28 Paris Match FRENCH DRESSING COMES TO IRELAND FEATURES 30 Menu du Jour POLLY DEVLIN’S MOST MEMORABLE MEALS 34 A Little Help From Our Friends THE BUSY BODIES WHO DON’T KNOW WHEN TO STOP 36 The Mother of All Relationships EXPLORING THE MOTHER-DAUGHTER BOND 40 Open Season BEWARE THE FRIEND POACHER 54 The Way Back HOW ONE MAN BEAT HIS PRESCRIPTION DRUG ADDICTION FASHION 46 Colour Chaos A RIOT OF BRIGHTS BEAUTY 57 Fox By Name ARMANI’S SMOULDERING LOOK 58 Beauty Buffet WHAT’S NEW HOME 61 Home Rules SMART DESIGN IN A CITY HOME 70 This Glossy Lifestyle THE BEST OF IRISH FOOD & WINE 67 Say Fromage CLODAGH MC KENNA’S PASSION FOR CHEESE 68 This Entertaining Life DINNER PARTIES WITH A PRO plus TRY A NEW WINE TRAVEL 72 Man In A Suitcase WHEN FLYING WAS FABULOUS FITNESS 74 Field Work BRAVE A BOOT CAMP THIS GLOSSY LIFE 76 Une Bonne Addresse WE VISIT THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR AT HOME 80 A View From The Jeep CONNIE’S OFF TO THE WEST WING

She Does, She Doesn’t HELEN MIRREN, FEISTY DAME

2 | March 2011 | T H E G L O S S M A G A Z I N E

E D I TO R

SA RA H MC D ONNEL L ST Y L E E D I TO R

A ISL INN COFFEY A R T D I R E C TO R

L AURA MERRIGA N A DV E R T I S I N G SA L E S D I R E C TO R

TRACY ORMISTON CO N T R I B U T I N G E D I TO R S

POL LY D EVL IN, LYNN ENRIGH T, A NTONIA H A RT, CATH ERINE H EA NEY, KATY MC GUINNESS, MA RY MIL L ER, AOIFE O’BRIEN, PETER O’BRIEN, SA RA H OW ENS, TH ERESE Q UINN, ROSE MA RY ROCH E, LUIS ROD RIGUEZ , NATA SH A SH ERL ING CO N T R I B U T I N G P H OTO G R A P H E R S

JUA N A L GA RIN, SA RA H D OYL E, NEIL GAVIN, RENATO GH IA ZZA , OL IVIA GRA H A M, NEIL H URL EY, L ISA L OF TUS, BA RRY MC CA L L , JOA NNE MURPH Y, L IA M MURPH Y, A MEL IA STEIN, SUK I STUA RT THE GLOSS welcomes letters from readers, emailed to letters@thegloss.ie.

THE GLOSS is published by Gloss Publications Ltd, The Courtyard, 40 Main Street, Blackrock, Co Dublin, 01 275 5130. Subscriptions Hotline: 01 275 5130. 12 issues delivered directly to your address: Ireland: t49.50. UK and EU: t80. Rest of world: t115. Printed by Polestar, Chantry, UK. Colour origination by Typeform. Copyright 2011 Gloss Publications Ltd. All rights reserved.

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© Clinique Laboratories, LLC *According to research conducted by Euromonitor International, Clinique is the leading premium foundation brand in the world based on unit sales calendar year 2009.

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H MARC

Norma Smurfit’s PRAGMATIC APPROACH to fundraising … World Book Night is on Saturday ... Tired politicos at the Leviathan event and just who is behind the most PIQUANT BLOG of the moment? she tells us. “These days you have to come up with ideas

time on their hands these days, but

that involve a lot of people contributing not very much.”

everywhere we go the talk is of

  

reading and publishing. Everyone

The recent DAVID MCWILLIAMS/ALASTAIR

is sharing links to exceptional

CAMPBELL Leviathan event in The Button Factory

articles – LAWRENCE WRIGHT’s

attracted the usual politicos, to be sure – rugby player DENIS HICKIE asked astute questions – but also a

blistering treatise on filmmaker

PAUL HAGGIS and the Church of Scientology from The

contingent of women (and a few men) who confessed

New Yorker last month being a case in point. Amazon’s

to caring not a fig for the talk of WMDs and the state

announcement that their sales of e-books now exceed

of the economy but were more interested in ... er ...

the sale of paperbacks is misleading, though – they

thinking person’s crumpet. The consensus was that

are an internet company after all – but it is a market

McWilliams looked rumpled and wrecked, while

that’s growing fast with overall estimates showing

Campbell was taller than expected and very sexy – and

that e-books now make up approximately 10 per cent

revealed that TONY BLAIR used to call him Keano,

of all book sales. Self-publishing too is on the rise,

which he took as a semi-compliment. His suit had

and it’s not all about vanity. AMANDA HOCKING – a

a fancy lining and intriguing little slits on the outer

26-year-old YA (Young Adult) author based in Austin,

ankle, indicating a taste for bespoke that – while it may

Minnesota – sold 450,000 digital download copies

not sit easily with the terraces at his beloved Burnley

of her books (priced from 99 cents to $2.99) during

FC – the former spin doctor appears to have acquired

the month of January alone. London agent JONNY

in the post-Blair era. Campbell said that his former

GELLER – head of books at Curtis Brown, where Irish

boss had become a tad grander since leaving office: “I

woman SHEILA CROWLEY is also based – tweeted that

suppose you forget what it’s like to open a door.” In the

SPRING INTO ACTION: The tireless Norma Smurfit.

debate that followed, snappily-dressed Dragon SEAN GALLAGHER was eloquent, while NIAMH BRENNAN

months. And he should know. Geller is one of the great and the good of the publishing world, involved

Good to hear, then, that he is the recipient of this

of the DDDA looked equally downbeat. Some observed

in the inaugural World Book Night book-giving event

year’s Ireland Fund of Monaco Literary Bursary, which

gloomily that BRENDAN BUTLER of IBEC was dressed

on March 5, the brainchild of JAMIE BYNG, MD of

will see him taking up a one-month residency at The

for the cattle mart rather than the international

publishing house Canongate. The event will see a

Princess Grace Irish Library in Monaco.

negotiations of which he spoke. Those who had

million copies of 25 selected books, including Cloud

  

purchased VIP tickets were less than impressed by the

Atlas by DAVID MITCHELL and Rachel’s Holiday by our

If there’s one fundraiser who merits the over-used tag

own MARIAN KEYES, being given away by 20,000

‘tireless’, it’s NORMA SMURFIT. She just doesn’t give up.

have already been wheeled out at a couple of other

members of the public. Author SARAH WEBB says she

Her Spring Clean For Charity event was a great success

events earlier in the day.

quality of the canapés, which looked as if they might

is honoured to have been picked as one of the Dublin

last year, capturing the mood of the moment. Basically

givers, as has our own contributing editor ANTONIA

it’s a posh jumble sale, but with glamorous stallholders

Somebody who’ll have seen more than a lifetime’s

HART. World Book Night isn’t universally popular

such as BILL CULLEN, JACKIE LAVIN, LORRAINE

worth of nibbles during her term of office is President

though – some independent booksellers in the UK have

KEANE and LISA FITZPATRICK, it’s definitely more

MARY MC ALEESE. What does an ex-President do

  

claimed that far from spreading the joy of reading,

exciting than your typical church hall offering. Last

when their tenure comes to an end? MARY ROBINSON

World Book Night will simply flood the market with

year, early birds nabbed Chanel and Prada bags and

headed to the UN, but Mary McAleese is going to

free books and devalue the work of authors in the eyes

vintage furs for a song, Norma told us, and one savvy

Rome. Her plan, according to a Very Good Source, is

of the public, further reinforcing the notion that those

shopper snapped up dingy candelabra that turned out

to study for a Licentiate in Canon Law. Through Latin,

involved in the book trade are there to provide a public

to be worth substantially more than the price she paid.

no less.

service and that authors, publishers and booksellers

It’s back again on March 13 in the RDS, with Hibernian

don’t deserve or need to make a living.

Colleges coughing up for sponsorship and all proceeds

These days it’s all about information. The lawyers

going to the SVP and Focus Ireland, via Norma’s own

and bankers are brimming over with delicious gossip

  

  

Author and journalist ROBERT O’BYRNE, author of

Irish Famine Commemoration Fund, the umbrella

that they’re not supposed to share. They have to get it

the recent Dictionary of Living Irish Artists, is one of

charity. “I wouldn’t dream of trying to hold a ball now

off their chests somehow, though. The blog with the

the most hard-working and prolific writers we know.

8 | March 2011 | T H E G L O S S M A G A Z I N E

– nobody would come and you can’t get sponsorship,”

most inside of inside tracks is (continued on page 12)

NUMBER 1 0 ORMOND QUAY; WWW.NO10DU BLIN.COM.

we’ll be seeing plenty more of this over the coming

PHOTOG RAPH BY SIOBHAN BYRNE; SH OT ON LOCATION AT

P

erhaps it’s that people have more

shop tommy.com

GLOSS-IP www.namawinelake.wordpress.com. Speculation in media circles as to the identity of the very well-informed person behind Nama Wine Lake is rife – it’s clearly someone with a lot of time on his or her hands and some axes to grind – but their cover has yet to be blown.    The first event of 2011’s THE GLOSS and Moët & Chandon Cinema Club was a treat – a screening of Valentino: The Last Emperor, a fabulously stylish documentary about the iconic designer, at Denzille Lane Cinema. We asked designer PETER O’BRIEN to introduce the movie. While by no means a contemporary of the legendary permatanned designer – the idea of it! – O’Brien was at Rochas in Paris

The Pleasures of Provence

when Valentino, or Val as he was known in the biz, was at the very height of his powers. “Every other house had to come second to Val,” he said, “he commandeered a floor of the Ritz for fittings and

Book now for the first of our 2011 wine dinners on Wednesday April 13

everyone was kept waiting until he was ready – if you had booked the same model as Valentino, you could be waiting a long time for her to arrive.” For O’Brien, who grew a little nostalgic at the sight of Valentino’s seamstresses, it brought back the world of couture. “For me, those women represent everything that is unique and special about couture, their dedication, their talent. It’s dying out now, and it’s a shame.” We were thrilled to meet readers, including sisters ORLA AND EMER MURRAY – the latter queen of chic patisserie Goya in

SIX-COURSE DINNER ACCOMPANIED

BY SIX WINES

WINES PRESENTED

BY THE GLOSS WINE EDITOR MARY DOWEY

A WONDERFUL EVENING OUT FOR YOU AND YOUR GUESTS

AN INSPIRED GIFT OR A SMART WAY TO ENTERTAIN BUSINESS ASSOCIATES

Galway, who professed an affinity for O’Brien’s love of quality: “I use the same ribbons to trim my wedding cakes as he used at Rochas.” It was a pleasure to introduce the best baker in Ireland (in the words of Bridgestone’s JOHN MC KENNA) to the best designer. After the screening, O’Brien and others, including stylist CATHERINE CONDELL and Tramyard Gallery director CLODAGH HANNON, repaired to The Merrion Hotel for supper. ■

THE GLOSS and MOËT & CHANDON

CINEMA CLUB

1

What better way to launch our programme of dinners for 2011 – the fifth year of THE GLOSS & THE MERRION WINE SOCIETY – than by setting the scene for summer with an ESCAPE TO DREAMY PROVENCE? All lovers of fine wine and fantastic food are welcome to attend. We promise a gourmet evening which is guaranteed to put you in the mood for brighter days ahead.

3 4

2

Our next wine dinner, THE PLEASURES OF PROVENCE, takes place in the Cellar Restaurant of Dublin’s Merrion Hotel, on Wednesday April 13. MARY DOWEY, Wine Editor of THE GLOSS, has a special interest in Provence (and a super website to prove it: www.provencefoodandwine.com). She will present a fantastic line-up of wines from the stylish Southern Rhône and further south. These will be matched with delicious dishes from The Merrion’s executive chef Ed Cooney and his team, reflecting the fresh, vibrant flavours that make modern provençal cooking so enticing.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY RENATO GHIAZZA

For a90, guests will enjoy a superb six-course dinner accompanied by six different wines, each chosen and introduced by MARY DOWEY. As usual, we expect tickets to sell out quickly. The evening begins at 7.30pm. Come and travel with us to the sun-drenched south of France on this glorious gastronomic tour. ● ● ● ● ●

1. Niamh and Ciara Hughes.

2. Peter O’Brien. 3. Natasha McKenna and Cate Kelliher.

4. Holly White. 5. Anita Gibbons and Fionnuala O’Meara.

5

12 | March 2011 | T H E G L O S S M A G A Z I N E

six-course dinner accompanied by six wines wines presented by THE GLOSS Wine Editor Mary Dowey wines can be ordered by the case at very attractive prices gift vouchers available – the perfect present for any wine lover call 01 275 5130 for queries and booking

TICKETS AT t90 INCLUDE A SIX-COURSE DINNER AND SIX WINES. FOR ENQUIRIES AND TICKETS, CALL THE WINE SOCIETY HOTLINE ON 01 275 5130

Over 100 New Labels, 100’s of Events, 100's of New Product launches and Weekly Style Masterclasses...

Plus a host of visiting International Designers, Celebrity Make-up Artists and Fashion, Beauty & Interiors experts in all BROWN THOMAS and BT2 stores.

Check out the diary on BROWNTHOMAS.COM for details of all that's happening at your favourite store.

20 QUESTIONS What’s on your desk at the moment that has no place there?

What has you tossing and turning in the small hours?

A photo of my daughter, Lucy, and myself at the

A million projects and tasks spinning round in

Empire State Building last November – I’d gone

my head.

over to watch her run the marathon. The photo

Do you create order or chaos?

reminds me that anything is possible.

I am an organised person but am also willing

What did you want to be when you grew up?

to let people have a go and make mistakes – not

A teacher. Luckily it didn’t happen, because I

quite chaos perhaps, but not overly controlling.

am not patient with other people’s children and

By nature, are you town or country?

I hate routine.

As a young person, it was town, I couldn’t bear

At school, were you a pleasure to teach?

to be away from the convenience and buzz of

Yes, I was a typical eldest child – an achiever.

city life. Later, I started to appreciate the beauty

What do you listen to on long car journeys?

and peace of the countryside. When I retire,

The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Elton John, Neil

who knows?

Diamond, Cat Stevens.

Are you good in an emergency?

What turn of events could have knocked you down with a feather?

I think my pattern is to be calm and efficient,

The banking meltdown. Some of what happened

and only panic later on. There are times at work

didn’t surprise me but the scale of losses and the

when you have to make tough decisions: you

speed of events were quite shocking.

keep the emotion out of it at the time, but later it does come flooding in.

Do you think we can work our way out of our current problems?

What is your favourite street?

We have to. Working with entrepreneurs and

I once worked on Pembroke Road [in Dublin],

innovators does generate a sense of optimism.

different at weekends, especially rugby weekends. I loved the contrast and often wished

Horan

I could afford to live there.

Who can always comfort you?

My mum.

Who would you most like to have dinner with?

President Mary McAleese – she is such an impressive woman but also comes across as very human.

Ann HorAn worked in banking for almost

What gets your goat?

Arrogance and arrogant people.

What book have you reread again and again?

I am a closet psychologist! The Road Less Travelled by M Scott Peck. My favourite book of this nature is probably Passages by Gail Sheehy.

Books like this help to make sense of our lives and understand the needs and actions of others.

What is always with you, no matter how small your handbag?

My iPhone.

30 years, and was the most senior woman in Bank of Ireland when she left her position as Managing Director of Bank of Ireland Finance six years ago. She subsequently became Chief Executive of the DCU Ryan Academy, promoting entrepreneurship and innovation from its Citywest campus.

There are so many people setting up their own businesses, creating new products, services and employment without a lot of fanfare.

Does hard work come naturally to you?

Yes.

Is it still unusual to find women in senior positions in banking?

Yes. And it wasn’t always easy being a woman in that world – nothing explicit, but a definite sense, sometimes, that you’d strayed into male territory.

Are you at ease with birthdays?

Yes, I am proud of my age. A wise person once told me that we should hope to die “as young as possible as late as possible in life”.

What music would you like played at your funeral?

Something upbeat. A good friend of mine, Anna May Driscoll, died of cancer in 2007. When we arrived at the crematorium, Judi Dench was singing ‘Send in the Clowns’. It so reflected her personality and sense of humour. Brilliant. ah

Samantha Browne, created for The Gloss by Annie West

14 | March 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

p h otog ra p h by si o b h a n byrn e

Ann

a bustling business area which was very

HUNTING

end s p o tt i n g a t r

F LASH OF INSPIR ATION

COUNTER INTUITION Blue and white – could there be a more traditional colour combination, with its echoes of willow pattern teacups, nautical stripes and toile de Jouy? Leave it to Miuccia Prada (who else) to subvert this classic pairing by adding a renegade shot of neon and bold accessories. Her Miu Miu show was one of the stand-outs of spring/ summer 2011: models were made up like neo-Bardots – creamy skin, kohl-rimmed eyes and tousled hair – the perfect foil for a riot of clashing prints and zanily detailed bags and shoes (think brogue meets stiletto, with ankle straps, latticework cut-outs and flashes of DayGlo thrown in).

As well as making us rethink colour, the collection also breathed new life into staid shapes, like the kilt – gorgeous fabics and a clean cut made this staple of matrons and schoolgirls feel fresh and modern. It’s thinking that works beyond the catwalk, too: a ticking-upholstered armchair with hot pink piping recently caught our eye, as did a collection of Spode plates hanging on the wall of an otherwise modern kitchen. All unexpected little flourishes – and all the more refreshing for it.

PHOTOGRA PH BY JAS O N L LOY D - EVA N S

T H E G L O S S M A G A Z I N E | March 2011 | 17

GATHERING

re n d channel the t

To complement

2

its new Lady Collection

3

of double-wrap watches,

1

Swatch has introduced these slim leather bracelets in ten bold colours. The hot pink

is our favourite. Bijoux Colour Codes bracelet, t20, at Swatch stores; www.swatch.com.

MI U M I U

9

JASON LLOYD -EVA N S

8

7 Roche Bobois channels the neo-neon trend with this violet lacquered oak side table, with a zingy yellow trim, from its

Les

Provinciales collection, a brilliant

reinterpretation of traditional French pieces. To order, at Roche Bobois.

THE NEW BLUES

4

A FRESH APPROACH

Main picture: Seeing stars, at Miu Miu. 1. China Blue tiered dress, t64, at OASIS. 2. PAUL SMITH OPTIMISTIC, eau de parfum, from t35; from April 1, exclusively at Boots.

3. Silk swallow print blouse, t72, at WAREHOUSE. 4. Hand-knotted wool Star Blue rug, Paul Smith, £680 per square metre, to order, at THE RUG COMPANY. 5. Cotton stripe shopper, COS, t59, at BT2. 6. Clover cup and saucer, Linea, t11, at HOUSE OF FRASER. 7. Vide-poche, HERMÈS, t475, at Brown Thomas. 8. BOURJOIS SWEET KISS lipstick, in Rouge Fashion, t11.99. 9. Blue and white woven leather Mary Jane, PRADA, to order, at Brown Thomas.

For stockists, www.thegloss.ie.

6

18 | March 2011 | T H E G L O S S M A G A Z I N E

5

a

1 SMOOTH LOOK 12 SMOOTH HOURS

smooth infusion™ style-prep smoother ™ Tame frizz and defend against humidity for 12 hours – with our innovative plant infusion that creates a smooth new surface on hair. Developed with our stylists, created with respect for the earth – to care for you and the planet.

TRY IT–FOR FREE! Receive a free* 3-piece sample pack by mentioning this ad at a participating salon or store.

For locations visit www.aveda.co.uk/gloss or call 0870 034 2380.

*One per guest. In participating locations only. While stocks last.

SHOPPING Cafe au lait silk shirt, d49.95; white silk T-shirt, d39.95; both at ZARA. Flora Primrose cuff, ALEXIS BITTAR, d100, at Loulerie.

White silk blouse, WHISTLES, d119, at House of Fraser.

DEREK LAM

Silver liquid bangles, d249 each, at PANDORA.

JASON LLOY D-E VA N S

Navy Lovestory jeans, J BRAND, d245, at BT2.

A Good Look Simple silk shirt – check. High-waisted jeans, tan leather accessories and a great spring scarf – check, check, check. Add some silver jewellery (it’s the new gold), good grooming and hey presto ...

Metallic patchwork scarf, MISSONI, d415; www.net-a-porter.com.

High-waisted denim shorts, d29.90, at MANGO.

Tan leather sandal, COS, d125, at BT2.

Driver watch, d475, at LINKS. d

20 | March 2011 | T H E G L O S S M A G A Z I N E

Tan leather jacket, d99, at ZARA. For stockists, www.thegloss.ie.

IT’S BEEN 10 YEARS SINCE THE PANDORA BRACELET AND CHARMS WERE FIRST LAUNCHED. LEARN THE FULL STORY AND SEE THE NEW LIMITED EDITION ANNIVERSARY CHARM AT PANDORA.NET

SHOPPING

High-waisted tailored shorts, d52, at WAREHOUSE.

Blush jersey bell dress, VICTORIA BECKHAM, d1,700, at Brown Thomas.

I SA BE L M A R A N T

Beaded silk dress, d1,185, at Brown Thomas.

Black Neomi lizard-print leather boot, ALEXANDER WANG, d695, at Brown Thomas.

Jersey tank dress, d29.95, at ZARA.

JASON LLOYD-EVA N S

OPENING CEREMONY,

Deep Blush

Flora rose gold cocktail ring, ALEXIS BITTAR, d265, at Loulerie.

Yes, there’s a new new nude.

But is it coral or rust? Salmon?

Blushy-bronze? We can’t quite decide on a name, but whatever you call it, it’s the colour of the moment. Just remember to mix your chosen shade with a shot of black to stop it looking overly sweet.

Or if you’d rather save your blushes for your beauty bag, try Jessica’s new nail colour Guilty Pleasures ...

Japanese Garden choker, LARA BOHINC, d555, at Harvey Nichols.

Silk shirt, WHISTLES, d119, at House of Fraser.

Black leather skater skirt, d99, at ZARA.

For stockists, www.thegloss.ie.

22 | March 2011 | T H E G L O S S M A G A Z I N E

Please enjoy responsibly. www.moet.com

Scarlett Johansson

SHOPPING MAN Blue suede lace-up shoes, t80.50, at RIVER ISLAND. Check cotton shirt, t62, at FRENCH CONNECTION.

D& G

Gingham cotton shirt, ST GEORGE BY DUFFER, t57, at Debenhams.

Gingham cotton Brompton shirt, t100, at HACKETT.

Tortoiseshell sunglasses, D&G, t137, at Brown Thomas.

Navy suede belt, t27, at RIVER ISLAND.

Euro Zone This spring, raise your game by adopting a few simple wardrobe changes – a splash of colour and lightweight fabrics will see you through until summer. Tone-on-tone layering (that’s two items of the same colour, to you) – like this traditional gingham shirt and red sweater – makes for a pulled-together continental look.

Stone suede lace-up shoes, JEFF BANKS, t105, at Debenhams.

24 | March 2011 | T H E G L O S S M A G A Z I N E

JAS O N LLOY D-EVANS

Raspberry ultraskinny cotton chinos, t32, at TOPSHOP.

Navy cotton Oliver jacket, t295, at REISS. For stockists www.thegloss.ie.

Cotton Blytz chinos, t100, at TED BAKER.

U LT I M AT E I N N O VAT I O N

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Vital Light, the first anti-ageing skin care which treats the original causes of the loss of skin luminosity. For the first time ever, Clarins Research has developed the exceptional revitalizing power of three pioneer plants in one unique formula to help restore the deep luminosity of youthful skin.

The result? The appearance of wrinkles and fine lines is reduced, skin feels firmer, looks smoother and younger. New formulas for every skin type are now available.

Clarins, No.1 in European luxury skin care*. *Source:

European Forecasts

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BY AISLINN COFFEY

FASHION

DILEMMA CAN A SWEATSHIRT EVER LOOK CHIC? The answer is yes, if it’s CLASSIC GREY MARL. The charms of this wardrobe staple are manifold: the more it is washed, the softer and cosier it feels; there’s a shade of grey to flatter every skin tone; and no matter how much time you’ve devoted to hair, make-up and accessories, it will always bring that ‘just thrown on’ EASY GLAMOUR to your look. The new shorter cropped versions can be worn with high-waisted flared jeans and a discreet flash of sparkly jewellery – a nod to the 1970s revival. Or layer it over a long jersey dress and finish with chunky silver pieces for an ‘evening in the Hamptons’ vibe. It pretty much works like a leather jacket – that is, it will add a bit of urban cool to any outfit. For ultimate edge, pair the two and wear with a large dose of attitude.

Left, from top: Crop button-through sweatshirt, d40, at Topshop. Luca sweatshirt, d110, at Reiss.

Dakota boot, Alexander Wang, d660, at Brown Thomas. Right, from top: Short-sleeve sweatshirt, Étoile Isabel Marant, d115, at BT2. Drop earrings, d305, Lara Bohinc, at Harvey Nichols.

QA &

Judith Milgrom of Paris label Maje

What kind of women do you design for? “You’ve got to know what women need if you want them to love your designs,” says Judith Milgrom, designer and creator of cool Parisian label Maje, newly arrived at BT2. “I spend a lot of time out and about people-watching. The Maje woman is sexy, ultra-feminine – a working woman who is aware of her own style and fashion.”

“ This Month

I’ll wear ...”

THIS MONTH BUDDING STYLIST, FASHION STUDENT AND BLOGGER BECKY GRAY, AKA BECKY DAZZLER, LOVES …

Top of my shopping list this season is something Stellaesque (inspired by her botanical prints); cobalt blue trousers; sheer blouses and a white lace dress. Oh, and a boater hat. I admire designers whose sense of humour comes out in their pieces, like Peter Jensen and Mrs Prada for Miu Miu. I’m also a huge fan of Phoebe Philo (at Céline) and Alber Elbaz (at Lanvin). At college, comfort is a priority – flat shoes (Converse and French Sole) and a great coat. I’m currently loving my preppy look – collared blouses with ribbon ties and v-neck jumpers. By night I’m definitely a fashion chameleon, so I could wear anything from a brightly coloured dress to a studded leather jacket and skinny jeans. I’m an avid magazine reader and I also love blogs like www.cupcakesandcashmere.com and www.fashiontoast.com. As a student, I rely on shops like Zara and Topshop for on-trend pieces. I’m not a huge fan of online shopping but both www.shopnastygal.com and www.my-wardrobe.com would be favourites. I adore vintage shops like Wild Child and Harlequin in Dublin. My style advice: be brave and have fun with fashion and don’t be afraid to experiment with different looks.

But only invest in classics.

We just love

OBJECT OF DESIRE:

this time of year when the high street stores unveil their interpretations of the best of the designer catwalk shows. The Erdem SS/11 show (left) was definitely in our top ten and we were pleasantly surprised by Penneys’ great rendition (right). Floral skirt, t17; crochet sweater, t18; nude shoes, t13; all at Penneys nationwide.

We’ve been seduced

by American label Hello! Skinny Jeans. Promising the world (clever seams to give a thigh-slimming, leglengthening effect; special stiching on the waist band that lifts the bottom), they actually deliver.

Their organic Green Jeans (t169) are now officially our essential spring denims. Being green never looked so hot! Available in sizes 4-22 and up to leg 37”; www. thewhitedoor.ie.

What can we look forward to in your spring collection? “My latest collection focuses on the 1990s, colour blocking and sexy masculine pieces.” Worn to work in a chic yet casual way, each piece would work equally well at a smart party. “They’re easy to mix and match, we’ve focused on skirts, trousers and blouses as well as sequin and full-length dresses for a night-time wow factor.” One style tip? “Simplicity!” Maje is available this month at BT2; www.bt2.ie.

26 | March 2011 | T H E G L O S S M A G A Z I N E

PRADA’S ‘MADE IN’ project (Mrs Prada trekked the world to find the best artisans and craftsmen using traditional techniques) has resulted in a line of limited edition clothing and accessories; 85 per cent of Prada’s product is produced in Italy, but the designer wants to make the most of the rest of the world’s skilled craftspeople too: jeans from China, kilts from Scotland and these handmade ballerina flats from India.

P HOTO GR A P H BY SI O B H A N BYR N E

FASHION WARDROBE

+44 ( 0 ) 20 7245 9800

W W W.ESCADA .COM

FRENCH STYLE

PARIS MATCH

Organza and linen dress, d580, CARVEN.

A nouvelle vague of French designers has recently hit these shores, bringing with it a pared-back chic that seems right for the times. EIMEAR NOLAN searches out new French labels, for adults and les petites …

Red dress, d80, BONPOINT.

J

Silk spot dress d330, SONIA BY SONIA RYKIEL.

Nude leather shoes, d275, SANDRO.

Bird print dress, d90, CHLOÉ.

Leather sandals, d60, CHLOÉ.

Chlo

e SS 11

/

E NE SAIS QUOI can’t be bought, but French style has never been more accessible to the Irish shopper, thanks to strong demand for fast-growing labels like SANDRO, ZADIG & VOLTAIRE, ÉTOILE ISABEL MARANT and MAJE. This hankering after French dressing reflects a change in the Irish sartorial climate – French style is the antithesis of footballer’s wife ostentation; it’s endlessly elegant, sexy and glamorous. French girls buy fewer items, but love each one and wear it to death. It makes sense that the French attitude is exerting a pull over Irish shoppers.

The range of women who embody French style shows that there is no one ‘look’ française;; it’s all about the attitude. Catherine Deneuve, Brigitte Bardot, Marion Cotillard, Clémence Poésy, Emanuelle Alt (new editor of French Vogue) and Vanessa Paradis all have very different styles, yet all are sexy and cool because each knows her own mind. The French philosophy isn’t complicated – you can do what you want, as long as you do it with conviction. But you have to know what you want, and what suits you. That’s the challenge.

Helping to meet this demand are multiple French labels that deliver on-thepulse-fashion, distilled to chic essentials. The recently opened Sandro concession in Brown Thomas is already proving too small, no surprise when you consider how hard any of its pieces would work in your wardrobe. Sandro specialises in wardrobe staples with a twist, where no piece or detail is superfluous. Brown Thomas and Costume also stock edgy, street-chic label ZADIG & VOLTAIRE, largely because so many shoppers were asking for it. Parisian-cool label MAJE, founded by Judith Milgrom (read her style tips on page 26), is on sale in BT2 from March – think stylish staples in leather and wool – while Smock in Drury Street stocks hip minimalist label APC (Alexa Chung is a fan). Fans of fashionistas’ darling Isabel Marant’s pared-down, effortless chic aesthetic can get their fix in Costume and BT2, both of which stock the designer’s second line, ÉTOILE ISABEL MARANT. There’s no fear of saturating the market, says Brown Thomas buyer Shelly Corkery, because “[the brands] each have their own distinct selling point, their own quirky identity”. Just like the girls who wear them.

The French influence can be also seen in the recently opened Brown Thomas Children’s Rooms. The vibe is chic minimalism, tailored for juniors. The French don’t believe in cute, gimmicky clothes for children; there’s a continuity between how children and adults dress. So glitter and flounces are banished in favour of well-made, durable staples that are age-appropriate and fun. The idea is that one beautiful, well-made piece is more satisfying than many cheaper, disposable items.

French labels BONPOINT and CYRILLUS both feature pretty grosgrain dresses that would make beautiful Communion outfits.

French daywear is smarter than the American-influenced hoodies-and-jeans look, which will please parents. It’s what Corkery calls “casual plus”. Think jeans, trainers and even wellies by CHLOÉ, MARITHÉ + FRANÇOIS GIRBAUD and JUNIOR GAULTIER, and stripy T-shirts by PETIT BATEAU. For babies and baby gifts, there’s the adorable and affordable TARTINE ET CHOCOLAT. The French ethos of knowing what you love and wearing it with confidence seems a good philosophy to instil in children (think how much cash and time you could save your daughter, not to mention cringeworthy fashion moments), and the Children’s Rooms are a good place to start.

Eimear Nolan works at British Vogue.

DioSr11 n stia S Chrui nway R Silk print Reilly dress, d330, ÉTOILE ISABEL MARANT.

Cotton print shirt, d260, ZADIG & VOLTAIRE.

Turner leather sandal, d445, CHLOÉ.

28 | March 2011 | T H E G L O S S M A G A Z I N E

Stripe dress, d235, BABY DIOR.

Stripe T-shirt, d28, PETIT BATEAU.

Straw hat, d45, CHLOÉ.

WWW.THOMASSABO.COM

CONTACT: +44 (0) 20 77 20 97 25 l UK@THOMASSABO.COM

Katy Perry

polly devlin

Menu du

jour ˜ ˜

Thirteen courses? Now that’s what we call a dinner party. Polly DevliN celebrates the decadence of old-fashioned entertaining, and recalls her most memorable meals, from freshly caught fish in a seaside shack to soufflé at a Baron’s table …

Never heard of it. Gastronomy was not a word in our

quite recently it was an intrinsic

lexicon. In fact our dream as children was to be allowed

A menu for a grand occasion luncheon in 1812 starts

part of every rural Irish kitchen, a

synthetic food – cheese in foil packets, white lemonade

with a choice of turtle or jardinière soup, lobsters and

big high-backed lumber bench set

(called a mineral), biscuits and Wagon Wheels finished off

trout à la Genevoise, aided by 14 entreés including fowl of

tight against the wall. When I was a

with chewing gum; and fast-forward to when my daughters

all kinds, veal, lamb, sweetbreads, quenelles of whiting,

child we had one, a fairly immovable

were growing up and being fed a peerlessly healthy diet but

escalope of turbot and mutton. The second course offers

whose idea of heaven was a hamburger at McDonald’s.

22 dishes for the jaded palate including quail, chicken,

piece of furniture and thus the perfect place down which

more over small succulent morsels of foodie adventure.

to hide all such bread crusts and green vegetables as had

Food and menus obey the dictates of fashion. The

peafowl, roast hare, truffles with wine, a crayfish pudding,

found their way on to my plate. There they festered, out

boundless extravagance of the meals eaten by high society

lobster salad, four different joints of roast beef, four pullets,

of sight, until one day Sarah, our maid, saw mice lolling,

throughout the ages – when the majority of the same

a casserole of beans and bacon, a haunch of venison, ham,

sated, among gobbets of old crust spilling out from under

society was living on or below the breadline – is both

tongue, asparagus; then six puddings plus pineapple jelly,

it. The settle was heaved out and I was undone to the last

fascinating and repellent. The same holds true now; a third

cherry tarts, strawberries, peaches, nectarines, grapes,

button. I was watched like a hawk and thus The Eating of

of the world starving, while we in the rich West obsess ever

cherries, figs, raspberries and melons. But guess what the

Meals became a fraught affair. I dealt with it

chef, one M Watier, had? A simple leg of lamb

latterly by not eating at all, in an early unnamed

served with potatoes and French beans. He

and unrecognised case of anorexia for which I

knew what good food was. A true gourmet.

was soundly beaten by the nuns, and I never

One hundred years later, grand food had

ever ate meat again after I saw a pig, which I

become even more ostentatious, rich and

loved and fed, being slaughtered – still haven’t

decadent. A menu for an Edwardian society

got over it. So food, one way or another, was

dinner might include caviar, truffles, snipe,

something with which I had a constant uneasy

partridge, oysters, quail, ptarmigan, pressed

personal relationship and perhaps as a result

beef, ham, tongue, chicken, galantines, lobster,

I have always been fascinated by cooking and

melons, peaches, nectarines and biscuits.

menus and how the preparation of food has

Dinner for 20 people cost around £60, which

changed over the centuries, driven as much as

was more than the annual pay of a maid.

by fashion as by supply and demand and fierce

And I have the menu of a dinner given by my

gastronomic battles, with the French for years

husband’s grandparents, which had 13 courses

holding the high ground.

including Neiges de Clicquot (have you got a

I rarely cook myself but I know how food

clue?) and Timbale de Cailles a la Diane. Quail

should taste and I know what good food tastes

to you and me. Fancy food. And, of course,

like and it’s not as common as one would

always in French.

think. And you don’t have to be rich to eat

One has to think, why did not these

well. In fact as children we lived on fabulous

trenchermen and women get huge? (Although

food; the ingredients of our meals are what

come to think of it the Prince Regent was 22

great chefs dream of now – eggs from the hens

stone when he died and Edward VII was so

which clucked around the door, chicken from

obscenely fat he couldn’t see his willy and ate

the same brood, bacon from the pig, milk and

himself to death. They called it appendicitis.)

cream brought up from the dairy morning

Nowadays food has slimmed down but it has

and evening, and fresh and delicious fish from

been a roller-coaster gastronomic journey.

the lough (everything from salmon and trout

I have seen fashion foods and crazes come

to eels), and vegetables and delicious floury

and go. There was a time when coronation

potatoes from the garden. The only thing

chicken was a staple and many a dainty table

wrong was that no one knew how to cook.

in my younger married days was graced by an

Everything was boiled or fried. And wine?

avocado mousse with prawns nestling in the

30 | March 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

i llu st r at i o n by co r bi s

D

o you know what a settle is? Until

polly devlin middle; and who can forget prawn cocktail with Marie Rose

mosaicks” or her flora Delanica, made by cutting coloured

exquisite beauty. Along with my passion for menus and

sauce? Beef Wellington was the party dish of the 1960s and

paper to make exquisite flowers that are so botanically

cooking I have always had a obsessive interest in decorating

though we had never heard of pasta we knew all about Spag

correct in every minute detail that they can be used for

and ornament, and I’d long heard of how the pelmet for

Bol and we were frightfully sophisticated and cosmopolitan,

reference. She made over 1,000 of these masterpieces until

its soaring windows had been cut with a huge pinked

not to say international, with our bizarre takes on dishes

she was – hang on – until she was 82 years old, cutting

edge in one fell swoop from swathes of taffeta; anyone

purporting to be beef stroganoff or Chinese chop suey,

paper so fine that no-one now knows quite how she did it.

who has ever handled pinking shears will know that once

Swedish meatballs, cassoulet, coq au vin and the ubiquitous

Anyway the point here is that she was also a brilliant

started you cannot stop and start again. John Fowler, the

housekeeper and knew exactly what appetising food

decorating genius behind the firm of Colefax & Fowler,

I missed out on Elizabeth David, supposedly the

should taste and look like. In a letter to her sister in 1744,

described how the nervous cutter wielding the enormous

biggest influence on home cooking of the last century, but

she describes arranging dishes for dinner on her table

pinking shears lost his nerve halfway through the taffeta

I remember buying Arabella Boxer’s seminal book First

“which is a long one and easier to set out than a round

and faltered; the vast swathe had to be abandoned and he

Slice Your Cookbook and being amazed at its cleverness and

or oval one”. (Most dinners of this era consisted of two

began all over again.

simplicity. I put it on a par and on a shelf with Robert Carrier’s

courses, the second course being a mixture of sweet and

By happy chance I was asked to lunch there. As I

Great Dishes of the World, which contained a recipe called

savoury dishes.) Her bill of fare that day was a first course

walked into the apartment I came face to face with an

‘My Colcannon’. I was open-mouthed with astonishment to

of “Turkeys endive, Boyled neck of mutton, Greens etc.

enormous and alluring young beauty in a white tulle gown

discover that colcannon was simply cabbage and champ, and

Soup, plum pudding, roast loin of veal, and venison pasty”.

prettily tied with a pink sash. The painting, by Goya, was

that the most basic dish in the Irish culinary repertoire (not

The second course was “Partridge, Sweetbreads, collared

so big it stretched from floor to ceiling. It was only the

at that time large) was a great dish of the world and, what’s

pig, creamed apple tart, crabs, fricassee of eggs and

first of the treasures in the apartment and there, indeed

more, belonged solely to Mr Carrier.

pigeons. No desserts to be had”. I would have loved to have

intact, was the famous pinked taffeta. The food lived up

I remember soon after I came to London, I met the

been there to have experienced the food and the company.

to its surroundings. Tiny soufflés cooked to perfection;

mythical Robert (who was at the time the most famous

But I have been at the modern equivalent. The best

turbot; wild strawberries. The wine was decanted and

food writer in England, indeed who helped establish the

meals of my life have been the simplest and yet the most

round each decanter was tied a little handkerchief to catch

genre) and, inspired, I made my first and last excursion

recherché. One truly memorable one was eaten in a tiny tin

any drips – though the butler didn’t look as if he did drips.

into gastronomy, flogging home from the Berwick Street

shack, the local pub, on the edge of the Atlantic in Asturias

The Baron commented on each wine, not with ponderous

market in Soho with two enormous carrier bags filled

in the northwest of Spain: course after course of mussels

descriptions but to tell us of the little quarters of the estate

fondue. I got five fondue sets as wedding presents.

with ingredients for coq au vin. I had gone up and down the market to get every ingredient he specified; the recipe said twelve peeled little onions so I’d bought twelve – I’d never seen such stunted vegetables – and the man who sold them to me said I would have to peel them at home, no, he didn’t sell them peeled. Then I spent hours cooking it. Stray friends ate the result without remark of any kind, except one, Dennis, from Northern Ireland, who rolled a pearl-like onion around his plate. “What’s this footery wee thing?” he said, and I gave up on the cooking.

Then came Cuisine Légère which was a revelation – no cream, no butter – and Fusion food, a confusing

I was open-mouthed with astonishment to discover that colcannon, the most basic dish in the Irish culinary repertoire, was a great dIsh of the world and, what’s more, belonged solely to Mr Carrier.

where each vintage came from and its characteristics.

One I remember as nectar was a white wine reserved only for his table because it was so delicate that it could not be marketed commercially – something to do with mists rising in the morning or the evening in the vineyard and also because it grew in such a small area that only a few bottles were produced.

In her book Letters to Marietta 1945-1960, Susan Mary Alsop, the wife of an American diplomat, wrote to her friend in New York, the celebrated socialite and political supporter Marietta Tree, about her life in Paris. Susan Mary moved in the most rarified of circles and at the highest

combination of various forms of ethnic cookery, followed

and angulas and fish which had been landed but an hour

level of society but still got very flushed in the face of a title

swiftly by Pacific Rim (a mix of flavors and cultures) and,

before were cooked in front of us, with the fishermen for

and although she sounds priggish and sycophantic, she

of course, the arrival of sushi.

company, none of us speaking the same language but

gives a fascinating picture of a battered but fundamentally

sharing the communality of taste.

hedonistic society recovering from the Second World War.

Perhaps what is genuinely new is the fashion for molecular gastronomy, most famously found in both

At the other end of the spectrum was a meal in The

She described her Sunday lunch in another Rothschild

Heston Blumenthal’s restaurant The Fat Duck and at El

Albany, a set of 18th-century houses on each side of a lane,

great house, this time at Chamant, north of Paris. “The

Bulli in Spain (just about to close to shrieks of despair from

just off Piccadilly. It is a private, protected and privileged

first course is usually, as at the Duc de Mouchy’s, soft-

foodies all over the world and where, if you managed to get

garden in the very centre of a great city and a more exclusive

boiled fresh eggs accompanied by fingers of buttered toast.

into it – it accommodated 8,000 diners a season, but got

and secret enclave you could hardly find. The late Baron

When one sees this dish in France one knows one is in very

more than two million requests – you could eat Parmesan

Philippe de Rothschild and his second wife Pauline Fairfax

grand company indeed.” To my mind this is downright

marshmallows, popcorn clouds, and lambs brains with sea

Potter – an American fashion designer before her marriage,

inverted snobbery, although the Rothschilds had a point:

urchins and sea grapes). If you go to The Fat Duck (and,

and one of the most elegant women of the 20th century –

for most people, the best food is the freshest food and what

again, you’ll be lucky) you will be given snail porridge.

kept a legendary apartment there. Philippe de Rothschild

you eat when you are hungry.

Food fashion is interwoven with lifestyles, trends, and

had been a playboy, a racing driver, a film producer and was

One last salient thing – food fashions come and go

class. When most of the Irish were living on potatoes and

a poet, aesthete, bon viveur and owner of Chateau Mouton

and certain parts of the world regularly claim superiority

point, Mrs Delany, an 18th-century aristocrat and one of the

Rothschild, one of the most famous vineyards of France,

in the gastronomic stakes. But just this month, French

most civilised, and indeed loved, women who ever lived –

and together they created a palace where every detail was

cuisine has been declared part of the world’s heritage by

she could do anything she turned her hand to – was giving

impeccable. For example, every morning the Baronne

the United Nations. Guy Savoy, the French chef whose

parties where food, and plenty of it, was of paramount

would select the china, tablecloths and napkins to be used

two eponymous restaurants have five – yes five – Michelin

importance. Her house in Dublin (Delville, now the site of

for lunch and dinner that day from books that contained

stars between them, announced: “It is not arrogant

the Bon Secours Hospital in Glasnevin) was a magnet for

swatches and photographs of over 170 patterns. Her “table

or pretentious to say that France is the foundation for

society and her letters are both diverting and an important

landscapes” were famous – one day the table might be all

gastronomy for the planet. It’s a fact.” So there. And let’s

social history of Georgian England and Ireland. At the age

grasses, or tiny trees to create a miniature forest, or mosses

celebrate the fact with a toast of Neige au Clicquot which, I

of 72, and already celebrated, she started over by inventing

and baby orchids.

have just found out, is lemon water ice with Veuve Clicquot

a new form of collage, what she referred to as her “paper

32 | March 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

Their apartment in the Albany had the same flair and

champagne, served in champagne flutes.

Our philosophy is simple:

walkability Style made comfortable.

Available at The Rockport Store, 33 Wicklow Street, Dublin 2 | Clerys Department Store, Lower O’Connell Street, Dublin 1 | rockport.co.uk © 2011 The Rockport Company, LLC. Rockport.®

busy bodies

A Little Help From our Friends we all could do with a bit of help.

When we’re lost and looking for directions, for example. When we’re so enmeshed in a work problem that we need an outsider’s perspective. When we’re lugging

a huge suitcase up a flight of stairs, or struggling with a door while carrying heavy bags of groceries. And then there are the days when we require emotional aid, some sage advice to stop our personal lives getting out of control. These are the times when we welcome an offer of help with open arms (well, unless the open arms mean dropping all the heavy things we’re carrying).

But sometimes, we get help when we don’t need

‘Little’ being the operative word – but when it comes to offering help, some people just don’t know when to stop. So when does a friendly hand become overbearing interference, asks AnnA CArey

it or, more importantly, don’t want it. Most of us have

While over-helpers may think they’re doing their victims – I mean, friends and family – a favour, they can actually do more harm than good – and not just because their interference is annoying. They can create an unhealthy dependence, totally disempowering the people they supposedly help. Despite their good intentions, they’re subtly manipulating others, whether they realise it or not. This manipulation is evident when their behaviour is challenged. “It’s emotional blackmail,” says Keating.

“They can just sit there thinking ‘How ungrateful!’ and then say, ‘I was only trying to help!’, which leaves the person they’re ‘helping’ feeling even lower. That person end up apologising, and the helper gets back in control.”

Of course, this makes challenging an over-helper particularly difficult. If someone is being horrible to you, bringing up the issue to their face may be uncomfortable,

encountered the over-helpful friend or relative,

but it’s pretty straightforward. But what if the

someone who can’t see a problem without

problem is just that they’ve been really, really

instantly offering a solution – or indeed can’t

nice? Keating recommends sitting down and

see a situation without discovering a problem

telling them you appreciate their help very

that only she can fix. She’s the person whose

much, but it makes you feel that you’re not

favourite words are “Here, let me do that!”; the

developing the ability to learn from mistakes.

one whose idea of “helping” is actually taking

They may deny this, but you have to make

over. We all know a compulsive helper – and

it very clear how their behaviour makes you

chances are that she drives us mad.

feel. “Just step back and say, ‘When you make

“My mother-in-law is lovely, but she

that phone call to get me a job interview

feels she has to do everything for me and my

you make me feel like a child, like I can’t

husband,” says Áine, a 32-year-old teacher.

do it myself ’. Your tone is key – be non-

“It’s reached the stage that I don’t want her

accusatory, just state the facts, and get them

to come round to the house because she can’t

to understand your experiences.”

walk through the door without seeing about

Of course, you’re probably reading this

ten little things she wants to ‘help’ us with. My

and thinking “Wow, what crazy control

husband is used to her so he just rolls his eyes,

freaks. Thank God I’m not like that!” But

but it drives me insane. It’s like she thinks we’re

are you really so sure? Have you never found

babies who can’t do anything ourselves.”

yourself thinking, “I’m the only person

In Germany, of course, there’s a specific

who can empty the dishwasher/write that

phrase to describe this phenomenon: ‘helper

report/clean the bathroom properly?” and

syndrome’. Coined in 1977 by the psychoanalyst

then either basked in praise or got annoyed

Wolfgang Schmidbauer, it’s used to describe a person

Helper syndrome may not be officially listed in the

because no one else seemed to appreciate your hard

who is addicted to doing things for other people, usually

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

work? Have you never enjoyed that ‘helper’s high’? Most

in order to compensate for his or her own feelings of

or the WHO’s International Classification of Diseases,

of us have over-helping tendencies at times. The key is

powerlessness or inadequacy. In 2009, a German woman

but psychologist Allison Keating of Malahide’s bWell

to find a balance between giving help when it’s needed

who worked in a bank transferred money from rich

Clinic has encountered plenty of people who force

and forcing our way of doing things on others. And to

customers’ accounts to cover up the unreliable loans she

their help on others. “If you’re over-helping it gives you

remember that it’s always a good idea to open the door for

was giving to poor ones. When discovered, she claimed

power and control,” she says. And many over-helpers

someone laden down with shopping bags. n

that she was suffering from helper syndrome and couldn’t

get a “helper’s high” from both the power trip and the

bWell Clinic, 12 St James Terrace, Malahide, Co Dublin,

stop herself from helping others.

subsequent thank-yous.

01 845 6070; www.bwell.ie.

34 | March 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

illustrat ion © Wi lli am H aefeli/t He neW York er Col le Cti on/Cartoonbank

T

here are times in our lives when

bulthaup

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mother’s day

The MOTher of all Relationships

For better or for worse, the mother-daughter relationship is one of the most influential in the lives of many women. ANTONIA HART looks beyond the stereotypes to examine its tensions and rewards, and finds out that as you age, you might have more in common with your own mother than you think …

I

t’s the fundamental nature of the motherdaughter relationship that makes it such an influential one in our lives, so bolstering when it is happy, so devastating when there’s a rupture. Though a mother’s love, as anyone’s, may be imperfectly expressed, for the most part it is probably the deepest and longest-lasting we will ever know. But

irritation and blame can get in the way of this natural truth, and sometimes it seems as if mothers take flak no matter what they do. They are too close, they are too distant.

They expect too much, they expect too little. They are too present, they are too absent. They comment on everything, they couldn’t give a tuppenny damn. Why does it all matter so intensely? And why do we focus on flaws which we’d understand and overlook in a friend or partner, and hope to have understood and overlooked in ourselves?

I spoke to several women of my generation about their relationships with their mothers and though our conversations were often about difficulties, it was hard to miss the waves of love that spilled through them.

But amid the love, there is longing: Helen grew up in a big family on the outskirts of a rural town, and though she is now in her forties, she says she is still troubled by a sense of her mother’s disappointment. “My mother didn’t have a job and I’m embarrassed saying I thought less of her for it. When I was about 16 I thought, I’ll never make my life dependent on a man’s, I don’t want to be endlessly keeping dinners warm and counting out the family allowance for the shopping.” Helen went to college in Dublin and then revelled in her first couple of jobs. “Around the time I got married I was on a high of financial independence and babies came along, and bam! I gave it up to stay at home.

I know it annoys my mum that I gave up an independent income. My sister works full-time and has a nanny. More flour to her pancake, but it annoys me that my mum is always going on about how great she is. But I’m doing what my mum did. Shouldn’t she be happy?”

36 | March 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

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mother’s day 2 Bridging the generation gap 2

makes Sinead find understanding, rather than blame, for

is divorced, and still living with the same man. “She thinks

her mother. “For sure, but when it’s your mum, you want

because it was 25 years ago we should all have got over it

I wonder, as gently as I can, whether Helen’s reasoning is

her perfect, don’t you?” Understanding comes from other

and go on holiday together and whatever. But it was my

skewed. She assumes her mother wants her daughter to

quarters, too: “I have dreadful headaches, and it’s coming

childhood, how can I get over it? I had stress every day of

mimic her own life. And Helen’s circumstances are not at

back to me now she used to get them. I don’t remember

my life, constantly hoping no-one would find out, or do

all the same as her mother’s were. Putting an enjoyable

her ever taking a day off. When I get a headache I leave the

anything to make me more conscious of it than I was. She

career on hold for a few years so that you can be at home

kids with the childminder and go to bed till I can function

never talked to us about it, never said, this is what’s going

while your children are small is rather different from not

again. Things like that really make me appreciate her.”

to happen, it will all be okay. It just happened around us and we had to deal with the mess. All that history colours

having had a career, ever, because you were a wife and mother. She says her mother has never actually articulated

2 the teens and twenties 2

our non-existent relationship now. A mother shouldn’t leave her child.”

disappointment, any more than Helen as a teenager articulated her dismissiveness of her mother’s way of life.

There are obvious flashpoints in the relationship – the

Kitty Holland experienced the opposite: an unusually

Are they just guessing at one another’s feelings? “Maybe

teenage years being a notoriously sticky patch, with

close relationship with her mother Mary, one of Ireland’s

there’s one almighty conversation waiting to happen,” Helen

Helen’s experience of repeated arguments probably not

finest journalists. “By the time I was going to college, my

acknowledges, “but at this stage I can’t see it happening.”

untypical: “There were nights I went to bed with my throat

mum and I were like a married couple,” Kitty says. “I was

Psychotherapist Trish Murphy, who is also public

sore from shouting at my mother.” Trish Murphy says that

her first port of call for dinner out or to go off travelling.

relations officer for the Family Therapy Association of

no matter how horrible these years, the mother has to hold

As a teenager I was depressed, and I’d had an eating

Ireland, and a mother of two, reckons there’s a lot of

fast to the big picture. “Mothers know what it’s like to be a

disorder, and I bowed out of a lot of what my peers were

unpicking to this sort of emotional knot. “Look at the

teenage girl, the difficulties of self-commentary and self-

doing. Instead I was living a much more adult life, with

women who were mothers in the 1960s, even the 1970s.

imagery, and they hold on tight out of fear. Any teenager

my mum, of restaurants and trips to the ballet.” It sounds

It seems so recent, but even then, they are likely to have

will resist that tightening, just as they’ll resist the idea that

enviable, but Kitty says that by the time she was in her

seen choice on the horizon, but may not have had it

they are not unique.” More drama can come later, when

mid-twenties the intensity of the relationship was too

themselves. It’s a generation of women who worked – in

the daughter becomes a mother, but Maeve’s experience,

much. “It was claustrophobic, and I started to pull away,

a small business, or on the farm, or at home – but they

which I am happy to say echoes my own, rather beautifully

and although it was difficult, I think she wanted me to. I

wouldn’t have said they worked, and they didn’t get the

disproves the stereotype of the interfering mother.

was 26 before I moved out of home, and I was so upset

recognition or money that work brings. Some of them

“When I had my son two years ago, my experience

the night before I left.” Although they spent a lot of time

didn’t even have their names on the deeds of the house.

was the opposite of what you might think. My mother was

together and had many shared interests, their relationship

They pushed their daughters through education, towards

wasn’t straightforward. “I know Mum would hate to be

an independent income, knowing how important it was.”

characterised like this, but she had difficulty in showing

So far, so straightforward. But Murphy says that’s just the baseline. “There’s a whole tangle of feelings. The mothers’ success is measured by having raised and educated their children – so it’s measured by their children’s absence.

Imagine the resentment that leaves. And I think they felt, maybe feel, envious of their daughters for having the freedoms they didn’t.”

2 repeating patterns 2

“Sadly, we do live in a mother-blaming culture. this is the flipside of the fact that for many, the mother is the single most influential person in their lives.”

and receiving love. I think she was pressing down an emotional pain from her childhood, and from being sent off at the age of three to boarding school.”

Kitty thinks the differences in their characters may stem from this. “She had this single-minded passion: justice in Northern Ireland, and I’m incredibly proud of what she did because of it. I’m not single-minded, though. I focus on work, of course I do, but I focus on my emotional life too. The attitude Mum grew up with was that it was self-indulgent to focus on emotion.”

Sinead, who grew up in a midlands town in the 1970s, says that while she didn’t think about it at the time, she

so gentle with me, she reassured me that I was doing the

now feels her mother was often withdrawn from her young

right thing, kept telling me I was great. I was overwhelmed

family. “I worry that I’m getting like her. I remember these

with love for her, because I realised, from the way I felt

Often we look for differences, and it can come as

silences in the house, there would be sulking for days, I

about my little boy, the way she felt about me. It knocked

something of a shock to realise that your life, and you, can

absolutely hated it as a child, but I know I’m the same now.

me out, that realisation of how much she loved me.”

be studded with similarities to your mother’s, and her. One

2 LiKe Mother, LiKe daUghter 2

Not so much with the kids, but I don’t want to talk to my

Adulthood does not bring such realisations to

day you catch sight of your suddenly aging hands as you

husband, I just want him to understand, immediately,

everyone: one woman I spoke to has still not, in

adjust the volume on the radio, the next you acknowledge

what’s wrong with me. I know it’s daft but I can’t help it.

adulthood, been reconciled with her mother. “When I

the attraction in Jeremy Paxman and you know the game

Drives him nuts. And it causes us real problems.”

was 12, my mother met someone else and left my dad to

is up. Despite their close relationship, Kitty says she

Murphy says that it’s common for our own intimate

live with him, but what I remember most about my teens

hadn’t dwelt much on her mother’s influence until after

relationships to be shaped by our relationships with our

was not the loss of her, but being so embarrassed about

her mother died. Her legacy is a collage of big ideas and

mothers. “A child who doesn’t have a chance to develop

it. That’s a much stronger memory than the loss – maybe

domestic details. “Like her, I’m a journalist with The Irish

that first essential relationship – say because of being at

because she wasn’t actually gone completely. I hated going

Times, I’m a single mother with two children and my taste

boarding school – can be affected greatly in later life. They

to her new house, though. Our house was very traditional,

is influenced by hers.”

can have tremendous difficulty in forming and sustaining

her new house was light and pretty and just exactly the

Trish Murphy says taking the best of what your mother

an intimate relationship.” She recommends caution in

kind of house I desired, really desired, but I could never

gives you is the key. “Don’t focus on her flaws, why would

laying everything at your mother’s door, though. “Because

enjoy it because of the emotional price we had had to pay.

you? Treat her with respect, take her advice seriously even

they are such powerful figures you have to be very careful

I see that now – then I was just torn.” It happened at a time

if you don’t agree with it. Acknowledge the sacrifices she

in therapy. Sadly, we do live in a mother-blaming culture.

when there was still no divorce in an Ireland still dripping

made for you, and just love her back.”

This is the flipside of the fact that for many, the mother is

with disapproval for behaviour considered a transgression.

And perfection? There’s no such animal. So let’s forgive

the single most influential person in their lives.”

“There were girls at school who weren’t allowed to come if

them for being imperfect mothers, and hope they’ll return

it was her house I was in that weekend.” Now, her mother

the favour to their imperfect daughters.

I wonder whether the fact that she has similar traits

38 | March 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

Enjoy CORK DRY GIN Sensibly. Visit

PROMOTION

Picking your way through the minefield of manners:

This month ... buying Irish

O

ne of the New Yorkers, were you? Popped over once for the

spring/summer collections, once for a glimpse of autumn/ winter, and once just so you’d have a Bloomingdale’s bag peeping out of your recycling for Annabella on the corner to

eyeball as she walked little Nutella down to her Suzuki lesson? Well, think again, my lovely, put your plane money into that dear little crackle-glazed pottery piggy bank, and save it up to spend at home, because today’s sensitive shopper is buying Irish. You don’t want to look crass and economically under-educated, now do you, darlings?

Naturally I’ve been a localist for years, and

Yes, I know on the interweb you can shop in your pyjamas, but really, the country can’t afford for you to be so feeble. If you must be so unimaginative, stick to Irish sites. The rest of you, get acquainted with the supper menu at

YES, I KNOW ON THE INTERWEB YOU CAN SHOP IN YOUR PYJAMAS, BUT REALLY, THE

COUNTRY CAN’T AFFORD FOR YOU TO BE SO FEEBLE.

your corner café, save up for Irish-made Easter eggs in that marvellous little delicatessen, and sort the May wedding wear at an independent boutique.

Right. Some of you stickler legal types (I know you

live for my column) are going to be bleating about free movement of goods or some such, but let’s admit the pile upon absolute pile of instances where as a simple matter of taste and quality one couldn’t countenance

personally, I’ll never shop at an online book warehouse again. Take your cue from me (ah, that’s one piece of truly timeless advice): chuck your online shopping habit, and walk to your local bookshop to

anything but the Irish. Would you want to tip down that elegant neck any oyster that wasn’t a native of Carlingford? No, nor would you ever give up your Tipperary farmhouse cheese, your Wicklow

your broadband pipe right out of the country. The village feel and sense of community was one of the reasons you coughed up and moved in, wasn’t it?

Well, time for a little quid pro quo. (You may have had to take

in which you drench your Wexford strawberry, there’s no such catch with a Cork Dry Gin and tonic.

If you’re still desperate to show off that dog-eared

browse amid flesh-and-blood customers, instead of dripfeeding money down ILLUSTRATION BY LYNN NALTY

parse a little Latin and let you know you gets what you gives.)

Fernando out of Tots’ Academy, but he should still be able to

lamb, your Galway girl. And though you may have to import the champagne

Bloomingdale’s bag, just drag it along to the grocery shopping.

friend poachers

open season It’s a familiar story: you make a fabulous new acquaintance, introduce her to your friends and, before you know it, your NBF has moved in for the kill, and you’re out in the cold.

Fair game? Katy Mc GuINNess thinks not ...

A

s a child, I was not as adept at

that you handle the situation says a lot about you. And do

navigating the difficult terrain

you like what it says?

Of course, if we don’t like the idea of our friends getting on with each other, if we’re insecure enough to fret

of friendships – of fallings in

Whatever the initial hook, the spark that sets the train

about being usurped, then we should keep them apart. As

and fallings out, of secrets and

in motion, friend poaching tends to play out in the same

a friend-management strategy, it’s one employed by many.

lies – as some of my peers. And

way whatever the age of the protagonists – the mores of

Sammie turned out to be a serial friend-poacher and

so, on more than one occasion,

adult friendship being barely more sophisticated than

Jill retreated from the friendship after her third strike.

I fell victim to the wiles of the

those of the playground. And the emotional carnage that

For a while, Jill found the turning down of invitations

friend-poacher, while my own attempts at usurpation

a friend-poacher leaves in their wake is no less devastating

and deliberate self-exclusion from Sammie’s orbit hard,

tended to the clumsy, their results short-lived. In response

to a 30-something than it is to a 13 year old.

but after a year or so it didn’t hurt any more. A ruthless

to these social defeats, of which there were many, my

Jill used to be friends with someone who turned out to

social-climber, Sammie’s career as a friend-poacher has

mother was wont to trot out the platitude “New friends

be a friend-poacher supreme. Let’s call her Sammie. A few

reached stratospheric heights, with Jenny and Brian long

may be silver, but old friends are gold”.

years back, Jill had a dinner party to which she invited a

since left behind in favour of more glamorous prospects.

In essence, her well-meaning words – placing, as they

disparate bunch of people – friends from different parts of

Her campaigns are aided by deep pockets and an enviably

did, a premium on loyalty above all else – meant that it

her life, whom she thought might get on – Sammie and her

privileged lifestyle. Sammie’s strategy of seduction,

was better to stick with the old, dull friend that you had

husband, Gerard, and another couple, Brian and Jenny,

observed at close quarters by those who know her game

grown tired of or maybe had nothing in common with any

among them. The evening was a success, the alchemy

(only too well) is nothing more subtle than a slow

more, just because you had known them for a long time,

happened. People rolled home at four in the morning.

deflowering by the dripping of riches in the path of those

rather than take up with a new arrival offering the promise

On the phone to Jill a few days afterwards, Jenny

who really should know better but are instead flattered

of who knew what fun and excitement. In the role of the

asked her old friend if she was going to a particular gig

and see no reason not to succumb, particularly when the

person left behind, moping at home while my former

that coming weekend. Jill wasn’t, and thought no more of

array of temptations is so bloody irresistible.

best friend swanned off to the shopping centre to browse

it. Jenny didn’t mention that Sammie had already invited

the make-up counters, I found her words offered cold comfort. And when I was the poacher or willing poachee, I knew that she was just plain wrong. What could possibly be amiss about forming a new and exhilarating bond with someone whose interests so closely paralleled my own that our friendship was surely meant to be?

In childhood, the new girl might have gone horseriding (like me!), or been obsessed with The Brady Bunch (like me!) or loved Marc Bolan (like me!). These days, the common ground – the territory on which the complicated dance of adult friendship is conducted – is more likely to be Pilates, or Jonathan Franzen or a shared interest in opera or surfing or hill-walking (Like me! Like me! Like me!).

Sammie invariably targets people who are the friends of friends. New acquaintances find themselves

Friend poaching tends to play out in the same way whatever the age of the protagonists, the mores of adult Friendship being barely more sophisticated than those of the playground.

Or maybe it isn’t any of those things. Maybe it’s that

bombarded with invitations to dinners and race meetings, concerts and gallery openings, and gifts that are too extravagant for the depth and duration of the friendship in the furtherance of which they are bestowed.

Liz is another former friend of Sammie’s who has had her cache of friends mined ruthlessly. “I could draw a Venn diagram of the various groups of my friends that she has annexed. I can even tell you who she’s going to target next, who she’s got in her sights. It’s as if she doesn’t trust herself to make her own friends so she targets other people’s, because they’ve been pre-vetted. I used to feel as if I was there primarily to do her friend sourcing for her.” Liz wonders why her targets don’t find Sammie’s

instant click between two people who have just met and

her. And so the collusion between poacher and willing

behaviour off-putting, creepy even – “What she does is so

like each other on sight so much so that they forget all

poachee was already underway. A week or two later,

crass, so blatant, that I can’t understand why people don’t

the rules by which grown-ups are supposed to conduct

when Jill bumped into Sammie, a throwaway remark

see through it” – but once upon a time she too was under

their friendships and simply can’t help themselves from

from the latter left Jill in no doubt that the new friends

Sammie’s spell.

plunging headlong into the thrilling embrace of mutual

had met up several times since. Without inviting her. Jill

One of the appeals of friend-poaching – for the

admiration.

remembers feeling winded, as if she had been punched

poacher and poachee – particularly when it’s a mutual

When you have two friends who you think will like

in the stomach. Then she came across the pair having

girl-crush situation, is that it offers all the thrill of an affair

each other very much, there is a dilemma about whether

coffee together in the place that she and Sammie used to

– the getting to know someone, the hours spent talking,

or not to introduce them to one another. If you do, you

frequent. Fast forward a couple of months and Brian and

the sharing of intimacies, the knowledge that the other

run the risk of them liking each other more than they like

Jenny were holidaying at Sammie and Gerard’s villa in

person finds you as fascinating as you find them – with

you and finding yourself left out. If you don’t, for fear of

Quinta do Lago. The year before, it had been Jill. She had

none of the consequences. The sneaking around hoping

that very thing, it marks you out as controlling. The way

been dumped.

not to meet the person from whom you’ve poached, and

40 | March 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

Don’t mind if I do. And I’ll help myself to your best friend while I’m at it ...

the making of plans behind her back, are akin to the kind

addresses from the person making the initial introduction

It’s natural to aspire to certain friendships because of what

of skulduggery that goes on when two people are in the

is circumvented. It’s not unusual to come home from

they say about you. It’s as simple as “that person is cool/

throes of an illicit liaison. Poacher and poachee often

a night out at a dinner party and find friend requests in

beautiful/talented/creative – if I’m friends with them, I will

begin to dress in the same way, to develop a similar look.

from people with whom you parted company less than

be seen as cool/beautiful/talented/creative too”.

It’s not just women who poach friends. David, who

an hour before. Of course, in Facebook-land ‘friendship’

Few want their circle of friends to remain static

works in software development, introduced a work

bears scant relation to the traditional understanding

and unmoving. Taking it as read that most of us are

colleague to another friend over a pint. The two guys hit

open in principle to the making of new friends, that we

it off but David thought no more of it. A few weeks later

are generally amenable to the expansion of our social

he was surprised – and, he admitted, a bit hurt – to come across the two of them having lunch together. They hadn’t invited him to join them.

Another man told me about the efforts he had gone to help a friend of his who had been made redundant find a new job. “I made what I would consider a big ask to another friend whom I knew might be in a position to help – and he did. It was the kind of request that has put me under a compliment to him, but now the two of them are great pals, off mountain-biking and doing triathlons together and I

Ah yes, Facebook. The social networking site has made life much easier for the ambitious friend-poacher. It’s SO DAMN EASY to initiate a friendship online.

haven’t seen either of them for months. I only know all this

friends without hurting the old ones? As in every other aspect of human interaction, honesty, sensitivity and transparency are the watchwords. It is not cool to bypass the introducing friend immediately – at least for the first couple of times that poacher and poachee meet, the original friend in common should be included. Making friends with our friends’ friends is not something that shouldn’t happen per se, but it becomes something malign and sinister when the poacher wants the poachee for themself, to the deliberate exclusion of the original

from the photos they put up on Facebook.”

PH OTO G RA P H BY G E T T Y

networks, what are the rules for the making of new

friend. The flipside is the need to recognise that old

Ah yes, Facebook. The social networking site has made

of the concept and the wobbly line that distinguishes

friendships are not always golden, that they may not

life much easier for the ambitious friend-poacher. It’s so

business from personal networking – it’s all social, after

worth hanging on to just because they have the virtue

damn easy to initiate a friendship online, where the most

all – serves to validate overtures that might otherwise be

of longevity – but perhaps no others. Relinquishing a

tangential of relationships can be pursued with impunity,

seen as inappropriate.

friendship that has gone stale can be a relief, and makes

and the need for having to ask for phone numbers or email

We all define ourselves by the circles in which we move.

space for a new, shiny silver one.

T H E G L O S S M A G A Z I N E | March 2011 | 41

0588

Sunray pleated dress €98, Tan shoulder bag €128.

Both J by Jasper Conran.

R u o l o c chaos

y! d a e R l gh a u o t c n e e j n ? i y d t an eRi t r s u u o l a o ts c h ? g t i t r u n i b o b a x a R intbo ions Rest a t i p b i h f n o i r e t u t o e y l a p e s lo h a t i w y t i v some le tus Li sa Lo f a Ph e d by Ph o t o g r z r ig u e Lu is r o d St y le d by

Coral pleat-front silk dress, MaxMara.

Blue suede Newton shoes, Christian Louboutin. Silk corsage, at CostuMe.

fashion note : MaxMara is at 723 Lisburn Road, Belfast and Brown Thomas, Dublin; www.maxmara.com. Christian Louboutin is at Brown Thomas, Dublin.

For stockists, www.thegloss.ie.

r s

Coral cotton Doby trench; coral cotton shirtdress; both Mulberry. Raspberry Sorbet patent leather bag; spearmint patent leather belt; both burberry.

fashion note : Mulberry accessories are at House of Fraser, Dundrum Town Centre, Dublin 16; fashion is at www.mulberry.com. Burberry accessories are at www.burberry.com,

Ribbon print linen dress, tan leather rope belt; both Vionnet.

fashion note : Vionnet is at Brown Thomas, Dublin and www.net-a-porter.com.

Strap

Red leather tunic, Escada sport. Purple cropped trousers, MaxMara. Neon yellow platform shoes, Brian atwood. Red resin ring, dinosaur dEsigns.

f a s h i o n n o t e : Escada and Escada Sport are at Brown Thomas and Richard Alan; www.richardalan.ie.

14 | September 2009 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

Strap

Coral and white cotton zip top, Marni. Stripe cotton cropped trousers, Tory Burch. Green Donna platform sandals, Sonia rykiel.

f a s h i o n n o t e : Tory Burch is at Brown Thomas.

Tory Burch has recently opened a boutique at 149 New Bond Street, London; www.toryburch.com.

T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e | September 2009 | 15

Strap

Stripe tunic dress, Sonia Rykiel.

Coloured resin bangles, DinoSauR DeSignS.

fashion note : Sonia Rykiel is at www.soniarykiel.com. Dinosaur Designs is at www.dinosaurdesigns.com.

14 | September 2009 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

Strap

Monkey print cotton top; green stripe cotton skirt; both Prada. Orange eel skin pumps, Manolo Blahnik.

f a s h i o n n o t e : Prada is at Brown Thomas, Dublin; www.brownthomas.ie.

photographed by Lisa Loftus.

Styled by Luis rodriguez for Utopia NYC. Hair by Marcelino using Bumble and bumble at www.laterliernyc.com.

Make-up by Gregg Brockington for Yonka paris at Judy Casey Inc.

T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e | September 2009 | 15

first person

the way back

a childhood stammer didn’t stop Ian GalvIn, chairman of aurora Fashions Ireland and business columnist, from becoming a success – in fact, it taught him early on how to mask his anxieties from the rest of the world. yet after battling alcoholism, worse was to come in the form of an addiction to prescription drugs. here he shares the rollercoaster journey that brought him full circle ...

P

erhaps everyone needs a bit of grit in their oyster to succeed. Mine was a stammer, and although they say you’re not born with one, it was there by the time I went to school. Mocked by the boys and pilloried by the teachers, I lived in dread, particularly of English

lessons. “Th” was the killer, but there were other sounds as well, and reading aloud was an exercise in humiliation and embarrassment. To survive, I learned to change the words I couldn’t handle, until it took no more than a split second, my eyes racing ahead, making sure that the new word or phrase would work with what followed. In the process I learned to think more quickly than those around me. I learned to disguise my fear and almost all other emotions.

I learned that the only safe world was one that I controlled.

My parents ran a drapery business in Tramore, Co Waterford, selling everything from back-to-school shoes to Levi’s and Wrangler. In terms of womenswear, my mother was very creative, with a sharp eye for fashion.

The whole business fascinated me, and by the time I was at boarding school – a huge relief and far removed from a phone box. How much did we take? What did you buy?

On my visits back home, I’d jump straight into the shop window and turn it around. Then I’d pore over the books, until I was ready to drop.

I was both dyslexic and dyspraxic. My hand-to-eye coordination was non-existent and my inability to play football or hurling added to my misery, so I forced myself to excel at running. I learned to check and double-check my spellings. I could cope with anything by developing strategies to compensate. But the stress was intense, and when it spilled over into panic my pulse would race to terrifying levels, my heart lurching inside my chest as if it might burst from my body.

There had to be some release. At school it was cider, when we’d climbed out of the dormitory windows and hit the local disco. At Trinity, it was the pub. Most nights, a

54 | March 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

photog raph by siobhan byrne; sh ot on location at th e morg an

the stereotype – I would quiz her every day, calling from

first person gang of us would go on the tear, country lads in Dublin

August 2006 found me in France for Georgina and

for the first time. But while others fell by the wayside, I

Nicky Byrne’s wedding. I was sitting with Karen, Ronan

already had the strategies to cope. I read quickly, could

and Yvonne Keating, and Louis Walsh when, without any

They were expecting me, she said. The Priory?

pick up the gist and write an essay as easily as down a

warning at all, I collapsed. For the previous few months I’d

Ridiculous. I was going back to Dublin, and I would

pint. Who cared that I forgot it three days later? It was the

been losing weight and people had told me that I looked

go to the Rutland Centre, if anywhere. “I’m not giving

same with exams, which I passed with honours.

sick, but I had taken no notice. Now I had no choice. I

you a choice in this, Ian. I will not watch you sabotage

weighed a little over eight stone and was very ill indeed.

your career. You’re going to the Priory in Roehampton.”

My first real knock came when we lost the family

had become. “And it has got to stop,” Karen said. “You’re going to the Priory.”

business – four shops by then. Although barely out of my

Six months of chemotherapy followed, combined

She said I knew too many people in Ireland. I had to

teens, I learned the hard way what over-trading meant.

with steroids to build me up and Xanax to calm me down.

go somewhere nobody would buy into my bullshit. She

There were mitigating factors: Ireland was in chronic

Xanax is a benzodiazapine, an anti-anxiety drug, and

stood over me while I paid out an a11,000 deposit on my

recession, and we’d had a hard winter – six weeks of snow

while highly efficient, is highly addictive, and it was like

credit card over the phone. Seven days. No going back.

– which had led to an insurmountable cashflow problem.

handing a child the key to a sweetshop. I didn’t waste

The Priory is a stucco, gothic extravaganza straight

But I’d been the one driving our expansion and I felt

time. At one point, I had five different doctors prescribing,

out of Sleeping Beauty. But that’s where the fantasy ends.

responsible. My parents had always been my bedrock, but

and five different pharmacies dispensing – because it was

Inside it’s a prison. Your keys are taken, your phone is

– largely through my guilt – we were moving apart.

better than any drink, better than any glamour drug,

taken. Your luggage is searched. And you’re locked in.

Over the next 20 or so years, I enjoyed a lifestyle that

better than anything I had ever known. I was cunning

I decided to get out as quickly as I could. I’d go cold

was scarcely believable. As a buyer for Brown Thomas, I

and clever, and it was worth any amount of lying and

turkey and be out by Tuesday, I told myself. I’d done it

helped transform it into a truly international department

scheming to build up my stock. It wasn’t a question of

with alcohol, and I’d been on that for years. I’d only been

store – the only place in Ireland you could buy high-

getting high, I was simply calm. The panic attacks that

on Xanax for six months, so it couldn’t be that hard. I’d

end fashion, and I travelled the world to find it. As for

had dogged my life since the terrible stammering days,

book myself a couple of massages and it would be like a

my friends, they were the new Irish elite, the sharp edge where film, music and fashion sparked off each other. We drank champagne instead of Guinness, we chose wine by price rather than taste. And I soon learned that alcohol wasn’t the only way of getting high. But I handled it well.

I was never late for a meeting the morning after, and I’d always be razor sharp. Did I have an alcohol problem? Of course not! I was having the time of my life.

But friends at the time, among them Van Morrison, were under no illusions. “You’re drinking too much,” he and Michelle told me one night. And while there were mad nights to come, he often talked about the power of the twelve-step programme. He kept pushing me in that direction.

By 2002 I was adrift. The kings and queens of the counter culture that I’d hung out with in the 1990s had gone corporate. The party was stopping. I didn’t fit in with the U2 set, I didn’t fit in with my family. I didn’t fit

long weekend.

One morning I woke up in Karen’s London flat to find her standing at the door looking at me.

“You’re an embarrassment,” she said. And then,

moment by excruciating moment, she recounted what had happened the previous night.

in with my gay life. That Christmas I booked myself into

“You have to surrender,” the consultant told me. I wasn’t about to surrender. I’d already cracked AA. I would do this my way, as I did everything else. To emphasise how in control I was, I decided not to eat.

But I couldn’t stop my therapist talking to me.

“Ian, do you know where you are?”

“The Priory,” I said, savouring the glamour of it.

“You are in a hospital. In fact you’re not just in a hospital, you’re in a psychiatric hospital.”

I fought with the Priory for nearly a week. By this time the detox was not going well and I was on a drip. Slowly I started to listen, above all to the therapists, who were all former addicts. I engaged with other patients. A key part of the recovery programme is recognising your own frailty and taking responsibility for another human being. And I surrendered. I learned to live with my anxiety. I learned that it would be painful, but it would pass. I learned not to fight a situation. I was there for six weeks.

The Shelbourne. I was at rock bottom. Instead of clothes,

were history; any hint of a tremor or a racing heart and I’d

At the end of my stay I was given three challenges. The

I packed twelve cases of champagne and stashed them

down another pill, and then another, upping the dose as

first was to make amends to the people whose evening I

in the wardrobe. But what happened to them, whether I

I went. But I was still coherent, still functioning. Nobody

had ruined. I did. I invited them to a charity dinner and

drank them or shared them, I have no idea. I remember

knew there was anything wrong.

I think that they valued being part of my recovery, and

seeing Pat Kenny in the lobby, and he looked at me as if to

One morning I woke up in Karen’s London flat to

they understood. The second was to spend a week in a

find her standing at the door looking at me. “You’re

monastery to work on my spiritual side. I did. I went to

So I tried AA. I literally walked in off the street and it

an embarrassment,” she said. And then, moment by

Mount Mellory in Co Waterford. The third was to find

was like “Oh my God, there are 50 people in this room and

excruciating moment, she recounted what had happened

a puppy, the same age as my sobriety, and to give him a

they’re all like me!” The relief of hearing everybody else’s

the previous night. We’d had dinner at an exceptionally

home. Now here was a problem: I didn’t like animals, and

problems ... People said that if you did 90 meetings in 90

smart London restaurant, twelve of us, mainly in fashion,

I lived in an apartment. As for my lifestyle … But then I

days, it would change your life. So that’s what I did. Read

and the rest of them were in great form. But I felt

found Boo Boo, a wonderful black-and-tan Cavalier King

the Big Book? I sat up for three nights to finish it. I would

disconnected. I turned down the offer of champagne and

Charles, and we have been constant companions since

even cram in three meetings a day. Until my brother Philip

went down to the men’s room where I took two Xanax,

February 2008.

said, “Ian, you’ve got to stop this madness”.

the purple ones, the strongest they get. I came back to

I continue to go to AA meetings, because you are never

I had simply swapped one addiction for another. Even

the table. But I still felt left out … so back down I went,

totally cured, but it’s fair to say that my stay in the Priory

so, it worked and I began to experience little glimmers

and took another two pills, but that’s where my memory

changed my life. And taking everything I had learned there

of brightness. Careerwise, too, things were changing. I

stopped. Karen kindly filled me in. I had come back up and

with me, I returned to Tramore and bought a Victorian

watched the emergence of high street-meets-designer-at-

collapsed over the table. And far, far worse … I felt myself

house opposite where my mother still lives. Over the last

a-price-point, and decided that this was where my future

shrink from the horror of it.

three years I have brought it back to its former glory. I

say, ‘Do something. You need help’.

lay, and after a couple of false starts, I set up the Karen

“You’re an embarrassment.”

have restored relationships I had forgotten over the years

Millen franchise in Ireland. I was clean and I was sober

It was like being branded. It was like having a hot

and created my own dream space to live in, on the street

and for three years I began to feel I would be okay. And in

iron stamp the words across my forehead. For me to be an

where I was born. I feel I have come full circle. n

Karen herself I found a true friend.

embarrassment … It summed up everything that my life

Told in conversation with Penelope Dening.

T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e | March 2011 | 55

Luscious Shea Butter, Beauty Balm.

Shea butter extracted from the shea nut has excellent nourishing properties and makes an ideal beauty balm for dry skin. Now you can discover all its benefits in a range of limited-edition shea butters with 100% natural scents inspired by the orchards of Provence. This new range, made with shea butter produced by women’s cooperatives from Burkina Faso, is certified organic* and fair trade**. * Certified by Ecocert Greenlife, in accordance with the Ecocert standards, available at http://cosmetiques.ecocert.com ** Certified «fair trade» by Ecocert SA, in accordance with its EFT standards, available at www.ecocert.com

loccitane.ie Dundrum Town Centre, Dublin 16. T: 01.296.3388 | Wicklow Street, Dublin 2. T: 01.679.7223 | Blackrock Shopping Centre, Co. Dublin. T: 01.210.8884 14 Upper Liffey Street, Dublin 1. T: 01.889.2576 | 111 Oliver Plunkett Street, Cork. T: 021.427.2892 | 1 Thomas Street, Limerick. T: 061.481.755 Market Cross Shopping Centre, Kilkenny. T: 056.778.6514 | 24 Ann Street, Belfast. T: 048.903.214.22 | 12 Eglington Street, Galway. T: 091.565.791

Beauty Strap

Spring Kit

fox by name Have you ever trailed through department stores uninspired, then suddenly chanced upon a dress so inherently beautiful that you submit to its unabashed glamour and let it wear you? This shimmering, flashbulb-ready make-up look, as worn by megan fox, the brand new face of armani Cosmetics, has the same effect, needing only a simple dress to backlight it beautifully. make-up artist Linda Cantello used the armani Transluminence eye Palette, applying rich Purple Iris and Dewy forest Green to the eyelid to create a vibrant blue turquoise. To create even more luminosity, she layered this with frozen Silver to open up the eye, adding a touch to the inside corner. next, she lined the eyelid with Soft black eye colour, applied wet, and finished off with lashings of eyes to Kill excess mascara. abelia Pink fluid Sheer no 7 foundation gives a translucent glow to the face: it’s set with Translucent Loose Powder and Rouge D’armani lipstick in early morning Rose. not leaving it to make-up to do all the work, ms fox places great emphasis on cleansing, using sunscreen and a healthy diet to preserve that dewy glow. She also believes it is fundamental to possess confidence and self-belief. apparently, being “confident but secretive” is the key to lasting allure. Suzanne LowRy Armani Cosmetics, Brown Thomas, Dublin and Cork.

T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e | March 2011 | 57

BEAUTY

..

elf . s r u o y e Gorg

Y T U BEA

T E F BUF H S MONT ON THI

’S M E N U

Calypso

L’Absolu Nu

Pure Color

Palette Pink

Skin Illusion

Blush Gelée

The spring lines revealed a little more flesh than last year, so for a flash of pretty skin, dust your décolletage with YSL’s recently launched LIMITED EDITION PALETTE PINK CELEBRATION.This glistening powder-pink gem gives a subtle satiny finish and doubles as a highlighter to revive fatigued, dull complexions. a53.

Add a flash of chic individuality to a workaday trouser suit or dress by coordinating lip and nail colours. Estée Lauder’s new PURE COLOR lip shades come in juicy, sumptuous shades like Raspberry and Bitten Fig, and each has a matching nail colour. So convenient … For an everyday look, try nails in Mushroom (a23) with matching Vanilla Truffle lipstick (a20).

Swiss-born Paris-based designer Robert Piguet was an early influence on Dior, Balmain and Givenchy – he’s most famous for Fracas, his heady perfume classic. With base notes of ambergris and patchouli, middle notes of Bulgarian rose and top notes of geranium and mandarin, CALYPSO, the latest issue from the House of Piguet, is deeply, darkly delicious. a67.

Novelty-lovers to a woman, we thought the sponge applicator – a little

like a shoe polish – in Givenchy’s limited edition BLUSH GELÉE was a nifty way to deliver soft colour to cheeks. Candide Pink is fun and innocent, just like Voltaire’s hero. a31.50.

Clarins SKIN ILLUSION SPF10 MINERAL & PLANT EXTRACTS may not exactly trip off the tongue but we like what it does. A “light-optimizing+complex” lies behind a natural-looking finish and a hydrated feel. A defence system of SPF, anti-pollution and antioxidant ingredients promises protection against the elements. a29.

One of the thrills of spring has to be browsing for a new lipstick. Although not on counter until April 1, we couldn’t wait to tell you about Lancôme’s L’ABSOLU NU, a new range of twelve nude lipsticks. A slick of subtle colour, they are perfect for making the transition from winter’s deeper hues. Since the colour of the moment seems to be a pink/coral hybrid – yes, try it – we chose shade number 302. a25.

Hands up how many of you love Issey Miyake’s original fragrance?

L’EAU D’ISSEY FLORALE is a soft rosy blend anchored with bark and ginger lily. It’s floral but not overpoweringly so, and pleasingly complex. a47.50.

LEARN TO GIVE A FIG

TOO EARLY TO TAN? Not at all. A subtle glow goes a long way to dispel winter’s pastiness and ease us into dressing for spring. We officially declare it open season on self-tan, and celebrate the appearance of bonnes mines at various desks. We tried He-Shi’s new Tinted Self-tanning Foam (a30 at Brown Thomas) which glides on, leaving an even, consistent glow, then develops to a slightly deeper, naturally golden tone. A sample of German organic cosmetics brand Lavera Selftanning Shimmer Spray (a11.95 at pharmacies and some health stores) caused a ruckus: everyone looks for an odour-free tan and this is a fresh scented gel with lavender and rose which develops quickly to an even tan. An in-office survey revealed, on the other hand, how only the bravest will ditch the opaques before April.

58 | March 2011 | T H E G L O S S M A G A Z I N E

A City Escape ...

S

ome spa days are damp squibs, let’s face it, a waste of time and money. All that shuffling from appointment to appointment, with endless waiting in between, trying desperate ly to relax. Happily, others are lovely little oase s in a busy calendar, where, for four or five hours, you feel as if your mind and body might just connect.

If this sounds more like it, we can recomme nd the City Escape at the ESPA Spa at the RitzCarlton hotel in Powerscourt in Co Wicklow, which costs a150 per person and includes lunch, unlimited access to the thermal suite, hammam and pool, as well as the Serenity Room. (It was so quiet that my iPod -less other half turned tail and scarpered as I relax ed with my book. In fact, next time I would arriv e early just to avail of uninterrupted reading time.)

A quick questionnaire was followed by a dip in the pool and thermal suite, just to unwind. A nice light lunch (in bathrobes) was followed by treatments: for me, three half-hour minis: a sea salt and hot oil scrub , a back and neck massage and a facial. All Espa, all wond erful, all

administered, crucially, by the same person in the same room, with no waiting and no dressing and undressing. So pleased was my husband with a knockout treatment for the full 90 minutes – a special men’s facial with massage – I caught him buying products in the reception as we checked out.

“Beautifully appointed” almost doesn’t go far enough to describe the spa’s facilities – everything works reassuringly smoothly. Barely out of my bathrobe, I suggested that we might do it again for my birthday. As it happens, having foolishly expressed a wish to lose some weight, he gave me a pair of Lycra tights and a pink jacket to go running in. But I have plans to return. SMcD The City Escape at the Ritz-Carlton, Powerscourt, Co Wicklow; 01 274 8888; www.ritzcarlton.com.

BEAUTY Pot Rouge Shea Butter Mini-Slant Tweezers Creamy Concealer

Eau de Lacoste Vert

Facial Wash

There are few products that really do double duty but L’Occitane SHEA BUTTER POTS – we like Vineyard Rose and Orange Honey – serve as both lip balm and cuticle cream, a salve for dry patches, even an eyebrow tidier.

A little goes a very long way. – and the design of the pots is fabulous. a12.50.

Dish of the Day

Bourjois’ latest mascara innovation,

VOLUME FAST & PERFECT, has a new auto-rotating brush. Switch it on and you have a full, false-lash effect – in a good way – in record time.

Sort of fantastic, in a bonkers way. a16.99.

Shower Oil

Ruth Doyle, a long-established masseuse and facialist who counts Rihanna and all sorts of celebs among her clientele.

THE USP:

Doyle believes facial muscles must be massaged in a similar fashion to body muscles, helping to improve circulation and thus enhancing the complexion. THE

APPROACH: She began with an upper

body massage. Speaking as one of the few people on the planet who doesn’t normally enjoy massages, I actually found this very relaxing, as I opted for ‘light’ pressure. The facial itself was wonderful, each product (predominantly REN – although Doyle has no allegiance to

has a beauty pattern she sticks to …

I LEAD SUCH A BUSY LIFE, factoring in three small children, work and a lot of travel (to Paris to source fabric and wools and to Portugal to oversee production for my clothes, leather bags, belts and shoes), that I try to keep my skincare routine very simple, using the same ‘less is more’ philosophy I apply to my design. First thing, in a very quick shower, I use Nivea Facial Wash,

New EAU DE LACOSTE VERT, BLEU AND BLANC are the sportiest, freshest of fragrances. Designed for men, of course we have commandeered them as our own, our favourite being Vert, with its grassy whiff of tennis court and summer on the way … From a40, at Lacoste, 12 Wicklow Street, Dublin 2.

TRIED: Facial at Mellow, Powerscourt Townhouse, South William Street, Dublin 2; www.mellow.ie. WHO’S BEHIND MELLOW?

RÓISÍN LINNANE, fashion designer

Everything Mascara

Talking of tidy eyebrows, Tweezerman’s new range of MINISLANT TWEEZERS – best for brows – consists of adorable designs including this Dragonfly one. An inexpensive way to cheer up your make-up purse. a15.

TREATMENT TEST

“ This Month I’ll Use ...”

L’Occitane Almond Shower Oil and, once or twice a week, Sanctuary Spa Sea Salt Scrub from Boots. I wash my hair every day with L’Oréal Elvive shampoo and conditioner and use a really good salon hairdryer, the Turbo Stratus 3800, which cuts drying time in half. I use Clinique SPF40 Face Block or Roc Soleil SPF50 every day on face, neck and chest.

My make-up is all Bobbi Brown. I have quite UTY BILL ÍN’S BEA

RÓIS

sensitive skin and have reacted to other make-

5.45 al Wash t Nivea Faci Oil t18.50 d Shower on m Al s t12.60 L’Occitane b at Boot g Salt Scru Exfoliatin ch a Sp y ar 2. t 99 ea Sanctu nditioner poo and Co vive Sham El al 0 .5 ré L’O m t20 Block Crea F 40 Face Clinique SP t40 m ea Cr e n Ey n t35 Hydra Ze Foundatio Lancome Compact ng Cream Moisturizi n ow Br i Bobb t t33 ncealer Ki 26 Creamy Co der Pink t ks in Pow ee Ch r fo e 0 .5 22 Pot Roug t r Buff in Heathe p Colour Creamy Li 24 Mascara t Everything eam t9.95 r Hand Cr tte Bu ea Sh ne ita iser t4 cc L’O nt Moistur m Emollie ueous Crea Ovelle Aq le Nil t69 Jardin sur Hermès Un 6.48 Total: t32

up products but never to these. For practical reasons I keep my nails short but I love to have a French manicure with OPI products. Because I am constantly washing my hands between the children and work, my hands get dry so I never go anywhere without L’Occitane Hand Cream and smother my hands in Ovelle Aqueous Cream Emollient Moisturiser at night. I like to change my perfume from time to time: at the moment I am using Hermès Un Jardin sur le Nil. Róisín Linnane is at Khan, Blackrock, Co Dublin and Mullingar; Emporium Kalu, Naas; The Design Centre, Dublin 2; Samui, Cork; Les Jumelles, Galway; Diffusion, Dublin 3.

a particular skincare line) was explained clearly and succinctly – she is well-versed in the benefits of natural essences and oils. I enjoyed the soothing yoghurt face masque which restores the skin’s pH balance. Doyle was astute at locating problem areas – a small patch of irritation around my chin was detected immediately and explained: posture – slouching with my chin in my hands in front of the computer.

Hands can be rife with bacteria and touching the face too often can exacerbate a flare-up. She advised resting my chin on the tip of my fingers (if I must!) instead of covering the chin and mouth area. THE

RESULT: Over the following days, I felt more energised, my skin

was brighter and the bothersome problem areas had begun to fade.

Ultimately, an immensely enjoyable and informative facial and, as for

BEAUTY POSTSCRIPT ...

A deskside visit from Stephanie, emissary of Trish McEvoy, was an epiphany. She showed us three things that we really rate: Lash Curling Mascara in Jet Black (€31.50), Lash Enhancing Nighttime Conditioning Treatment (€133.50) – currently restoring this writer’s lashes after a disastrous brush with falsies at Christmas – and the brilliant, ingenious Classic Make-up Planner, a neat, boxy Filofax-like case (from €52).

McEvoy’s skincare range, Even Skin, is uncluttered. With her husband, who is one of New York’s pre-eminent dermatologists, she has devised a simple, effective line.

“No overload,” as Stephanie says. “God knows we have enough of that going on in our lives.” Trish McEvoy is only at Harvey Nichols, Dundrum, where Eve Kelly is the new counter manager. Book in for a free make-up appointment and Eve will make up half your face, then gently force you to do the other half – a brilliant way to ensure you really have taken it all in. To book an appointment, call 01 291 0488.

the slouching, I have only myself to blame. SUZANNE LOWRY

T H E G L O S S M A G A Z I N E | March 2011 | 59

PHOTOG RAPH BY J OANNE MURPH Y

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home rules the smart interiors of this dublin CitY Centre townhouse are the result of a suCCessful Collaboration between Client and designer Ph otogra P h s by ja mes f en n el l

T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e | March 2011 | 61

Home

Shapely pieces like the oval ottoman counterbalance the strong lines of the custom-built L-shaped sofa.

Moleskin, chenille, weaves and self-stripe fabrics add texture and definition to the neutral scheme.

Rather than use antique gilt frames, mirrors made to fit were commissioned, then painted and antiqued.

The hall benefits from a complete panelling job, carefully proportioned to enhance the height. The chandelier is Waterford.

A

lthough based in the US, the owners of this Dublin townhouse return frequently to see family and friends. On a visit a couple of years ago, they decided to invest in a city centre period house they could call home on future trips. Used to living in big spaces, they were confident that with the help of an interior designer, they could adjust to the narrowly proportioned layout of this classic Victorian two-storey over basement.

The brief: retain the interior’s period character while addressing the needs of a family used to smart-casual American-style family living. When the services of Helen Roden and Joe Ensko of Merrion Square Interiors were engaged, plans to extend the basement level to accommodate a kitchen/ living/dining area and redevelop a one-bed mews in the garden were already underway with the architect Daniel Coyle. “It was the ideal point to implement the plans already agreed with the client,” according to Helen Roden. “The architect tweaked the layout to dovetail with the interior plans – where to create storage, how the seating arrangements would work, the positioning of electrics, plumbing and other services.” The challenge to create a contemporary family living space downstairs and a more traditional arrangement upstairs which would work well for entertaining is familiar to Roden and Ensko. “So many families live in period houses in Ireland – the trick is to be able to combine day-to-day living with the classic layouts that to this day represent the best configuration for entertaining.”

The outcome – a series of beautifully furnished interconnecting rooms at hall floor level, three comfortable bedrooms upstairs and a smart and practical living space at basement level – is a perfect example of an effective professional collaboration. Detailed mood boards and floor plans left nothing to chance – sample finishes were made up, fabric and flooring swatches and paint shades specified. “It helped that our clients were so decisive,” says Roden. “Having been through this process before with an 62 | March 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

home

Elements in the living/dining area include a glossy white table and leather dining chairs from Roche Bobois and a double-height storage unit designed for the space. A courtyard garden links the modern family space to the equally modern mews at the back.

Opposite, top: One of the interconnecting reception rooms on the hall level with chenille upholstered modular seating, ottoman by Collection Pierre and chandelier by Louise Kennedy for Tipperary Crystal. The painted wooden cabinet conceals a television.

Opposite, bottom: The hall, the most improved space in the house, according to the designers, is painted in Colortrend 8221W, a neutral shade used on woodwork throughout the house.

This page, clockwise from top: Elegant sliding doors in the family living space are identical to those of the mews across the courtyard; the dry bar with fridge below; in the family sitting room, curtains are ceiling-mounted and the shadow gap mirrored – both details enhance the illusion of height. The sofa and chairs are by Roche Bobois; cushions covered in fabrics by Boussac and Pierre Frey add bright accents to the white modular seating.

Note: All joinery was commissioned from Irish suppliers by Merrion Square Interiors.

Floors throughout the house are travertine by MLG and wide plank walnut by Ebony & Co. Merrion Square Interiors, 82 Merrion Square, Dublin 2, 01 676 1173; www.merrionsquareinteriors.com.

The oblong opening with gas fire and white stone hearth are part of the concealed storage wall.

The shadow gap at the top is mirrored and uplit.

T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e | March 2011 | 63

HOME The guest bedroom has a French feel with freestanding armoires and pretty Pavillion Peacock Tree wallpaper by Colefax and Fowler.

The gilded beds are Italian; the aqua bedcovers are from Laura Ashley.

A walnut bed in the master bedroom conceals a television in the base. The Jersey wallpaper is by Colefax and Fowler.

American interior designer, they knew how to make the relationship work for everyone’s benefit.” Like any relationship, it is important for the client to be able to relinquish some control and for the designer to be able to compromise. “The key is not to get bogged down and to make the process a pleasant one. There should be no nasty surprises,” says Ensko. “It’s crucial that the client enjoys the experience. We see our role as supportive while taking over the burden of the nuts and bolts.” Esentially problem-solvers, interior designers can often arrive at solutions faster and cheaper – where to find space for the three golf bags, 64 | March 2011 | T H E G L O S S M A G A Z I N E

Top: The Italian-style mirror was designed to fit. Inset: The bedside lamps and tables are Italian. Left: Emroidered silk floral curtains are by Fadini Borghi. Above right: The bathroom is travertine with Duravit fittings; the window blind is fine white linen.

grand piano and a suite of luggage, how to fit wardrobes into impossibly small bedrooms, ways to work a utility room into an already spatially-compromised ground floor. Merrion Square Interiors charge an initial design fee which includes the proposed scheme, detailed budget and mood boards. Once the client decides to proceed, there is no further charge – all joinery, furniture and fabric includes the interior design charge, making it a very transparent process. “This house is the result of just two meetings,” says Roden. It just goes to show, success is all in the planning.

THe glOSS MAgAziNe invites you to

An evening of

‘Style with Substance’ in association with

BROWN THOMAS Join Anya Hindmarch , celebrated international fashion designer

Thursday 24th March from 7-9pm This is the first in a series of

‘Style with Substance ’ events, which will take place in The Restaurant at Level 3, Brown Thomas, Dublin.

Enjoy an informal Q&A with Anya, light supper and the chance to pose with her new SS11 handbag collection. The person with the most creative and inventive picture on the evening as chosen

by Anya, will win the bag they pose with. The first 20 readers to email register@thegloss.ie will receive two tickets. If you have been successful, you will be notified by March 14th.

Where Classic Design Meets The Modern Home furniture • kitchens • lighting • pictures • mirrors • giftware globalvillage, powerscourt house, enniskerry and unit 10 kcr ind.est. kimmage, dublin 12 Tel: 01 4597454 www.globalvillage.ie

GIANA’S BAKED GUBBEEN

SAY FROMAGE From oozing Italian Taleggio and creamy French crottin to homegrown tangy blues and cheddars, there’s a cheese to suit every taste. Clodagh McKenna creates the perfect board

I

YOU WILL NEED: 1 baby Gubbeen cheese; 1 tbsp chopped mixed fresh herbs, such as thyme and rosemary; 2 cloves of garlic (crushed); freshly ground black pepper; a crusty loaf of bread.

METHOD: Preheat the oven to 165ºC/325ºF/ gas mark 3. Cut the cheese in half horizontally to make 2 rounds. Sprinkle the herbs, garlic and black pepper on the bottom half of the cheese.

Replace the top half and place the wheel on a large piece of tin foil. Wrap the foil around the cheese, forming a chimney hole on top with the excess foil. The chimney will let out the moisture while the cheese bakes. Place the cheese on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes, or until the cheese is soft and runny.

Spread on slices of chunky bread while the cheese is still warm.

PH OTOGRAPH BY JOANN E M URP HY

f there is one thing I know I could never live without, it’s cheese … I was reminded of this last week, as I perched at the bar in my regular local Italian restaurant, OLIVETO in Dun Laoghaire, devouring one of their delicious pizzas. My favourite at the moment is the Taleggio – thin crisp My base, homemade tomato topping, blanketed with latest kitchen an oozing Taleggio cheese, straight from their gadget pash is my wood-burning oven. I used to cook a lot with new Microplane grater. It shaves Taleggio when I lived in Italy (it comes from parmesan into the lightest, fluffiest the north of the country, near Lombardy). angel hair, so that when you grate it on It is characteristically aromatic yet mild to pasta, the cheese melts instantly. You in flavour and features tangy, meaty notes can pick one up in Kitchen Complements with a fruity finish and pairs nicely with on Chatham Street in Italian Nebbiolo wines.

Dublin, or Delia’s Kitchen A few days ago, I was teaching ‘The on French Church Perfect Dinner Party’ cookery class in my Street in Cork, for school at The Village at Lyons, and we made a around t28. recipe first given to me by Giana Ferguson, famed SHERIDANS CHEESEMONGERS cheese-maker of GUBBEEN FARMHOUSE in West run a wonderful cheese club Cork, and all-round food goddess. You split the cheese in half, which costs t35 per month. fill it with garlic, herbs and bake it (see recipe, top right) and then Each month, Sheridans select serve in the centre of the table with pieces of toasted bread to scoop four different cheeses that are out the melting cheese – utterly divine! at the peak of their ripeness When I’m in Cork, I always head to the English Market. ON THE and seasonality, and include PIGS BACK is an amazing stall that sells impeccably seasoned Irish and French farmhouse cheeses – the last time I was tasting notes on each one.

The cheeses will be delivered there I picked up a French Crottin de Chavignol, a pur chèvre (made from only goats’ milk) produced in the area around on the second Wednesday of the Loire Valley village of Chavignol. It is a soft, crumbly cheese which can be eaten after ten days but is at its best at about each month; the price includes four weeks. It has a soft edible rind which starts off white but darkens as it ages. The flavour is slightly nutty. It is fantastic postage. Log on to www. grilled and served on a green salad with a chilled white Pouilly Fumé or a good Sauvignon Blanc. While you’re at the sheridanscheesemongers.

English Market, pop around the corner to IAGO for the best selection of Italian cheeses in the south of the country. com; email Dan at dan@ Even though I’m devoted to French, Spanish and Italian cheeses, I love to create an Irish farmhouse cheeseboard sheridanscheesemongers.com if I’m having people over for dinner. Here are the stars of the last board that graced my table: Desmond, a hard or call 01 679 3143. cheese with a sharp resonant aftertaste; Durrus, a semi-soft rind-washed, fragrant, nutty cheese with real character; Cooleeney, similar to camembert with a distinct mushroomy aroma and a rich, semi-liquid interior; Ardrahan, a semi-soft farmhouse cheddar with an earthy flavour and pungent aroma; St Tola Log, a sweet, creamy goat’s cheese; and, finally, Crozier Blue, rich creamy blue sheep’s milk cheese.

GRUYÈRE AND ASPARAGUS TART INGREDIENTS (SERVES 6)

METHOD:

edge. Place in a pre-heated oven at

basil leaves on top.

300g asparagus spears

1. Start by making the pastry. Using

180°C/350°F/gas mark 4 for 15 minutes.

5. Bake the tart in the pre-heated oven

3 eggs, beaten

your fingertips, rub the butter and flour

3. While the pastry is baking, cook the

for 30 minutes or until the centre feels

100g gruyère cheese, grated

together, and add in enough cold water

asparagus by placing in a small pan of

firm and is golden brown.

250ml cream

to just bring the dough together. Wrap

simmering salted water for 3 minutes,

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

in cling film and place in a fridge to cool

before draining well.

8 fresh basil leaves

for half an hour.

4. Beat together the eggs and cheese

2. Once the pastry is chilled, roll it out

and season with sea salt and freshly

FOR THE PASTRY:

using a wooden rolling pin and line a

ground black pepper. Pour the egg

60g butter

7 1/ 2 inch flan tin. Press the dough firmly

and cheese mixture into the tart and

120g plain flour

down, trimming any excess from the

arrange the asparagus spears and fresh

T H E G L O S S M A G A Z I N E | March 2011 | 67

ENTERTAINING

F

rom the duplex penthouse apartment in Dublin’s city centre that Kieron Moore, of hotel and catering recruitment outfit The Firm, shares with his partner John Mahoney and their Kerry Blue puppy, Cosmo, the view of the Sugarloaf is stunning. On the night we drop by, the theme of dinner for nine started out as being ‘An Evening with Julia Child’ but has

morphed into something more free-form – although Julia’s boeuf bourguignon remains on the menu (albeit with a last-minute grating of frozen ginger to impart extra oomph). The starter is braised endive with Serrano ham (an Ottolenghi recipe) and pud is a Baked Cherry Frangipane from M&S. “People come to dinner to enjoy themselves and they don’t want me to be in the kitchen all night,” says Kieron. “I plan ahead and don’t get stressed.” That’s not to say that the menu isn’t sometimes more elaborate. “Sometimes I might decide to give it socks and produce something like ‘Tomato Five Ways’, an idea I stole from Alain Ducasse when I ate at his Bar et Boeuf restaurant in Monte Carlo.” Having worked front of house in the restaurant business for years (including a stint as general manager at London’s Le Caprice) before establishing The Firm, Kieron is unfazed by large numbers – dinner for up to 18 is commonplace. For big parties (as many as 90) he brings in caterer Claire Hanley.

412 Cab leather dining chair, Cassina, to order, at Minima.

champagne served in Louise Kennedy flutes or cocktails in the

Ennis Butchers, Rialto, Dublin 8. “They do their own dry-ageing.

Fabulous meat.”

French Paradox, Shelbourne Road, Dublin 4. Wine and chocolate ganache (if in a hurry!)

Adonis Flowers, Patrick Street, Dublin 8: “Paul Berry is the best florist in town.”

Slaviati Venetian glass tumblers that they collect, dispensed from a 1950s drinks cabinet bought at Wild Child. Each glass is different so guests don’t get confused as the evening wears on. The table downstairs (it’s a couple of inches higher than normal to discourage Aurora champagne glass, t47.50, Louise Kennedy for Tipperary Crystal.

slumping) is by furniture-maker Stephen O’Briain in Kilkenny, the soft leather chairs by Cassina. Antique cutlery was picked up at a market in Nice and the linen was made to order. Nights tend to be late, and may involve dancing or an impromptu catwalk.

SPRING FORTH DON’T PLAY IT SAFE: REFRESH YOUR PALATE WITH A NEW WINE FOR SPRING, SAYS MARY DOWEY WHEN A FLOCK OF KIWI WINEMAKERS descended on Dublin

grapes embraced by adventurous New Zealand for a start. Other white candidates might

recently, the bottles lined up under the banner ‘Tables of the Unexpected’

include Semillon (full-flavoured and brilliantly ageworthy); crisp Gavi; zippy Vermentino;

created an immediate buzz. Here was New Zealand, a land drowning

or honeysuckle-toned Marsanne. Reds on the spring list could start with refreshing Cabernet

in Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, suddenly showing us that it

Franc (including Chinon and Bourgueil from the Loire); tangy Barbera; and smokily luscious

can also produce Arneis, Verdelho, Grüner Veltliner, Tempranillo,

Argentine Malbec (worth getting to know before the barbecue comes out).

Montepulciano … even Pinotage, for heaven’s sake. How refreshing!

Cynics will say it’s high time New Zealand had a few new tricks up its sleeve for the

As for countries and regions to explore, the one I’ve been most impressed by recently is Portugal. This long-term wallflower of the Irish wine scene is suddenly looking confident.

day – imminent, surely – when the world tires of its grapefruity white set piece, while admiring but not being able to afford much of its Pinot Noir. But think of it the other way round. How many people do you know who almost always drink NZ Sauvignon Blanc?

Or who almost always choose an Aussie Shiraz midweek and a Châteauneuf-du-Pape on a posh outing? Or who even drink the very same wine 90 per cent of the time?

Comfort drinking has its place, of course, right next to comfort eating – staving off disappointment and offering cosy familiarity in its place. But does it really make sense to

DELICIOUSLY DIFFERENT TESCO FINEST KEN FORRESTER CHENIN BLANC, STELLENBOSCH 2010.

How does South Africa manage to pack so much flavour into Chenin Blanc?

This modestly priced version delivers a huge burst of apple, pear and honey flavours. Terrific with roast pork or a chicken stir-fry. From Tesco, d9.99.

play safe when you might discover something new and deliciously exciting for a change?

In spite of recent contraction in the Irish wine trade, we’re lucky still to benefit from a mouthwatering breadth of choice, and this could be the perfect time of year to put it to the test. Spring-clean your shopping routine, I suggest. For every tried-and-tested bottle that you buy, choose one that seems different from anything you’ve ever had before.

To be more specific, let’s assume the Old Reliables category covers not just Sauvignon Blanc and Syrah/Shiraz but the other mainstream single varietals: Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir. Also in there are predictably popular styles like Chablis, Sancerre, Rioja, Bordeaux, Chianti, Côtes du Rhône. Nothing wrong with any of them except over-exposure. What to choose instead? You could have a look at some of those

68 | March 2011 | T H E G L O S S M A G A Z I N E

SEIFRIED ESTATE PINOT GRIS, NELSON 2010. New Zealand’s new white hope, Pinot Gris, can be plodding – but this is a refreshing, orange-andpear-toned beauty. A lovely aperitif, or match it with light Asian dishes or a pear salad. From Deveneys, Dundrum, Dublin 16; Martins, Fairview, Dublin 3; Cellars Big Wine Warehouse, Dublin 12; The Market, Belamine Plaza, Dublin 18; Parting Glass, Enniskerry, usually d16.99.

QUINTA DE LA ROSA DOURO TINTO 2008. From a small, family-run estate in port territory, here comes proof of just how classy new-wave Portuguese can be. Enjoy with duck breasts or the best bit of beef you can manage.

From Redmonds, Ranelagh, Dublin 6; www.jnwine.com, about d17.95.

PHOTOGRA P HS BY S I OBHA N BY RN E

An evening at John and Kieron’s starts upstairs with either ADDRESS BOOK:

Photo Michel Gibert.

Mah Jong Couture modular sofa Dressed by Jean Paul Gaultier Design Hans Hopfer

UNIT D1 Beacon South Quarter, Dublin 18.

Tel: 01-653-1650 email: dublin@rochebobois.ie

Opening hours: 10.00 am – 6.00 pm, Monday – Saturday 12.00 am – 6.00 pm, Sunday.

Designed for you

INTELLIGENT DESIGN

NEAT SEAT

DESIGNER GARVAN DE BRUIR’S LATEST VENTURE

BREW UP

This Glossy

Take inspiration from Japan and turn your everyday cuppa into a proper ritual with this hand-thrown teapot, e65, by Sligo ceramicist Lynda Gault; www. lyndagaultceramics.ie.

Focus on Irish design

lifestyle

BRIGHT SPARK If you liked Poul Christiansen’s lampshades for Le Klint, you’ll love the self-assembly Palm lampshade by Irish design duo Kate Cronin and Elizabeth Fingleton of Klickity. Scooping one of the Best New Product awards at Showcase 2011, it attaches to any hanging ceiling light and comes in a variety of colours, from red to muted grey and – our favourite – white; t49.99, at Kilkenny; www. kilkennyshop.com.

MATCH MAKER Belfast-based art consultant Carrie Neely will help source or commission the perfect piece of art for your home (like ‘Hand’ by Neisha Allen, right), creating connections between artists and buyers and handling everything from sculpture to paintings; www. carrieneely.com.

Spoil yourself with Max Benjamin’s latest luxurious candle, White Pomegranate, a delicate mix of pomegranate, rosebud, lily and gardenia. t18, at Brown Thomas, House of Fraser, Kilkenny and Meadows & Byrne.

DESIGNER SHADES Applying new colours is the easiest way to freshen up your home, but a visit to the local paint shop can be overwhelming.

Real help is at hand: Irish paint company Colortrend and Helen Turkington have teamed up to create a foolproof range of paints. “Developing and creating a paint range to add to my portfolio has been a very exciting project,” says Turkington, one of the country’s leading interior designers. “Thinking about the customer and what they want in their home has been the most important part in finalising the colour palette.” Inspired by nature, the range comprises 30 different shades (t34.95 for 2.5 litres), including Apple Grey, Irish Linen and Belgian Blue, and each colour complements Turkington’s extensive fabric range. www.helenturkington.ie.

Classicand andErased ErasedClassic Classic Classic Designer Rugs By Jan Kath Designer Rugs By Jan Kath Exclusively Available at: Exclusively Available at:

www.rugart.ie www.rugart.ie (01) 269 0505 (01) 269 0505 Find us on Facebook Find us on Facebook

Terminus Mills, Clonskeagh, Dublin 6.

Terminus Mills, Clonskeagh, Dublin 6.

D

esigner and craftsman Garvan de Bruir trained in the UK and returned to Ireland in 2007, designing and building a showroom-cum-workshop in his native Kildare. “I snuck the buildings up behind the family house,” he laughs. “What I do is very craft-orientated, so the environment is important. An industrial unit wasn’t going to inspire creativity or confidence in visiting clients, so the studio is very much my own visual style.” Indeed, de Bruir’s vision is the unifying factor in a varied output that spans everything from bespoke furniture to sculptural commissions (visitors to last year’s Dublin Horse Show may remember the handsome jump he created for the event). The studio is a unique space that uses innovations in timber technology to create a curved, soaring space that feels cocoon-like at the same time, and he is currently working towards a completely prefabricated building system.

For now, though, it’s his smart range of leather luggage that is gaining a cult following. “I made my own laptop bag a few years ago, and it was an organic thing after that. A few friends ordered it and it grew from there – the luggage now accounts for up to half of my business.” He has online sales from Texas to Australia, and says his customers fall into an identifiable category: “They tend to be guys, using laptops, e-readers, iPads. They’ve found me online so they like their technology.”

In terms of materials, however, de Bruir still favours the traditional: “I feel that natural materials have a better ability to meet a brief than any synthetics, no matter how technically brilliant they are,” he says. “Leather, sheepskin, cotton, linen – in functional terms they’re brilliant. And they’ve become fashionable again.” www.debruir.com. CH

P HOTOGRA P H BY N EI L HURLEY

This sofa is made with a feather-light wire frame so it appears to float, creating a great sense of space in the smallest of rooms.

Inspired by mid-century modern design, the Volare sofa by Dutch company Leolux is available at McNally, 46 Serpentine Avenue, Dublin 4, 01 660 4856; www.mcnallyliving.ie.

TRAVEL

MAN in A SUITCASE How time flies: with a significant birthday looming, TIM MAGEE muses on the changing face of air travel …

THE GETAWAY

Montreux

That year, we (fair enough, the Soviets) finally managed to successfully land a piece of machinery on Mars. That same year, while we – the Irish – tried to come to terms with decimalisation, the 747 had been ferrying people around the world in Jumbo comfort for twelve months already. Concorde was in its second year of trials, and while two elderly empires were testing a way of flying new money and old at 60,000 feet over the Atlantic on a bed of nouvelle cuisine and champagne quicker than today’s Dublin to Cork train, two new empires were competing to put people and things in space, on the moon and Mars.

In the world of travel, anything seemed possible – The Jetsons seemed possible. And then they didn’t. The breakthroughs that were conceived in the 1960s and born in the 1970s were retired in the noughties, with no replacements. Nothing is faster now than then – in fact most things are slower.

Forty years on, it feels like travel has actually regressed.

Technology has changed our lives but the internet, mobile phones and Sky+ haven’t really come onboard yet. Forty years on and our planes, trains and automobiles still move at the same rate they did when I was born. Slower, and smaller: the stagnant travel times, the ever dwindling baggage allowances (soon the overhead lockers will be

LE MONTREUX PALACE hasn’t changed much either in the last 40 years.

I’m a fan of this class of suburban European grand dame, these ladiesin-waiting that do their job so patiently, the ones with the framed visitors’ books (did Jackie O, Grace Kelly and Johnny Hallyday ever sleep in their own beds?). While there is a definite attraction of traipsing around cities like Lisbon and Geneva, it’s even better when, at the end of your urban schlep, you leg it back to the pristine royal playgrounds of Estoril and Montreux.

Too often just a ski or business hub, Geneva is at a very cool crossroads in the middle of a European playground. One kilometre outside of that shining, spouting city by the lake is a bountiful rural French countryside that sees Switzerland’s good looks and cuisine and raises it twofold, and in this part of the world Milan is the local shopping mall, Lyon the food market. If the Orient Express was a place it would be Le Montreux Palace.

Montreux is famous for its festival but forget all that jazz. I am not a fan of festivals: pamphlets and people don’t make for my kind of holiday.

Try to be there on a Saturday when, after some ferry-watching and clocking some well-groomed, Swiss-timed, Agatha Christie characters steam their way across Lake Geneva at sunset, the centre of the lake lights up the Alps with a giddy fireworks display that you’ll always remember.

just for coats), the stripping masses, the onboard sales and the too-small seats. Has commerciality won the war with endeavour?

Mind you, it’s worth remembering that Concorde only ever took less than a hundred people at a go and the fare could have actually bought you a house in Howth at one time. If nouvelle cuisine and champagne tastes odd at 38,000 feet, it must felt like eating a Vesta ready meal and drinking Shloer at 60,000, and it would’ve taken two hours to rid your hair of the reek of Benson & Hedges after each flight. Nagging newsagents for coins on arrival before you queued for a smelly payphone to boast about being compressed in a supersonic 1970s nightclub wouldn’t have been my scene either. I would have opted to spend that kind of money on the Plaza and Saks instead of shaving a couple of hours off a trip on a flying tube with 90-odd honeymooners and no choice of movies to drown out the coughing.

Look at it another way: today, it takes 15 minutes to book a cheap flight on your phone for a puddle-jump to Heathrow. Kicking back in my exit seat on a pristine smoke-free plane with a Black Bush and the latest series of Mad Men – before it gets to RTÉ – is something that even the Jetsons would never have dreamed of. Travel has never seemed better.

A GREAT PLACE ...

to Eat

Alain Ducasse has more Michelin stars than any other chef. I’m not sure that’s a good thing. He is one of the great chefs and at his best when he’s doing things simply, like Aux Lyonnais in the second arrondissement. Other restaurants of his are gimmicky and too international, like the tourist money magnet LE JULES VERNE in the Eiffel Tower. It should be all wrong: too expensive, yawnish food – the best thing on the table are the cool place-mats cum plates – but, as usual, Paris wins overall. The room is beautifully lit, with carpets to lose yourself in – it’s the closest thing to travelling first class on a luxury liner a century ago – but the view, the view … you are looking at the best city on earth and for one night everyone is looking up at you. The best part, though, is the hourly light display – you’re the star in the middle of the world’s Christmas tree. It was good enough for the charming Obama ladies on their last trip to Paris and it’s one cheesy, touristy trap worth saving for.

72 | March 2011 | T H E G L O S S M A G A Z I N E

CONCORD E PH OTOGRAPH BY GETTY; J ULES VERNE © MATT ALETTI

I

t’s whiskey for the next while. I’ve always liked it but recently it has replaced pints and any thoughts that I’m still a kid. Neat, quality whiskey seems more appropriate now, like wearing tailored clothes, and listening instead of talking.

Despite my best efforts, I’m not usually obsessed with myself. I didn’t mind my 30th birthday, nor my 35th, but turning 40 this month does have me obsessing, looking backwards instead of forwards, about what has changed in the world since 1971, and what hasn’t.

FITNESS

FIELD WORK Why would any sane person choose to run around in the cold being shouted at? For the great fitness results bootcamps provide, says CAROLINE SCOTT ... classes in Limerick, Meath and Cork

motivation techniques. “We don’t yell and there’s nothing

and, starting soon, Galway.

military about our classes,” says Cathy Albanese, who

Anyone who’s ambled past a group of flushed, puffed people on a freezing cold night may wonder what on earth

People of all fitness levels, ability and age can train

possesses them. “I love being in the

together: you are mostly using your own body weight and

fresh air. It’s a bit of a laugh and it

going at your own pace. Most bootcamps are a mixture of

keeps you in a positive frame of

cardio and aerobic work, plus strengthening and toning,

mind,” says Tracy Kelly, who works

and sometimes involve incorporating elements of your

for Touchstone Communications,

environment, like benches.

and who does bootcamp training

Many devotees mention the social side of outdoor

with IRFU accredited coach and

training as one of the key motivators. For others, it’s

occupational psychologist Neil O’Brien,

safety in numbers: when there are 30 people doing squats

at Keepfit.ie. “I went to improve my aerobic fitness. I’d

and lunges in a park, you can rest assured that no one is

been skiing twice that year and found I was out of breath

looking at your bottom. However, the downside of all this

all the time. I’ve achieved that goal now.” The point that

is that you can get lost in the mix. “At Keepfit.ie they keep

you see people with beautiful bodies doing it on the

Kelly makes, about discovering that she wasn’t as fit as

an eye on you and it’s a personal approach. I tried another

beach, but in Ireland? It’s not quite the same is it?”

she thought, resonates with many of us – who hasn’t spent

bootcamp but they just didn’t focus on the strugglers like

sniggered a Californian, now living in Dublin. I had

lots of money on fitness classes or a gym membership

me!” says Tracy Kelly. “I felt disheartened when I joined a

to laugh, as there is an element of truth in what she

and then discovered they can barely walk up a hill? “This

bootcamp,” says Dublin doctor, Aisling Loy. “It was such

says. However, the lack of sunshine, real suntans and

is how to get properly fit,” believes PR executive Mary

a big group and I just felt lost. Also, I went with a friend

manically toned midriffs isn’t putting Irish women off.

Andrews, who trains with FitSquad. “You use every bit

who was trying to meet new people but I don’t think being

More and more of us are ditching the gym membership

of your body! After I ran the Dublin Marathon I stopped

covered in mud and doing press-ups in the lashing rain

in favour of getting hot and sweaty in a colder and more

training altogether and then struggled to get back into

was the way to go about it!”

public place, be it the park or on the beach. In fact, the

However, the ‘group’ thing is important for some, as

total lack of glamour is part of the appeal: like columnist

Kate Ryan who runs FitSquad explains: “Especially for

‘Connie’ and her SUV, the yummy mummy gym bunny, swanning around her swish gym in her perfect workout gear feels like a relic of the past. Bootcamp training is less about posturing, posing and bending, and more about getting down and dirty and giving someone 20. Pressups, that is.

Military-style fitness bootcamps and outdoor exercise groups aren’t the big news – many have been operating for nearly ten years now – it’s the proliferation of them

The pressure and shouting associated with this style of fitness APPEALS AND REPELS in equal measure; for some it’s the only thing that will motivate them, while for others, it’s as offputting as the weather.

mental benefits and sense of camaraderie are important.

Many of the classes being rolled out across the country are franchises, picked up by entrepreneurs who have retrained (Ryan, of FitSquad, used to work for First Active and Albanese, of FITT, has a background in the construction industry). Always check the credentials of the person whose class you are signing up to. “The councils have really clamped down on outdoor exercise

around the country, the growing demand for more classes

groups and have made sure that they are well run by

and, crucially, the choice and variety. Tried it once and hated it? It may well be that you chose the wrong one.

men. Not all guys belong to a rugby club, or whatever, but they still appreciate the importance of team spirit”. The

it. I felt reassured when I saw that there were plenty of

FITT Bootcamp, for example, is for women only and is

people older and less fit than me doing it too. They forced

run by a sunny Australian who overcame her own weight

me back to fitness – they really pile on the pressure!”

trained professionals,” says Ryan.

Payment for most bootcamps is made in advance for eight weeks’ worth of classes. It works out at roughly

issues, while 95 per cent of Bootcamp Ireland instructors

The pressure and shouting associated with this style

the same price as a gym membership, or, in some cases,

come from military backgrounds. Some organisations

of fitness appeals and repels in equal measure; for some

actually more. However, since you work constantly during

continue training outside all year, while others move

it’s the only thing that will motivate them, while for

each session, as opposed to aerobic classes where you

indoors during the colder months. And if you think it’s

others, it’s just as offputting as the weather. Where you

often wait for the music to change or to move equipment

a niche trend for GI Jane types only, think again. “I’m

stand on this is one of the key determiners of which group

around. And who hasn’t spent an hour in the gym and felt

constantly surprised by the people who turn up,” says

you should sign up to. “Yes, you do get shouted at but it’s

like they’ve achieved nothing?

Lorraine Ho of Bootcamp Ireland. “We get everyone from

amusing at the same time,” says Andrews, who recalls an

FITT Ladies Bootcamp: www.fittpt.com; 085 102 7399.

big, burly rugby heads to older women who want to lose

instructor standing over her slightly fuzzy head screaming

Bootcamp Ireland: www.bootcampireland.com; 01 234 3797.

weight.” Ho started Bootcamp Ireland seven years ago. It

“How many glasses of Prosecco did you drink last night?”

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76 | March 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

Strap

This Glossy Life French Ambassador Emmanuelle d’Achon is unfazed by living in one of the most ogled houses in Ireland. To her, it’s just home for the next three years. We take a look inside PhotograPhs by Barry mc call

The T hGel o Gs l so sMsAM GA G Z IANZeI N| eSeptember | March 2009 2011 || 77 15

this glossy life

W

hen French Ambassador to Ireland Emmanuelle d’Achon takes a taxi to her house at 53 Ailesbury Road, the driver usually does a double take. ““Wow, is that yours?” they say. It’s impressive from the outside, but it manages to be both

grand and cosy at the same time. I felt that from the moment I walked in the door.” D’Achon, installed since September last, is conscious of her role being that of a privileged caretaker for a three-year period – “How lucky I am that I can go into a house and simply put my slippers under the bed” – and is adamant that no ambassador must ever put his or her personal stamp on an official residence. “There is a whole department in Paris dedicated to the decoration and maintenance of residences abroad,” says d’Achon. Decorative freewheeling on the part of the ambassador is frowned upon. “In one residence, an ambassador had installed some rather heavy Indonesian furniture,” she goes on. “You have to resist the temptation.” Her one concession, the silver-framed photographs of her three grown-up children, Constance, Edouard and Melanie, on the grand piano in the drawing room. Restraint may be the order of the day but the Dublin residence, the legation of France since 1930, is a pleasing, homely but unmistakably French collision of the old and the new – the massive drawing room the light-filled star of the ground floor, with its Beauvais tapestry and clashing collection of Louis XIV chairs and modern sofas.

As spring sunshine floods the room, coffee is served from a silver tray at a glass-top table. The painted inlay is signed JC de Castelbajac – it’s a piece by fashion designer Jean-Charles Castelbajac, the contemporary fashion and furniture designer. So far, so French.

In the dining room, under the Georgian-style coffered ceiling, a huge mahogany table seats 20, but a smaller round table in the bay window is set for four with Irish linen napkins and French porcelain, presided over by a portrait of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. The walls of a small library are lined with deep red fabric with a toile de Jouy print. A collection of Biscuit de Sèvres, the soft white porcelain figures and busts made in Paris in the 18th century, is the only significant collection in the house – the rest is a harmonious mix of several styles of art and objects. “The screen with the fish detail [opposite] is the oldest item in the house. Those, I suspect,” says d’Achon, referring to the egg-yolk yellow curtains in the drawing room, “were hung in the 1970s.” They may offend (although she wouldn’t say) but they will remain, until Paris decrees otherwise.

Curtains are not, it is fair to say, uppermost in the mind of a woman like Emmanuelle d’Achon, who has a degree in French literature and is a graduate of two of France’s Grandes Écoles – the Institute of Political Sciences or ‘Sciences Po” and ENA – the École Nationale d’Aministration, both considered vital for advancement in the French civil service.

“At university, I thought I would do something in film, having being seduced, like many French students, by the films of Truffaut,” she laughs, “but I went a different route.” At Sciences Po, a lecturer in International Relations, Renaud Vignal, became the catalyst for her interest in foreign affairs. “He was an expert in American foreign policy – I was fascinated.” Her interest in other countries has fuelled her professional life but as her interest in film and literature attests, cultural curiosity plays a big part in adapting to and enjoying the role.

Just two years after entering the foreign service, she was posted to South Africa as Second Secretary. “When I was asked, I accepted with pleasure,” she smiles. “It was an adventure.” While in South Africa, she had her first child and took the opportunity afforded by her maternity leave to explore the country. “I would warm the baby food on the engine of our

78 | March 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

this glossy life station wagon. We had time to meet people and engage with them. I found having a baby an advantage: it broke the ice.” In South Africa, she was politicised, but still learning. “You can’t stay in your office. You must be able to analyse the political situation, to observe civil society, to get the pulse of a country. That’s what I do here. At that time in South Africa, for instance, the trade unions were incubating future leaders of the anti-apartheid movement. It was an exciting time.” As well as fulfilling her political function, d’Achon is determined to meet as many local representatives and groups as possible, in order to feed back to Paris as accurate a picture of Ireland as possible.

When her term in South Africa was over, she entered ENA, the college for higher civil servants. “It was, simply, good for my career,” she explains. Posts in Washington, Mauritius, New York and Tanzania followed. D’Achon is aware that she was lucky that her husband Jean-Eudes, now Economic Counsellor at the French Ministry of Finance in Paris, took leave from his government job to share the African experience with her. “Having worked in Human Resources for three years, I know the challenge facing female diplomats is that their husbands are not always willing to travel. Even for male diplomats, it is difficult for a spouse to be enthusiastic if she thinks it unlikely she will find a job in the destination country. This is a big issue – we have to help spouses find positions.” D’Achon has inadvertently played a mentoring role with younger female diplomats. “I like building friendships with women, and helping if I can,” she says simply. “With the right support, a career in the foreign service is very achievable for a woman. I certainly felt no obstacles, nor did I experience discrimination.” She cites the example of Anne Anderson, former Irish ambassador to Paris, now Permanent Representative of Ireland to the United Nations in New York. “I wish more women were in posts like that.”

Even when two other children followed the first, she never contemplated not working. “My mother always encouraged me and my sisters to work.” The children adapted well, attending French schools abroad, and have reaped the rewards of a cosmoplitan upbringing – all speak English and have a broad and tolerant view of the world. “They all came here for my birthday – there are plenty of lovely bedrooms upstairs.” Including the one in which President de Gaulle took a restorative nap while visiting in 1969.

“He didn’t stay the night, but spent the rest of the week at Áras an Uactaráin with President de Valera.

His portrait still hangs in the same bedroom.” President Sarkozy visited in 2008. When I ask if there are any plans for another visit, d’Achon slips into diplomatic mode, explaining how busy the President is with France’s presidency of this year’s G8 and G20 summits. (At the very moment we were speaking, it later transpired, Sarkozy and Brian Cowen had locked horns once again on Ireland’s corporation tax.)

When pressed what she would do if Carla Bruni came to visit, she laughs. “I would dress very plainly, in black. No one could upstage her. She is a very beautiful woman.” Were it to happen, perhaps Paris might be prevailed upon to replace the 1970s curtains? “This house has a special quality,” says the diplomat, as we walk to the door. “Everyone who visits feels its charm.” SMcD

T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e | March 2011 | 79

over and out

N

ow that this election business

the right places to achieve this. And they want Connie

is firmly out of the way,

to go to Washington, as an example of the new Ireland.

Connie, like everybody else

She will exemplify the rehabilitated Tigress, who

in the country, is mulling

once out-roared them all, who was brought to the brink

over the highly predictable

of ruin and who has reinvented herself through hard

diversionary surprises created

work and extreme tenacity but, above all else, on her

as distractions from the real business of the chronic and

journey has gained HUMILITY. This Fine Gal has a

acute insolvency that is nationwide. Quite frankly, she

difficult job ahead! This is the new image for Ireland on

is tiring of all the political brouhaha and in fact would

its National Day: there is to be no more gobshitery, just

drop the whole business if it weren’t for the fact that she

traditional post-colonial self-abasement.

sees certain opportunities for herself in this new era.

Apparently some public servant is taking care of all

The vigorous canvassing of her SoCoDu lobby

the arrangements, however, with laborious influence

group SOUTH – Save Our Uniqueness Through

from certain quarters, expenses will be examined and

Handouts – did not go unnoticed, the new lot and even

there will be no waste – it’s economy flights and budget

of them. Connie has been asked to address the advisory committee on various affairs in Government Buildings and she is nail-bitingly nervous about her performance.

Her preparations are perfect. She has spent an intense

hotels all the way. Connie wonders if she has the physical

A VIEW FROM THE JEEP

stamina for these hardships, but decides to offer it up for Ireland’s call – and the whispered promises of power and position, and some badly needed legal muscle for her own business FAMA (Fee Accrual Management Agency). With

Look out Capitol Hill – Connie is on a stealth mission to Washington.

Honora Quinn is intrigued ...

and worrying time before finally deciding to let her baby Botox run down – this way she will be able to use her eyebrows to great effect in her speeches and other performances. Her pleas for the Yummy Mummy allowance

so many wimps defaulting on school fees, Cyril and Connie have been insanely busy and this government mission, while distracting, will have excellent long-term payback.

Connie has virtually no time to pull together an alluring

are passionate. She can see the virtually all male (plus ça

Nonetheless during these munchings and crunchings the

yet ‘humble’ image for this trip – it’s definitely not the time to

change) panel is fascinated by the appearance of her fabulous

real purpose of her Dáil visitation comes to light.

sport her new SS11 threads. She will have to make do with

self. No doubt she has them all dreaming excitedly about the benefits of better grooming in their own manoirs.

The government intends to begin the mock serious

some ancient stuff from last year. While this saddens her,

business of defaulting on the national debt, and they are

she knows that it’s only an act and she is very excited if a

With no firm promises in the bag, Connie is invited to

desperate to get away with this inevitable action and at

little unsure about what to expect Stateside. Yet she draws

lunch at one of the new ‘in’ places, one of those blue hairshirt

the same time not become hated by the international

comfort from the deeply reassuring return from the politics

hangouts, where the whole menu is a ‘Recession Special’ and

community. They see St Patrick’s Day as critical in winning

of cronyism to the politics of cute hoorism. A realm in which

each dish comes with unpeeled potatoes and mung beans.

popularity around the world and need the right people in

she is very comfortable indeed.

IllustratI on by nata lIe C ass Idy

Dame Enda himself seem overwhelmingly enamoured

Born and raised in Essex, Helen Mirren joined the Royal Shakespeare Company at 20 and went on to become one of the world’s most respected stage and screen actresses, winning countless awards, including a Best Actress Oscar for The Queen. This month she stars in a new film of The Tempest, playing Prospera, a female version of Shakespeare’s sorcerer

She Does

She Doesn’t

Think that Kate Middleton will be a good addition to the

Mind taking her clothes off: Mirren has appeared nude

Royal Family – “I love where she comes from and who

more often than any mainstream actress of her generation

she is” l still enjoy working in theatre: “Every four

and posed naked on the cover of the Radio Times for

years or so, I go back to the stage and I show myself

her 50th birthday l worry about getting older. “It’s

and other people that I can still do that” l have a

brilliant, really, the way life organises itself, because

mixed ancestry. “My great great grandmother was

you just slowly get used to what you are” l care

a Russian countess and one side of my family was

that her husband isn’t a romantic, citing his “loyalty

Russian aristocracy; the other was English working-

and truthfulness and manliness in the proper sense.

class, so I’m a good contradiction” l believe in getting

I’d take those qualities over a romantic evening with a

lots of sleep. “When I’m working really hard, I don’t

bullshitter any time” l have any maternal instincts, in

party, I don’t go to the bar after work, I don’t go out to restaurants. I just go to bed” l split her time between

footballers’ legs” l hold back on Hollywood’s attitude to

her homes in London and LA l have a small tattoo on her

women: “I resent having witnessed the survival of some

left hand l enjoy being married: “I love it, and that took me

very mediocre male actors and the professional demise of

by surprise” l think women should have plastic surgery if

the very brilliant female ones” l understand her sex symbol

they want to (although she has not): “Even those ladies with those ridiculous lips. If they look at themselves in the mirror and go: ‘Wow! I look good!’ So what?”

80 | March 2011 | T h E G L o s s M A G A Z I N E

status: “I appreciate overt gorgeousness, sexiness – Marilyn This month: Helen Mirren

Monroe type of thing – and I know I’m not that, so I don’t see it and I don’t get it” l like to be called Dame.

ph otograph by wIreImag e

spite of having two stepchildren l like her legs: “I’ve got

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