Mary Grant

A bit about the designer

Mary Grant was born & raised in Dublin,Ireland. She now lives in County Kildare with her three children, the dog & assorted chickens & ducks!

When she was growing up,she was always making things, sewing, knitting, crochet or whatever new skills she was trying to master. Always a huge influence in her life, Mary remembers sitting on her mother's kitchen floor at the age of 3, trying to master a pair of knitting needles while her mother cooked the dinner. Money during these times was always tight & Mary's mother always made the kids clothes ... people were always knocking on the door asking her to tweak whatever they had in their wardrobe for whatever event they had coming up. This influence resulted in Mary making her own clothes from as young as 11 years old. Always having been a self-starter with boundless energy and passion, when she completed her degree course in fashion design 1992 and following a year of working for other designers , she decided to start her own business.

When she designed the dress which was worn by Eimear Quinn for her winning Eurovision entry "The Voice" in 1996, the Mary Grant label became a household name. 3 years later, she was named "Designer of The Year in Fashion and Textiles" by The Institute of Designers in Ireland. In 2008 she won the "Brown Thomas mentoring award " and following 2 seasons of very successful guest concessions, the label is now available in Ireland's most prestigious department store, which is part of of the same group as Selfridges in London & Holt Renfrew in Canada.

Philosophy

The Mary Grant philosophy is to design to a timeless, wardrobe building template. Each collection is designed as a follow on to the previous collection and customer feedback is a very important tool when developing new products and lines. A Mary Grant customer is typically 30+, although there are many younger fans. This is due to the versatility of the pieces with mothers & daughters very often borrowing from each other. The label has 2 collections 'Mary Grant' & 'Mary Grant 2011'.

The 'Mary Grant' collection is lifestyle rather than trend driven. It is all about layering and building individual looks from pieces which are collected over many seasons. It has quite a bohemian feel to it and is utterly feminine. The fabrics are chosen for their quality, handle & drape. Fabrics must feel amazing next to the skin. Colour and the way that different colours interact with each other, can influence the mood of the wearer & this plays a huge part in the designing of this collection which creates a buying frenzy among loyal fans at the start of each season.

The Mary Grant 2011 collection is currently in its first season. It has a more urban, edgy feel which will become more apparent over the seasons, as it grows away from its sister label. It is made up of individual, stand-alone investment pieces. Taking elements of the season's trends which will stand the test of time, all of the pieces are designed to become tomorrow's heirlooms. This is the reason behind the year being a part of the label and is the result of customers constantly telling us that they have pieces that must be 10 or 12 years old. Each year, the year on the label will change, highlighting the collectability of the pieces as time goes by. The immaculate skills in constructing and stitching garments in traditional ways, will become the trademarks of this collection. It can take several days of making and remaking a garment, with perhaps only a millimetre between rows of stitching or tucks being the difference between a garment being rejected or receiving Mary's very exacting seal of approval and there is a sigh of satisfaction in the design room when a perfect piece goes on the rail. This perfection follows through to production with weeks going into the writing of manuals of instructions for each style.

When asked what she would like to be remembered for. Mary says in 40/50 years time, her dream is for a young girl to take one of the pieces from a box in her grandmother's wardrobe & say ''Wow, 2011!! Granny can I please have it?!........'

Many thanks to James age 11 for his help with this page.

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