Designer Fiona Heaney: The desire to create was always there

My first memory of making things was when my grandfather taught me how to knit.

The desire to create things became a lasting passion and from very early on, I knew I wanted to study art. I did fashion at NCAD and knew straight away that I wanted to make clothes commercially, for as many people as possible, rather than creating one off pieces.

I grew up in Omagh, which is where I met my husband Don. We were childhood sweethearts and started going out when we were 16 - although we did break up along the way and both studied and worked in other countries before we got back together again.

Now, we work together. He’s the business brains behind the fashion label, I look after the creative side. The trick is to have two separate offices.

We live in Dublin and have three children, born and bred Dubs.

The best advice I ever received was do the very best you can and do it once. That means: don’t repeat yourself.

I’m a grafter. I work hard at everything I do.

When I graduated, I got a job in fashion in Ireland, but the reality is that the number of fashion jobs here are limited. So I went to Australia where I got tons of experience with an international design company before returning to Ireland where I worked as a buyer for Dunnes until I started my own company.

The G in Fee G is for Gormley, which is my married name. It means I feel like it’s my name, but its also not my name!

We’ve a very laid back company ethos because I promised myself that if I set up my own company, there would be no hierarchy. People work flexi-time, hours that suit them and which allow them to accommodate their other responsibilities. And, I’d never ask someone to do something which I wouldn’t do myself.

My biggest fault is that I’m indecisive. I’m a typical Gemini. That manifests in many ways. I’m still quite shy - it has taken me this long to put myself out there and to even be interviewed like this - but then sometimes I feel very confident. I’m also a perfectionist but that’s a good trait to have in this industry. The customer expects it.

If I could be someone else for a day, I’d be JFK. I find everything about that era, and about the White House, to be intriguing.

I’ve had lots of challenges in life, mainly of losing people I love. And I lost a baby at second term. My biggest challenge in business has been to keep evolving so that I can keep delivering ‘newness’ and avoid churning out the same old thing.

I’m probably a bit of a lapsed Catholic, but I do believe in an afterlife.

I also believe in omens and symbols - like when we found an old Irish penny in the house we wanted to buy. I saw that as a good sign.

I’m a morning person. I prefer to come to work at 6am, than to work late. I aim to be in bed by 10.30pm - 11.30pm. Don and myself juggle our work schedules with minding the kids. My work is seasonal, so I can predict when the busy periods will be. Now, I’m going into design time for autumn/winter 2019 which launches in London in January.

I usually have two books on the go. I don’t like screen time in the evenings. I keep fit as much as I can and try and get in a walk or a swim or a game of tennis every other day. I love the outdoors.

My business advice is to get experience - you can learn from other people’s mistakes. It’s always cheaper to learn from someone else.

So far life has taught me that the world is a very big place. It’s about a lot more than just me. I was on a long haul flight recently and due to weather conditions we missed the connection back to Dublin and were stranded in Abu Dhabi for 32 hours. I was forced out of my comfort zone and found myself fascinated by exploring a city that is so vast and so different to my own culture. It reminded me how irrelevant a lot of our worries are. And that we are all literally just passing through…

- Fee G Autumn/Winter 2018 collection is available in stores now, see feeg.ie for stockists

Interview by Hilary Fennell