Having established her fashion label in high-end boutiques around the UK and Ireland, Northern Ireland designer Cathy Villiers has brought her highly individualistic styles back home with the opening of her own Belfast shop.
Buoyed by her success at UK shows like ‘Pure’ and ‘Pulse’ and Dublin’s ‘Showcase’, Cathy felt the time was right to bring her high-end designs closer to her roots.
Cathy’s quirky, wearable, colourful range including dresses, tops, trousers, scarve
s, gloves and belts, along with her interior design, which focuses on items like cushions and throws, can be seen at Cathy Villiers Design, upstairs at 623 Lisburn Road.
Cathy’s work has already been stocked in places like Libertys; the Fashion and Textile Museum shop in London and the New York Museum of Contemporary Art.
The new shop provides space for a workshop and studio, where Cathy is introducing a new ‘designer re-cycling’ and customizing concept to Belfast.
While all of the pieces are unique, Cathy also provides a customizing service that allows individual purchasers to add their own ideas to finished pieces. More than that, Cathy can also save expensive or favourite items of clothing that owners would otherwise discard merely because of a small stain or an unsightly tear.
The idea for recycling damaged items grew from work she did at London shows where her innovative methods saved
men’s and women’s clothing that had been damaged in transit to fellow exhibitors’ stands.
Cathy, who receives business support from Invest NI, will continue to market her ranges internationally through her agents in key regions.
“While I enjoy seeing my work at London and Dublin shows, I do miss the interaction with customers whose opinions and criticisms I feel can be important sources of inspiration,” says Cathy.
