uggs outlet vancouver bc

[sean]

My home is my haven

With her jeans tucked into Ugg boots, she's wearing an Orla Kiely designed top, coat, scarf and gloves.

She's perching on her Orla Kiely designed chair at her Orla Kiely table with an Orla Kiely rug underfoot. And we drink tea out of cups branded with her now world renowned leaf print.

In short, it's a world for which most Irish women would die (or at least dig deep into her pockets). A world of chic funky feminine, of quirky colourful retro print a world as accessible to the 25 year old as it is to women in their 70s. And it's one of which we all increasingly want a part.

But it wasn't that long ago that the Dublin born classic short sparkles ugg boots clearance designer was in a very different surrounding. Just 10 years ago, when her business was launched, it was just boxes that surrounded Kiely in her apartment in west London.

"The whole business started by accident," explains Dermott Rowan, Kiely's husband and managing director of their business.

"Nothing was planned. Orla was consulting for other companies by day and designing her own collection at the weekend, which she'd give to me to organise and sell.

"We had this chaotic situation where deliveries of her designs would come into our apartment and if I didn't get them out to stores by 5pm, there was nowhere to sit!"

Times have certainly moved on. Today, along with her world renowned bags and accessories, Kiely has a celebrated womenswear line, a travel collection and homeware range.

She also launched a stationery line exclusively with the Museum of Modern UGGS Clearance Art in New York this year, completed her third collaboration with the Tate Gallery in UGGS Clearance London and worked with Brita to design a 'Wottle', a re usable water bottle. In a new Irish project which had an emotional connection since Orla is from Dublin, she teamed up with Bewley's to design a limited edition Orla Kiely tea caddy which will be available in leading supermarkets from November.

"We do new projects every year," explains Dermott, who hails originally from Monkstown. "But we don't do anything unless it can be done absolutely perfectly."

Kiely grew up in Shankill, Co Dublin, and qualified as a textile designer from Dublin's National College of Art and Design (NCAD) before doing a Master's in knitwear at the Royal College of Art, (RCA) in London.

Now, twice a year, she develops a unique print which is then stamped in various forms (discreet to less so) on her bags, knitted shift

dresses, floppy hats, coloured tights, coats and more. The Ireland of her youth UGG Boots Clearance Sale Women is her inspiration.

"As a child and teenager, I loved that 60s and 70s style," says Kiely. "But by the time I was a student in the 80s, they had gotten rid of all that. So I was always trying to hunt and find things I liked.

"Even now, I'm inspired by anything from that era."

But it's her injection of modern into these designs that really gives her creations their unique stamp.

"We take something from the past and move it forward," she acknowledges.

"As a designer, I think it's a very important thing to do."

The 'we' to which Kiely is referring is her 40 strong team based in London, but also her partnership with Dermott.

The couple first met when Kiely was 17. In their early 20s they travelled the world separately Kiely lived in Germany while he was in Africa before reigniting their relationship in London in the early 1990s, and getting married in Dublin in 1992.

The couple has two sons, Robert (11) and Hamish (13), and live in a four bedroom, three storey house.

They moved from a flat in Wandsworth seven years ago in order to have more space and a garden which Kiely adores because it catches the late evening sunlight.

She considers it another room and loves relaxing there. The kitchen with its white walls and gleaming oak floors is one of her favourite rooms. Overlooking the garden, it houses a huge dining table perfect for entertaining, says Kiely, who likes to cook with people around her.

"I do something very simple, but nice and tasty," she adds with a laugh.

The kitchen houses a giant blackboard with chalked lists detailing the boys' timetables.

The blackboard is becoming more important because both boys are in secondary school and have to be more organised.

Nearby stands a 1950s style kitchen cabinet, left behind by the former owner, which Kiely painted a funky red and white. The colour combination turns up again in the hall and the staircase has been painted white with a wide red stripe down the middle.

"There was an orange stripe for a while but I went back to a red stripe," says Orla who has produced an exclusive collection womens ugg boots classic tall chestnut of bags for Fashion Target Breast Cancer which go on sale in Brown Thomas next month.

Harrods recognised Orla's potential and snapped up her collection of hats at her exit show from RCA in 1993. Her design influence is vast. She did consultancy work for M and Habitat before developing a capsule collection for Debenhams and finally launching her own business in 1997, helped by Dermott's financial controller background.