Maggie Marilyn: The Fashion Outsider Who's Had A Lightning Rise To The Top

 

Maggie Marilyn Hewitt’s story reads like a corny cartoon bildungsroman. It goes like this: Fashion-obsessed teenager from pipsqueak, middle-of-nowhere town thousands of miles away from a major fashion capital dreams of making it big. She goes to college. Hones her aesthetic. Meets big-time fashion buyer from major retailer at Fashion Week. Buyer picks up her fledgling label on the spot. The best part? People buy her clothes. In volume. That includes Karlie Kloss and Kendall Jenner.

 

At 23, Hewitt - sunny, enthusiastic, excited - is adjusting to her status as "the next big thing". “It’s pretty surreal,” she says, speaking over the phone from her native New Zealand one morning in September. Net-A-Porter - the aforementioned retailer who discovered her work at Sydney Fashion Week in May 2016 – had never picked up a first season collection in its history. "Lisa Aitken [Net-A-Porter’s fashion director] saw the clothes and loved them on the spot. I crossed my fingers for a week until I got the email confirming that they were gonna pick it up. I just don’t think you can ever really be prepared for that - it was a rollercoaster.”

Hewitt was born in the coastal town of Kerikeri, New Zealand, population: 7,000. She read Vogue from a young age and credits her mother as “a beautiful dresser”, but even so was “pretty removed from the fashion industry”, growing up on a farm surrounded by animals and wide open space. Her parochial upbringing was compounded by geographical isolation: New Zealand boasts few notable fashion exports other than Karen Walker and Kym Ellery, whose successful eyewear and ready-to-wear labels buck the trend. “We are pretty isolated from the rest of the world, but I like that we have an outsider perspective,” is Hewitt’s take on its topography.

That outsider perspective has certainly sharpened her focus. After four years of studying fine arts, majoring in fashion, at Auckland, Hewitt knew “I had a point of view, I had something, and I wanted to start my own brand”. She graduated and immediately designed a collection that adhered to her principle of “liveable luxury”, which she defines as “beautifully executed clothes, in beautiful fabrics, that you can wear every day. You can run or dance in them – they’re pieces you’d never hesitate to grab.” Then she took her samples to Sydney, and Net-A-Porter came knocking. On September 17 2017, she marked one year of Maggie Marilyn, her eponymous brand.

 Hewitt’s youth also influenced her decision to make her brand ethically and sustainably conscious. “Fashion is so inherently unsustainable,” she says, “but I wanted to have an intimate relationship with how my clothes are made.” She uses organic cottons, ethically produced silks, and recycled metals that aren’t harmful to the environment. The clothes are manufactured predominantly in Auckland, in a factory that’s a 10-minute drive from her studio, while knitwear is made in Italy. From the start, she adopted a four-drops-a-year model, showing twice a year in pre-collection time frames, to streamline production. “We can put our long-lead fabrics in our second drop and have a six-month production cycle instead of three months. The stores like it because they only have to meet with us twice, instead of four times a year, and I like it because it allows me more creative time.” She executes her designs - all wearable, Instagram-friendly, everyday clothes with tiny twists, a ruffle here, a cut-out there – in her parents’ beach house. “It’s silent and serene - I’m very lucky to have it,” she says.

 

The biggest challenge, as for any young designer who has met with success early on, is not to overreach. “I’m trying to find a way to grow with the brand, so it’s not growing faster than I can grow,” she says. Still, in one year the brand has grown by an astonishing 980 per cent, and is now stocked in 30 stores worldwide, including Saks and Neiman Marcus. Her best-selling piece continues to be her denim flares, but new beetroot-red pieces in her autumn collection are surging ahead.
The plan for 2018? World domination. “I’m hugely ambitious,” she admits, in her sing-song tones. “I want Maggie Marilyn to become a lifestyle brand. I’d love to have my own store and also stock other ethically and sustainably conscious brands alongside.” In an industry obsessed with insiders, sometimes it’s the fringe members who have the real edge.

source by vogue.co,uk