Maria McManus’ fall collection was crafted in the vein of Irish architect Eileen Gray. The designer said Gray, one of the founders of modern minimalism, had an “incredible take on considered design” — a similarity the duo certainly share.
“I’m not sure that today people consider design so much. I think we’re being sold this idea of luxury, but I’m not sure that luxury is the goal versus creating a billion-dollar company or a $10 billion company,” she said backstage, and later to the crowd at the end of her runway presentation. McManus has also been thinking about how the fashion industry is romanticized, but might not be as considered in the way products were back in the 1920s.
“It just makes me more convinced that we have to do better. I think our job as a very tiny sustainable company is to shine a light on the woes of our industry and try to inspire people to make better choices,” she added.
Season after season, she does so with sustainable, elevated fashions, this time in Gray’s neutral and muted hues. Although nothing finding sustainable materials within the luxury sphere is a little limiting, she presented newness a la leather-looking circular Naia Renew layers; washed Naya Sateen coats; a balaclava knit with sheer skirt, and a great silver foil bubble skirt in recycled polyester that continued pre-fall’s gilded story.
A majority of fall looked like new takes on signatures, namely suiting, coats and knitwear. Even if those styles were too quiet to warrant a runway presentation this season, they’re timeless, sophisticated ones that customers will certainly live in and that carry an important overarching message to the industry.
