Margaret Molloy considers herself “an unlikely fashionista”. “You know: a lady in her 40s, I’m not the proportions of a model, I grew up on a farm, I went to a very traditional academic school background, I’m not from the fashion world. So I’m a very unlikely advocate for fashion, arguably, on any level,” she lists.

Yet, as the woman behind #WearingIrish – the social-media movement celebrating Irish design throughout the month of March – the Manhattan-based Midlander has brought the industry to a worldwide audience. And perhaps part of her success is that she is so relatable, whether she’s rocking a haute couture frock or the latest look from Dunnes Stores.

Speaking with Irish Country Living from New York, where she is global chief marketing officer and head of new development with branding firm Siegel + Gale, Margaret traces her journey from a dairy farm in the tight-knit community of Tubber, Co Offaly, to the metropolis of Manhattan.

The eldest of six children, she explains how her parents, Michael and Mary Jane, instilled in her the importance of education, work ethic and old-fashioned “cop on”: values she packed with her when she was sent to New York as a graduate intern with Enterprise Ireland in the mid-1990s, after completing her degree in business and Spanish.

“From the moment I got off that airplane in JFK, I knew in my gut that it was the right place for me,” says Margaret of falling head-over-heels for the Big Apple, where she lives with her husband Jim O’Sullivan, an economist, and their sons Finn and Emmet.

(Though they are regular visitors home, with a trip last summer to the Tullamore Show proving a highlight for the boys.)

The job with Enterprise Ireland proved a launch-pad for a number of marketing roles with companies such as Eircom, where she led the team that was then promoting Ireland as a call centre location for US companies.

Power woman

She also earned her MBA from Harvard Business School along the way and, today, is ranked among the “Top 50 Power Women of Irish America” and “Top 100 Irish Americans in Business” for her role with Siegel+Gale, a renowned strategic branding and design firm.

Responsible for building the reputation of the firm as well as bringing in new business, Margaret’s job involves everything from meeting with prospective clients, speaking at conferences and chairing panel discussions to contributing to publications like Forbes and engaging with fellow thought leaders on digital platforms like Twitter and Linkedin.

#WearingIrish

So far, so full-on. So, where did fashion – and #WearingIrish – come into it?

“Somehow I realised when I looked at my diary that March is very busy and I had a lot of events – both events that I was hosting myself and events that I was a guest at – and many of them had an Irish theme to them. And it just struck me: the simple thought that Ireland is the only country in the world that ‘owns’ a month,” says Margaret, who explains that after this “simple epiphany”, her marketing and creative instincts began to kick in.

“I realised I get photographed at all these events, which made me sort of think to myself: ‘Now, wait a second. I have a platform – meaning I have an audience, in person often, but also in digital – that pays attention to me and I’m Irish. What can I do with it that’s meaningful?’”

With a life-long passion for fashion (which she jokes first kicked in when she got a blue shoulder bag for her eighth birthday), Margaret decided in March 2016 that she would make an effort to wear something Irish every day and share a picture with her followers online using the hashtag #WearingIrish to support and promote Irish designers – and encourage other people to do likewise.

And it took off, at home and abroad.

“I think the simplicity of the idea was very compelling to people,” says Margaret, who was conscious of choosing a mix of couture, high-street and up-and-coming designers to appeal to as many people as possible.

In 2017, Margaret published a directory of Irish designers to complement the online campaign, and this year she has created a #WearingIrish blog to profile their work further. She has also launched a competition to bring eight Irish designers to a showcase in New York in May, but her main ambition is simply to get as many people as possible wearing Irish in March.

“When they’re going to a wedding or going out for the night or just going to the office or to pick up the kids or whatever it is,’” she says, explaining that even if people do it for one day or by choosing one item, it all makes a difference.

“It doesn’t have to be high fashion,” she argues, “it can be jewellery or a scarf or something.”

While the campaign might be fun, however, Margaret believes it is far from frivolous. As well as encouraging people to support Irish designers, she believes the campaign is really about building “Brand Ireland” in the longer-term.

Need for makers

“A trend right now from a business standpoint points to the need for innovation and points to the need for what’s called ‘makers’, so there’s a whole movement around ‘makers’ out there, and if Ireland wants to get its fair share of economic development and higher-quality jobs for Irish people, we need to show that we have these skills – and fashion, in my mind, is just one proof point,” she explains.

“People are looking for that skillset and, as I say, it doesn’t take much imagination. If you hear about Irish fashion, you’re thinking:, ‘Gosh, yes, they are creative. Therefore, if I have an opportunity to set up a factory or business in Ireland in healthcare or technology, that creativity is probably not just limited to the fashion designers, but all the population has that skillset.’

“So I see fashion as just an elegant way to tell that story in a way that has many more reverberating implications than just limited exclusively to the fashion industry.”

Is it not a lot of pressure on her, though, knowing that people will be watching her every outfit throughout the 31 days of March?

“Yeah, there’s a bit of that,” she acknowledges with a laugh.

And while she might still consider herself an unlikely fashion model – though we’d argue otherwise – there’s no doubt that Margaret Molloy is a role model. CL

To get involved in #WearingIrish this March, Margaret would love readers to share pictures of their Irish outfits or accessories on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook using the hashtag #WearingIrish. For further information, follow @MargaretMolloy or visit www.wearingirish.com.