by Ronan Casey
A Mullingar fashion designer is the toast of the New York fashion set after her designs were chosen for the Spring 2015 collection for Fashion 4 Development, a new ethical label with some incredibly influential and powerful backers.
Fashion 4 Development is a partner of the United Nations’ millennium development initiative, and it is working on global development through fashion. They are to release a number of seasonal collections, including one by world-famous designer Donna Karan, in the coming months. That the designs of a 28-year-old Mullingar girl will be gracing the catwalk alongside these is big news in the fashion world.
How Andrea Cullen became involved with the global label is a mixture of hard work and luck, the latter part involving the young graduate ‘pulling a sickie’ at her place of work to be in the right place at the right time to showcase her styles to the right people.
The youngest of four sisters and daughter of James and Vivian Cullen of Greenpark, Mullingar, Andrea graduated in June 2013 with a BA (Hons) Degree in Fashion Design from Limerick. The former Loreto College pupil had worked with Joanne Hayes and Ada Zanditon in the UK, but feeling the pull of New York she moved there in January of this year to expand her horizons and further her career.
It’s easy to get swallowed up in the Big Apple and Andrea describes the city as not being for the faint- hearted. She was completing an internship with Marchesa NYC when her story took a twist for the better.
Encouraged by her sister Tara to take a day off to attend a ‘How To Make It in Fashion’ conference ran by some of New York’s noted fashionistas, Andrea went along with a portfolio of her designs and a hat full of ambition.
She snagged a 15 minute mentoring session and impressed her mentor so much that this led to a fateful first meeting with Fashion 4 Development (F4D) when things started to move.
F4D were looking for a fresh designer to create their 2015 capsule collection.
“I knew I had it in me to create what they were looking for, I liked the essence of F4D’s overall objective, so I got down to business; this was my chance to shine,” she says.
Andrea put forward a series of design concepts that focussed on the importance of life, passion and a positive outlook to live in a more desirable world. Her designs were based on stories she wrote immediately after her first meeting with F4D, the imagery from these inspiring the colour choice and design lines.
This resulted in F4D creating a fresh partnership, allowing Andrea to expose her creativity and talent at the highest level.
F4D wants to harness the power of the fashion and beauty industries to implement strategies which will help sustain economic growth, wellness and independence for communities in developing countries and poorer nations such as Haiti. Their tagline is “giving back is the new luxury” with proceeds from sales all pumped back into development.
Andrea’s work was showcased and released at a gala ‘First Ladies’ Luncheon’, held in conjunction with a UN meeting on 23 September at the Pierre Hotel, where leaders of the fashion industry and various first ladies from around the globe celebrated those who have raised awareness and created positive social change through the voice of fashion. It is due to be officially launched soon.
She and her sisters are close, one is a design lecturer, the other a photographer and the other a business manager. Speaking to Topic on behalf of her family, sister Tara said “to say we are close is an understatement as we live in each other’s pockets. So you can imagine how proud we are of her.”
The girls were big into showjumping and Andrea represented Loreto College on numerous occasions, even bringing home a gold medal from England.
She was always into fashion and was thrilled to be accepted in Limerick. Having travelled back and forth all year to Ireland where some of her designs were drawn up, she is now rooted in the New York fashion industry where toasts are being raised all this week to her new collection.
For More see: www.fashion4development.com
