Words: SARAH HORGAN

Picture: DRAGAN THOMAS

SUGAR and spice and all things nice. That’s what little girls are made of… or so the nursery rhyme goes.
If that truly is the case then Rachel McCarthy from Midleton,  was the exception to this rule consisting of very little sugar and barely a hint of spice.
“I was such a tomboy growing up and that’s probably down to the fact that my brother and cousins were all male and older than me,” says the 26-year-old,  who owns a flower shop called Ina’s Flowers in  Midleton with her mother.
“I wanted to be just like them and would much rather have been seen sporting jam-stained tracksuit bottoms than skirts and dresses.
“In secondary school when many of my classmates were playing Britney Spears’ She’s So Lucky on loop, I wanted to be a tattoo artist.”
“My mum used to collect tiaras for me from all over the world in a bid to get me to be more feminine. People who hear that will probably assume I was a princess but that couldn’t be further from the truth. I suppose in the end she got her way. It doesn’t get more girlie than flowers.”
If fashion were an Olympic sport,  the outfits which Rachel chose to style and model herself in WOIW! on Wednesdaywould surely see her through the first heat. Rachel admits, nonetheless, that her sense of style is not an innate attribute.
“Growing up I had this bright orange hair with a complexion peppered with freckles.
“I remember as a little girl my mum made me wear a pillar-box red dress with green tomatoes, which made for a rather polarising contrast against my unconventional features. I’ve yet to find out what influenced her fashion choice!”
Mum Ina is also a skilled milliner who makes hats for the Galway races. Rachel radiates pride as she tells us how one of Ina’s hats made the top 12 at the event this year.
Rachel is our fifth port of call in our weekly series where we ask well know faces to model local styles. See the full fashion shoot in WOW!, free with Wednesday’s Cork Evening Echo