Pat McDonagh (fashion designer)

Patricia (Pat) McDonagh (17 March 1934 – 31 May 2014) was a British fashion designer who became an important figure in Canadian fashion. She promoted the then-unknown model Twiggy and she designed costumes for The Beatles. McDonagh also designed costumes for Diana Rigg, as Emma Peel, in The Avengers.

McDonagh was born in Harpurhey, Manchester, England on St. Patrick's Day 17 March 1934, the eldest of four children in a family of Irish origins. Her mother instilled a strong perfectionist tendency into her children. McDonagh later said "[she] never praised us". She was educated at Loreto Convent, Moss Side, Manchester, followed by a spell at the University of Manchester. She also studied at the Sorbonne in Paris.

She worked as a model in London and Paris in the late 1950s, on television and in print, and in the fashion houses of Jacques Helm and Maggy Rouff. Following her marriage to David Main in 1960, and the birth of her first two children, McDonagh opened boutiques in Horwich and Worsley, Lancashire.

McDonagh moved to Canada in 1966 after David got a job with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). She described it as "like landing in the dark ages", at least as far as fashion went. Styles were old fashioned, and materials were difficult to obtain due to poor domestic production and high import taxes. She opened her first shop, known as The Establishment, in Bloor Street in downtown Toronto and began designing clothes. She was particularly known for creating "glamorous garments showcasing innovation in textile techniques" and her glamorous evening wear found favour with the social elite of Toronto's fund-raising circuit. Her creations were worn by Cher and Ella Fitzgerald. She went on to open a factory, the product of which was known as the Re-Establishment range, and to sell her clothes across Canada and the United States, including in Bloomingdale's, Bonwit Teller and Henri Bendel in New York. Among the styles she was said to have introduced to North America were minidresses, maxi-coats, bell-bottoms and the jumpsuit.

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