Broadcasters Lorraine Keane and Maia Dunphy have donated their wedding dresses to Oxfam Bridal to help raise funds for women’s projects in developing countries. 

It must have been quite a surreal sight; not one but two elegant brides crossing the Blackrock dual carriage way in the middle of the day. Look again and the brides look strangely familiar – it’s Lorraine Keane and Maia Dunphy in full wedding regalia.

The occasion was actually a photoshoot with photographer Brian McEvoy to promote Oxfam Bridal, but the passers-by didn’t know that. “The amount of cars, trucks, buses, people carriers full of kids, with the windows down going ‘congratulations’,” says Lorraine. “It was the funniest thing. It was actually really emotional.”

The idea to donate their wedding dresses to the shop originated with a phone call from Maia. She had previously worn her stunning Jenny Packham dress to raise funds for the Irish Cancer Society. She contacted Lorraine, who set up Fashion Relief three years ago, to see if her bridal gown could be donated for fundraising. “That’s what gave me the idea,” says Lorraine. “I said, ‘if you’re going to donate yours, I’m going to donate mine’”.

It wasn’t an easy decision she admits. “There’s a lot of sentimental attachment to something like that.” 

However as the driving force behind fashion relief, she has asked plenty of celebrities, boutique owners, designers and women generally to donate pieces. “I’ve donated plenty of pieces myself to fashion relief and because I’ve five sisters I’m used to sharing,” she says. 

She has also visited the communities helped by the fundraising. “You just realise, gosh, to hold on to this thing, yes it’s lovely. Maybe the girls would wear it or wear part of it. But, really, if it can save lives right now, then what’s the point in leaving it in a box in the attic? It could end up deteriorating in style or quality, maybe nobody would want it in ten, twenty years’ time. So I just thought ‘do it’.”

So she headed up the attic and, for the first time in 19 years, took out the beautiful lace detailed dress by Spanish designer Jesus Peiro, which she had bought in San Sebastián. “I opened it on my Instagram, took it out and the first thing I did was smell it, in case it had gone manky! But I had it well packaged and wrapped so it was in perfect condition, thank goodness. Seeing it for the first time in so long, trying it on and the zip thankfully actually going up - it was quite sentimental because it had bought me so much happiness. And the thought that it might bring another bride the happiness that it bought me, the dress getting another wear, and the families it can save. You don’t think about it much after that,” she says.

Her daughters Emelia (17) and Romy (14), of course, had to try it on. Emelia in particular was very taken with it proclaiming that she would wear it. “I said ‘maybe you would and maybe you wouldn’t’,” says Lorraine. “There’s no point in taking a chance on it. It’s still very much in fashion, it’s a very classic style. I kept the veil, which is a beautiful big piece of Spanish lace so maybe they’d wear that or maybe they’d use it as a christening robe or incorporate it into a communion dress. We’ve held on to that anyway.”

Lorraine’s determination to give her dress away stems from her experience visiting the projects which Fashion Relief funds. “Seeing other mums just like me, who love their babies just as much as I love my babies. We know, because of the last 16 months, what it’s like to live with fear and uncertainty, because of Covid. They have lived with that uncertainty the whole of their lives. They put their babies to bed every night  hungry, and they don’t know if they are going to have food for their children when they wake up the next morning. It’s the most heart-breaking thing.”

Through Oxfam Ireland, Fashion Relief provides funding to give these women training, resources, skills and education, “so they can fend for themselves and don’t have to live with the fear of ‘what if we starve tomorrow’. That horrible uncertainty it just makes me so sad. We have so much on our side of the globe and, through no fault of their own, but just because where they were born, they don’t have those resources or certainties without people like Oxfam. 

“So yeah, I think of them every time I’m fundraising. Because I have met them and held their hands and held their babies, and they’re the exact same as us. They’re just born in a part of the planet that is so difficult to live in because of the extreme climate and natural disasters they have. Because of how we’re ruining our part of the planet, they are getting more and more natural disasters. We’re all having the fun over here, they’re suffering because of it. They can’t leave and ,even if they could, the world has shown nobody really wants them.”

“It’s just a dress. I have the memories. I have the photographs. Thank god I still have the husband,” she says.

On a lighter note, seeing her wedding dress again bought back one particular memory from her wedding day. “When the woman was fitting it on me, she showed Ally, my bridesmaid, and my oldest sister Jennifer how to tuck the train up. There was a little ribbon underneath to tie it up, so after dinner I could dance. Of course we hadn’t factored in that both Ally and Jennifer had consumed quite a lot of alcohol at that stage. So I just remember the two of them being under my dress in the loo for what felt like a half an hour, before they finally found a way of tying it up. Of course, five minutes later the thing had fallen down again.”

When she took the dress out again, she found the little ribbon which had caused all the trouble. “I was like ‘there it is, it was that easy’”.

To book an appointment with the Oxfam Bridal Room in George’s Street Dublin call 01 478 0777  or email georgesstreet@oxfam.org