The Traitors has never been just about the games of deceit and subterfuge played out within the hit television series. Following the obsession with host Claudia Winkleman’s wardrobe in the UK version of the competition, all eyes are currently on Siobhán McSweeney, star of Derry Girls, who hosts the Irish edition of the series, which was filmed in Slane Castle and is about to arrive on our screens.
Irish stylist/costume designer Anne O’Shea was tasked with creating more than two dozen unique looks for McSweeney for the series. “I used a lot from Siobhán’s own wardrobe because we didn’t want to buy stuff that wouldn’t be used again. And no one knows her style better than Siobhán herself,” says O’Shea. “My main inspiration for her in Traitors was a mix of Miss Havisham and Death Becomes Her.”
“I always try to make everything a little bit me,” says McSweeney on a video call from London. “I love clothes and the most fun [as an actor] is dressing up and being as many people as possible.” McSweeney believes that the language of clothes can be powerful. Whatever she wears, whether her flamboyant red-carpet outfits for the Baftas or her billowing yellow number for last year’s Oxfam’s Secondhand September campaign, McSweeney attracts attention.
Getting fat helped catalyse investigating how I wanted to present myself
— Siobhán McSweeney
For Traitors, she drew on her theatrical background “because the show is so theatrical – I wanted a camp drawingroom 1930s vibe, dressing for dinner and a bit of glamour and mischief. My own mood board was a mix of Enya and Countess Markievicz – it was about playing with the look. You can’t wear jeans and a nice top in a castle – you have got to meet it.”
RM Block
Many of the clothes selected are second-hand and upscaled pieces and outfits from young Irish designers. The great tweed cloak, a statement piece, was made by Oran Aurelio, fresh out of college, who spent all night completing a brat (a traditional Irish mantle) in Magee tweed for the series. “It will make the show, it’s about style, fierce style. It is going to be priceless,” she says.
In advertising and promotional billboards for the show featuring two Irish wolfhounds, McSweeney is wearing a blouse from one of her favourite designers – Sarah O’Neill of Éadach, who printed the silk with Irish quotations, such as Yeats’s “A terrible beauty is born” on the collar. “What makes us is our history, our language and our textiles,” says McSweeney, who comes from a family of Gaeilgeoirs.
One of the first two outfits in The Traitors – a black bolero-style tuxedo and red skirt – has its own back story. The jacket was part of a suit made for her in Thailand years ago (“the short bolero suits my natural high waist”) and the ornate silk taffeta skirt was custom made by Irish designer Orla Langan. It was accessorised with a Tara brooch from Delphi Antiques, in Powerscourt “who let me run riot”, her own earrings, boots by Eloqui (long story there), a navy jumper from M&S and golf socks. “I love having contrasts,” she says, adding that what she loves about the Traitors outfits is “that they are all perfect for each episode”.
Another outfit was a dress upcycled by Zero Waster and worn with a cream cape also drawn from her wardrobe. A zany gold ruff (purchased by her from Amazon to cover a sore throat) was teamed with a grey Magee Fair Isle jumper with mustard diamond motifs. “We created a 1930s lady of the house inspired by Irish lore and mythology,” says O’Shea. Improvisation also played a part. “A Dunnes Stores top was embellished with pearls and under the lights it looked a million dollars,” says McSweeney.
For her, style supersedes fashion. Growing up in Cork, “I was very much a Nirvana grunge kid and at drama school they were all Beyoncé, which was a bit of a shock. My taste changed as I put on weight and got shoved out of the high street – it activated my interest less in fashion and more in style, and my dream is to have very clean Scandi lines along with Japanese influences like Issey Miyake and the architectural side of clothes. If I am feeling outrageous, however, I love that old Hollywood vibe. I have become aware of dressing in colour and not being ashamed of myself.”
She cites her mother, Mary O’Neill, as an influence. “She was glamorous but practical – there was always this idea of scrubbing up well. She had long black hair and in my teenage (grunge) years was forever telling me to brush mine. Getting fat helped catalyse investigating how I wanted to present myself. What I love about Anne is that she knows I am not going to be a passive dresser. She understood my vision. There is a lot of misogyny around clothing which is seen as frivolous. Style is art and to dismiss a form of art because it is female-based is ridiculous – it is fundamental to our identity.”
The Traitors Ireland begins on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player at 9.35pm tonight.
