Living with linen: Jennifer Slattery’s fresh approach to fashion

It began with a white linen shirt based on an old vintage top with pleated sleeves. For Jennifer Slattery, well established as a textile designer of whimsical, printed linen napkins and tablecloths, it was her first foray into womenswear. It jumpstarted a fashion collection that now encompasses skirts, dresses, trousers and blouses in various weights of Irish linen along with limited edition bespoke pieces.
That linen top called Nancy remains a best seller, refreshed every season, but now joins another handsome shirt in white tumble-washed linen with a little pleated collar, called Maud, which is bound to become another star item. Tumble-washed linen is where the fabric undergoes high-temperature washes and is then tumble dried and as a result has a more textured and weighty handle; Slattery explains how well it washes: it “comes out looking exactly the same”, she says, holding it up to the light. This year marks her 10th in business.
Since graduating with a first-class honours degree in graphic design from LYIT in Letterkenny at the age of 21 more than 20 years ago, her career in design has been a steady organic evolution. In any discussion about her subsequent development, she has always credited her parents Jack and Barbara Slattery for support, and emphasised the importance of forging and maintaining good relationships with suppliers. It shows in the authenticity and consistency in her work and her approach to what she makes. When we met at her shop, she was busy working on some cobalt blue linen tops with oversize collars that will be subtly embroidered before heading off to go on sale at Indigo & Cloth in Temple Bar.
A love of print goes back to her childhood in Zambia, where she lived for five years due to her father’s work at global cement giant CRH. “I have memories from those early years of prints and going to the market with my mother to buy fabric,” she recalls. Back in Ireland, art was her strongest subject in school, and after her degree in Letterkenny she worked as a graphic designer for five years and travelled extensively in Australia and Asia. She then decided to do a further degree in textiles in the National College of Art and Design, specialising in embroidery under the tutelage of the gifted Nigel Cheney, and graduating with another first-class honours degree four years later as well as a bursary which enabled her to study in London for five months.
That experience was a turning point and made her realise she needed to work for herself. With the support of furniture designer Arthur Duff, she got a shared studio space after graduation, where her first print of a knife and fork on linen napkins “sold straight away and people said I could start a business with these products”. Duff also facilitated contact with linen weavers Emblem in Wexford, a relationship she has maintained ever since.
In a little over two years, her Irish linen clothing has grown to become a significant part of her business, and she took part this year in Create for the second time with a fashion collection where her Kate dress embroidered with prawns and knife motifs attracted a lot of attention. Other pieces currently in the shop and available online – trousers, jackets, tops and twill dresses in black or navy linen – are exported to shops like Laete in Philadelphia, while her table linens go to Liberty in London.
“The material is a starting point,” she explains. “Then I bring in embroidery like appliqué for these classic, versatile pieces that you can wash. I like things to be comfortable but with a little bit of femininity. When I am designing, the pieces need to be timeless but a little bit quirky. They are meant to appeal to people of all ages who appreciate qua
lity and versatility. They are investments.”
Some dresses and wrap tops come in gingham or check linen, while blouses often display playful oversize collars and pleats. Prices start from €190 for a striped top and go up to €490 for a dress printed with Irish wildflowers. Linen napkins start at €20 with wedding gift bundles of tablecloth and napkins at €360.
Slattery is enthusiastic about the possibilities of future collaborations anew new innovations in her brand. “There seems to be an appetite now for these prints. I am going to have fun with embroidery,” she says with a laugh. Further plans are in progress to move into wool tweed: the day we met she was wearing a tweed coat made as a sample by Molloy & Sons of Ardara with her own printed Emblem linen lining. Expect further woolly developments next winter.
Photographer Doreen Kilfeather, stylist Aisling Farinella, model Lehanna @NotAnother Intl, make-up and hair Mary Ellen Darby. Shot on location at Lilliput Press, Sitric Road, Dublin 7, with special thanks to Anthony Farrell and Enejda Nasaj at lilliputpress.ie and also Olivia and her family.