Sustainable designer Maria McManus offers a glimpse into the making of her latest collection
From Texas’s retail scene to the runaways of Paris, Maria McManus tells the story behind her brand’s latest collection – and reflects on where it all began six years earlier.
The namesake label of Dublin-born, New York-based fashion designer Maria McManus is fast emerging as a brand of choice for women seeking high-quality wardrobe staples with built-in sustainability credentials. With a focus on biodegradable fibres and reduced water use, McManus founded her brand in 2020 after working for US brands such as Tory Burch and Club Monaco. During Paris Fashion Week, the designer took over a showroom in Le Marais, where she met Monocle to talk about mulling over her spring/summer 2027 collection on a holiday in Ireland, as well as why she credits Texas with getting her brand off the ground.
What was the starting point for this collection?
I spent a lot of time in Ireland this summer. My children were born in the US and they got a little fancy – they needed some grounding. So we headed to Ireland and spent two weeks driving the Wild Atlantic Way. We drove 2,200km to see every beach, nook and cranny of the west coast, from Cork all the way up to Donegal. I was also thinking about Edna O’Brien’s novels The Country Girls and The Lonely Girl. The books are about these country girls who move to The Big Smoke, hence the more glamorous pieces in the collection, as well as the sweet, organic-cotton sateen skirts with French-lace detailing. There are elements of Ireland in these little touches.
Can you tell us more about your manufacturing process?
For the most part we work with one factory in New York, one in Portugal and one in Poland, with another small one in China for knitwear. We’re diverse because of the situation with tariffs and duties in the US right now.
There’s a lot of repetition of fabrics in the collection. It is intentionally lean but there’s still innovation. One of the Japanese mills we work with bought farms in India and converted them to produce organic cotton. All of the lace is certified Dentelle de Calais-Caudry, made in northern France on old-fashioned Leavers looms. Our knitwear yarns are sourced in Italy. We use a silk replacement from Japan that is made from recycled fibres in a closed-loop system. We use recycled leather that is mixed with polyester at the moment but we’re looking for alternatives.
Where do you see opportunities in a tighter consumer market as an independent, self-funded brand?
We’re trying to grow our direct-to-consumer (DTC) revenue. We’ve almost doubled it this year. We’re still a very US-based brand because I’m in New York. We have a loyal customer base; our return rate is about 45 per cent. Our customers are on the coasts, so New York and the northeast, as well as Los Angeles and San Francisco. We also have a huge base in Texas. We work with shops in Austin, Houston and Dallas and, honestly, the reason that we’re still here is because our first collection was sold in Texas. Coming to Paris Fashion Week, our goal is to build an audience in Europe and [be stocked] in speciality boutiques. In the US, we’re in almost every city.
