Paul Costelloe on 40 years of London Fashion Week

Costelloe was unable to attend his runway show in February due to health complications. He is better now, but the inspiration behind this upcoming collection is “joy, enjoying life”. For the first time, the line will include wedding dresses, which will be available to purchase through premium bridal stores internationally.

Some of his team are working in the background as we speak, but things are relatively peaceful considering it’s less than a week till the big event. Costelloe has been opening LFW for the last 15 years, traditionally with a 9am curtain call. “It’s the calm before the storm,” says his head of design Jordi Vall. “We have castings all next week.”

The shows are a way to promote the company’s many licences, which sit at the core of the business. It all started with a full dining range for Wedgwood, the traditional English décor brand, launched in 1994 (now discontinued). Perhaps his most famous collaboration, however, is that with Irish department store Dunnes Stores, which launched with homeware in 2004 and later expanded into menswear and womenswear. Other licences include a leather handbag licence with Lloyd Baker, jewellery and soft accessories for QVC, eyewear for Dunelm Optical, suitcases for Randa, as well as a line of beauty products for Rafferty Hospitality.

But the Paul Costelloe brand is a family business at heart; one of the designer’s seven children, William, is the brand’s design director, creating the bulk of the prints in the collections. His wife Anne is a director, while his daughter Jessica heads up public relations. “My ambition is to step back from fashion eventually. To hire an old car and drive around France and paint. Everybody else is welcome to continue the company, and there’s plenty of people who would. But that’s not tomorrow. Maybe in 10 years time,” he says.

Before he retires, does he have any business advice for budding fashion designers? “Find a person who understands the financial end of things, so you can stay out of it,” he says referring to his financial director of more than 30 years, Gerald Mescal. “He was the financial controller for a shirt company I used to work for and that’s how we met. After I opened my first store in Dublin, he came and looked at the books and said, ‘Paul, you’re going nowhere with this little shop.’”

Luckily for British fashion, Costelloe proved him wrong.

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