Two days later, the warm flush of excitement had not left her grinning face but her words were flowing again.
"I am absolutely delighted. I did not know what to say. I was not expecting that. It is a real compliment. They are really amazing judges. You know! Liz Mitchell! Margi Robertson! And Christina Perriam," the Irish-born Kiwi told the Wānaka Sun in a voice infused with gratitude and amazement.
Mrs O’Connell is a well-known Wānaka creative, working alongside her husband Sean in their long-running business, Wānaka Signs.
She also devotes many hours to the community sewing room, Fabricate, which she and Sue James set up under the umbrella of the Wānaka Community Workshop in 2022.
What many had not realised — not even some of her closest friends — was the busy mum of three sons recently began beavering away in her spare time on a start-up fashion design business, Precious, which is due to launch later this year.
The WoolOn Creative Fashion Event is a celebration of all things wool, and for a girl from County Donegal who lives in a pair of self-made, Donegal tweed pants, the opportunity to see if she was meeting the mark was too tempting.
But when she whipped up a couple of new pairs of gender-fluid woollen pants and a pinny, made from fabric specially woven at McLean & Co in Oamaru, she didn’t entertain any notions of grandeur.
When she and her husband sat down at their table at WoolOn last Saturday she had no idea who they were beside and were excited to discover it was the eventual supreme winner, Allison MacKay, of Masterton.
When her own category was showcased, people around her asked if she was nervous.
She was not. "Why would I be? I was not going to win. I was just pleased to see our stuff up there," she said.
"It is what I have always done, make clothes," she said.
After the O’Connells moved to Wānaka, she began a design label, Moody Cow, with Wānaka fashion retailer Sandy Limmer.
However, with a business to run and her boys to homeschool, Moody Cow ended up on the backburner.
Occasionally, over the years, Mrs O’Connell created an outfit for local wearable arts shows.
When her boys began reaching adulthood, she decided to start up again as a designer and explore her passion for sustainability and slow fashion.
Mrs O’Connell said she was excited she was judged on her own ability to design and make pants and pinnys.
"It is the wildest compliment I could ever get. I know I will sell these. The pattern is being digitised as we speak ... And it means people won’t say ‘Who the hell is Claire O’Connell?’."
Sue and Rob McLean, who run a traditional weaving company McLean & Co, in Oamaru, made the fabric specially for Mrs O’Connell, recycling decades-old, New Zealand-grown wool yarn that had been sitting in their shed.
Mrs McLean said they believed the yarn had been dyed and spun in Timaru about 30 years ago. They purchased it 10 years ago from a Palmerston North weaver but had not used it.
Mrs McLean said when Mrs O’Connell spoke with her about how to make a New Zealand style of tweed that looked like the garments she wore herself, the McLeans used the yarn to design a fabric that mimicked a traditional tweed look.
