Jessicabanaghan: Selfie Girl attends.. Galway Fashion Trail

"The Joy of dressing is an art"

Two weeks ago, I was invited to beautiful Galway City for the first ever Galway Fashion Trail. Although it was a short trip in the west of Ireland, I had a fun and jam-packed day!

It all started on Saturday 7th November. It was an early, but tasteful start as bloggers were invited for Breakfast in Cupan Tae. Cupan Tae is a cute old-fashioned cafe in the heart of Galway. There was a beautiful set up of scones, yogurt and of course all the tea! This was a chance for me to meet bloggers based in the West of Ireland. I met some new faces as well as some familiar ones from the last Galway event. I was also reunited with Sinead and Saibh of Into the West Blogger Network who invited me to the event. These girls have done such an amazing job at building a community of bloggers In the West and each time I come to Galway, it feels like coming back to my family.

Renown magazine Galway Now were the organiser of this event and it was great to meet them and talk about the day ahead. Believe it or not, when I was in Transition year (16 years old), I did a week's work experience with Galway Now Magazine. Back then, it was my passion to become a journalist. Little did I know a few years later, I would be in Galway with the team again being a part of this exciting event.

After breakfast, we were all given a goody bag. It was extremely generous goody bag and I am very grateful and thankful to all the Galway Retailers who gave incredible gifts and vouchers. In certain goody bags, there were random spot prizes. Little did I know, I won one! I was lucky to win a €100 Voucher for Treasure Chest which is a clothes and gift shop on Shop Street that was established over 50 years ago.

Mrs.Bennett of Treasure Chest and I.

Each blogger was given a personalised itinerary of the different events that were on. There were many fashion shows in many retail shops in Galway, all walking distance from each other. As it was a trail, I made sure I looked fashionable yet comfy as I knew there was a lot of walking. The shows started at 11 am and once a show was finished, we skipped along to the next one in another shop. My itinerary looked a little something like this:

11am: Colette Latchford

11.45am: Gosh Shoes

12pm: My Shop My Granny Loves it

12.15pm: Hartmanns

12.30 Treasure Chest

1.15pm Anthony Ryans

2pm Willow

2.30pm Fallers

2.45pm Cloon Keen Atelier

3.30pm Muse by Dee

4.15pm Pia Boutique

Other shops included The Kilkenny Shop and Judy Greene's. Every shop was so warm and welcoming. In some shops, there were fashion shows where models from top Irish Modelling Agency, Catwalk showcased the latest trends and styles for this season. It was great to see the variety in style as well as showing styles for different ages. In each shop, it was almost impossible to get into them as there was so many people having a peak of the current collections. It was great to see there was a big turn out of bloggers and customers.

Aisjling from The Superfit Foodie, Myself, Edel from A Dash of Lime and Kerri from Bella and Vogue.

I'm not in Galway that often, so to see fashion as well as the city and culture it has, it was an enjoyable day for me. I got to meet so many kind people in different shops. I want to say a massive thank you to ITWBN and Galway Now magazine for inviting me to the first Galway Fashion Trail. I hope to be back for the next one. A huge congratulations to Mandy and all the girls at Catwalk for modelling all the the incredible clothes and accessories in the various shops in Galway City. It was an incredible day and I was honoured to be a part of this incredible event. It truly showed that Galway has a lot to offer when it comes to fashion.

Here are some more pictures to tickle your fashion taste buds: