Connolly, Sybil (1921-1998)

Welsh-born fashion designer who through her innovative use of traditional Irish textiles brought Irish fashion to international attention in the 1950s and 1960s.

After an apprenticeship in London, Connolly moved to Dublin in 1940 to work in the fashion firm, Richard Alan. By 1952 she was its house designer, and came to the attention of the US press and fashion buyers. In 1957 she set up her own business in Dublin, and continued to design clothes until her death. Her distinctiveness lay in her contemporary tailoring of traditional Irish fabrics such as linen, lace, crochet, poplin, tweed, and flannel, as in her ‘Irish washerwoman’ outfit (1952), a quilted skirt in red flannel like the petticoats worn in the west of Ireland, with a white cambric blouse and black shawl. Connolly's greatest innovation was pleated linen, made creaseproof by a secret process.