SPRING 2018

Katie Larmour Couture Cushions To Be Stocked in Dublin's Prestigious Brown Thomas Store This Summer

By Tina Calder

Belfast designer Katie Larmour is to be featured in this year’s prestigious Brown Thomas CREATE showcase at their flagship luxury department store in Dublin.

The six week listing in the store will see Katie being unveiled amongst the most exciting up and coming names in Irish fashion.

CREATE opened on Tuesday July 3 and celebrates the very best in contemporary Irish design.

Featured at this year’s showcase is Irish Designer, Katie Larmour, who specialises in creating exclusive and unique luxury couture cushions, which are expertly made from rare vintage and antique silk scarves on the front, and traditional Irish linen - from one of the last remaining linen mills still active in Ireland - on the back.

Breathing new life into the vintage scarves at her studio in Belfast for the project, with her signature use of natural oatmeal-toned Irish Linen, which is certified by the Irish Linen Guild and the natural undyed colour of the flax plant itself, providing a luxurious but very durable foil to the more luminous colours of the richly patterned silks on the front.

Now in its eighth year, CREATE nurtures rising talent and serves as the best platform to help Irish designers establish their brand. This year’s installation presents the work of 24 Designers across ready-to-wear, millinery, jewellery, handbags, scarves, accessories, and interiors, including the NCAD ‘Designer to Watch’ Winner 2018, and offers coveted selling space in Ireland’s leading luxury fashion store. Set against a specially constructed mirror backdrop, the instore execution plays on the theme of reflection, a nod to past designers and budding new ones.

Katie has created a selection of high-end and vintage one-of-a-kind designer scarf cushions for her Brown Thomas collection, in a variety of colours and patterns which she feels are a strong fit with the Brown Thomas brand.

“My designs, and the nature of my product, compliment and promote sustainability, as well as blending fashion with home accessories, to create high-end and unique pieces, which I feel have a natural synergy with Brown Thomas” she explained, adding: “I am passionate about using sustainable materials, where possible, to create desirable pieces, and by repurposing vintage designer scarves within my work, my products link perfectly with the theme of CREATE this year, which is reflection and recognising the important role that designers of the past had to play in where we are today. 

“By breathing new life into vintage scarves by world-renowned fashion designers, which I source at antiques markets around the globe, turning them into artisan handcrafted cushions that are cherished by a new generation, we are able to blend the old with the new to create functional, but gorgeous, home furnishings.”

Katie Larmour Design is soon to be featured as a celebrated maker at the first ever Linen Biennale taking place in Northern Ireland later this year. She is a member of Craft NI, the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland, the Crafts Council of England, and the Ulster Society of Women Artists. Her couture cushions have been featured in the Financial Times, Antiques and Home Magazine, Haute Living Magazine, as well as on the cover of House Beautiful Magazine.