‘Surreal to see our dress on screen’

Clodagh McKeon

Rosemount jewel Rachel Duffy won the hearts of many across the country as she was crowned the 2022 Rose of Tralee last Tuesday.

The NUIG drama student dazzled on stage wearing a beautiful turquoise blue gown designed by mother-daughter duo Ann and Aine O’Reilly of Zobi studio, Mullingar.

Ann has been designing dresses for 30 years now but in 2018 she and Aine took a business leap and opened Zobi on Dominick Street.

Rachel Duffy approached Ann and Aine just over two months ago with the hopes that they could create exactly what she needed to wow the nation.

Aine said: "Rachel knew what she wanted. She wanted to be comfortable, she wanted to feel confident and she wanted to wear a bright colour.

"She was so self-aware of what looked well on her, what suited her complexion and her hair colour.

Ann and Aine specialise in creating wedding outfits, debs dresses, communion dresses, baby gowns and other special occasion wear.

The women design to customers’ briefs but with a focus on unique design and the perfect fit.

Aine said: "There are so many variables when designing a gown for TV, you can’t just wear anything.

"We knew she couldn’t be fixing it while on camera and we knew that the dress shade had to be perfect or the stage lights would affect it.

"She also needed a dress that she could wear for two nights in a row, so we had to make sure it wouldn’t crease and wouldn’t be too delicate. There were lots of things we had to think about.

"Rachel did her research though. She came to us and was aware of what she needed because she watched shows of the previous years. She could tell us what she liked and what she didn’t like.

"She was so easy to work with and took all of our advice on board, she was great."

Aine told us about the initial meeting and how long it took from there to create the piece.

"So we met Rachel for the first time, we sat and all designed the dress then Rachel chose her fabric. We had her back for three more fittings and then her family collected it for the big day.

"The dress was perfected over the two months.

"Getting a bespoke outfit made is a long process because we can only take it so far.

"After that, we need to get the customer back in, see what it looks like on them, see what they want and what they don’t want and then we need to work on it some more."

Aine recently welcomed a baby girl to the family so neither she nor Ann could make the event in Kerry, but they said the whole family were glued to the TV for the show. Aine said: "It was absolutely amazing. It was surreal to see Rachel wearing our creation on the big screen.

"It was so exciting and we’re just so grateful to be a part of her journey because it’s been amazing for our brand.

"Working with Rachel and having her wear our dress on the Rose of Tralee has brought us so many new clients.

"Even today, I have a client coming up from Kerry. It’s insane to me how someone would travel from Kerry all the way up to Westmeath just for us.

"I mean, they’re passing a lot of other dress makers on that drive so it’s amazing. We could never have reached those people without Rachel wearing our dress."