Preface from the designer

Many years ago, a young woman from Arkansas learned to sew. She started making things from commercial patterns, then grew confident enough to alter them, then taught herself how to make her own patterns, then realized her hobby had turned into an obsession and that she was in way too deep not to share her designs with the world. In May 2016, she launched a womenswear line, named it Margu after a nickname of hers, and continued to learn and grow as a designer over four years and ten collections.

Then the pandemic happened and she took a break for a few months, and then a few months became a few years. She never gave up, exactly, she just lost momentum. And momentum was hard to come by as it got harder and harder to pick up where she left off. All the while, the gulf between the person she was and the person she had become continued to widen.

I finally resolved to relaunch my line in April 2024, but decided to do so under a new name, my actual name. I was always hesitant to put my name on my clothes in the past, and honestly, it still makes me anxious to see my name plastered all over the place, but I have found a sort of freedom in signing my own work. I no longer have anything to hide behind, and that motivates me to continue to learn and grow.

This is Collection 1, though it could also be called Collection 11. It has a number of thematic elements you might pick up on — a cool color palette, nods to the 1930s through the '60s, a venture into two-piece sets that look like dresses, a cover image that is an overt homage to one of my favorite George Plank Vogue covers — but the collection itself does not really have a theme. This is a bit strange coming from someone who has a history of going overboard on themes (my personal favorites being my Victorian-era poetry collection and SS18's total commitment to a bird theme), but this collection has been bouncing around in my head for so long, designed and scrapped and redesigned over and over again, that, more than anything, it's a revisiting of all my old designs and a stake in the ground for my future ones. More than anything, it's a new start. 

The tagline for my previous line was "Clothing made slowly and thoughtfully." It was partly a joke on how slow and obsessive I was when it came to making clothing, but mostly it was a description of my approach to fashion. I sought to make clothing that lasted decades, not weeks; I valued quality and craftsmanship over quantity and speed; I took all the time I needed to get the details of each piece right; I believed that all clothing has a story to tell and that good clothing is an essential part of a life well-lived. While many things have changed in the past four years, who I am and what I value as a designer and an artist remain the same.

Regardless of whether you are discovering my line for the first time or are a longtime friend from my Margu days: thank you so much for being here. It means the world to me to be able to share my work with you.

Emily