‘Dressing Team Ireland for the 2024 Olympics is my proudest achievement’
Based in New York, Irish designer Laura Weber is already well-established stateside where she counts First Lady Jill Biden amongst her customers. Recently tasked with making the official uniforms for Team Ireland at this year’s Olympics, the Dublin native describes it as her “proudest achievement to date”. In 2018, she—along with her husband Joseph Rein—founded LW Pearl Atelier, a couture and celebrity textile atelier based in Manhattan. Here, she shares more about her brand, mission and hopes for the future.
We are committed to Ireland and its people through our design and manufacturing process.
My mission is to dress, inspire, and respect those who’ve established and are maintaining our Irish culture through fashion. We hope to gain more sustainability partnerships that are working towards a circular economy within that space. I am planning on how we can do more in the luxury space, as well as the aspirational space, where we can offer products and experiences for the masses.
I knew I wanted to be a designer ever since I was a child.
I was learning and designing knit patterns, and dresses for events, dreaming of the day that I could dress people for comfort, function and meaning.
Owning an atelier means that we are able to offer the custom embroidery and embellishment, that most brands can’t.
We stock casual clothing that ranges from knit collared polo shirts, to button-down knit cardigans, vintage striped rugby jerseys, and leather goods that include vintage leather bombers—they call them collegiate varsity jackets or letterman’s jackets here in the States. We really love to personalise and customise those jackets, with customers’ names and county crests. We also have stock of Irish T-Shirts that folks really love.
Dressing Team Ireland for the 2024 Olympics in Paris is my proudest achievement to date.
At the moment, we are working on stocking the ceremony knit T-shirt and the closing ceremony jackets from the Paris Olympics. We have had so many fans reach out asking for those. We are going to kick off a waitlist and pre-order on our site. We would love to partner with retailers in Ireland for these, so we can co-ordinate an in-store event for fans. Beyond stock, we offer bespoke suiting for men and women, which are more formal wear, for a night out, or an event. And we offer made-to-measure dresses for women attending Ascot, and formal events, like a day at the races, and yachting.
We are a luxury company, that benefits from being able to create for clients that value our service.
Money/funding wasn’t a concern when starting out as we are self-funded. I own a manufacturing company, that thrives in Manhattan New York. Now that the brand is growing, we are considering venture capital, as we plan for expansion into luxury products, experiences and sustainable manufacturing.
The best business advice I’ve gotten is to be open.
I mean that in the sense of business development. The Olympic contract was never on my radar, and when the stars aligned, I took the opportunity. I’m lucky to have people in my life to turn to for advice. I have friends who have Harvard MBAs who give us advice on growing in Ireland through partnerships. My husband—who was a controller at a large internet company—gives me advice on becoming a category king that reinvests in improving a stable range of similar products and how to diversify our group as a service provider and a burgeoning luxury brand. All in all, I have great advisors—some of them led brands like North Face and Oscar de la Renta, others are advisors who have grown conglomerates in bedding and steel. I always go back to some of the agile practices of running operations and controlling our finances. Success comes with the right level of research and development, a commitment to sustainability and a general openness to business development partners.
I want my brand to be remembered for putting Ireland first.
We are in a business of relationships. The clothes we design and dress people in are an extension of that relationship. If I could have any Irish person wear my designs it would be Mary Robinson or Graham Norton.
Laura Weber’s new collection is currently on sale in Arnotts. Imagery courtesy of Laura Weber.
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