Interview: Orla Kiely
Interview: Orla Kiely
Designer Orla Kiely talks about her inspiration and her life in south west London.
In her Clapham studio, Orla Kiely cuts a striking figure in a flowing dress that bears one of her signature prints. She’s settled on the sofa – the fabric is by her studio. Her bookshelves include Fifty Bags That Changed the World, its cover featuring her iconic Stem print. Upstairs, her team of four designers work among rails of clothing, shelves of bags and stacks of homewares in bright geometric patterns.
It’s like a Disneyland for print. But this is very much the engine room of the Orla Kiely brand. Boards are covered in work-in-progress designs for the forthcoming season, and there’s busy discussion over samples.
Her designers have been with her a long time, and there’s a calm yet industrious atmosphere about the place. She explains that it’s very much a collaboration. “These are people that I really love working with and I trust implicitly. We are on the same wavelength. There’s no big battles.”
We’re chatting after our photoshoot. Bella Lawrence-Mills, the company’s brand manager, joins us bringing in a faded yet beautiful photo of Orla’s mother, Maeve, in her youth wearing a traditional cream cardigan and a headscarf. The knit was handed down to Orla and has inspired a new winter range, which will feature classic designs given a subtle twist.
Her face lights up as she talks about her mother back in Ireland – although Maeve would not be best pleased if we revealed her age. Over the summer, Orla will visit and they will take some of the designs to show her. “She still looks cool. We’re going to take up the cardigans and take some photos…”
Orla’s husband Dermott Rowan pops in to see how the shoot is going. They have known each other since childhood, and he’s been her business partner from the start. The secret of this successful partnership? They have distinct roles within the business, with Orla leading the creative direction and Dermott overseeing operations. She says: “I think if we were trying to do the same thing and getting into a discussion about it every day, it would be more challenging.” They have two grown-up sons – Robert and Hamish. Robert works on the operational side of the business.
The studio, just off Clapham Common, has been their location for over 25 years, not far from where it all started in Orla’s flat in Wandsworth. They live nearby. So what has kept them here? “We love the green spaces; the Old Town and you can get into central London in 20 minutes.” For creative inspiration, Orla cites the Omnibus theatre, the Picturehouse cinema and Studio Voltaire. For restaurants, she is a fan of Robin Gill’s Sorella and Adam Byatt’s Trinity for special occasions.
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Thirty years in business have brought plenty of highs. She was awarded an OBE in 2011 and is a senior fellow at the Royal College of Art where she completed her master’s degree. She was also awarded the Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad.
There was an exhibition of her career at the Fashion and Textile Museum in 2018. “When they came to us asking if we would be interested, I knew we’d kept an archive, but it was all in boxes. So I was really nervous and thought we wouldn’t have enough pieces.”
She needn’t have worried. “We went into this warehouse and we spent about two days hanging everything out, putting bags on shelves, clothing on rails, homeware… when the exhibition organisers came to see us, they were like, yes, this is plenty…”
It was a surprise to Orla to see how much she had done through her career. “You only think about the season you’re working in and everything else is put away. It was quite a thing to see all the work we’ve done as a team and to reflect on it.” The exhibition featured two-and-a-half metre-scale dresses hung with Orla’s fabrics, among the highlights. It went on to tour the UK and Ireland.
While the exhibition was a huge testament to her success, 2018 was a traumatic year for Orla with Orla Kiely’s parent company, Kiely Rowan, going into voluntary liquidation. But the brand rebuilt strongly, an incredible achievement. Understandably it is still a painful subject for Orla. She says, “I think we’re very lucky that we have such a strong identity and really loyal customers.”
Much of the brand’s appeal lies in playful and upbeat designs. “I guess the colours really resonate with people. They are drawn to them. I mean the designs are not for everyone. But I do think they’re uplifting and positive. They give you a buzz.”
Growing up in the 1970s, bright colour combinations were everywhere, including her family kitchen which was green Formica with an orange ceiling. “It was very much of its time. The green kitchen and tiles are still there but the orange has gone!” Orla and Dermott named their company Olive and Orange in tribute to the kitchen.
One of Orla’s most distinctive designs is the Stem pattern, which has seen many iterations over the years. “The Stem design is an interesting one because it developed organically. I remember doing it initially as a kind of a scribble by hand very last-minute for a season we were doing.
“We put it into the computer – one of the very first Apple Macs! We tried it in three different colourways.” People loved it. The print was even seen on Sex and the City with Kristin Davis’s character Charlotte sporting a Stem bucket hat. “Then came the winter season and I was thinking about what we could do with this and I suddenly had this brainwave to laminate it like a kitchen tablecloth and make bags out of it. No other designer was doing that kind of thing.”
Her collection spans everything from tableware to towels, dresses to sunglasses, and, of course, bags, many bags. And it’s not just the patterns but the attention to detail that has helped keep them so popular. She shows us a sample from her new AW26 collection – it’s based on the same fabric as the sofa, and it’s so stunning that it has the editorial team literally threatening handbags at dawn to get their hands on one. We will have to be quick – there are only 60 being made. Her prints have been worn by everyone from Alexa Chung and Keira Knightley to Catherine, Princess of Wales. Orla laughs, modestly conceding, “Yeah, it’s great when that happens.”
Orla talks about an arty childhood, and always knew she would do something creative. “It was my favourite subject at school, and the art teacher liked me – she was a very eccentric, wonderful nun. She encouraged me to apply to the National College of Art and Design, which at the time I wasn’t that confident about, but I got in.”
She tried all the different disciplines during her Foundation course and realised that textiles was the direction she wanted to go in. When she finished her studies, she went to New York and landed a job in a big studio. Orla returned to Ireland where she worked for Paul Costelloe and then on to London for a role as print designer at Esprit. “That was really the point that changed everything in a sense that I was surrounded by all these amazing creatives from around the world.” She left to do a master’s degree at the Royal College of Art and afterwards started her business.
Today, she is as busy as ever. Any downtime? She has a full social life centred around her home in Clapham. She loves to go to Paris, where her brother lives, Copenhagen and Amsterdam, but she doesn’t exactly switch off. “I’ll head to an exhibition looking for inspiration. Dermott and I are not very good at just tuning out.”
She also loves being out in nature – walks on the common and back in her native Ireland. “I grew up in South Dublin, and we are 15 minutes’ drive from the most stunning lakes and mountains. And we’ve got this beautiful coastline.” With her mum and sisters living there too, it’s her perfect retreat and a full-circle return to the creativity where it all began.
Orla photos © Rebecca Cresta
