Deryn"s dream

Hard work hasn"t made Deryn Fagan a dull girl at all. At the age of 43, but with looks that put her at least 10 years younger, she is the mother of six-year-old twins Chloe and Robyn as well as the owner of one of the chicest boutiques in Mullingar, if not the country.Deryn already has a well established business in Dublin"s Blackrock and started Khan number two in Mullingar a year and a half ago bringing with her some of the boldest high fashion labels from both France and Ireland.Fashion runs in Deryn"s family. Her big sister is none other than designer Rachel Mackay and her own passion for all things couture saw her take the hard road from Grafton design college, to retail wholesaling before she eventually saved enough money to open her own shop some 14 years ago.'It was difficult but getting my own shop was always my dream,' she said. 'I managed to save £10,000 and my father came with me to the bank so that I could get an overdraft for the same amount and I opened the first Khan.'Now I work four days a week there and two in Mullingar but I have excellent staff in both stores who all understand that it"s all about giving the client a pleasant experience.'The clothes that we sell aren"t cheap and so I want the person to go away thinking "I love this piece of clothing and I want to wear it as often as I can". I am not in it for the quick sale, we are all about quality and thank God people come up and say to me that they still have the dress that they bought five years ago and they are still getting great wear out of it.'As a busy working mum Deryn knows only too well that she has to be organised when it comes to getting out of the house in the morning and her won style is simple, well cut clothing with a twist.'What I am wearing is a top by Marithe Francois Girbaud and of course my staple black trousers by none other than Rachel Mackay. Marithe Francois Girbaud is the reason that I love clothes and I was quite desperate to get her label into my shop but at my first try it went to another shop in Blackrock which I had better not talk about too much or I will get into trouble,' she laughed.'These clothes are all about simplicity with a twist. When you are younger you can get away with the floaty stuff, the boho chic, but as you get older its all about good cut and fit.'I went to France as an au pair after I left school and I was bowled over by French style and I still am. To me the French woman is the epitome of what style is all about. All she will have is a navy blazer, a white shirt and a pair of jeans and of course "the good bag" but she will look amazing and that is because it is all about good fit, cut and quality.'Yes you can get a 'in' piece of clothing in say Primark for very little money but it won"t last and the clothes that we sell will.'Meeting and marrying vet Mark Fagan was the reason for Deryn"s relocation to the Midlands and despite having to feel her way into the Mullingar market, the business woman said that she is very glad to have made the move.'Its a lot more laid back here I have to say and I like it that where we live in Crookedwood means that we live at a slower pace than we would in Dublin.'The Mullingar market is different to Dublin, in that I have found that people here love their occasion wear; it"s really all about dressing up, going all out for the races, for parties or for a wedding.'We don"t have that in Dublin where our casual ranges go much better and people buy all the time so the jeans and cottons do much better there.'But the principle here is the same- it"s about pleasing our client base and sending them away looking great. I have no qualms about telling someone that what they have picked out is wrong for them and I never talk about size at all. I can usually tell what to pick out just by looking at someone.'People can get very hung up about what size is on the label but sizes are so bizarre these days that it doesn"t matter at all. French labels for example can be minuscule so you are never going to be the size that you would normally be.'Aside from her love of fashion and all things French, Deryn has her twin girls plus a menagerie of two boxer dogs and two donkeys to look after, all of which makes her a very busy woman indeed. The animal lover in Deryn"s home is her husband Mark who she met by chance at a ball in Dublin"s Conrad Hotel.'I went to the Temple Ball because my accountant John Delaney had paid for a hotel and Mark had brought a clatter of fellas down with him from Mullingar,' said Deryn.Although John had already organised three blind dates for the single girls at the table, my neighbour"s girlfriend pipped up straight away and said, "I have the perfect fella for you". At this point I didn"t know that Mark had already been asking who I was and then he just came over and asked me to dance. We danced for two hours straight and at the end of the night he asked me for my number and that was really that. We dated for a year and a half travelling up and down from Mullingar and Dublin and then we got married and I moved up to Mullingar.'As a working mum you have to be very organised. You can do it if you have things in order. I only took ten days off after the girls were born. I have to say that I love to work, it is my passion.'It has been difficult in Mullingar because we have been finding our feet in the market but I am a big supporter of the town and do my own shopping locally. I learned from my father that you should be loyal and I supposed I think that if you do business with me I will do business with you.'We are just on a learning curve and this season we are introducing some new ranges and I suppose that we will become a bit more price conscious but I will never step down on the quality of the clothes because I love them too much.'I am going to stick with pure quality because if I don"t love the clothes then its all over really isn"t it?'