Our Story

Established in 1994 in New York’s East Village, Meg is a locally made, independent womenswear brand known for its unique, timeless, and versatile pieces that fit into everyday life. Through our brand's creative approach to personal styling and tailoring, our goal is to make every customer feel their best, and to have fun in the process! With a focus on dresses, jumpsuits, and comfortable workwear, it’s hard to find a New York woman who hasn’t cherished one of Meg’s pieces.

 

OUR MISSION

Meg empowers our customers through fashion and aims to uplift our communities by stocking woman-owned accessory brands, manufacturing in local factories and print shops, and collaborating with important causes, such as our ongoing relationship with Planned Parenthood.

Our design philosophy since day one has focused on the real-life needs and real bodies of the women who buy our clothing. This philosophy has resulted in collections of feminine, versatile clothing that never goes out of style. We pride ourselves in having elevated service levels, provided by our trained stylists who are passionate about our customers and strive daily to understand their needs and create a wardrobe that works for them.

The future of Meg is ever-changing. After a quarter century of work, Meghan’s focus continues to be to inspire and mentor young creatives. She hopes to motivate the next generation to go after their dreams and find their audiences, by allowing her assistant designers to create their own original work and bring their designs to life to sell in Meg stores. This allows young designers to receive direct feedback from Meg customers, and learn how their work is able to influence and inspire others. The relationship that Meghan has with her employees and her customers is what she enjoys most in her career as a designer, and is what has allowed her brand to flourish.

Meg

 

OUR HISTORY

Meg is the creation of Meghan Kinney and her team. Meghan developed a love for design after spending time in her mother’s and grandmother’s stores and began designing herself at age 14. At age 17 she moved to New York to attend the Fashion Institute of Technology and began her career in the early ’90s interning for designers such as Byron Lars, Christian Francis Roth, and Randolph Duke. Working alongside such inspiring young designers motivated her to begin her own journey.

Starting as a wholesaler in 1994, Meghan sold her dresses to independent boutiques all over the world, starting with her first order from Patricia Field. She opened the first Meg retail location in the East Village in 1996, which at the time was her store, studio, and her home with her two cats. Over the past 28 years, Meg has opened many retail locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Toronto.

Meg continuously uses local manufacturing and reclaimed goods when producing our pieces. In 2018, we began our buyback program as a way to keep our clothing closed-loop within the brand and further our products’ life cycles. We will take back any preloved Meg piece in exchange for a 15% off credit. The success of this program has led to the Archive collection, which existed as a retail location for a brief period of time and can now be shopped online. 20% of all sales from the Meg Archive is donated to Planned Parenthood quarterly.

Orders

 

PRE-ORDERS

For the past six years, Meg has been hosting pre-order events, which are held at her storefronts as well as online during February for Spring/Summer collections, and in August for Fall/Winter collections. These events offer our most loyal clients a sneak peek of what is planned for the upcoming season and allow them to give us their feedback on styles from the collection. Clients can then pre-order the pieces they want during this two-week period, and receive 15% off as a thank you.

These pre-orders are a form of crowdfunding that help us determine what quantities to make, which helps support our mission of being more sustainable, and prevents clothing from being made if it will not be purchased. Our clients are also able to plan their upcoming season’s wardrobe and purchase Meg exclusives when pieces have limited fabric availability.

View the current information on pre-orders here.

 

MEG MOVEMENT

During the beginning of the pandemic, Meghan created Meg Movement, a leisurewear line made from sustainable ITY jersey. This capsule collection is a fashion-forward approach to activewear and sweats and can be worn around the house, at work, and while traveling. These mix-and-match separates are wrinkle-free, machine washable, and look chic while feeling like pajamas. Meghan continues to release new Meg Movement items every year, available online and at her retail locations.

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