Vogue falls for cavan womans fashion label

They say that necessity is the mother of invention, and so it has proved for OLIVIA MAGEE. The recession saw Olivia’s family switch the emphasis of their Italian textile business to high-end fashion and launch the Rebekka label. The family’s resort to invention has reaped almost instant recognition with Vogue Italia gushing over it with praise that has taken them all by surprise. The Laragh exile tells DAMIAN MCCARNEY why she feels like an Oscar winner. 

“I sound Italian!?” Olivia shrieks in surprise... and in an accent far removed from one typically heard echoing throughout the east Cavan drumlins.
“Well, I’ve been in Italy 20 years exactly, so maybe a little bit,” she concedes. The fact that she answered the phone in Italian, undoubtedly coloured the Celt’s perception but as the chat rolls from the importance of ‘slow’ fashion, to her talented designer, to the trials and tribulations of reviving an Italian business in the depths of an recession, her voice recalibrates and by the end of it, she’s almost recognisable as a Laragh lass again.
Having studied Travel and Tourism in Dublin, back in 1994, she was eager to perfect her Italian so Olivia became an au pair for a family in Turin. Initially knowing nothing of the city beyond its status as the home of the football club Juventus and Fiat, she had intended to spend a year there.
“That’s when I fell in love with the country - it was love at first sight,” she enthuses.
Olivia stayed on to teach English in a language school and it wasn’t just the country she fell in love with. She met Mario Fasolis, now her husband of 16 years and together they have three children, all of whom were baptised back in Cavan and feel 50% Irish.
Mario’s family, the Fasolis have been in the textile industry for three generations producing home furnishings, such as curtains and bed linens, in Chieri, a town just a few miles southeast of Turin.
“I was never involved in the business but 16 years in and around textile company, you absorb something,” says Olivia.
The recession, which ravaged Italy, inspired Mario to seek to diversify their product range and explore the world of high end fashion.
“That’s where I became interested because I think 99.9% of women have an interest in fashion and we decided to join forces.”
They had the equipment, expertise with fabrics, printing, and access to suppliers and a skilled workforce to take the company into an exciting direction. Hence the label Rebekka was born - and almost immediately Vogue Italia sat up and took notice, tipping as them as one to watch for 2015.
“Our collection for fall/winter 2014 has been the debut collection and so it has been very much of a whirlwind because we are a clothing company in its infancy but already what has blown us away is the phenomenal response. For example the Vogue feature - Vogue in fashion terms is really a Mecca - if you get a nod from Vogue you feel like you’ve won an Oscar in fashion terms. The reaction to this debut collection has been phenomenal and it has also left us a little unprepared.”
Playing catch-up they have a website under construction and are looking forward to launching their Spring/Summer collection in the coming weeks. Their Fall/Winter 2015 is a work in progress.
“We aspire to have a fashion show in, who knows? For next year. A fashion show would be fantastic.”
The name Rebekka came from a combination of the Biblical Rebecca, who was a “very strong woman” and it also had a personal resonance for both Olivia and Mario.
“It is a name that both of us share in our families - not easy to find in an Italian and Irish family - I have a niece called Rebecca and Mario has a niece called Rebecca, so it seemed to us to be a good name for a woman’s clothing line,” says Olivia, who regularly returns home to see her family who all live in and around Bailieborough.
A key move in the company has been the recruitment of talented young Italian designer Stefany Barbieris.
“She is the translator to our vision - to what both Mario and I see as the line that we want to bring forward,” says Olivia. “So my role is a directive role, in overseeing the ideas.”
The end result is a distinctive, exclusive range of clothes - no more than 30 reproductions are made and each item of clothing is numbered - as Olivia says, the clothes are “traceable, so to speak”.
Olivia describes the Rebekka range as “eclectic, irreverent, fun but with strong personality”.
“They are clothes that really reflect the woman’s personality, which is what I love. Coming to Italy, I really was blown away by the workmanship, the style, the mastery of what Italians can do - they can create beautiful things and you are surrounded by beautiful things in Italy, but these beautiful things come about by having quality components to begin with. So, from food, to architecture, to industry you can make something beautiful when the components are right. Our core elements would be design and workmanship and the fabric of course itself - using quality materials and combining with very imaginative and eclectic designs, vivacious prints, strong colours.”
This artisan approach to fashion, the whole life-cycle of the collection from conception to finished item, is kept in-house, chimes with the ‘slow food’ movement which celebrates nurturing every ingredient of a recipe.
The ‘Slow Food’ movement originated from Torino, and basically it considers everything gourmet should have at its core great ingredients. And we believe the same things for fashion - if you have great materials, great design, great fabrics, great printing techniques, great workmanship/tailoring, then you have a great product. So, we believe really in bringing gourmet fashion, if you will.”
On the rare occasion that a catwalk show is featured on TV, a common refrain heard around the country is something along the lines of: ‘Who would be caught dead wearing that?’ While Olivia insists that the Rebekka range are “very much statement clothes” and aim “to be daring in the approach, to provoke a little”, to the Celt’s amateur-eye, the Rebekka items are definitely wearable without having the neighbours guffawing.
“Anyone can wear it - it’s not about your stature or size, it’s all about your personality and your confidence. I really feel that these are clothes which empower women, because if you wear a Rebekka piece you are reflecting your personality and you should wear it with prided and I think and you will definitely receive more compliments than critiques.”
Since Olivia moved to Italy did she find herself dressing more flamboyantly to fit in with the Italians?
“I don’t follow fashion and I don’t think Italians follow fashion. Italians follow style - it’s all about style. It’s about the quality of the clothes. Trends and style are two different thing because your style should reflect your personality and over the years I feel definitely more comfortable and at ease with how I dress. I dress for myself and not for others. People see Italians and the Italians famously always seem to look stylish and it really isn’t about fashion or trends it’s because they know what they like and they wear what they like.”
Olivia laughs when the Celt observes that living the Italian dream means she is probably the envy of everyone in Cavan.
“Italy has been very hard hit by the recession, so basically this enterprise is really the result of a small family company having to diversify from their original industry. I know in Cavan lots of companies were hard hit and when life throws something at you, you either lie down and are beaten or you get up and try something new. I really feel that’s what we are doing here. We are doing something new, we’re very proud about it, we’re very excited about it, but it’s not easy.”