The fast-paced world of fashion can be a daunting industry to break into. That’s why fashion consultant Máire Morris decided to set up the Morris Fashion Consultancy. It is a vehicle for her to share years of design experience, and her own considerable business acumen, with up-and-coming designers and brands that are trying to find their feet in what is a phenomenally lucrative, multi-trillion dollar global industry.

Máire herself forged a career in fashion design, buying, branding and e-commerce. The experience and detailed knowledge she gained en route informs the expert advice she gives on how to launch and run fashion brands, on whatever scale. Her clients range from startups, through wholesale companies, to global luxury brands retailing in high-end stores such as Harrods and Selfridges.

“I launched my consultancy in order to share with others what I had learned,” she explains, “which is that to succeed as a fashion business, you have got to have the balance right between product and finance. I cannot emphasise enough how important it is to marry the creative and the business elements together, in order to flourish.”

In a sense it is all about getting the focus right. Knowing the international market as Máire does helps enormously.

“Our day-to-day activities involve working with emerging brands globally, as private consultants,” she says. “Our expertise lies in commercialising the product range, and implementing both local and global growth strategies from the ground up. We can start by looking at a set of sketches – and within 12 months have your business up and running, and in front of the right buyers in the right country or market.”

That sort of fast track access is invaluable to any new business. Often, Máire feels that creative people, starting out in fashion, are very confident in their ideas, but lack the necessary awareness of the “business machine” that is needed to make a commercial success of a product. As a result, Ireland has underperformed in fashion, compared to the other creative arts. That’s something Máire intends to change.

“I think that Irish designers undervalue their work hugely,” she adds. “They are afraid to put the correct pricing structures on their products – which means that they are just barely surviving and not thriving and developing their brands as they should. We work predominantly in the accessible and luxury markets, and the fact that we do so much work globally helps us to show Irish designers that there really is a market and a client base for every product, and we can help them to find it. “No matter how small a brand starts off, there is absolutely nothing stopping them taking a slice of the global market in time, with clever and strategic planning,” she concludes.

And you know what? We agree entirely. The Irish fashion revolution starts here!

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