‘Reasonable prices but high fashion edge’
Regrettably for Cork fashion duo Graham Clarke and Jess Cummins Lucas, with Managing Director Patrick Kenny, it would prove to be a bad time to launch their fashion label Kozae on 25 October 2007 at South Mall/Pembroke Street, Cork, the former premises of Niall Roberts Fabrics.[1] The ‘Celtic Tiger’ economy, which had altered the face of Ireland during the preceding decade, was in its death throes.[2]
Kozae’s stylish product, ‘contemporary women’s wear with classic styling and Victorian influences’ was developed on the principle of quality, style and value, an ‘upper end’ look but with ‘mid to low prices.’ Manufacturing in Hong Kong, the company had ambitious plans to expand into Galway, to include a male clothing line, fragrance development, footwear, jewellery, leather accessories and eyewear.
Graham Clarke, who studied fine art at the Crawford College of Art and specialised in interior architecture in Germany, had previously worked in partnership with Patrick Kenny in graphic and commercial interior design before embarking on the Kozae venture. Jess Lucas from Ballyphehane, a graduate of the Mallow College of Design and Tailoring, who had lived and worked in Paris as a designer, was well known on the fashion scene.
In 2008, the label was available in Element Clothing, Bandon and Midleton; Janes Fashions, Kinsale; Vanilla Fashions, Fermoy and Et-cetera, Carrigtwohill.
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[1] Kozae took up a 35-year lease on the 800 sq ft retail space in a multi-tenanted building which dates to 1792, once the Cork City Library and also the offices of former Lord Mayor, lawyer and city freeman Gerald Goldberg. The lease was estimated to have cost circa €100,000 with €50,000 rent per annum. [2] Celtic Tiger is a term (credited to Kevin Gardiner) for the Irish economy during boom years of rapid growth between 1995 and 2007. Until then Ireland had been one of Europe's poorest countries for over two centuries, jumping from being one of the poorest to one of the richest in only a matter of years. Ireland’s first boom was in the late 1990s when investors (including many tech firms) were attracted by the country's favourable tax rates. The second boom, in 2004, was largely the result of the country's decision to open its doors to workers from new EU member nations. A rise in housing prices, continued foreign investment, growth in jobs and tourism, a revitalisation of the information technology (IT) industry, and the United States’ own economic recovery all have been cited as contributing factors for Ireland’s 2004 comeback. However, by mid-2007, in the wake of the growing global financial crisis, the Celtic Tiger had all but died. The following two compositions contain the subject of the Celtic Tiger and appear in Made in Killarney: a decade of musing (2010). Small Print So opened a mighty wallet/and out the tiger strode – /as all supposed its Celticness/then Celtic we supposed./It stealthed a way across the land/but always out of sight,/for though we felt its awesomeness/its speed kept us behind. We hailed the feline’s worthiness/and marvelled at its trail,/it mattered not our climate/wasn’t suited to this sale;/we failed to see its starry coat/was blue, not green or gold – and failed again to check the terms/when Eire was bought and sold. (November 2002). Saturday Night The bars are now closing,/it’s three in the morn,/luminous gardai arrive/in a swarm;/a young lad is pissing,/he doesn’t know where,/couples are kissing and/probably there/is a night-club spewing out/kids on the street/who, tottering and falling/amid a debris of cartons and chip-wrappers,/crowd into clumps,/some for a taxi,/some for a mum/who’s been summoned to/fetch an inebriate teen,/(one who’s permitted to/access this scene)/a teen dressed in skimpies/now sprawled like a tiger,/it’s craic, say the youngsters,/a Celtic all-nighter. (September 2008).
