CHARLOTTE AND JANE

30/08/2023

Quite a thing to experience a fashion show from the audience perspective, rather than back stage!

Wonderful gathering in Levi’s of Ballydehob of Irish textile designers and their clothing creations with very inspired textiles…

Looms and spinning outside the pub on the street and all manner of creativity to delight in with colourful folk in this colourful place…

My baby son thoroughly enjoyed all the colour and magic and gave all there lots of joy.. 💗💗

So inspiring it is to meet local crafts people, with passion for their craft and skill and so important it is to appreciate and support them. Thanks to all who supported us over the twelve years of Charlotte and Jane 💗

04/06/2023

Hi all…it’s been a while! It’s been three years in fact since we closed our beautiful business and last spent time in our C and J studio..feels like another lifetime!

I write for myself, not for Jane here. Much as it saddened me to part with our business which was so full of heart as any of you who came to the studio will remember, it has been a great blessing in my life.

As a mother, working as hard as I did and running the home and looking after my beautiful children as well as all else in life, was a constant juggling act. I tried my best to be my best at work and home for all, but it was exhausting and only when an opportunity for a break was there, did I realise how exhausted I was.

I had a deep intuition that things would not be “returning to normal” and that what presented in 2020 was about so much more. I knew I needed to make life changes.

It felt that the time was right to close our beloved studio and simplify life in every way possible. I began growing vegetables and spending much more time in the beauty and stillness of nature. I began homeschooling my children as all that education of children on line was not something that resonated as being healthy for them. I had never considered it before, but what a wonderful thing it is to spend my days with my children and rich homeschool collectives. In fact it even gave me time to have another child and I have a beautiful new baby son.

Being a mother is a full time job. The system has made it impossible for most to be able to be at home and the most important role of all, that of the homemaker, the nurturer, is given the least respect. The foundations of the home being healthy are the foundations of society being healthy. Nurturing our children, our land, our families, keeping a beautiful home, is sacred work.

It has not empowered women to undermine sacred rolls in society and force us to be everything…

I’m proud to say these days I am a full time mother and home maker.

07/10/2020

Honoring the passing of the great Irish poet Derek Mahon, who died a few days ago. This is his poem “New Space” about our studio which he wrote 12 years ago having opened it for us. This year we closed our business and now we part with Derek, our dear friend who lived at The Grove, beside our studio and who many of you will have met in your comings to us as he kept an interested eye on life and creativity in the Charlotte and Jane studio...the poem captures so beautifully, our design ethos and studio surroundings....So here 12 years after he opened our design business, we close it and he departs...full circle...we all contributed to the arts and design world of Ireland, a world to be treasured, supported, and never let go of.....Derek Mahon leaves us with a legacy of poetry which carries his spirit and wisdom far on beyond the grave. Long live the arts. Farewell Derek Mahon. The closing of chapters and entering of “new space”Charlotte Emily Rose Cargin

14/07/2020

In using up our stock of exquisite silks in an array of gorgeous colours which we have collected over the years, this is a classic Charlotte and Jane outfit which we can make and post to you. Email us at [email protected] and let us know what colours you like and we can send pics of what we have in that range and let you know the measurements we need. Sleeves available....

07/07/2020

For twelve years as we ran our design business, we sourced the finest most beautiful wools and tweeds...we had tweeds woven for us too by Kerry Woolen Mills in our colour and weave designs...we have a glorious selection of them left, including some wonderful Magees tweeds, which we are using to make standard sizing pieces from our collection of styles. Here are some beautiful tweeds that lend themselves well to statement full tweed skirts...all we need is your waist measurement and we can make one for you and post...

04/07/2020

Ok...here’s the next batch of beautiful heir loom samples to find homes for....the dresses we put up a few days ago were nearly all gone within a few hours...there are a few remaining. Those that are sold have this noted beneath. Details of these dresses beneath each image ❤️

02/07/2020

The following samples are available to send out as we part with our business. The sizes and details are below each image. Email us at [email protected] if you would love to be the wearer of any of these dresses and treasure them.

30/06/2020

Our classic wool coats are available in sizes 8-16 in the wools pictured as well as classic black, as we are using up the last of our beautiful wool stock. We only have enough to make three coats in each wool, so first come first served. This will be the last of our coats which are heir loom pieces. As we are not making to measure they are 750euro each. Please e mail us with which size, style and fabric you would like. Our amazing tailors are finishing up and will make them within a month for you and we will post. Each coat has a tailored bodice, nipped in darted waist and full swing with long box pleat at the back. Pure Irish wool. Stunning designs and classic Charlotte and Jane. [email protected]

08/06/2020

All set up at Janes cottage in Kilbrittain in gorgeous West Cork, to meet people by appointment to re home all our remaining Charlotte and Jane design creations.....email us for an appointment. Lots of beauties packaged and ready to go to their new homes...quite a day! We are enjoying meeting people here and sending our original C and J creations out into the world...❤️

04/06/2020

We will be meeting people by appointment at Janes gorgeous cottage in Kilbrittain on Mondays and Tuesdays to re home all of our beautiful dresses. If you would like to buy sample dresses, we have a huge range in sizes 8-18. Please email us to book a day and time [email protected] If you can’t travel to us, then have a look at our website and let us know via email your favorite styles and your measurements and we can let you know what we have to suit for you to choose from ❤️ www.charlotteandjane.com

29/05/2020

Thankyou all so much for the overwhelming messages of love, support and gratitude...we are so grateful and so touched. What a beautiful note to finish on! Here are just some of the pictures in the press of our designs and story from 2009-2020. We feel it is the right time for us to begin new chapters. We hope that the legacy we leave will be to celebrate yourself as you are, exactly as you are, wear beautiful joyful colours, support local businesses and crafts that hold heart space in communities and promote real connections, keep craft alive, valued and celebrated, move away from false fashion trends and seasonal fads that are generated by an industry that is completely environmentally unsustainable, exploitive of people, and devastating of true values, buy less and buy conscientiously and above all, celebrate life! We move on to different projects...Jane will continue teaching art at third level and what an inspiring art teacher she is and that is how we met 19 years ago when she was mine! She’s also going back to college to study ceramics! I am moving towards creating on the land and cultural gathering organizing...never be afraid of change! Life is short...In celebration of the closing of this wonderful chapter of which you’ve all been a part and of the rich journey and tapestry of life...enjoy this selection of images of C & J 2009-2020. Charlotte Emily Rose CarginJane Jane Skovgaard

21/05/2020

Dearest All. It’s time we say Good Bye...with the greatest of gratitude for 11 immensely wonderful years of Charlotte and Jane, which everyone of you has been a part of, we close our studio door today. It has taken courage at every step of the way to create, run and now close our business. It has been an incredible journey, the course of which we feel has bought us through most human emotions...What a remarkable success we made of it! What an immense pleasure it has been to meet thousands of women throughout the years and share with them in important life moments and be a part of them. We have run our business from our hearts. We have cared for each person who walked through our door, given each personal and individual focus and attention and done our very best by each client and been truly honored that each made the journey to and with us and entrusted us with the biggest events in your lives....We have loved our business and all aspects of it and journeyed far with it and grown so much with it...we thank you all, our clients....we thank our amazing tailors and dress makers, Mary Hurley, Cilan Chen, Judy Moloney, Liz Lenehan...we thank our super star milliner, Irene Curran...we thank all of our wonderful fabric producers, Kerry Woolen Mills, Magees, Laurent Garigue, Henry Bertrand, Pongees, Whaleys...we thank our incredible photographer and website designer John Allen....we thank our ever patient accountant, Imelda Hurley.... we thank the superb team at Cork Button Company for all the thousands of buttons you covered and provided...we thank our community for such support through the years...our families for such love, support and encouragement always...the journalists who have written up articles about our business and helped it grow...the list is endless....but most of all we thank eachother for riding all the ups and downs, believing in eachother, supporting one and other, for dreaming it into being and working it and the immensely strong and beautiful team work. Our friendship, respect, loyalty and love for one and other will always be. We will honor and complete all dresses that have been ordered. Our closing sale will be epic! Our 400 sample dresses, iconic styles of an incredible label, though we say so ourselves, will be announced in the coming months...collectors pieces. Thankyou all, celebrate yourselves as you are, wear fabulous colours, treasure small local businesses as you have done and let’s not let any more go, much love, live in your hearts, never be afraid, long live the arts and good bye...Charlotte and Jane XX Jane SkovgaardCharlotte Charlotte Emily Rose Cargin

08/05/2020

It’s been an honor to be a part of this wonderful project which now has 20 remarkable women in direct provision in Cork employed and with a vital distraction, project and income during these times that are challenging to people in the most comfortable of circumstances, so unimaginable in direct provision. I have been humbled and expanded by working with such beautiful people and I hope that this builds bridges that continue to grow in love and unity. I need to give my time to other things now, but there is a phenomenal team running the initiative including Cork Migrant Centre at Nano Nagle Place and charity Better Together as well as various different UCC groups. It’s been an immense team effort to get it going and very proud to have been part of such a phenomenal team of super people working lovingly and unitedly.

We want to give a HUGE thank you to Charlotte Cargin from Charlotte and Jane, who has been involved with our project since day one and has been an integral part of our initiative.

Charlotte has been our fashion consultant and she has also distributed material and supplies as well as providing support to our women, who miss her very much.

Thank you for all that you have done to to make this possible.

We are very sad to see you leave but we wish you the best in your future endeavours.

SMI Team :)

28/04/2020

In an update we are now sorted with covid pay which is an immense relief and Thankyou to everyone who supported and helped us. It was important to share the situation as a continued lockdown is very destructive to small businesses and small businesses are fundamental to healthy communities. It’s an interesting time we are all navigating. We would so much rather be doing what we love in the studio than taking hand outs! I hope we are not all crippled by the debts we are entering as a country and vulture funders don’t swoop in and enslave us in debt and claim our land assets at the end of this. We miss you and life in the studio and wish everyone well in this time of immense personal journeying as we realize the changes we need to make in ourselves and our lives. With great love and appreciation, Charlotte and Jane XX

25/04/2020

PLEASE READ all our treasured followers and supporters. The SMI (Sanctuary Mask Initiative) is going so well. I’ve put all my spare time into helping the vulnerable in every way I can in this time. We now have 20 women in direct provision set up making masks. We have almost provided everyone in Cork living in direct provision with 3 masks each and will soon be providing them to the wider vulnerable population. This is entirely on a voluntary basis by those of us running it and though my heart breaks to be making masks it feels like a very positive, love filled, uniting and deeply soul expansive project. JANE AND I GOT THE AWFUL and highly stressful email three days ago from revenue to say our application is rejected for covid 19 pay as we are directors of our company and as such if we didn’t have a digital payroll in February we are entitled to absolutely nothing for these months with our business completely shut down and young families to provide for. We have business overheads thatchave to keep being paid out and to keep it going with no assistance and our lives going with no assistance is an enormous injustice after 11 years of such hard work and love poured in to building our beloved Charlotte and Jane business. We don’t roll with digital payrolls! We’re a small company and pay ourselves as and when we can and in February I was traveling in India buying fair trade fabrics for us so had no income or digital payroll! It’s s disgrace on the part of the government to let us down like this and the pressure it puts on us in already highly pressurized circumstances is so vast. We’d appreciate you sharing this as other treasured businesses will be in a similar situation and it’s not acceptable.

10/04/2020

Thankyou to everyone who has shared our posts and helped grow awareness of this mask making project. Sanctuary Mask Initiative. There are now 15 fabulous women set up accross 5 direct provision centres in Cork making masks. We are have another two joining next week who have been trained. We aim to make thousands every week to give to vulnerable people. We are so grateful for fabric donations and loans of sewing machines and donations to the go-fund-it campaign. We are trying to raise 10,000 euro to cover basic costs of making first 10,000 masks as on top of the generous fabric donations, we have hundreds more meters of cotton to buy and thousands of meters of elastic to buy and our postage costs are high getting everything delivered to each centre etc....it’s a very humbling project to witness the immense generosity and kindness of people and together we are doing wonderful things to help eachother. Thankyou everyone and hope you’re well ❤️❤️

09/04/2020

Sanctuary Mask Initiative, which we are involved with in a fantastic collaboration, now has 15 wonderful women in direct provision sewing masks. They are training more within the centres. If you would like to donate to this project, the link is shared on our page wall below this post to the go fund it campaign. The project will be featured on RTE news tonight at 6pm.

07/04/2020

*Hygiene masks made by women in Direct Provision*

SMI is an initiative by women living in direct provision centres to help themselves and other vulnerable people living in the community, in response to the COVID 19 pandemic.

SMI is an initiative spearheaded by BetterTogether and the Cork Migrant Centre at Nano Nagle Place, with the support of the…

Read more & donate here - https://www.gofundme.com/f/hygiene-masks-made-by-women-in-direct-provision?utm_source=whatsapp-visit&utm_medium=chat&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet

Forward this message to your contacts to help this campaign reach its goal!

SMI is an initiative by women living in direct provision cent… Sanctuary Mask Initiative (SMI) needs your support for Hygiene masks made by women in Direct Provision

06/04/2020

https://www.pressreader.com/ireland/irish-examiner/20200404/281586652706849

Peo­ple across the coun­try are vol­un­teer­ing their time and ex­per­tise to make pro­tec­tive masks to com­bat the spread of Covid-19. The World Health Or­gan­i­sa­tion has been con­sid­er­ing an up­date on ad­vice on wear­ing face masks to fight the virus af­ter a US...

02/04/2020

We have been involved in setting up a project which has been called Sanctuary Mask Initiative. This project is a collaboration between Charlotte, Cork Migrant Centre, Better Together and UCC groups; University of Sanctuary, Feminist Society and Failte Refugees. We are making masks for people in direct provision who are extremely vulnerable in this current situation and employing women in the direct provision centres of cork to make the masks. We urgently need to source 3000metres of 5mm elastic. If anyone has any lying around, or owns a shop that sells it, please email us at [email protected] Once all those in DP have been provided with masks these women can manufacture them for the wider public with this being an occupation and income for them in these trying times. This is a non profit for anyone initiative with the only payments being to those in Direct Provision making masks.

28/03/2020

Well!!!! This is where it’s at! We gave 110m of pure cotton fabric we had in the studio to women living in direct provision and one of our sewing machines, so that those with sewing skills there can make masks as that’s what is needed now. These are being distributed to those living in direct provision who desperately need them and had limited access to obtaining them. They will have s great production going, so once everyone in direct provision is given what they need, they will take orders for more which will give them an occupation and income in these trying times ❤️❤️❤️🙏

23/03/2020

Frock Finders is being re screened on RTE 2, so if you haven’t yet seen it, here’s your chance to. It will be on each week for the next five weeks at 8pm on Monday evenings.

18/03/2020

We have decided in light of the current situation, to temporarily close the studio. We will be up and running again as soon as this passes, and our wonderful dress makers, who work from home, are making all the orders that have been placed already during this time ❤️

15/03/2020

What better way to use up old fabrics right now than to make flags out of them and hang them from the windows of the main house on the grounds of our studio in Kinsale. In the spirit of love, unity and community for St. Patrick’s day we could all do similar...even just hang an old colourful scarf from the window or get the children painting old cloth...❤️❤️☘️☘️

09/03/2020

Every year in India I visit this incredible haberdashery run by a husband and wife, which feels like stepping into their home when i visit and we have chai together whilst selecting zips and chatting about their business and ours. I bought hundreds of zips there today, as I have each year for the last eleven years since we started Charlotte and Jane. Always such a pleasure!

05/03/2020

All our crepe, wool and tweed fabrics are locally sourced, but silks we have to import from India. We travel to India ourselves to source the most beautiful for the detailing on our dresses and always buy fair trade and ethically produced fabrics. It’s been a joy sourcing a range of gorgeous silks for detailing and here are just a few I bought today from a family run factory in South west India.

01/03/2020

This chic subtle warm dove grey crepe dress carries a brooch adorned neckline so beautifully...

28/02/2020

Just loving bright red styled with peach...

27/02/2020

Proud of our client Betty Duignan being awarded by the National Lottery in the Good Causes Awards. Here she is at the awards in a beautiful Charlotte and Jane mustard Eva dress.

26/02/2020

Tweed, glorious tweed! There are endless delights with tweed, and the juxtaposition of a really fitted, glamorous dress in a tweed is just wonderful...so unexpected. Our tweeds are Irish woven and many of the colour ways of the weaves we have designed and had custom woven for us by Kerry Woolen Mills. We adore combining complimentary fabrics in dresses and really specialize in that art....