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Fashion

BEHIND THE SCENES AT CREATE

Every July we showcase the very best in Irish design at CREATE, an annual event which supports new talent spearheaded by our Fashion Director Shelly Corkery. For such a special showcase our creative team develop exciting windows and installations in store. Here we talk through the inspiration, colour palette for our summer displays and how we have made steps towards more conscious VM design by using sustainable materials and LED lighting wherever possible.

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CREATE IN COLOUR

This year the colour experts at the Pantone Colour Institute crowned Living Coral as the colour of the year. For our CREATE project we always use Pantone's hero colourway as our starting point. This year Living Coral is highlighting the need to protect sea life in our oceans, this is great timing as the topic of sustainability is also at the heart of our Irish design showcase this year.

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CONSCIOUS MATERIALS

Careful attention is given to the materials we use for our visual merchandising in store for the impact they may have on the environment. For CREATE 2019 every attention has gone to find the most sustainable materials in the installation from recycled plastic polycarbonate, recycled glass and Minerva - a sustainable terrazzo.

We are conscious about waste in our VM designs. Lighting for example can be reduced if we pay attention to the layout of the installation and how natural light can be used to great effect.

Conor Dunbar

LED LIGHTING

Throughout our stores and displays we use LED lighting. This low energy lighting is highly energy efficient. We also buy green electricity supporting renewable energy generation in Ireland.

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"We buy the very best quality mannequins for display to ensure they have a long life-span, some of them have been in the business for over 25 years and are part of the Brown Thomas family." - Conor Dunbar, Brown Thomas Creative

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The Brown Thomas visual merchandising team dressing mannequins in store this year.

MORE FROM BEHIND THE SCENES

Now you know the ideas behind this year’s installation come see the best in Irish design and meet the makers in our Dublin store from Tuesday, 3rd July. See more from behind the scenes at Brown Thomas as our creative team share their inspiration and latest stories behind our famous windows on Instagram @brownthomascreative.

MORE TO READ

See the line-up of incredible Irish design in CREATE 2019.