Orla Kiely

Biography

Kiely credits her grandmother with being the creative influence in her life. Her father was an accountant; her mother studied science before being forced to give up work by her employers after she married.

Kiely qualified as a textile designer at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin and moved to New York to work for a wallpaper and fabric designer. She moved to England to work for Esprit while studying for a Master's at the Royal College of Art in London, primarily in knitwear. In her exit show at the RCA, she displayed a range of hats which were purchased by Harrods. She did design work for Marks & Spencer and Habitat.

She began designing handbags after her father noted during her first London Fashion Week that everyone was carrying a handbag, but no one was wearing a hat. In the late 1990s, she had the idea to laminate cloth for handbags: "At the time, no one was doing anything like it. Laminated fabric, in those days, meant tablecloths."

Together with her husband, Dermott Rowan, she formed The Orla Kiely Partnership in 1997. Her husband explained in an interview, "Nothing was planned, the whole thing started by accident. Kiely was consulting for other companies and designing her own collection at the weekend, which she would give to me to organize. We had this chaotic situation where deliveries of her designs would come into our apartment and if I didn't get them out by 5pm, there was nowhere to sit!" Kiely showed in London Fashion Week and secured her first export orders. The following year, they took the collection to Premiere Class.

She has been awarded the title of Visiting Professor of Textiles at the Royal College of Art.

In June 2014, Kiely was awarded an honorary degree from the University for the Creative Arts

Design work

Kiely was described by The Guardian as "the Queen of Prints." Her designs have been used for a variety of objects, including kitchenware, stationery, furniture, wallpaper, and a range of Citroën DS3 cars. The cars feature Kiely's design work on the roofs, tailgate and a signature in the middle of the rear spoiler. The interior features pattern work on the carpet mats and on the seat headrests.

She has also designed a refillable water bottle called the "Wottle", which is a collaboration with the water filter company Brita. The bottle features her green-stem design and is made from high-density polyethylene, a recyclable plastic material, and produced by a company in Suffolk.

Her business operates out of a three-storey building in Clapham, South London, near her home. Her studio occupies the middle floor, chosen specifically because of the availability of light.

Personal life

She is married to Dermott Rowan, and they have two sons, Robert and Hamish. They own a Labradoodle named Olive.

In popular culture

In July 2010 Kiely was one of six contemporary, internationally renowned Irish fashion designers featured on a set of Irish postage stamps issued by An Post. The other designers featured were Paul Costelloe, Louise Kennedy, John Rocha, Philip Treacy and Lainey Keogh. Kiely's stamp was an 82c stamp bearing her name in large orange letters at the top along with an image of a handbag with her leaf design against a white background.

Her fashion line has been worn by celebrities including Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Kirsten Dunst, and Alexa Chung.