How to wrap oddly shaped Christmas gifts, and some common pitfalls to avoid
How to wrap oddly shaped Christmas gifts, and some common pitfalls to avoid

IMAGE

Like Carrie Bradshaw, Nicki Hoyne knows shoes
Like Carrie Bradshaw, Nicki Hoyne knows shoes

Lauren Heskin

This Edwardian Belfast home balances its history with a contemporary edge
This Edwardian Belfast home balances its history with a contemporary edge

Megan Burns

My Life in Culture: CEO of Dublinia Heather Dowling Wade
My Life in Culture: CEO of Dublinia Heather Dowling Wade

Sarah Finnan

How much wine should you buy for Christmas? An expert weighs in
How much wine should you buy for Christmas? An expert weighs in

Michelle Lawlor

3 delicious cocktail recipes to try this festive season
3 delicious cocktail recipes to try this festive season

Megan Burns

Irish stylist Dani Behan talks sartorial finesse and shopping sustainably
Irish stylist Dani Behan talks sartorial finesse and shopping sustainably

Sarah Gill

This West Cork spa and lodge is bringing the outside in in the best way possible
This West Cork spa and lodge is bringing the outside in in the best way...

Sarah Gill

The four products you need for a gorgeous, glowy complexion
The four products you need for a gorgeous, glowy complexion

Melanie Morris

The skincare-lover’s star gift you won’t want to part with
The skincare-lover’s star gift you won’t want to part with

Melanie Morris

Image / Editorial

Editor’s welcome: the April issue of IMAGE Magazine


By Lizzie Gore-Grimes
21st Mar 2019

Lizzie and Dominique at the Image Business of Beauty Awards 2019-photo Kieran Harnett no repro fee

Editor’s welcome: the April issue of IMAGE Magazine

My mum has a chair in the corner of her bedroom; it’s an elegant mid-century number, and one of the comfiest places to sit and chat. I’ll regularly sit there while she’s perched up on the bed, most often with my dog nestled in beside her. A little cloud of blond curls just visible between pillow and headboard.
This was the scene on Sunday, March 10, anyway, as half the country was braving the March blizzard to congregate in green at the Aviva, and the other half was polishing their sequins and steaming their tulle for the annual IMAGE Business of Beauty Awards. I was making an emergency pre-BOB pitstop
to avail of mum’s needle skills.

My outfit for the evening was neither sequinned nor tulle, but rather a two-tone silk Roland Mouret dress, lent to me (along with killer Chanel heels) by my great pal Ruth. As I watched mum painstakingly sew on a mini hook and eye, pulling the exact shade of thread from her Plantation Sugar sewing tin, I had a keen realisation that this bashed-up old tin, on the go since before I was born, was precisely one of the “tokens” – the “instant portals to memory” that Fiona Hyde talks about so beautifully in her reflective piece about memory and mothers on page 74.

While we idly chatted, my seven-year-old Alanna climbed up on the bed and began to play with the jar of buttons, spilling them out on the bedspread, then holding up different shapes to her earlobe, craning to catch herself in the mirror. And it brought to mind one simple hope: that I might turn out to be half the mother to her as her elegant bed companion has been to me.

Because once armed with that bedrock of support, we can do anything, be anything. As my colleague Dominique McMullan wrote in her post to mark #IWD2019: “By supporting each other, respecting each other’s differences and raising each other up… we are strong.” A powerful sentiment echoed throughout this issue by other women I work with and greatly admire – as Marie Kelly celebrates the women in the Irish fashion scene who are campaigning for a more realistic representation of beauty (page 26) and Meg Walker encourages us to seek parity when it comes to the burden of “emotional labour” at home alongside seeking equality in the workplace (page 125) – and Jessie Collins writes so powerfully about the importance of empathy and kindness in a world “that increasingly turns on the axis of the individual” (page 160).

Now more than ever, we need to remember to look up – and look out for others. Keep supporting, keep striving.

Lizzie Gore-Grimes
Editor-in-Chief

The April issue of IMAGE Magazine is on shelves now.