The difference in both celebrities' profiles highlights the battle facing domestic high street firms. In the past ten years the high street market has become flooded with international brands. Meanwhile rents on the high streets continue to spiral upwards meaning pressures on Irish domestic firms' profits has never been greater.

Inevitably retailers will look at their property assets as a more lucrative source of revenue as was said to be a factor in this week's reported 70m management buyout of Awear.

"Sometimes in management buyouts, the managers can have a clear strategy for where the company should go, " according to Eamonn Finn, manager with market research company, Mintel.

"I have not seen any signals coming out of the company to suggest that they have such a strategy. It is definitely interesting times ahead. BT would have obviously gotten out of it because they weren't confident of its future financial prospects. Property is a likely factor.

You see it across the industry now, " he said.

Awear is among the biggest indigenous high street brands with 28 stores.

Their position in the mid-market, with a sophisticated but affordable product, pitches them firmly against the international players Debenhams, Topshop, Zara and H&M.

"They would have been seen as the accessible bit of Brown Thomas up until this point, " according to Louise Conlon, fashion project manager at the Dublin Institute of Technology.

"They were mid-price, very affordable and always very much on trend with what is in season and a very dynamic company, " she said.

However this leaves them more vulnerable than other domestic players such as Dunnes and Penneys who are at the less competitive value end of the market.

According to one industry source, it would take close to a decade for the purchase price to be recouped by the management buyout team who are backed by UK Equity group Alchemy.

"If it was 70m that it was sold for it would take approximately ten years of Awear's profits to make that money back for the buyers. I very much doubt they will wait that long, " they said.

"Some form of property play I expect would come into it. They don't own all their stores but if rents weren't going up I'd say Galen Weston would have kept an interest in the company, " they said.

Awear would not comment on this to the Sunday Tribune.

Earlier this year, Dublin-based high street brand Sasha decided to close five of its main stores with its leaseholds on St Stephen's Green, Liffey Valley and Blanchardstown also expected to be sold. Their Henry Street lease was reportedly sold for 750,000.

"You would wonder about the commitment to customers in a lot of places in the retail sector, " according to former Arnotts marketing director and now fashion retail consultant Eddie Shanahan.

"There is constant talk of buyouts and takeovers but in the background all the time are the property values associated with it, " he said.

The Irish fashion retail industry has grown by 59% in the last ten years with close to 400 firms in operation here.

The market is worth an estimated 4bn per year. A third of that market is devoted specifically to ladieswear alone while lingerie and accessories account for a further 13%.

Debenhams, Zara, H&M, Arcadia are all expanding their operations in Ireland.

They all have the financial support of a large parent company and can benefit to a far greater extent from economies of scale.

"It has become a hugely difficult market for Irish firms. They can't have the efficiency of multinationals because it is such a small market, " says Shanahan.

"There are so many shops and so many brands now. All the international players hunt in packs. As soon as one comes over, they all come over so as one group cannot gain a significant advantage. We probably have a disproportionate number of high street shops to our population and they would have huge supply chain advantages that the Irish firms wouldn't have, " he said.

The increase in competition also came at a time when customers are beginning to demand more from their retailers with traditional Irish customer loyalty perhaps not being enough to sustain a business in the long-term.

"Ireland is a very savvy fashion market nowadays, " says Louise Conlon.

"Irish people and especially Irish women know what they want and where to get it. The Irish companies have built up a very loyal customer base with plenty of in-store evenings and things like that. I hope that remains to be the case, " she told the Sunday Tribune.

However Irish fashion operators in general have not responded to the challenge laid down by the multinational competitors according to Shanahan who feels there is a huge lack of strategic, business thinking in the sector.

"It's amazing the amount of naive thinking there is out there, " he said.

"Irishness is no longer enough to sustain a business and bring about customer loyalty. Everybody has to make sure they have to differentiate in some way.

There is so much sameness on the market that you need to do something that allows customers identify with. You have to become famous for something, whether it's bringing in Kate Moss or not."

"I was recently at a H&M opening of a new store they have called COS in London. It's a complete new step for that company. They are diversifying their product range in case one of their markets falls through. I doubt you'll find one Irish fashion retailer thinking along those same lines. They are facing a big, big challenge."

Awear: the lowdown

Trend driven mid-market Irish ladies wear retailer who were part of the Brown Thomas Group until last week.

Has 28 outlet stores - 25 in Ireland and two in Northern Ireland and one Selfridges store in Birmingham. Popular among teenagers and young adults.

Unique in the fashion world as their buyers are also designers.

Were bought out by a management group in a deal reportedly worth 70m who received the backing of UK Private Equity Group, Alchemy.

Operating at a highly-competitive sector of the fashion retail industry against multi-national players with far bigger markets.

Why did BT offload it?

Awear do not own all of the property associated with their outlets with retail rents soaring every year.

Would find it difficult to compete with multinationals who can avail of greater economies of scale. Alchemy likely to use some of the property to finance the deal.