Lainey Keogh (born 1957) is an Irish fashion designer specialising in knitwear.

Early life

Born in Old Town in Ireland in 1957, Keogh grew up on a farm. She studied microbiology, and started out as a lab technician before deciding to pursue fashion design as a career. At this time, Marianne Gunn O'Connor, who had a clothes shop in Dublin called Otokio specialising in avant-garde fashion, noticed Keogh knitting in the

Bewley's Bewley's is an Irish hot beverage company, located in Dublin and founded in 1840, which operates internationally. Its primary business operations are the production of tea and coffee, and the operations of cafés. Bewley's has operations in Ire ...

coffee house in Dublin, and is credited with discovering her and her work. Following Otokio's closure in 1991, Gunn O'Connor would go on to take charge of international PR for Keogh's company, before finding success as a literary agent.

Career

In 1984 Keogh opened her first shop in Dublin, where she gradually built up her business and reputation, before presenting her first major catwalk show in Autumn 1997 at

London Fashion Week London Fashion Week (LFW) is a clothing trade show that takes place in London twice a year, in February and September. Showcasing over 250 designers to a global audience of influential media and retailers, it is one of the 'Big Four' fashion wee ...

. Despite breaking all the traditional rules, including having personal friends (including

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and

Sophie Dahl Sophie Dahl (born Sophie Holloway on 15 September 1977, later taking her mother's name for professional reasons) is an English author and former fashion model. Her first novel, ''The Man with the Dancing Eyes'', was published in 2003 followed b ...

, making her catwalk debut) modelling alongside famous supermodels such as

Naomi Campbell Naomi Elaine Campbell (born 22 May 1970) is an English model, actress, singer, and businesswoman. She began her career at the age of 15, and established herself amongst the most recognisable and in-demand models of the past four decades. Cam ...

and

Helena Christensen Helena Christensen (born 25 December 1968) is a Danish model and photographer. She is a former Victoria's Secret Angel, clothing designer and beauty queen. Christensen was also the co-founder and original creative director for ''Nylon'' magazine, ...

, the show, held in a working man's club, was very well received. The soundtrack to the show included unreleased tracks by U2, while

John Hurt Sir John Vincent Hurt (22 January 1940 – 25 January 2017) was an English actor whose career spanned over five decades. Hurt was regarded as one of Britain's finest actors. Director David Lynch described him as "simply the greatest actor in t ...

recited poetry by

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Anna Harvey Anna Harvey (12 September 1944 – 9 October 2018) became Editorial Director of Condé Nast New Markets in 1997,Head Girl at Vogue House - Rebecca Tyrrel, The Sunday Telegraph Magazine, May 1998' was former Deputy Editor of British ''Vogue'' and ...

of UK Vogue declared Keogh's show the "jewel in the crown" of that Fashion Week. That same year,

Isabella Blow Isabella "Issie" Blow (nee Delves Broughton; 19 November 1958 – 7 May 2007) was an English magazine editor. As the muse of hat designer Philip Treacy, she is credited with discovering the models Stella Tennant and Sophie Dahl as well as pr ...

chose a Keogh knitted evening dress and coat ensemble as part of the 1997

Dress of the Year The Dress of the Year is an annual fashion award run by the Fashion Museum, Bath from 1963. Each year since 1963, the Museum has asked a fashion journalist to select a dress or outfit that best represents the most important new ideas in contempor ...

alongside designs by

Hussein Chalayan Hussein Chalayan, (; tr, Hüseyin Çağlayan ; born 12 August 1970) is a British-Cypriot fashion designer. He has won the British Designer of the Year twice (in 1999 and 2000) and was awarded the MBE in 2006. Chalayan is currently teaching ...

, Julien MacDonald, Deborah Milner, and

Philip Treacy Philip Anthony Treacy (born 26 May 1967) is an Irish haute couture milliner, or hat designer, who has been mostly based in London for his career, and who was described by ''Vogue'' magazine as "perhaps the greatest living milliner". In 2000, T ...

. The following year, Keogh's textiles were used by

John Galliano John Charles Galliano (born 28 November 1960) is a British fashion designer from Gibraltar. He was the creative director of his eponymous label John Galliano and French fashion houses Givenchy and Dior. Since 2014, Galliano has been the crea ...

in his 1998 Autumn haute couture collection at

Christian Dior S.A. Christian Dior SE (), commonly known as Dior (stylized DIOR), is a French luxury fashion house controlled and chaired by French businessman Bernard Arnault, who also heads LVMH, the world's largest luxury group. Dior itself holds 42.36% shares ...

Although an enthusiastic proponent of new technology in the late 1990s, Keogh decided in 2001 to focus on ethically sourced, natural fibres and dyes, and exclude synthetics and chemicals from her work. She also decided to make an effort to preserve traditional Irish weaving and knitting techniques by insisting that her clothes be handmade by local individuals, rather than mass-produced. She is an active supporter of charities and international women's rights, and in 2001, was donating twenty per cent of her sales to a different charity each month. Since 2001, she has regularly held fund-raising shows for, and donated percentages of her income to charitable organisations such as the

Chernobyl Children's Project Chernobyl Children International (CCI) is a non-profit, international development, medical, and humanitarian organisation that works with children, families and communities that continue to be affected by the economic outcome of the 1986 Cherno ...

, earthquake relief in India, and the

Society of Saint Vincent de Paul The Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP or SVdP or SSVP) is an international voluntary organization in the Catholic Church, founded in 1833 for the sanctification of its members by personal service of the poor. Innumerable Catholic parishes have ...

In popular culture

Over the course of her career Lainey Keogh has often been name-checked in contemporary popular fiction by authors such as

Sheila O'Flanagan Sheila O'Flanagan (born 1958 in Dublin) is a fiction writer and journalist who writes for ''The Irish Times''. Biography She was born in Dublin, Ireland. Her career started in financial services at the Central Bank of Ireland and was in time prom ...

(''Far From Over'', 2008), Kate Thompson (''Striking Poses'', 2003), Cathy Kelly (''Woman to Woman'', 2011; and ''Always and Forever'', 2007), and Paul Howard ('' The Oh My God Delusion'', 2010). In 2010 Keogh was one of six contemporary, internationally renowned Irish fashion designers featured on a set of

Irish postage stamps The postage stamps of Ireland are issued by the postal operator of the independent Irish state. Ireland was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland when the world's first postage stamps were issued in 1840. These stamps, and a ...

issued by An Post. The other designers featured were Paul Costelloe,

Louise Kennedy Louise Kennedy is an Irish fashion designer and businesswoman who, in 2013, was called the "uncrowned queen of Irish fashion". Career Kennedy studied at the College of Marketing and Design, now part of Dublin Institute of Technology and the G ...

John Rocha John Rocha CBE (born 23 August 1953) is a Chinese-Irish designer born in Hong Kong. He is based in Ireland. Biography He moved to Ireland after graduating from the Croydon School of Art, London. Known for his hand-crafting, beading and appliqu ...

and

Orla Kiely Orla Kiely, OBE (born 1963) is an Irish fashion designer based in London. She began her career designing hats, and moved on to design work on handbags and a variety of other items including kitchenware and cars. She received a master's degree ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Keogh, Lainey Irish fashion designers 1957 births Businesspeople from Dublin (city) People in knitting Knitwear manufacturers Living people Clothing companies of Ireland Irish women fashion designers