Mary O'Donnell, a leading fashion designer who had a profound influence upon post-war Irish and American fashion, died on Jan. 27, in Kilcar, Co. Donegal, at age 91. O’Donnell provided couture garments for Princess Grace of Monaco, and many prominent women in New York, Washington DC and Ireland, President Mary Robinson among them. O’Donnell’s products were the result of not only her imaginative mind but also her thorough understanding of the potentials and limitations of the often traditional materials with which she was worked.
Born in Kilcar on April 8, 1933, O’Donnell, like many of her generation, learned the basic skills of spinning wool and cloth and clothes making in the home. She said in later years, “As a child I could knit and read a book at the same time. I did one for the money and the other for pleasure.” In her teens she travelled to New York determined to develop her craft and enrolled in the Traphagen Academy of Dress Design. Working in restaurants to pay for her studies, O’Donnell thrived and gained employment at the prestigious couture house Mainbocher, which then produced clothes for some of the most famous women in the world.
After several years, O’Donnell returned to Dublin. She spent time with Sybil Connolly, (a global icon often described as “Dublin’s Dior”), then opened her own premises in Dawson Street. which brought her to the attention of Irish and British women and the fashion critics. Working with traditional Irish materials including linen, lace and crochet wool, yet incorporating ideas and designs from a wider imagination, she reached out to an ever-expanding gallery of new clients, some of whom became close personal friends.
Mary O’Donnell was given away on her wedding day in 1965 by Cyril Cusack, father of fellow actor Sinead Cusack.
O’Donnell continued to spend a great deal of time in the U.S. where her work was especially appreciated by the Irish-American community. She was friends with the Kennedy family and the family of Speaker Tip O’Neill, among others.
Her clothes, never inexpensive, being handmade, precise and labor intensive and using only the best of materials, were the product of her team of expert women, most of whom worked from home in Donegal or Dublin producing embroidery and crochet work of the highest standard. O’Donnell maintained that she essentially ran “a cottage industry”.
Mary O'Donnell outside her business' premises on Dawson Street in Dublin.
Ernestine Carter, the American-born British museum curator, journalist and fashion editor of the London Times said O’Donnell’s work was "Unashamedly pretty (with) the refreshing innocence of a long cool drink of water."
Irish writer, curator and lecturer Robert O'Byrne wrote that O'Donnell "single-handedly made crochet sexy."
After closing her Dawson Street premises in 1983, O’Donnell returned to work in the U.S. where she maintained a strong following of loyal private clients. Thereafter, she divided her time betweenAmerica and Ireland. She finally retired in 1995, returning initially to Dublin and then to Kilcar. Until recent years she continued to travel and enjoyed entertaining her many friends from the world of fashion and beyond.
She is survived by her sons Richard and Donnacha, her brother Sean, daughters-in-law Lara and Diana, grandchild Violet, nieces, nephews and a wide circle of friends.
