Picture: Diarmuid Greene/Fusionshooters
LAST Friday’s launch of International Fashion Incubator Limerick (IFIL) at the Limerick Institute of Technology will link the city into the international fashion industry and create local employment in the process.
The launch was a key element of the official opening of the refurbished Merriman House on Lock Quay, a new Centre of Excellence in Fashion Design that builds on the international reputation of the Limerick School of Art and Design.
The new creative space will host around 100 students in a fashion hub in the heart of Limerick city.
Education Minister and local Labour Party TD Jan O’Sullivan said the development “builds on the groundbreaking work that the Limerick School of Art and Design has achieved in the fashion and textile sector.
“Limerick is now at the forefront of Irish fashion, both nationally and internationally. The IFIL will ensure that this exciting and dynamic field of study will continue to go from strength to strength. The location of IFIL at the heart of the city is also a very significant boost to the ongoing enhancement of the city centre and I want to pay tribute to the vision that LIT has displayed in this and all its future capital development plan.”
LIT President Dr Maria Hinfelaar commented: “The opening of Merriman House is a very significant step for LIT and for Limerick. We are creating employment in Limerick city centre by increasing the number of students and staff in the city, while sowing the seeds of new enterprises in an iconic building on Lock Quay.
“This investment enables us to increase the number of students in fashion design and related disciplines, and to co-locate them with International Fashion Incubator Limerick (IFIL) to form a single centre of excellence in fashion design.”
LSAD is ranked among the world’s leading fashion schools and is the only Irish institution to exhibit at London Graduate Fashion Week.
Dr Hinfelaar continued: “LSAD design graduates have created a network of global renown in the world’s leading fashion houses. What IFIL does is open the door for these designers to work and live in Ireland, while mentoring up-and-coming young designers through the IFIL Designer-in-Residence Programme.
“This circular movement of mentors whose education started in LSAD and who are now returning to expand their business and support recent graduates, is the backbone of IFIL.”
