This research examines women’s changing gender roles and related changes in female dress in the period 1910-1937. Women’s increasing role in the public sphere, for example, necessitated a move towards practical dress. Both women’s shifting gender roles and changes in choice of clothing were regularly debated in newspapers and prescriptive literature throughout the period in question. Despite changes in women’s roles, the dominant discourse in Ireland in this period was still that of separate spheres, particularly after 1922, with women viewed as belonging to the private or domestic sphere. Therefore, women’s gender roles in the period cannot be discussed without an examination of representations of the home. Fashions and trends relating to home interior also changed as women’s roles slowly changed and evolved. Changes in dress and home furnishings in Ireland saw influences from Paris, London and New York despite the anti-modernist discourse of the early Free State. With due reference to class it can be said that Irish women participated in contemporary international trends and displayed such engagement in their dress and home furnishings and design. Prescriptive literature provides the images, descriptions and public discourse for this research.