The Irish House: A totally heartbreaking and powerful story about families, secrets and finding your way home by Ann O'Loughlin

Author:Ann O'Loughlin [O'Loughlin, Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781803148687
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2023-04-13T16:00:00+00:00

TWENTY

Marianne was up bright and early and in her design studio. She loved the quiet time of the morning when the light bounced across the room and was reflected in the folds of mellow cream fabric, which Jack had erected on a series of curtain rods. He had said it was so she could easily remove them if she wished, but Marianne wasn’t going to do that. She intended this to be her design hub, a place where she could turn Katie’s idea for Kilteelagh summer dresses into a collection. Katie was right: the world needed the Kilteelagh summer dresses collection.

Jay, when he’d rung, had been a little disappointed when she told him she was abandoning her earlier capsule collection. ‘Darling, I went to so much bother to get that back for you. Don’t tell me it was for nothing.’

‘Things have changed – I’ve changed since I came here, Jay. I can’t see how designing cocktail dresses and business suits is the way forward for me.’

‘But you know you have a market in office and going-out clothes.’

‘I have this idea and I want to run with it as far as I can go. I want to bring summer to people’s lives. They may be living in the city, but they can have some of that carefree, country feel with them all the time.’

‘Well, that does sound lovely. Email me a sketch or two and let me have a look.’

‘I really believe in it.’

‘I’ve been making some great contacts in the fashion magazines. Get something together and you never know. If they buy this touchy, feely countryside summer feel, you might be on to something.’

Marianne walked over to the mannequin, which was now adorned with a light pink dress with a flowing skirt under a delicate-looking bodice with a square neckline. She wasn’t sure whether to let the sleeves fall in folds to the elbow or gather them into a narrow band of deep pink velvet. Tacking the velvet in place, she stood back to inspect the design. Placing a little ribbon on the neckline, she fashioned a small bow. The dress should be worn walking across the fields and down to the sea. There was a faint floral pattern which would catch the light as the fabric moved with the wearer. Katie had suggested a patch pocket, but she hoped that she would be distracted enough by the velvet to forget.

Suddenly today it felt like sketches were becoming samples. Her favourite was the dress that Katie called a big bunch of flowers. Covered in wildflowers including daisies, poppies, cornflowers, cowslips and pink harebell, the light chiffon fabric was gathered at the waist from a bodice with an off-the-shoulder neckline; the billowing sleeves were long and collected into a frilly cuff. Sweeping the ankles, the dress had to be worn barefoot, the chiffon fabric backed with a light cotton lining to keep the wearer cool.

Last night she had worked up a sketch for a more formal dress in soft turquoise silk. It had a long skirt with a stiff high waist into which a pleated blouse was tucked.

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