Who started it?
Irish-born designer Orla Kiely studied at the Dublin National College of Art and then completed a master's degree at the Royal College of Art in London. After presenting her first collection at her graduation show in 1993, she was approached by Harrods to design a line of hats.
Her label was founded soon after and featured bold and bright prints as a backlash against the minimalist, dark aesthetic of fashion at the time.
A handbag collection followed and in 1994 she showed her accessories for the first time at London Fashion Week and secured her first order from Japan. In 1995, Kiely (below) became a consultant for high-street department store Marks & Spencer. She moved to Debenhams in 1998 and created a diffusion collection for them.
Later in 1998, her first show in Paris netted her orders from international department stores such as Le Bon Marche in Paris, Saks Fifth Avenue in the US, Isetan in Tokyo and Lane Crawford in Hong Kong. By 1999, Kiely was selling her collections to almost 300 stores worldwide.
In 2001, she won the UK Fashion Exports Award for accessories. She opened her first store in South Korea in 2003. The following year, she designed a homeware collection for Sainsbury's along with such designers as Terence Conran.