The Irish glossy's damning verdict is that the industry has been killed by high costs, a consumer preference for cheap mass-produced clothes supplied by British and European retail chains over unique Irish fashion creations, and a constant brain-drain in the shape of creative talents heading overseas.

Naturally, the 24 largely Irish-based designers, housed upstairs in the Morrison Hotel and busy hobnobbing with buyers from home and abroad . . . taking orders for autumn and winter . . . tend to disagree.

Deborah Veale's Dublinbased label certainly looks to be alive and kicking. The Wicklow-born designer set up her own business 10 years ago. With sales of "between 1.5m and 2m" last year, and a full order book for the autumn/winter season, she says her company, OTIF, is in good shape . . . finally.

"We've only just broken even as a company after years of losses, " Veale says. "When it works, we do have very generous profit margins." But it is, she adds, "not a business for the faint-hearted".

The economics of the fashion industry mean "years of losses" are par for the course for any start-up businesses, which are often one-woman or one-man operations.

Entrants into the rag-trade must design a collection, source fabric and materials, find a manufacturer and arrange to display their wares at the key shows around Europe in order to meet buyers. The average cost of putting together one collection varies between 20,000 and 30,000.

Veale says the autumn/ winter collection on display at last week's Dublin fashion week, and currently en route to another show in Copenhagen, cost around 20,000.

For that outlay, she says, "your sales need to be 250,000". Anything below that will scarcely cover the production and other costs associated with servicing the orders. That level of sales would be enough to finance the following season's collection and produce a return on the initial investment.

Those are the sort of financial realities that quickly overcome any "romantic ideas" Irish designers may have about the fashion business, according to Eilis Boyle.

Boyle, whose 18-month old label is based in Clonee, Co Meath, says the most difficult obstacles to overcome for start-up fashion businesses are finding a manufacturer which is reliable and can produce small volumes at a reasonable cost. Deals are negotiated six months or more in advance of the season when the clothes will go on sale. Retailers generally look to delay payment for three months or more after delivery, says Boyle.

"It's very unfair because we have to finance six months ahead of time and then shops want credit, " she adds.

The young designer says her accountants are bemused at the business practices accepted as routine in the fashion industry. "They could not understand that I wasn't going to receive payment for a sale until a year or a year and a half after making the sale, " she says.

Despite the difficulties, Boyle has no regrets about striking out on her own, and is happy to stay in Ireland for the foreseeable future. It helps that, during Dublin Fashion Week, she sealed a deal to supply Japanese retailer United Arrows, a Tokyo-based fashion chain with sales of 249m last year.

The Japanese have apparently been coming to Ireland for the last five years, looking for fresh ideas. "They're looking for something that's not overexposed, " says Boyle.

That's a key selling point for Irish designers at present, according to Joanne Hynes.

The 29-year-old Galway designer was widely identified as a rising star last year, when she was commissioned to design a line of clothing for British retailer Top Shop.

That business win added to a customer list that currently includes boutiques in the US, Dubai, Belgium and Japan.

Hynes, who was named Irish designer of the season last week, says that, at the moment, it's seen as "kind of sexy to be Irish".

That being the case, she says she is happy to remain in Ireland, and does not feel the need to follow in the footsteps of Irish-born but foreign based designers such as Paul Costelloe and milliner Philip Treacy. "The majority of my sales are at home, " she says.

"A lot of people think you need to move, but I think you can do this anywhere."

Hynes doesn't divulge turnover figures but says that, thanks to the Top Shop collection and other customer wins, her sales tripled last year. With the new business under her belt, she has packed in a part-time stint lecturing in fashion at the University of Limerick, a steady income stream that she says came in handy while trying to get her label off the ground. "It's such a tough industry and it's hard for people that aren't in it to realise that, " she says.

Tough though it may be, Hynes, like many of the other 23 Irish designers assembled last week, has ambitions at variance with any suggestion that the Irish fashion industry is dead.