Masterpieces inspired dress designs

AN acclaimed Irish fashion designer has produced eight exquisite dresses inspired from a series of masterpieces that will be included in a sale of art works worth around €3 million in Dublin next week.

Helen Cody’s latest collection of couture dresses are based on masterpieces by Helen Comerford, Gerard Dillon, John Philip Murray, Louis Le Brocquy, Alice Maher, Sean Scully, John Shinnors and Camille Souter.

Four of the eight dresses will be auctioned by Whyte’s at their Important Art Sale in the RDS on Monday at 6pm. The entire exhibition of more than 170 art works is open to the public from today until the auction takes place.

The dresses were modelled at a private preview at the RDS last night, sponsored by D2 Private, a property investment and development company based in Dublin and London.

Ms Cody’s designs, each worth between €1,500 and €3,000, are individually crafted and finished with hand-dyed silk linings, Victorian embellishments, vintage ribbons, lace and crystals.

Ms Cody, who works by appointment, said she always treated each piece with the approach of an artist so that the finished result was unique to the wearer.

“I approach some of my work almost like a painter. I don’t really work in a very commercial way,” said Ms Cody. “It is all about putting it on a stand and applying all the different elements together to see how they work,” she explained.

“And I have a fantastic team of really talented and skilled people who help me get the body of the dresses together,” she added.

Whytes asked Ms Cody to undertake the project in August but she did not get a chance to see the paintings on which she based her dresses until last month.

“I had to work very, very quickly from then on. I could not react to something I did not see,” she said.

Her favourite dress is based on the work of John Philip Murray — a hand-woven gold lame shredded boule dress with a gold metallic lace overlay.

“I braided all the ostrich feathers and dyed them to the shade of the actual painting so when you see it all the lines are soft.”

A selection of Ms Cody’s intricate designs can also be seen at her forthcoming Pop-Up Shop in Rouge, Clarendon Street, from next Tuesday until Saturday.