Everyone is ‘buzzáil’ about Beanantees.
A new Donegal clothing brand is setting a trend for feminism and celebrating modern Irishness in a very cool way.
Beanantees is the brainchild of Alannah McGhee and Ciara K Gallagher, who are inspired by ‘wild Irish women’. They brought their love of language and fashion together to embroider fun phrases onto t-shirts and sweaters.
Slogans include buzzáil (buzzing), raváil (raving) yas banríon (yas queen) and bean an tí (woman of the house) for the mammies.
What we love is their fresh approach to celebrating women and the charity benefits that they’ve weaved into the company.
10% of all clothing sales will go directly to supporting the Dublin Rape Crisis Network and the Rape Crisis Network Ireland.
Plus, they have a limited edition International Women’s Day tee with Bean Fiáin (Wild Woman) in purple threading as a ‘tribute to all the wild women out there pushing boundaries and getting sh*t done’. 20% of sales from this tee will be donated to the rape crisis charities.
Alannah and Ciara have been best friends since they met in Gweedore. Alannah is originally from Glasgow and grew up speaking Gáidhlig while Ciara is fluent in Donegal Irish.
The business idea came naturally to the pair. Alannah has a background in business and marketing while Ciara brings fashion and styling skills to the dream team.
Alannah told DonegalWoman.ie: “Ciara is really really creative. She was embroidering funny Irish phrases on her own tshirts and jeans and it just seemed like a really good idea.
“We were half-talking about it all the time. It was late November last year when we decided to just order tshirts and see if people would like them. It’s been growing since then. Now, we are retailing in three shops. We never thought it was going to go like that.”
There’s plenty of personality in the brand, but where does the inspiration come from?
Alannah explains: “It’s mostly Ciara that comes up with the slogans. I might come up with something that’s in English and see can we turn it into Irish but it’s not always that simple.
“People are loving them and think it’s a cool idea because you can’t really get Irish clothes with modern vibes.”
The range is expanding steadily as Alannah and Ciara dream up slogans and add new colours and items to their lines (watch out for Paddy’s day bags!). They are now stocked in The Wishing Chair in Bundoran and An Siopa Leabhar in Dublin and Harbour Road in Gweedore.
Ciara is based in Dublin and Alannah is based in Letterkenny, so the business partners are working well together in building the Beanantees squad in the country and the city. Their next plan is to expand their shipping range to reach the US market.
Whether you are fluent, have a cúpla focal or just love the idea of having a fun tee, you can browse the collection on beanantees.com