Date Published: 26-May-2011

As she rushes into the café of the City Museum resplendent in her skinny white jeans, pink massive wedges and bright orange bag, you can certainly see why Orla Moore has inherited the mantle of fashion guru for hundreds of students.

Her style is eclectic, if not downright punky, reminiscent of her favourite designers, John Galliano and Alexander McQueen.

Fashion has always been a huge part of her life. The mother of five admits that as a child she would dress up as an ‘auld one’ – a baby pink two-piece suit resplendent with white hat and a pink ribbon reminiscent of Queen Elizabeth was a particular favourite when she was nine years old.

Now she’s getting older, it’s younger she’s dressing, she chuckles.

“I love very fitted clothes that are a bit fierce, a big high heel, a skinny jeans, a tight jacket. I like colour blocking at the moment – where you match mad colours together. It’s a big trend, though I don’t always follow trends – if it works, it works.”

A fashion tutor at the Galway Technical Institute (GTI), she has been inspiring fashionistas since joining the college in 2002 when she was instrumental in designing the first fashion course.

Today the fashion college, which has grown from 28 to 100 students every year, offers courses from its custom-built studio at Yeats Building, Fr Griffin Road.

Fashion Design Level 5 and 6 teaches the fundamentals of design, history of fashion, pattern drafting and garment construction. Not a year has gone by that a GTI fashion design class has not had a finalist or a winner in a major design competition.

The Business for Fashion course, FETAC level 5, appeals to students who wish to pursue a career in the area of fashion styling, PR, buying, retailing or merchandising. Fashion Industry Practice (Level 6) continues training in fashion styling, fashion retail display, buying and promotion.

It’s all project based learning, explains Orla.

“I see myself almost as a facilitator and motivator. Everyone is so unique. I try and trying out the best in them. It’s not about passing an exam for the Leaving Cert. Everybody has a different set of abilities, they have their own portfolio of talents. You need to bring out the strengths of people to help them develop their potential.”

Although she studied English and French at UCG (now NUI Galway), she never thought she would become a teacher. At school she loved English and writing but was also drawn towards fashion.

Her family ran a department store in Limerick, known as Noel McMahon’s, which sold everything from sports gear, bicycles, prams and even canoes. It also had a very busy clothes section which sold occasion wear for weddings as well as communion dresses.

“My mother would take me to the trade shows from when I was tiny. She was a bit of a fashionista. For my Confirmation we both designed outfits from the same fabric, I wore a blazer and a skirt, she wore a safari jacket and trousers – it was a big thing in the 70s. I begged her to wear these cork platforms. My grandmother had a fit but my mother bought them for me. I was nearly 6 foot standing beside everyone in their flat shoes,” she grins.

“She’d buy me anything – within reason. We got a lot of things made at the time and also bought them at trade shows. I had a lovely wardrobe of clothes.”

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.