Georgia in Dublin

Newsletter Winter 2015

Season's Greetings to you all!

Between our last letter and now Georgia in Dublin has been expanding (what would we do without this word!) its range and we have some lovely practical and pretty pieces in the pipeline.

We're gearing up for 2016, hope you will be too!

5!
Georgia in Dublin is 5 years old this Christmas! We hope to celebrate our 5^th birthday on the 21st of January. We have not celebrated it before and we feel that five years is a good milestone having started in the recession. A toast needs to be raised and a drink to be drunk! We are looking forward to it and hope to raise some money for Médecins sans Frontières while we're at it! We will also be offering *5% off website purchases until the 31st December 2015!

*Simply enter GinD5yo15 into the Coupon section of the website.

What's in a name?

The Ducat.
Have you ever wondered what our products' names are all about? Well, the Ducat* was conceived at a time of great uncertainty for the euro, so GinD thought they would take cover on such rainy days beneath a much older European coin which was around for hundreds and hundreds of years. People still invest in Ducats, have you invested in ours?

* This Ducat is not regulated by the financial regulators for conduct of business rules!

GinD is getting older but also bigger!

Also introducing – again – Iris, our newest GinD member! Read her lovely introduction on our blog. A smiley, petite (5ft) French mademoiselle, we hope you will have the pleasure to be in contact with her at shows, events or on social media.

The Doglette

No need for this little doggie to be lying in bed wondering what to wear.. with new made-to-measure GinD Doglettes now available! You can email us with your dog's measurements and have a mini D1 or Dublette made specially.

GinD's office dog has its own one too! ;-)

Events so far...

Since our last newsletter in July GinD has exhibited at the Dublin Horse Show, Blenheim Horse Trials, Eurobike and the Salon du Cheval in Paris which we are just back from.

Bonjour Paris!

The Salon du Cheval was a 9 day event...our longest yet! We didn't know what to expect given the recent events in Paris. The show was quieter than normal but it was heartening to see how many people came with their children to surround themselves with equine love! We didn't get to see much of the centre of Paris but from the train you could see people weaving about on the Velibs and buying their morning coffees. And as you will have seen in the media, while public marches are currently not allowed, over 10,000 pairs of shoes were left in Place de la Republique during COP21 to symbolically march against the over use of fossil fuels and over farming of livestock. It seems now that the COP21 was a success and hopefully the governments will reach planned targets and climate campaigners can keep their shoes on! ;-)

Despite being a little sceptical and anxious about travelling to Paris in the end we were delighted to have been. There was no shortage of entertainment from Horse Ball to dressage and jumping Georgia in Dublin was very well received by many charming French equestrians! Merci pour le bienvenue!

The Dublin Horse Show at the RDS had a great turnout. GinD strutted their stuff on Ladies' day and were thrilled to be interviewed by Exposé, RTE and FEI (Fédération Equestre Internationale) even with heavy letters shaking on their heads. It was very busy but we made time to sneak a peek at the side saddle events!

Eurobike 2015

At the end of August each year the small lakeside town of Friedrichshafen, in Southern Germany, plays host to the droves of Eurobike exhibitors and visitors eager to see the innovation and dynamism which currently exists in the ever more popular bicycle industry. This year almost 50,000 trade visitors from 100 countries and approximately 20,000 bike fans passed through the awe-inspiring 14 Zeppelin hangers that constitute Eurobike.

We from Georgia in Dublin have been joining our German distributors over there for 5 years now to catch up with our existing stockists and to meet new dealers and individual customers. It is always valuable for us to get feedback and indeed the seal of approval from 'The Kings of Function' for our elegant yet highly practical rainwear range.

While the days are long, busy and the sheer size of the show overwhelming it feels more like a bike festival than a tradeshow. BMXers do jumps off ramps into the water feature outside, recumbent riders can be seen snaking through the packed corridors of the halls, road bikers proudly strut their padded bottomed lycra strips past appalled urban cyclists looking for a less conspicuous look and ebikers zoom past outside at the rate of knots. Then in the evenings all differences are put aside and the bike world unites with beer, bratwurst and pretzels as they punch the air to unfamiliar German pop songs (or the Cranberries!), the craic is mighty! Free bikes are available to get to and from the Messe (halls) and many people bring their own bikes (on the train from the airport!) so that they are free to make use of the wonderful cycling infrastructure in the area. Lake Constance is a short bike ride away and you can tour around it into Austria and Switzerland and back into Germany through a necklace of charming villages and countryside. With or without the fun Eurobike carnival Lake Constance is still a lovely destination for a cycling holiday!

Blenheim Horse Trials

In a beautiful part of the English countryside near Oxford Blenheim Palace (where Winston Churchill was born) makes for a stunning backdrop to the Blenheim Horse Trials.
We set up there in driving rain in early October and the event was showing signs of being a complete washout but the following day the sun was drying out the lawn walkways and amazingly well behaved and well groomed dogs and their owners came sauntering through the entrance gates. Our Italian colleague, seeing weimarner's sitting patiently outside stands while their owners browsed was flabbergasted. She would be mortified to bring her own weimarner into such polite company. We were very fortunate with the weather. We set up in a deluge but thereafter we basked and brinched our delicious ice-creams.