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She’s very popular in Asia, because what she does is seen as quite cute in places like Japan and Korea, whereas in New York City it’s seen as contemporary but charming in a way that’s appealing to professional women, who see it as being feminine without being fussy or twee.” By walking through the exhibition, you follow the steps that Orla has taken from design, through to promotion and prints. Including giant dresses down to miniature dolls, her collection showcases over 150 patterns across all products from T-shirts to teapots.

Kiely’s visually crisp and geometrically disciplined patterns work across clothes, accessories and homeware. This is combined with a particularly broad appeal, zeroing in on that difficult-to-hit sweet spot of delight, commercial success and aesthetic rigour that’s normally the reserve of articulate, perfectly pitched pop music. Orla often recalled her vivid memories of her family kitchen with its olive-green Formica cupboards and worktops, entire walls with coordinating green and white patterned tiles, and a striking orange gloss ceiling and her Irish environment has informed her creative work since she was a student of textile design in Dublin. For Nothdruft, this is all achieved without resorting to pastiche or nostalgia, and places Kiely in a longer trajectory that arcs from the Arts & Crafts Movement through to the mid-­century Modernism of English textile designer Lucienne Day, and the bold, effusive fabric designs of the Finnish company Marimekko. Importantly, at the heart of each of these examples is a holistic approach to design as a way of life, from the small scale of the spoon to the breadth of an entire city as Italian architect Ernesto Rogers once proclaimed, but they are also projects that are inextricably connected with joy. Easy for her to say. But not necessarily an easy look to incorporate into the home. How does she advise the pattern-shy and colour-phobic to be bold? "I always think it's good to plan one strong feature rather than lots of bitty things," she says. "So if you're going to go for patterned wallpaper, you don't really want print on your sofa and print on your floor: make it a focal point. There's less opportunity to get it wrong."Kiely’s aesthetic is dominated by geometric flowers, leaves and the closest thing the designer has to a logo, her endlessly versatile, scalable and variable Stem pattern. Her imprint can be found on her signature handbags, accessories and clothes, stationery and perfume bottles, homeware and furniture, and even on a ­limited-edition version of the Citroen DS3 car. You might also want to let children have an opportunity to develop their observational and sketching skills while taking inspiration from plants and animals in preparation for this activity.

Pattern is not a trend for me, to be taken up one minute and abandoned the next when the winds of fashion change. Pattern is in me. It is my life’

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If you're looking for some fun home learning art at KS1 level, this could be the perfect resource for you. This step-by-step art activity is easy to follow and can be created with simple objects like a sharp pencil, a small knife, paint and a potato. It is inspired by the designs of Orla Kiely OBE, an Irish designer and artist known for her bold, colourful prints. It could be used when teaching printing techniques, as part of a design project or as an art activity during art week.

I knew our silhouette should be clean and simple to give the garment the graphic quality and colour of our print, space to be’ Orla Kiely OBE is an Irish designer who is famous for her fabric and pattern designs. Her brand is recognisable by bright colours and the pattern of a stem with leaves. She was born in 1963 in Shankill, County Dublin in Ireland.

a b c d e Walshe, Barbara. "Orla Kiely: The Irish Charm". couttswoman.com. Archived from the original on 21 February 2011. Created especially for the exhibition, are 9 giant dresses based on previous ready-to-wear collections in iconic prints. Each Is accompanied by a miniature doll created by artist Sarah Strachan and dressed in especially miniaturised iconic prints.

Orla Kiely is undeniably fashion’s sweetheart with her iconic feminine prints that fit seamlessly across collections from homeware to ready-to-wear season after season, always with a hint of her favourite era, the 1960s. The Irish designer began her career designing hats before creating major waves of innovation with the idea of using laminate cloth for handbags in the late 90s, with her distinctive designs leading her to be described as ‘the Queen of Prints’ as time leads on they have seen her work transferred across kitchen and homeware, clothing, accessories, and even cars. Her fashion line has been worn by Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, [13] [14] and celebrities including Kirsten Dunst [4] and Alexa Chung. It’s not about trends; it’s about who she is and what she feels, and that’s why her work is so consistent. That’s also why I don’t think it will go out of date,” Nothdruft suggests. “It’s a look that can keep going because it will keep on adapting.” On Monday 17 th September, Orla Kiely ceased trading. Meaning that online business and retail stores in both London and Kildare closed. After seeing this news, I wanted to celebrate the designers fantastic work and patterns from over the years by visiting the Fashion and Textile museum’s exhibition dedicated to her life’s work.My love of fashion was evident from an early age… fashion would become my window to the world, a way to voice my personal language and communicate my ideas’ Having presented her first ready-to-wear collection in 2003 using simple, clean silhouettes that allowed the prints to stand out, her clothes have been worn by a vast supply of household names, including Alexa Chung, Kiera Knightly and the Duchess of Cambridge. From influence to impact, the Orla Kiely range at MyBag includes styles from practical tote bags with classic Orla Kiely floral print to cute mini leather handbags and embossed cross body bags taking heed from the many realms of Orla’s iconic career. Each design is developed carefully by drawing and refining the essential organic elements that are the foundations of her instinctively satisfying repeating patterns. Nature – rendered more abstract and graphic – is always a core source of pattern ideas. The exhibition charts the growth and success of Orla Kiely from her first collection of hats at London Fashion Week in 1994, through the advent of the iconic Orla Kiely bag in the mid-nineties to her freelance work for department stores executed from her kitchen table in 1998. KS1 All About Orla Kiely Fact File - This eye-catching Fact File, aimed at KS1 pupils, is a great resource to use while exploring colour and pattern. It summarises the life and work of the award-winning Irish designer Orla Kiely