IN PARTNERSHIP WITH RANGE ROVER
Get to know the world-renowned accessory designer …
Your chief characteristic: Resilience and dedication.
The principal aspect of your personality: I listen to my instincts. I value subtlety and I try go about things quietly but with purpose.
Your main fault: Perfectionism, which is essential in design, where detail and nuance are everything. I’ve learned to channel this into my work, turning it into a strength rather than a stumbling block.
Your favourite qualities in a man: Emotional intelligence, ambition, purpose.
Your favourite qualities in a woman: Authenticity and strength.
Most overrated virtue: Caution, it stifles creativity, it has its place though not in my work. Caution stands as an obstacle to creativity.
Your idea of good taste: Discretion, quiet confidence, elegance without excess. Knowing when to give an opinion and simply to listen without judgement.
Your favourite colour and flower: Green. It’s rich and luxurious with so many beautiful shades. The foxglove is my favourite flower. Delicate but dramatic yet frivolous, it was the inspiration behind my ‘Molly’ gloves. The flared cuff mimics the bell shape of the flower, a statement, yet subtle.
Paula Rowan outside her store in the Westbury Mall, Dublin 2.
The quality I look for in my surroundings: Spaces that feel calm while having character.
Your favourite occupations: I’m drawn to anything creative. Designing, cooking, reading, travelling, exploring.
Your idea of happiness: Being in Cadaques in the north of Spain, it’s where I switch off.
Your idea of misery: Given everything that is happening in the world I am very aware of how privileged I am to have freedom. Without it, without rights, a voice, an education and opportunity to create my future I would be miserable.
Your current state of mind: Grateful.
Your favourite authors: Cormac McCarthy, his writing is often bleak though deeply human at the same time. Claire Keegan, Philip Roth.
Your favourite poet: Seamus Heaney. He came to my school, I must have been no more than eight or nine, but I remember it vividly, one of my prized possessions is a first edition of The Haw Lantern.
If not yourself, who would you be? Cicero, as an orator he understood the power of hands, how they could express what his words couldn’t. As a glove designer I’m fascinated by hands and their movements, how we talk, touch, gesture and perform with them.
Silk-lined leather ‘Faye’ gloves by Paula Rowan.
Your favourite heroes and heroines in fiction: The quiet hero Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mocking Bird. Bill Furlong in Small Things Like These, his integrity and kindness toward the vulnerable and silenced.
Your favourite artists: There are a number of contemporary Irish artists I admire, Mark P Cullen, Eithne Jordan, Donald Teskey, Imelda Healy. Their art speaks to me through its mood, energy and expression.
The country where I should like to live: Italy. My gloves are produced there but I also love the culture, way of life, food, wine, it feels like a second home to me.
I look to the road ahead with … Excitement, optimism and curiosity. In early 2026 I will be launching a bag and accessory collection, it’s a natural evolution. @paularowangloves
