Health, Beauty and Lifestyle with Denise McNamara

When Sonya Lennon and the team at Kilkenny Design Store decided to get staff involved in the most recent campaign to launch the third Lennon Courtney collect, a Galway assistant was an obvious choice to take part.

Fortunate Nyakambiri, with her vibrant personality and shiny confidence, joined four other workers for the shoot which took place last month for the Spring Summer 2024 Bealtaine collection. All the staff wear the same pieces to showcase how they work for different shapes and sizes, which is captured in a video played in all the stores, including their two-storey High Street Galway shop.

“The Freedom print is very special,” reveals Sonya.

“We made a decision to have absolutely no wastage from the print so every single piece is unique as they all fall differently in each garment. And you can see that from the Freedom shoot, all of the pieces look different on each of the women. It was a very joyous shoot.”

“The story of our models is really important to us. They are all retail staff in Kilkenny Design and we really wanted the women who sell our clothes to understand them, to feel what it was like to enjoy them, and I think when you look at the range of shapes and sizes, heights and skin tones that can wear these colours, they universally work.”

She explains that the colours in the collection “nod to summer evenings and a newly warm sea” with tangerine and aqua the signature colours as well as anthracite grey, which speak to the Atlantic ocean.

There are 53 pieces costing between €24 and €330 in the clothing and homewares collection pieces, with sizes ranging from XS-XXL.

The Freedom print is used in a camisole, trousers, an overshirt, a long tunic dress, two scarves, printed canvas tote, crossbody bag, metal enamelled homewares, including a fab large bowl. The classic fit-and-flare-shaped dress comes in tangerine while the ‘Armour’ top (€75) and matching bell-shaped skirt (€95) in a glazed cotton fabric will suit people not willing to be so bold with colour. The more demure will also like the fit-and-flare-shaped ‘Moonray’ pleat stripe knit dress (€130) with a deep crossover V-neck and a cap sleeve.

Pictured: Bealtaine Lennon Courtney collection in Kilkenny Design.