THEN: In October 2010, Irish Country Living met Tyrone-born designer, Fiona Heaney, who established her fashion brand, Fee G, in 2003. From that point on, she had blazed a trail of colour through the Irish fashion scene with many highlights along the way, such as designing the bridesmaid dresses for the Irish celebrity wedding of that year: Amy Huberman and Brian O’Driscoll.
NOW: When the country went into lockdown in March, Fiona did what she knew best: put her head down to design the Fee G spring/summer 2021 collection.
“I kind of went, ‘I’m just going to make it the most colourful and positive and fun and inspired collection that I have designed in years,’” says Fiona, who explains that she always works a year ahead.
“It’s a really uplifting collection and the reaction to it has been really strong.”
Leading brand
Since being featured in Irish Country Living in 2010, Fee G has continued to grow as one of Ireland’s leading fashion brands, with stockists nationwide, as well as sales to the UK, Spain and Germany. Fiona explains that in recent years, the brand has moved away from “top table” classic styles to more versatile pieces.
“So you can wear a dress with a denim jacket and a pair of trainers; but you can still wear that dress accessorised with your high heels and clutch bag and go off to a wedding,” she says.
While the spring/summer 2020 collection had been delivered to boutiques prior to lockdown, COVID presented many challenges when it came to producing the collection for this autumn/winter.
“We deal with a lot of fabrics from Italy and France; were those mills even open?” cites Fiona of just one challenge they had to graple with, but she and the team overcame the obstacles to deliver the autumn/winter collection that is in stores now.
Dressing up
And while many of us have been living in loungewear for the last six months, she is hopeful that people are ready to get dressed up again, while still being comfortable and practical.
“Our autumn/winter collection are pieces you can wear to the office right through to Saturday afternoon, going out for a cup of coffee,” says Fiona, who says that her favourite piece is a shirt dress in a silky touch fabric with a gold bar belt.
“I think now towards the latter part of the summer, people are getting fed up in the sense they’re getting frustrated they haven’t been able to get their hair done for months and they haven’t had anywhere to go to, and they just feel like, ‘I want to feel a bit normal, I want to put on a bit of make-up and wear that dress that always makes me feel good.’”
Celebrate
Looking forward to 2021, she says that buyers “are being really cautious”, but she is hopeful that as we learn to live with the virus, we will still find ways to celebrate – in style.
“We certainly can’t put everything on pause forever and the world will still go on and we have to learn to live with COVID and new restrictions,” she says.
“I think that people will really enjoy getting dressed up and will really make the effort and will just feel so nice and feel so special, whether there’s 15 people there or there’s 50.
“I think people will still want a little bit of ‘newness’ in their wardrobe. I’m certainly hoping they will, which is why I’m keeping designing and trying to remain positive.”
For further information, visit www.feeg.ie.
'I had 360 notifications for new reservations one night; and then had to close'