From handbags to homeware: Orla Kiely shares design secrets

Eve Kelliher discovers how the Irish designer and international queen of prints sources her inspiration 

Designer Orla Kiely at the launch of her furniture range at Caseys, Oliver Plunkett Street, Cork.

I first discovered Orla Kiely thanks to two fashionista friends in the early Noughties.

One of them was also a colleague and she had serious handbag savvy. This sybarite would arrive in the newsroom with new arm candy sporting the very latest iconic leaf or flower pattern to herald the season’s change.