Sybil found inspiration in the natural world. A love of gardens and botanicals is subtly visible in her couture. From the iconic Pink Ice to Illusion – a black negligée or the understated elegance of a Wedding Dress & Veil.
Cream Evening Gown/Sybil Connolly/Textile/20th century /Sybil Connolly Collection/CC0
Evening gown, Pink Ice/Sybil Connolly/Textile,Satin, Textile,Lace/20th century /Sybil Connolly Collection/CC0
Wedding dress | Sybil Connolly | Textile | 20th century | Sybil Connolly Collection | CC0
Sybil and the Garden:
From her dedication to traditional materials and crafts to her fascination with the floral motif, Sybil imbued every design whether in haute couture or in-home furnishings, with her own unique brand of femininity.
Sybil Connolly with group of ladies at Termonfeckan
Sybil found much inspiration in the natural world, her love of gardens and botanicals inspired many of her patterns.
”Other people can walk down a garden path, see a rose and stop to admire it,” she said. ”But I look at the same rose and ponder how I can use it to decorate a dessert plate.”
Sybil Connolly Guest house Entrance
Throughout her career as a designer, Sybil drew from the natural world, incorporating flowers from linen and cotton plants into the embroidery and lacework of her creations.
Photographed by the biggest photographers of the fashion world, Richard Avedon, Dormer, etc; the models here show off Sybil’s couture surrounded by nature.
Keen to bring the outside in, Sybil Connolly created fabric, wallpaper and bed linen inspired by her garden for luxury goods companies such as Brunschwig et Fils, Schumacher and Martex. See here the sample book of wallpapers created for Gramercy, and her application of these designs in her interiors of the Swiss Cottage she helped to renovate in Cahir, Tipperary.
