WATCH The Edge Clothing celebrating four decades of fashion nostalgia

John Coughlan owner of The Edge Clothing celebrates 40 years in Limerick as the city’s oldest vintage store. Picture: Olena Oleksienko/ilovelimerick

The Edge Clothing celebrates 40 years in Limerick, as the city’s oldest vintage store they have seen some iconic fashion subcultures

By Cian Reinhardt, Editor

As The Edge Clothing celebrates four decades in Limerick City nostalgia takes centre stage at the city’s longest-serving Vintage store.

Reflecting on an era that defined style and spirit, from its inception on Catherine Street in 1983 to its current home in The Milk Market, this shop has been witnessed some periods of iconic fashion on Limerick’s streets.

Reflecting on 40 year’s of business, John Coughlan, a Cork native explains, “It all started, my cousin bought 3,000 winter overcoats and we sold them in the universities around Ireland and Limerick was so successful we decided we’d open shop in Limerick.

“I opened originally in 59 Catherin Street, Joe Brooks was my landlord and we were there for 10 years and when the Milk Market was redeveloped we bought the unit ‘O’ and ‘P’ – so I’m in unit ‘O’ and my son Fionán is in unit ‘P’ he owns a store called Re:Story and he does arts and crafts all manufactured made in Limerick.”

The ’80s in Limerick epitomised diverse street styles and youth cultures; Costello’s Tavern was a hub where punks, mods, rockers, and various subcultures mingled on the dancefloor.

Ireland’s youth were expressing a new level of confidence and fearlessness in a country that was experiencing its “in-between days” and a crippling economic recession.

During the decades, some famous faces passed through the shop’s doors from Imelda May, Nile Rodgers, and more recently Fontaines D.C. who John explains brought a replica of Rory Gallagher’s guitar with them which the store owner had the joy of holding.

But above all, John shared is pride and enthusiasm when he mentioned a small group at the time, ‘The Crannberry Saw Us’ came to The Edge where they borrowed some clothing for photo shoots.

“Well they were called the Cranberry Saw Us and so they had no money so I loaned them the clothes for the photo shoots and then I sold their first EP I think it was maybe four or five EUR and then I gave them the money so I didn’t take any profit myself,” John told I Love Limerick.

During a time with challenges establishing a business in Ireland, The Edge Clothing thrived and catered to the era’s desire to look and feel good, and in society vintage clothing is playing its part in terms of climate action.

The Edge Clothing founder explained how the “quality of vintage clothes is far better” than many fast-fashion items, he said about the store’s stock, “A lot of them are American labels like Pinkerton, The Northface, Levis, Wrangler, all those brands.”

Vintage fashion, John says is for “everyone no matter their budget”, he explained a lot of his customers are students who might need time to save for an item, “We take deposits here too, a lot of students will come in and pay five Euros each week and they get a joy our of putting their money away and getting what they’ve saved for in the end.”

Today, The Edge Clothing stands as a testament to a time when youth culture marched to the beat of a different drum bringing expressive fashion to the city.

Read more Limerick business stories.