About Us

Dear John is a new luxury womenswear brand, specialising in tailoring and classic menswear inspired pieces. The culmination of Creative Director Gillian Leavy’s 30 years in the fashion industry. Merging luxury with sustainability, we use high quality natural materials as well as archive fabrics from our studio.

All Dear John pieces are designed by us and ethically produced in Ireland and Portugal. Our launch collection features lasting, considered pieces you’ll reach for time and time again. Circularity is at the root of our designs, so we have used biodegradable buttons on our tailoring and natural materials like 100% wool to extend the lifespan of our pieces in your closet.

What truly matters is how the clothing makes you feel. We want our customer to instantly feel confidence in their everday life, whether they are in their 20s or 50s.

Our Inspirations

Dear John is all about the power of clothing, of how a well cut suit or beautiful jumper can make you feel. Our name partly comes from our creative director's father, as his name Eoin is the Irish version of John. Menswear and military details have always been a feature of Gillian's designs, so we really loved the idea of a Dear John letter. Deployed soldiers would receive them from women back home to let them know they were being broken up with. He gets the letter; you get his clothes. 

This led us to taking an almost androgynous approach to our first collection, and we were heavily influenced by female musicians like Chrissy Hynde and Annie Lennox as well as glamour icons such as Katherine Hepburn and Marlena Dietrich.

Our Studio

The design studio is now a mother daughter operation. All of our patterns are firstly made up and sampled in the studio to perfect the fit before sending to our tailors in Portugal. We are involved in every step of the process, and there is constant communication with our factory.

For this launch collection we have also collaborated with longtime friend, designer Edmund McNulty, on our knits.