skip to main content

THE FITTING ROOM

The Fitting Room - Ruedi Maguie, Ciara O'Doherty, Paddy Smyth, Zoe Carol Wong Image Name: The Fitting Room - Ruedi Maguie, Ciara O'Doherty, Paddy Smyth, Zoe Carol Wong Copyright: Andres Poveda
The Fitting Room - Paddy Smyth, Zoe Carol Wong, Ciara O'Doherty, Ruedi Maguire Image Name: The Fitting Room - Paddy Smyth, Zoe Carol Wong, Ciara O'Doherty, Ruedi Maguire Copyright: Andres Poveda

Clothes are how we express our inner selves to the outside world – but what if a non-standard body, identity or personality makes it impossible to buy clothes that really fit, flatter or flaunt a unique style?

RTE 2’s exciting new series “The Fitting Room”, presented by Paddy Smyth, is on a mission to prove fashion can be fun and accessible for everyone – celebrating difference and ripping open the seams of what makes us individual.

In each programme a trio of extraordinarily talented Irish designers and stylists (Ruedi Maguire, Zoë Carol Wong and Ciara O’Doherty) will invite members of the public into the creative hub, to help solve their clothing conundrums by creating bespoke outfits that will help how they look on the outside match how they feel on the inside.

This ground breaking series will turn what we think and know about style and identity on its head.

The Fitting Room is a 6-part series, and will air on Mondays at 9:30pm on RTÉ2.

Episode 5

This episode’s three participants in The Fitting Room are: Sinead McManus from Kildare, Jake Keighery from Athlone and Britney Arendse from Cavan.

Sinead McManus has albinism, and often faces what she calls “subtle prejudice” – awkward looks, stuttering questions. Shopping is difficult for Sinead as she needs to methodically move through the aisles looking at each item. She often gets separated from her friends who see items across the shop and quickly move away from her leaving her stranded. She finds it difficult to read sizing labels too.

20 year old Jake Keighery lives at home with his mum in Athlone and is known among friends and family as ‘The Athlone giant’. 6ft 7” tall with very broad shoulders, Jake finds it a real struggle to find shirts, jackets and tops that fit him. Wardrobe staples would be jeans, and shirts with a t-shirt and leather jacket. He tends to stay away from bright colors because of his size.

Britney Arendse was involved in a car crash when she was just 9 years old, and with life-changing injuries, she was left paralysed from the waist down. The Arendse family moved to Ireland from South Africa several years ago, and before the accident Britney was very sporty and loved to swim. She is now a world record holder in para powerlifting and wants to represent Ireland at the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo.