Laura's Miss World dress goes on show
This is the first time that a dress specially designed and hand-stitched for Derry beauty Laura Patterson has been seen in ireland.
Laura, who was crowned Miss Ireland last year, wore the dress as her Irish national costume at the Miss World competition in South Africa in December where it was seen by more than two billion viewers.
Yesterday it was put on display at the luxury Lough Eske Castle Hotel in Co. Donegal where it will stay for two weeks before being showcased at the Irish Museum of Modern Art and the Ulster Museum.
The dress was created by award winning Derry and Donegal designers Joan and Lido Ghali who are renowned for their love of Celtic design and financed by proud Donegal man and owner of Lough Eske Castle, Pat Doherty.
Based on the theme of Celtic Goddesses, Laura's dress was handmade in Donegal using Irish fabrics.
Lido Ghali was the main inspiration behind the dress and he personally spent ten hours painstakingly hand sewing the Celtic designs onto the dress during the night before Laura collected it en-route to Dublin Airport.
"It was an honour to be asked to make a dress for Laura to wear at the Miss World pageant in Johannesburg," he said. "We wanted to create a dress which captures both modern and traditional Ireland and had less than four weeks in which to do it."
"When Laura first tried on the dress, we knew the design was right but, then again, it is easy to design for such a stunning young woman." added Joan Ghali
"Donegal was such as part of the inspiration behind the dress and was the place in which it was made. Because of this, and as a thank-you to Pat Doherty for providing the funding, we felt it was only fitting to unveil it for the first time in Ireland in Donegal and, in particular, at Lough Eske Castle, which is such a wonderful backdrop for the dress and completely in keeping with its Celtic design."
Laura said: "I was very honoured to be able to represent Ireland wearing this beautiful creation. My Celtic National Costume dress was designed specifically for me and looked wonderful on the night. I'd like to thank everyone who supported me as I represented my country in the Miss World pageant and especially Joan and Lido Ghali for their wonderful design and Pat Doherty for providing the funding to turn the design into the dress I proudly wore in South Africa."
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Saturday 25 May 2013
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