Limerick school of Art and Design

Last week I had the honour of judging the 

Limerick School of Art and Design

Final year Fashion Students.

The standard was incredible.

Truly I was blown away by the innovation

and craftsmanship of the pieces.

I want to say a HUGE congratulations

to ALL the students.

I was armed only with my iphone 

so here are some, not so great, snaps.

And the winning collection by Sarah Melody

Oh these images do not do the collections justice.

Such Talent.

The question is what do the 31 students do now?

The reality is when I left college back in 1992

Emigrating was pretty much taken for granted.

There were no jobs in Ireland for a textile design graduate.

 During the last 15 years maybe more people stayed here?

Now, I think people will be off again.

Graduates often ask me about what they should do when they leave college.

They want to set up a label 

They want to design a collection

My advice is always to gain experience working for someone else

before embarking on a solo career

There are things that can only be learned through experience in a workplace

and for that the opportunities in Ireland exist but are minimal.

Whatever the 2010 graduates decide to do I wish them all the best of luck and urge them

to hold on to their sense of humour.

Update
Some more images from the show

ps I have not included all the collections because
a) there were 31
b) not all the photo's are usable