Sybil Connolly (24 January 1921 – 6 May 1998) was a celebrated fashion designer and global icon known for her innovative use of traditional Irish textiles in haute couture.

[1] She was a member of the "Big Three" Irish fashion designers (along with Irene Gilbert and Raymond Kenna/Kay Peterson),[2][3] and was described by former Taoiseach (prime minister) Jack Lynch as "a national treasure.

Among her fashion label's famous clients were American First Lady and style icon Jacqueline Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor, the Rockefellers, and the Mellons.

[7] Described by Bettina Ballard as a "personable milk-skinned Irish charmer,"[8] she came to the notice of Carmel Snow, the Dalkey-born editor of Harpers Bazaar.

[10] Her father died while she was a teenager, and the family moved to Waterford, where she spent two years at the local Our Lady of Mercy School, on Military Road.

Photographer Richard Dormer used the house and its grounds for a shoot of Connolly's clothes and one picture – showing model Anne Gunning in a full-length red Kinsale cape and white crochet evening dress – made the cover of Life magazine in August 1953 under the heading 'Irish invade fashion world'.

[12][11] Connolly capitalised on this publicity by travelling with her collection to the US later the same year, where she made another life-long friend, Eleanor Lambert, doyenne of American fashion publicists.

[11] Notably, Jacqueline Kennedy wore a Sybil Connolly pleated linen dress when she sat for an official Aaron Shikler White House portrait in 1970.

[10] By the time she was profiled in the Saturday Evening Post in November 1957, three-quarters of Sybil Connolly's gross earnings (then estimated at $500,000 per annum) originate in sales to the United States.

She broadened her export market via a friendship with the newspaper magnate Frank Packer, with two heavily publicised visits to Australia in October 1954 and August 1957.

[10] Connolly was adept at reworking traditional Irish fabrics and styles – including peasant blouses, flannel petticoats and shawls, finely pleated linen, wools such as Báinín, Limerick and Carrickmacross lace, – to give them contemporary appeal and glamour.

[16] The First Love dress was made in the Clarke's Richard and Alan shop in 58 Grafton Street, Dublin, where Sybil Connolly worked for more than 10 years.

[17] Her home, Number 71 Merrion Square – which she described as "the house that linen built" – became a showcase for her taste and private clients would be served jasmine tea by a butler called James.

The Cottage was originally built in the early 1800s by Richard Butler, 1st Earl of Glengall, based on a design by Regency architect John Nash.

[22] In 2012, Connolly's work attracted renewed interest when actor Gillian Anderson wore a vintage dress by the designer for the BAFTAs.