Triona Lillis is a costume and fashion designer currently working on the TV drama, These Sacred Vows. Here, Triona shares tales from her career in fashion
Starting out
Beginning her career in fashion as an apprentice to her older sister, who is also a designer. Triona shares fond tales of her early creative years. “My sister was a fashion designer, Carol Lillis. When I was a child and teenager, I was her apprentice, because it was the 80s. All I ever wanted to do was make clothes, but because there was already a fashion designer in the house, my parents wanted me to study something else. So, I ended up studying archaeology in Galway University.”
Not giving up on her design dreams, “I immediately started working with DramaSoc in NUIG, doing costumes for all the plays and then quickly moved from there to working with Macnas Theatre Company in Galway as their costume designer eventually.”
In 1997, Triona worked on set with Jennifer Aniston, a dream gig for any young designer to land. However, her role in the production wasn’t your typical one, “Leprechaun was the first movie job I ever did. It was in the art department making curtains for the set. They were my work and so that was my first foray into film.”
Working with Comedians
Advancing in her career in the meantime, Triona now works with well known Irish comedians like Tommy Tiernan. “I started working with Tommy Tiernan in 2010 and I love working with him. Standup comedians are funny to dress because they’re not necessarily people who get dressed up very often. But that gives me lots of scope to play around with their clothes and styling.”
Another comedian Triona has become close with is Shane Daniel Byrne, who she got to know when working with him on the set of new RTÉ drama These Sacred Vows. “Shane’s character Glen was one I had a lot of fun styling on the show. We really understand each other and the vision we both have from a style point of view so I’m so grateful for him and how gracious he is with me.”
Creating a character’s wardrobe
Creating looks for the rest of the characters on a show like These Sacred Vows can’t be an easy talk, yet when you watch the show each character’s wardrobe seems so effortless. Triona explains the thought process behind building a character’s style. “It starts with the script, where I usually break down each character. I try not to get into the nitty gritty or logistics of clothes and how they would work in a certain scene, but instead approach it more creatively. Then I’ll start to create boards for each character and usually i’ll build this out with the director’s help if they have a really clear vision of how they want things to look.”
For These Sacred Vows particularly, there is a huge focus on both Irish design and secondhand clothing. “For this show I was dealing with a cast that was made up of a lot of young people. I wanted to keep it realistic and realistically, young people don’t buy fast fashion much these days. Instead they’re more conscious. I wanted them to look current so I sourced vintage clothes from people like the amazing Emma Fraser, who runs Loot and Nine Crows. She has an incredible archive collection, so I rented a lot of really good key pieces from her.”
Irish design
Speaking of Irish design, Triona herself is the co-founder of Irish fashion brand The Tweed Project, alongside Aoibheann McNamara. The label creates handmade, custom pieces combing beautiful Irish fabrics with modern tailoring.
Balancing this alongside her career in costume design and styling, Triona gushes with the pride she feels for Ireland and the design talent the country produces.
“We’re on fire, aren’t we?”, she begins. “It’s really, really exciting. We’re seeing someone like Harry Styles wearing Donegal Tweed that Jonathan Anderson created under Dior. To be Irish is the best tagline you have in anything creative at the moment. We’re all so excited to wear and support Irish design and it’s incredible to see.”
If you’d like to learn insights from another Irish stylist, check out our interview with the woman behind Siobhán McSweeney’s epic looks on The Traitors Ireland.
