Gail Doyle: ‘My intention wasn’t to be an influencer... it was to educate women’

While Gail Doyle, founder of Gails Rails and the designer behind SENSS Design, has gained a loyal following on social media, her love of clothing began long before it even existed.

“My grandmother taught me to knit and sew when I was about seven years old,” says Gail, who lives in Kanturk.

“I was never particularly academic in school, but I was naturally creative and was fascinated by fabric, by clothes, and by how garments were constructed.”

What did Gail construct as a young girl?

“I designed and made my own Debs dress as a teenager in the 1990s,” says Gail.

Sewing wasn’t always considered cool in the 1990s.

“I almost felt embarrassed about it, yes. Sewing wasn’t considered cool!”

Time moved on.

“I became a mum very young and eventually I started a small alterations and dressmaking business from a sewing room at home,” says Gail.

She was industrious.

“I spent years altering clothes for women and listening to them talk about their bodies, their insecurities, and how difficult they found shopping.”

She was self-taught.

“The sewing room probably taught me more about women and clothing than anything else ever could,” says Gail.

“I later trained professionally in image consulting, and I became a personal stylist and a personal shopper. Gails Rails grew from there. Today I am founder of Gails Rails and the designer behind SENSS Design, which is my own clothing brand.”

What is her job description?

“My job isn’t to keep women fashionable,” says Gail.

“My job is to make getting dressed easier.”

Would that be de-stressing dressing?

“The very thing!” says Gail laughing.

What inspired her to start sharing her styling advice online?

“I realised very early in my alterations career that women weren’t just asking me to alter clothes, they were asking, ‘does this suit me’, why does that look lovely on her and terrible on me?’ ‘what should I wear with this?’ And the old chestnut, ‘Why do I have a wardrobe of clothes and nothing to wear?’

There was really one answer to all those questions.

“Underneath all those questions was confidence,” says Gail.

What was her iintention starting her own business, Gails Rails?

“When I started Gails Rails online, my intention wasn’t to become an influencer. I wanted to educate women,” says Gail.

“That distinction has remained incredibly important to me. People don’t need somebody constantly telling them what to buy. They need somebody teaching them why something works so eventually they can make those decisions themselves.”

Growing up, Gail’s own relationship with fashion and body image was complicated.

“Yes! Complicated,” says Gail.

“As a teenager and in my early twenties I was curvier than most of my friends and my sisters. Many of the fashionable shapes simply didn’t suit my body.”

What was she thinking?

“I started altering clothes and adapting trends to suit myself,” says Gail.

“At the time, I thought that made me different in a negative way. Looking back, it was probably the best education I ever received.”

Gail says fashion and style are not the same thing.

“Something can be incredibly fashionable and still be completely wrong for you,” says Gail.

“And something you’ve owned for ten years can look sensational because the cut, proportion, and colour are right for you. That philosophy has followed me throughout my entire career.”

Did Gail’s own style change over the years?

“My confidence has changed more than my actual style,” says Gail.

“I’ve always been quite classic. I love clean lines, beautiful proportions, good fabrics and clothing that isn’t screaming for attention.

“For years I thought my style was perhaps too simple or even boring because it wasn’t particularly trend-driven. Training as an image consultant actually helped me understand that simplicity was my style.”

Gail believes in simplifying fashion.

“I genuinely think that women are overwhelmed,” she says.

“The modern fashion cycle constantly tells women there is another trend, another ‘must have’, another aesthetic, another colour, another shape, and another reason why what they bought six months ago is supposedly wrong. Trend culture can become almost cult-like. The message is constantly, ‘that’s last season. ‘You need this now. Everyone is wearing this. That isn’t fashionable anymore’. I completely reject that,” says Gail.

Why?

“It creates unnecessary spending, cluttered wardrobes, and ironically women still stand in front of those wardrobes saying, ‘I’ve nothing to wear.’”

Gail offers sage advice.

“I teach women to stop shopping for a moment. Go home. Open your wardrobe. Take out the five things that make you feel fantastic,” advises Gail.

“Then study them. What neckline are they? What sleeve shape? Where does the waist sit? What length are they? What fabric do you like? What colours keep appearing?”

Then what?

“Your wardrobe is already telling you who you are,” says Gail.

“Build around this information. Fashion doesn’t need to be reinvented every six weeks.”

The ‘Capsule Wardrobe Queen’ describes a capsule wardrobe.

“For me, a capsule wardrobe isn’t 20 beige garments hanging perfectly on an Instagram rail! A real capsule wardrobe needs to work for real life, school runs, work, lunch, travelling, dinner, weekends, bad body confidence days, and busy mornings,” says Gail.

“It’s about having reliable pieces that communicate with one another.”

How did Gail’s own clothing brand come about?

“Designing my own collection was always the dream,” she says.

“During my years as a stylist I could see recurring problems in women’s wardrobes, particularly around fit, comfort, fabric and versatility. In October, 2022, SENSS was born. I design from a completely starting point.”

Gail is well qualified for the roles.

“I’m a trained dressmaker, an image consultant, and a stylist so when I’m developing a garment, I’m looking for fabric composition, stretch, proportion, body shape, construction, and how that garment will interact with everything a woman owns.”

SENSS is not trend-led.

“The bigger the business becomes; the more confident I’ve become about staying in my own lane,” says Gail.

Who are her customers?

“My customer doesn’t want to be dressed like a catwalk,” she says.

“She’s a busy woman. She might be 38, 48, 58, or 68. She wants to open up her wardrobe and know that her clothes work. That’s who I design for.”

Gail always trusts her gut.

“I spent years thinking other people must know better; the industry experts, the trends, the bigger brands, the algorithms. Eventually, you realise nobody understands your customer better than you do if you’ve genuinely spent years listening to her.”

Gail has done her homework.

“I’ve spent decades in fitting rooms, alteration rooms, wardrobes and conversations with women,” says Gail. “That knowledge is incredibly valuable.”

Gail has gained invaluable knowledge.

“The older I get, the more I realise how much unnecessary noise we create for ourselves,” she says.

Gail enjoys job satisfaction.

“I’ve become mush more protective of peace, routine, and simplicity. And strangely enough, that is exactly what I reach through clothing too. I’d love women to stop believing fashion is something you have to keep up with. It isn’t.”

• linktr.ee/gailsrails