Irene Gilbert (fashion designer)

Irene Gilbert (19 July 1908 – 7 August 1985) (pronounced "Irini"). Margaret Elizabeth Irene Gilbert was born in Main Street, Thurles, County Tipperary to Jennie (née Knox) and William Charles, a commercial traveller in the printing and stationery trade. Irene was an Irish fashion designer based in Dublin. Ireland's first couturier, she was a member of the "Big Three" Irish fashion designers, along with Sybil Connolly and Raymond Kenna/Kay Peterson. Designing for royalty and high society, she was famous for her work and friendship with Grace Kelly. She was the first woman to run a successful fashion business in Ireland, operating out of a shop on St Stephen's Green on the southside of the city. 
Early life.
Gilbert was born in Thurles, County Tipperary in 1908. She is living on the Mall in Waterford on the 1911 census. Her father is forty and her mother twenty-two. Her parents have been married for three years and she is their only child. Charles Edward Gilbert and Jane Knox were married in St. Pancras, London in December 1907.
Work.
Gilbert's career in the fashion industry began when she ran a dress shop on Wicklow Street in Dublin. She then went to London to train under a court dressmaker, before returning to open a hat shop on Dublin's North Frederick Street in the late 1940s
Having moved to St Stephen's Green, Gilbert opened a shop there in 1947. She began selling clothes under her own label from 1950, since her first show took place in Restaurant Jammet. She was known for her work with silk, tweed, linen and Carrickmacross lace. Future celebrated designer, Pat Crowley, worked for Gilbert for seven years from 1960, as a designer as well as a sales and marketing specialist. The quality of the work contributed to Dublin's reputation as a "must stop-over" for the international fashion media.
She designed one of the ten variations of the Aer Lingus uniform.
Gilbert closed the business in 1969 and emigrated to Malta. She later moved to Cheltenham in England where she died in 1985.
Legacy.
Gilbert's creations were prized by Anne, Countess of Rosse whose collection of Gilberts are now curated at Birr Castle. In January 2018, Gilbert's life and work was the subject of an exhibition at the Little Museum of Dublin.