Designs on life
That bastion of good taste, Habitat, continue to blaze a trail when it comes to ensuring that we get the best and most innovative in interior design. Last night, at a reception in their St. Stephen's Green store, the first Habitat Ireland and House & Home Student Design Awards took place.
The competition is the first of its kind in Ireland and has been set up to reward, encourage and promote excellence and best design practice in the work of young Irish student designers. The competition requested design students to look beyond the initial product design phase and focus on the technicalities of producing, packaging and marketing their designs.
The winner was Linda Wong, who attends Colaiste Dhulaigh, in Raheny and was chosen out of nearly 300 entries submitted from third level design students nationwide. Her winning design is an ingenious ‘Bean Mat’ – a portable beach mat cum sleeping bag, filled with polystyrene and made from waterproof fabric for outdoor use.
Linda was chosen by a judging panel made up of Malcolm Brighton, Managing Director of Habitat Ireland, Tom Dixon, Creative Director for Habitat, Karen Hesse, Joint Managing Director of Dyflin Publications and former editor of House and Home, Eoin Lyons, Irish Times, Tom de Paor, architect and Leo Scarff, furniture and lighting designer.
Others attending last night included publicist Sinéad Ryan with Malachy Geelan, Jay Bourke, whose latest Café Bar Deli branch opens next week on Grafton Street and Andrew Rudd, whose food and drink empire continues to grow with his latest acqusition being the distribution of the gorgeous Maltese drink, Kinnie - the taste of the Mediterranean and perfect for summer.
Habitat Dublin will display the winning students work from Thursday 26th May to Friday 3rd June and will then tour the exhibition to its Galway and Belfast stores.
It's all go-a go-a in Noa Noa
From Habitat, I ventured down to the Westbury Mall for the opening party of Noa Noa, the newest fashion kid on the block. The world renowned Danish label, established in 1981 by brothers Harold and Lars Holstein, has been given it's own store by the people behind the popular RoCoCo stores.
Bohemian styles forms the basis of all Noa Noa collections, so with the current fashion love of all things boho, it's the perfect time for Noa Noa to open here. Sipping Pommery Pop champagne were TV presenter Amanda Brunker and her mum, Anne Boylan and Shirley Beere, Brendan O'Connor and Mary O'Sullivan.
I thought the clothes were going for nothing, such was the scramble from the fashionable ladies present. It turned out to be a 10% discount, but such is the demand for Noa Noa that these girls wanted to be the first to buy.
