The Silk Road
Tuesday 19 July 2011
There is more than a touch of drama at Judith O’Sullivan’s stunning Atelier ‘Roisin Cross Silks’ for not only have they supplied the silks for the magnificent costumes of ‘Henry V111’ himself, as played by sexy Jonathan Rhys Myers, and the rest of the cast of The Tudors, but for Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Oscar recently at the Gate Theatre with American actress Stockard Channing as ‘Lady Bracknell’ being suitably garbed in magnificent heavily embroidered peacock silk. President McAleese also wore Roisin Cross silks in the striking outfits designed for her by Deborah Veale on the occasion of HM Queen Elizabeth’s recent visit to Ireland. However, the drama at Judith’s Atelier is not only on State Occasions and theatrical productions for they have supplied magnificent silks for all the participants in many many of those weddings and red carpet occasions you have read about down through the years.
“This is amazing, its like an Aladdin’s cave” I exclaimed to Judith. We were standing in her showroom, a superb high ceilinged room, in a Georgian building, which also houses the offices of Image magazine, overlooking the yachts on the seafront in Dun Laoghaire. The elegance of the room and windows were a perfect backdrop for the 966 varieties of magnificent silks, chiffons, dupions, laces, organzas, silk velvets, brocades, in glorious colours and patterns. They appear to be winking at you from orderly rolls and rolls yet showing off like a starlets seeking to be spotted by a movie producer – a vibrant fuschia pink from Thailand competing with a Chinese black and orange stunner to a rich deep Indian purple of a Maharani’s sari. There is something glorious too, almost reminiscent of the TV series The House of Elliott, where the Edwardian ladies called on sisters Beatrice and Evangeline Elliott for their bespoke finery, for that something different to make them look beautiful, to stand out from the crowd, to reflect their status. This is a business that could not be more intimate or creative, and nothing has changed down through the years, for this is the type of personal service and attention to detail you get at Roisin Cross Silks from owner Judith O’Sullivan and designer and couturiere, Anne Flavin, and all at a very attractive prices. Silk is the ultimate natural fabric, created from threads spun from the cocoons of silk worms, was once just the perogative of the aristocracy and uber rich but is now totally accessible. No more will you have embark on the dangers of The Silk Road for all of the most beautiful silks one could desire are here in abundance. <ep>
Judith O’Sullivan is, in fact, also a very highly organised nurse by profession whose involvement with the legendary Roisin Cross Silks, began when as a young girl she used help out ‘Mrs Cross’ who was a friend of her mother, looking after the business for her in her absence on buying trips to the Far East. “This was in the late 80’s, it was very simple then. I would pop over for three weeks, it was in Mrs. Cross’s house in Clonskeagh, there were no emails, it was mail order, it was pleasantly chaotic. It was run from one sittingroom, whereby there was a beautiful array of silks, but I suppose at that time the business would mainly have been very geared towards the bridal end. I absolutely loved it.”
Judith left school and then studied nursing followed by intensive care nursing and got involved in hospital life so couldn’t fill in at RCS but they were always in touch because she was a family friend. “After about fifteen years, I asked Roisin one day as to what colours were in vogue that year, where she was travelling to, and so on, and she said she was thinking of retiring and selling the business. I was very happy doing what I was doing in hospital life, and I like to think I bring a lot of that to here, but I couldn’t help think too of what I could, and would love to, do with the business. I knew her silks were magnificent, the Roisin Cross Silks name was very strong, I loved the simplicity of a good product and good name. This was November 2006 and there wasn’t any sign of a downturn. Up to that point the business of RCS purely sold the fabrics but would recommend a number of top dress designers to suit people’s requirements, be it geographical or style wise, but the one person she had a huge respect for, who produced magnificent clothes, was Anne Flavin whom she regarded as one of the finest in the country.”
Having taken over in late 2007 and relaunched the business in Dun Laoghaire, Judith realised that every customer coming in wanted to know where to go next with the fabric so she asked Anne Flavin to move her workrooms in with her. “Every year I brought an increasingly more beautiful collection of silks home. However, within six months of taking over RCS the writing was on the wall re the recession so the business plan had to be changed radically. I was still just bringing in silks, I had increased the collection and the range, Anne was here, and it was a lovely integrated service which seemed to be working, then quickly, maybe late 2008, I realised that teaching would be a natural evolution from just having a service and a product. Phone calls were coming in from people about patterns, asking could we teach them how to sew, and it was clear they wanted to learn themselves, so we introduced the dressmaking and sewing classes, including classes for transition year students and children, all of which are a huge success. The teaching is done by Sarah Foy, formerly of the Grafton Academy, where she taught for eight years, and who also has her own design practice in Clontarf. “She is just superb and gets the dynamics right with both adults and children, which is as important as the teaching itself.” There is a huge demand as mothers in their late 30’s and 40’s didn’t have sewing classes in school and are now anxious that their children should have the skills they missed out on – this too I think applies to cooking. “The classes are kept very small so each person gets huge attention and the silks and pattern are included in the price. You can also learn to pattern draft and handbead – all of the skills are taught – whatever you wish.”
Apart from the sewing classes, the silks and the in house couteriere, Judith stocks Butterick,McCall and Vogue patterns, so you can also go in and browse the pattern books, which are changed four times a year keeping up with the seasons and trends. Judith also visits the colleges training young designers and gives them a ‘little seminar’ on how the silks are created, how they work, so that they don’t buy silks that are too expensive or unsuitable for what they are doing.
Judith runs her operation with precesion from the big desk in her office which I liken to a control centre - where the walls are lined with big surgical type charts – a fantastic idea – but instead of ‘Heart Bypass’ against the ‘patients’ name read ‘shorthand’ for Debs, or Bride, 3 Bridesmaids, Mother of Bride, date, fabric, progress, and so on – you really know you are in good hands at RCS.
“It has been an awful lot of work but our organisational efforts have been paying off and another of the reasons that RCS is successful is that so many other Dress Designers are very much part of our world. I supply them all with silks and the forty designers who support us all received a sample pack holding 950 different silk swatches, all coded, so they can show these to their clients, and just order straight away from us from all over the country. It was a big job, I had ten people sitting here making up sample packs, but this has also created more business for these designers as they can see how different fabrics work together. They in turn brief me as to the particular type of silks they need – say perhaps in Kildare – fabrics suitable for lots of Race Meetings. It is in their interest to guide me as to what to buy.” Another aspect of the RCS business is soft furnishings and they did the wonderful cushions and silks for Rasam Indian Restaurant in Glasthule.
It is a really healthy creative atmosphere at RCS with very competitive prices for such exquisite creations and silks. They are getting increasingly busy and, as I departed, Judith was also departing on her buying trip to India, two months earlier than other years as demand required she travelled now, so the new collection will arrive this year in September instead of November. The top Limerick born designer Synan O’Mahony has recently arrived on site and is also operating from his studio at RCS silks.
Judith’s affair with silk is a true love affair of the heart and it shows.
Roisin Cross Silks can be contacted on (01) 284-6282
www.lucindaosullivan.com
THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011.