From Ballyjamesduff in Co Cavan, Peter Shaffrey grew up in the Percy French Arms Hotel in the town, owned by his parents Peter and Maura Shaffrey, who bought it in 1964.
One of six children (and a nephew of the late celebrated architect Patrick Shaffrey), Peter has a twin sister Ciara and remembers the family moving to Dublin in 1979 when his parents bought O’Brien’s pub on Sussex Terrace and the Stag’s Head in Dame Court.
“I grew up in Kenilworth Square and went to school at St Mary’s College in Rathmines, and worked in the pub from the age of 12 or 13, mostly in O’Brien’s where I learned so much about running a business. There was a strong work ethic and business sense in the family”, he says.
After school, he moved to London and ended up running the first Gap store to open outside the US, in Richmond. Back in Dublin in 1989, he started working with the interior design company Gibson & O’Rourke “which gave me a real understanding of textiles and client needs and from there I went to study fashion at the Grafton Academy at 22 and just loved it”.
RM Block
After graduation, he went into designing corporate wear for, among others, AIB, Bank of Ireland, airline Cityjet and retailer SuperValu.
In 1998, he met his now husband Kevin Warwick, who had come to Ireland to work with John Rocha as a designer. When Warwick later got a job with the Blanc Blue French knitwear company, the couple moved to Paris in 2000 and lived in the Marais “and it was the best fun ever”, Shaffrey recalls.
Their next move was to Amsterdam when Warwick landed a job with Docker Levis “and then I went back to my Irish roots and ran an Irish bar called O’Reilly’s near Dam Square”.
“We got married in 2004 and bought our first house, a canal house apartment in 2008,” he says.
When Warwick decided to do a master’s degree in menswear at the Royal College of Art in London, they transferred to London, where Shaffrey first started working with Louise Kennedy running her shop in Belgravia. Following Warwick’s graduation, they returned to Amsterdam, with Shaffrey continuing to work as a freelance design consultant, brand ambassador and stylist.
In 2017, Warwick fulfilled a lifelong dream, securing a job as a senior menswear designer at Dries Van Noten in Antwerp and they moved once again. They have lived there ever since and “and we just love it here. It is a wonderful city, vibrant with a very relaxed atmosphere and compact with beautiful cafes, galleries and concept stores.
“It’s a historic city with a modern edge and even the train station is magnificent”, he says. “There is a lot to do and such a rich history here”.
They live in the residential Harmonie area, “which is very peaceful and very connected to the city centre. It has a sense of community and loads of little bakeries and cafes, so it’s like a little village with loads of parks – there are three beside us.”
Home is a duplex in a late 18th-century house with a beautiful garden and two terraces. “It’s about 3,000 square feet with three bedrooms, one of which we have converted into a walk-in wardrobe. We back on to a huge garden beside us so we are not overlooked. Apartments here are very reasonable for what you get, but eating out is very expensive and there are more Michelin restaurants per square mile than anywhere else”.
Local people are “a tiny bit hard to get to know initially and not showy in any shape or form, but we have made lovely friends here mostly in the arts sector and we get invited to lots of openings and galleries. It’s a very art-inspired city”.
One of the big advantages, he says, about living in Antwerp is that all the shops are closed on Sundays “except for the first Sunday of the month, so it’s a real family day. Antwerp is small, but that suits us and anyway we are near Schiphol airport [in Amsterdam], so travelling anywhere else is easy.”
Some of their favourite places to eat and drink include Spiridon, a local wine bar, Nives, “great for brunch”, Café Finch, “contemporary with an Asian twist”, Felfet “Mediterranean with Middle Eastern flavours” and Le Qui, “where the chef just cooks what he wants, and the cuisine is innovative and funky”.
They also love bars such as Hopper with its 1930s Art Deco interiors and Witzli Poetzli, which is “full of artists and interesting people”.
What does he miss about Ireland? “I miss friends and family, but I get back quite a lot. Kevin loves working with Dries Van Noten and I get plenty of work – though I am very selective in what I choose – and my relationship with Louise Kennedy, which is now over 20 years, continues as a brand consultant.”
A sociable couple who love entertaining, “we have loads of parties here as the house lends itself to that. It was my 50th birthday and that of my twin sister Ciara six years ago so we threw a big party here for that. We love living here, it has a wonderful quality of life. I really feel blessed.”
