The Shaggy Dog
For Sybil Connolly's winter collection, shown in July, the tweeds were developed further, this time in deep earthy shades highlighted with lurex gold threads. The most publicity for any of Gerd's tweeds was given to the Shaggy Dog Fabric. Miss Connolly herself said: "I can honestly say that I never believed that such an exciting effect could be achieved in a hand-loomed fabric!" The Daily Mail reported, "The pick of the show was undoubtedly the Shaggy Dog hand-woven tweed".
Ernestine Carter, a very well-known fashion reporter for the Sunday Times in London, had written about 'Fashion in Eire’, particularly about Sybil Connolly and her use of Irish lace and pleated linen. "For her tweeds, Miss Connolly works direct with hand-weavers. This year she presents the Shaggy Dog, a rough weave from which certain stitches are pulled out by hand to give a shaggy surface."
Ernestine Carter asked Gerd how, in such an isolated rural place, she was able to produce such high-fashion fabrics as she had just seen in Sybil Connolly's show."I follow fashion in newspapers and magazines. Then I let it flow until you realise that out of the present designs there follows the next development. For me, out of the past flows the future."