Consider this: Meet Helen James
From Ireland to America and fashion to homeswares, designer Helen James is developing interiors products for the high street with an emphasis on sustainability, beauty and function, writes
CAN you imagine being described as Ireland’s answer to Martha Stewart?
Sometimes compared to this American household name, homegrown Helen James, homeware designer and author of A Sense of Place, has settled into the role of top-notch designer of the Considered range for Dunnes Stores.
In a career spanning two continents, she started as a designer for Donna Karan in New York until 9/11 when she decided to move her young family back to Ireland and the contrast of rural Westmeath.
With a background in textile design she started designing clothes.
But it was the demise of the Celtic Tiger which saw her packing up the wagons and heading west for the second time.
“By then I had a third child and was toying with the idea of New York again, when a friend approached me about doing a home range for Donna Karan. So, we moved the family back to New York for 18 months but it was hard living there with three small kids,” she said.
Returning to Ireland in 2011, it was while designing rugs and homewares for Avoca she received an approach from Dunnes Stores to work on its homewares.
Taking up the mantle, this led to the idea for the Considered range.
“The first collection was a concept about cooking a meal at home, so I designed everything from the notebook to write your shopping list, to the shopping bag and apron, cookware, candles, tableware and the thank you card. Season after season it has evolved and grown into a lifestyle brand,” she said.
Now expanding beyond the kitchen and dining experience and into the living room, Helen has added lighting, cushions and occasional furniture.
“I like the idea of beauty in the everyday where we don’t keep plates in a drawer for special occasions. Things for use every day are the bedrock of the collection,” said Helen.
At a time when sustainability is paramount, she adds, “We’re using natural materials but we have to work with suppliers who can make enough of them. We have Portuguese tablewares which have a reflective glaze so no two are the same. We have jute rugs rather than manmade fabric.
“They’re made from jute grown in a sustainable way. There’s a sense of soul to things. Nothing that is pretending to be something else.”
With Considered ranging in price from €3 for a tea towel to €210 for the Gobi oak chair, Helen’s advice for home interiors shopping is, “Buy things you love. Spend your money on what you’re going to use every day.”
Asked for her favourite product, she quotes the artist Paul Klee.
“He used to say, ‘Always hate your last painting’. It’s a bit like that for me in that my favourite product is the next thing I’m doing. Right now it’s the tablewares I’m working on, but once it hits the shop floor I’m on to the next thing.”
When she’s not at work, life revolves around her three boys in their Dublin home, where they moved to from Westmeath while she was working for RTÉ.
“I was a judge on Home of Year but there was so much going on that I dropped out after the first season but I did love it.”
If that wasn’t a full enough schedule, she found time to write A Sense of Home, inspired by her work in design, how she creates her own home environment and her love of food.
“I’ve baked since I was about 12. My grandparents were great bakers, but not my parents although they’re great cooks,” she said. “ They travelled to the Middle East and brought back things like dried limes. I grew up on hummus in the ’70s and envied my friends. I used to say, why can’t we have fish fingers? But now I realise.
“Cooking is a meditation for me although sometimes it’s a pain in the neck getting home from work and having to get the dinner on. Baking is for therapy; cooking has to be done, but I get a great joy out of it too.”
As for her being described as Ireland’s answer to Martha Stewart, she laughs, “I take it as a massive compliment even though my style is very different to hers. I think I have a bit more empire-building to do yet.”
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