Born: Swansea, Wales, 1921
Died: Dublin, Ireland, 1998
When Dublin staged its first international dress show in the autumn of 1953 at Dunsany Castle, Sybil Connolly, the most famous name in Irish fashion, was the star. Born in Wales but with an Irish father, Connolly served an apprenticeship at Bradleys the dressmakers in 1938, where she attended fittings for the ailing Queen Mary, and moved to Dublin when she was 17 years old. A superb self-publicist, Connolly made it onto the cover of Life, dressed a series of aristocratic figures and became a friend of Jacqueline Kennedy. The Connolly style mixed American shapes and Irish content – simple linens, Donegal tweeds and Aran wool. When Jacqueline Kennedy visited Ireland in July 1967, she visited Connolly and wore one of _her linen pieces in an official White House portrait.
Sybil Connolly established herself in a mansion in Merrion Square, Dublin, eventually paring down her business to cater only for a coterie of loyal clients, while writing books on Irish homes and gardens, and designing crystal and pottery for Tiffany & Co.
