The Westbury has long been a supporter of design in Ireland. And now the latest collaboration is about to launch, celebrating The Art of Millinery with an extra-special Afternoon Tea, featuring cakes and pastries inspired by bespoke headpieces.

Irish millinery is renowned all around the world, with some of the best headpieces produced by milliners both established and up and coming. In collaboration with the Council of Irish Fashion Designers (CIFD), The Westbury’s top pastry chefs have produced an incredible selection of delectable treats inspired by their pieces.    

Established Irish milliners Aoife Kirwan, Davina Lynch, Leonora Ferguson, Margaret O’Connor and Wendy Louise Knight have created bespoke headpieces exclusively for The Westbury. Ray Encarnacion, executive pastry chef at The Westbury, then had the task of skilfully creating desserts based upon the headpieces created. 

Like Wendy Louise’s Wedgewood blue, peach bloom felt hand blocked headpiece with structured thermoplastic swirls – Encarnacion created a blueberry cheese case and sable Breton base, in a beautiful homage to the piece.

Leonora Ferguson sculpted a wire lace headpiece, made from two layers of yellow silk covered and silver plated wire, with silver tone bead detail. This in turn inspired a coconut clotted cream dressed with lime and Bacardi gel and pineapple.

A caramel whipped ganache with poached apples takes the form of Margaret O’Connor’s demure cloaked headpiece featuring heavy beading, lace, chiffon and wire depicting a magpie caught in a nest full of jewels.

Davina Lynch’s piece is a chocolate brown hand knit Irish Aran ‘Lynch Mob Hat’ with hand dyed hackle and natural partridge feathers, which is a beautiful baked chocolate tart made from single origin Madifloro organic chocolate.

A plump, chocolatey profiterole is filled with pear crème patisserie and garnished with a cocoa sprinkled almond, echoing Aoife Kirwan’s feather covered teardrop percher with curled feather spines and feather flowers with freshwater pearl centres.

The Art of Millinery Afternoon Tea is coinciding with a CIFD pop up in The Westbury Mall, which is running from the 7th to the 10th of September, featuring collections by CIFD members.

Speaking about the partnership, Eddie Shanahan, Chairperson of the Council of Irish Fashion Designers commented; “We are delighted to be collaborating with The Doyle Collection and The Westbury in showcasing the work of Irish Designers. We are particularly enthused by the way the pastry team at The Westbury have been inspired by our milliners incorporating the shapes, textures and colours of the headpieces into their afternoon tea- it is a wonderful representation of artistic achievements in both food and fashion." 

Rey Encarnacion described how he enjoyed working on this project; “It was an incredible experience which I thoroughly enjoyed and it was a pleasure to work with the CIFD milliners, who have each created truly exceptional head pieces. As a pastry chef, it is particularly important to pay attention to the finer details, as it is necessary to have a balance between both how the cakes and pastries resemble the milliners’ creations and how they will be interpreted by our guests. It was an exciting challenge which involved gaining an insight into the milliner’s inspiration behind each headpiece before then taking my artistic vision in bringing each one to life through our afternoon tea."

The Art of Millinery Afternoon Tea, will be available for €47 per person, €59 per person with Perrier Jouet or Perrier Jouet Rosé and €80 for Dom Pérignon Champagne Afternoon Tea. Guests can enjoy The Art of Millinery Afternoon Tea from the 31st of August until October 1st. Advance Afternoon Tea bookings are advised and can be made through the hotel on 01 646 3311.

For those looking for a truly stylish, Irish Design break in the Capital, ‘The Art of Millinery’ Overnight Experience at The Westbury is available from €438 and is subject to availability.

See more at The Westbury’s  website.