When Katherine McGee began working with the British luxury fashion brand Burberry in the United States she quickly realised that her heart lay in fashion retail.
The Roscommon woman, who set up the leading women’s fashion shop Marian’s in Galway in 1985, spent a year working with the world famous brand in San Francisco.
She had worked with a number of companies in Ireland previously including the VHI, the IDA and 0the Irish Tourist Board in America.
But it was Burberry, the brand most famous for its iconic trenchcoat, that showed her where her true calling lay. She won the ‘Employee of the Month’ title on several occasions with the company and was a natural choice when it sought a manager for its new shop in Philadelphia.
Having come from a fashion background - Ms McGee’s parents set up Marian’s of Boyle - she had a good grounding in the business, she says.
“When I got the job in Burberry - I worked there for a year - it was like second nature to me. I knew I had been fighting a losing battle to do something else, my heart lay in fashion retail. I love clothes, the quality and longevity of them. I loved everything about fashion but the truth is I loved business even more than fashion. The selling, the customer care, everything. I learned about customer service and marketing at Burberry. I turned down the chance of managing its second shop in Philadelphia because I wanted to come home. I decided to set up in business in Galway, I had gone there every summer for my holidays when we stayed with my uncle.”
It was 1985 and Ireland was in the throes of a recession. But Katherine was undaunted. Fired with a burning ambition and an eagerness to succeed she set about putting her skills and training to good use. She had built up some savings from working in three jobs in the US - in a hospital in the morning, Burberry by day and a restaurant by night - and used it to set up her bridal and ladies fashion shop at St Francis’ Street.
“I had all the enthusiasm and self confidence from working in the United States and the grounding and support of coming from a business family. This was really important to me. I don’t think I would have set up the shop as easily without the home support. I had huge support from my father’s family in Salthill and my mother’s in Renmore, also.”
She called her shop Marian’s, the same name as the shop founded by her parents in Roscommon in 1954. They named it in honour of the Marian year, a special year declared by the then Pope aimed at increasing devotion to the Blessed Virgin. Both her parents had great devotion to Our Lady.
“When I set up the shop in Galway in 1985 I just knew it was going to work. It felt right,” says Katherine. Her flair for business, commitment to providing quality up-to-the-minute fashions and keenness to give good value for money saw her business go from strength to strength and weather various economic storms.
Twenty six years on as she prepares to close her shop on September 30 for “commercial and personal reasons”, she is nostalgic about ending this chapter in her life. Marian’s of Boyle run by Katherine’s sister Perpetua remains open.
“We’ve had 26 great years - 80 per cent of businesses close in the first year and 50 per cent of the remaining ones close in the next five years - so when you take that into consideration 26 years was fantastic. I’ve loved it and made great friendships in the shop, in particular with the people I’ve worked with and the customers. Some of my staff have been with me for more than 20 years. There is a sadness in it but hopefully the friendships will continue. What I will take with me is the friendships and the fun.
“I see this time now, when we’re having the clearance sale, as a time to say thank-you to our customers. We would love to see them to say thanks and to get something really special from the shop. The bargains are genuine, there is 50 per cent off at the very least and in some instances 60 and 75 per cent off. People can get wedding dresses for €150 and bridesmaids dresses for €50.”
She says she is considering other business ventures and with qualifications as a psychotherapist and style coach under her belt other career options beckon.
“Business people don’t sit down for very long. I went back to college and qualified as a psychotherapist and feel I’m young enough to change direction. I’ve been practising for three years and currently work two days a week at this. I enjoy the work but I don’t intend to lose my business skills either and to not be involved in fashion. I also trained as a style coach.”
What are the highlights of her years in business? “The actor Gabriel Byrne coming into the shop with his late mother. She used to be deliberating and debating about which outfit to buy and he’d be hiding behind the rails! He’d be saying ‘For God’s sake mammy get the two of them.’
“Dressing the then Galway Rose, Luzvminda O’Sullivan - who later went on to win the Rose of Tralee - for the festival was another memorable occasion. She was so beautiful to dress and such a beautiful person. That whole Galway Rose committee were fabulous, I’m still friends with some of them.”
And her most unusual customer? The woman who bought a wedding dress and booked a hotel reception for her nuptials without having a groom in mind!
“Talk about the power of positive thinking! It was about 1998 and we were having a bridal sale. A girl came in and bought a beautiful wedding dress. I said it will be fantastic [on you]. We asked her, as we do, when was the wedding, and she said it was in one and half years. It is usual to come in to look at dresses that far in advance. We were asking her what colour the groomsmen and the bridesmaids were going to wear but she said she didn’t know. I said “What do you see the groom wearing?’ She said she didn’t know him. She had decided what she was wearing, had set a date for her wedding and had booked the hotel but did not have a man in mind!”
Ms McGee says the more she spoke to the woman the more she realised how “deadly serious” she was about the whole issue. She had set herself an 18 month deadline of finding and marrying the man of her dreams and was organising everything, in his absence, with military precision.
“I thought it was an incredible thing. I chatted to her some more and she was perfectly logical about it all. She had set herself a deadline - no better way to focus the mind - and was using the power of positive thinking by five
