Described last year as one of Ireland's national treasures, designer Sybil Connolly has died aged 77. She had been ill for some time and little seen in public, but her death means an irreparable break with the 1950s, the decade in which Irish fashion first achieved international repute. Much of the success during that period - and subsequently - was due to Sybil Connolly's exceptional combination of creative talent and commercial flair. Throughout her career she was as much an astute businesswoman as a designer. Born and raised in Wales of an Irish father and Welsh mother, Sybil Connolly trained in London before moving to this country during the second World War. She joined the staff of the Dublin fashion shop Richard Alan, whose owner, Jack Clarke, gave her an opportunity in 1952 to design her own line of dresses. Success came quickly, and within a year she held a fashion show for American buyers and press in Dunsany Castle; Sheila, Lady Dunsany was one of her first clients and wore Connolly-designed clothes in the United States. Transatlantic business soon followed, thanks to regular visits to cities such as New York, where she met her great friend and the doyenne of the American fashion world, Eleanor Lambert. The designer was equally popular in Australia, which she visited on several occasions. Thanks to her pioneering efforts, together with those of the late Irene Gilbert, Ireland became known as a centre of fashion. One of Sybil Connolly's dresses was featured on the cover of Life magazine and features on her work appeared in Time, Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. Overseas clients included Jacqueline Kennedy, who was painted wearing a Sybil Connolly dress for a White House portrait.
Sybil Connolly's greatest skill as a designer was the inspirational use of traditional Irish fabrics, in particular linen. Her best known creation was the pleated handkerchief linen dress, in which nine yards of linen was folded to produce one yard of finished material. This was then dyed and made into uncrushable garments which remain as fresh today as when first made; several recently featured in an exhibition of Irish fashion at the National Museum of Ireland. Always a couturier, Sybil Connolly never displayed interest in ready-to-wear clothing and as tastes changed during the 1960s, she increasingly turned her design skills to other areas, most famously creating lines of tableware for Tiffany's. While she deserves recognition for her work in many diverse fields, Sybil Connolly should best be remembered as a woman who designed her own life in an era when few dared to do so.