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All in the family,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]
A BACK-to-school-type search prompted me to check out the Avoca Handweavers shop in Suffolk Street, Dublin 2. Three hours later I emerged, arms full,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], with an amazing amount of goodies.
In the basement there is the Avoca Pantry,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], a scrumptious kitchen and food hall where I bought organic bread and produce and which, where possible, supplies the excellent restaurant on the second floor. The ground floor contains everything from armchairs and dining chairs covered in chocolate-coloured leather to gorgeous bright wool blankets for the couch (which are surprisingly cheap compared to the ones in another well-known interiors shop). There is funky fashion, groovy shopper bags and scarves, scented candles, lavender parcels, china, great costume jewellery and the most stunning men's coloured linen shirts I have ever seen.
But it was in the mezzanine that I really lost my head. This is a heavenly children's department, stocking old-fashioned and imaginative toys and clothes. Where little boys aren't just boys dressed in grey little men clothes, but instead can wear bright knitwear and mad Wellington boots, and little girls can be tomboys or dress up like Tinkerbell in one of their surprisingly broad range of fairy outfits.
Avoca is a shop that doesn't impose on children conservative adult narrow-mindedness, but instead feeds their imaginations. Where toys as diverse and unusual as wooden and cloth tee-pee tents and old-fashioned swashbuckling swords and masks can be found, or Red or Dead-esque Seventies kitchen units complete with pots 'n' pans and labelled produce,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], for a child's imagination to run riot. My own child is a train fanatic and here I found, for just £2, a wooden whistle that made the same sound as a steam engine and a Thomas the Tank Engine metal lunch box and painting set in a tin case. Truly, my Brownie points went off the scale for finding these treats!
Avoca Handweavers is a family-run firm, hence it succeeds at the personal touch. Because it is personal: The Pratt family,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], who own and run Avoca, live for the company and strive to be the best at what they do.
In one of those mad moods, which really only did happen in the Seventies, solicitor Donald Pratt convinced his wife Hillary that they could make a go of running the historical Avoca Woollen Mills (it was founded in 1723) and save it from being developed into a holiday complex.
Back then,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], Donald and Hillary would literally load up their car with samples and drive to London to peddle their wares to Harrods and Selfridges. Back in Avoca, a local man, Jim Barry, took over the management of the shop and proved to be a shrewd operator. He once sold the same bedspread to several customers on the same day,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], promising that he would mail it to them straight away. As soon as they were out the door, he put the bedspread back up for sale. The following morning he went straight to the mill and asked the weavers to weave replacements as fast as they could.
"If anything I think it was hardest on our mother," Amanda Pratt told me when we took a tour around the shop. "She had to make a go of this new business and bring up a very young family, while Dad had to keep doing legal work to finance the move."
No wonder all the Pratt children became involved family survival depended on it. Today, Amanda Pratt is responsible for much of the clothes and gift ideas. She designs most of the knitwear for the children,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], as well as buying the toys I loved so much. She also designs the loveable Hope and Thimble range, which consists of easy feminine clothes in bright colours and prints; Liberty prints, pinny dresses, worn with bright cashmere cardigans, T-shirts, natty little skirts and soft suiting. It's the sort of range that would appeal to anyone form 21 to 51, with a love of colour, natural fabrics and easy shapes. Other clothes ranges include, Fenn Wright and Mason, Naughty,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], Out of Xile and Avoca's own label.
As a policy,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], the Pratt family work with as many Irish companies as possible. Avoca itself employs over 400 people. Today, although each seems to have a handle on all aspects of the business, company responsibility is divided up. Donald looks after the garden centre. Hillary still oversees the mills,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], the Avoca range and some of the Pantry goods. Vanessa Pratt manages the flagship shop in Suffolk St, Dublin with all its complexities. Ivan Pratt is in charge of marketing and production.
Simon Pratt is responsible for the Food Hall and cafés and is very much into the whole concept of 'slow food', which is quality food, ready to heat. Five years ago,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], they launched an Avoca cookbook which proved to be a winner. Their cafés are consistently good, no matter which one you visit, often with the added bonus of gorgeous landscape,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], as most are situated in beautiful grounds such as the Powerscourt Estate of Kilmacanogue. The Suffolk Street branch won the Barry's Tea Afternoon Tea Award for the Leinster area just this year.
So, all you last-minute, Christmas Eve, hysterical shoppers out there,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], take note. Avoca Handweavers could save your stress levels, as it is a genuine, one-stop shop for unusual,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], thoughtful gifts for just about everyone in the family. But hey, who needs an excuse, go treat yourself! No doubt you deserve it.
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