[3] Kennedy studied at the College of Marketing and Design, now part of Dublin Institute of Technology and the Grafton Academy,[4] before setting up her own business in 1983, according to her official website.
[4] Kennedy stated that she had been very fortunate by the timing of this, as it drew a great deal of attention and media coverage with many Irish clients suddenly made aware of her work and choosing to buy from her.
[2] She opened her flagship stores in Dublin (at 56 Merrion Square)[2] and London in 1997, the same year in which she designed uniforms for flight staff on Aer Lingus.
[10][11] The outfits, apart from two custom-made ball gowns for state banquets, one by Kennedy and the other by Jill Howard, were bought as ready-to-wear, and chosen by Sabina with the assistance of her friend, the film and theatrical costume designer Joan Bergin, in order to showcase the best of Irish design, with Bergin saying "It was not my intention to commission a special wardrobe, but to show Irish women what was on offer out there.
[11] Alongside Sabina Higgins and Mary Robinson, Kennedy has also dressed the British Prime Ministers' wives Cherie Blair and Sarah Brown.
[15] In December 2014 Kennedy joined a group of mainly British designers, artists and businesspeople (including David Bailey, Roja Dove and Stella McCartney) at 10 Downing Street to mark their roles as ambassadors for David Cameron's GREAT Britain campaign, which was designed to promote the United Kingdom as a tourist destination, a place for study, or somewhere to do business.
[1] In November 2014 Kennedy was awarded an honorary PhD from her former university, the Dublin Institute of Technology, in recognition of her commercial and cultural success.