Killahbeez had the chance to chat with the very friendly Megan George of MONROW about her and business partner Michelle Wenke’s MONROW success. We chatted about MONROW’s background, design process, Fall 2009 line, their collaboration with Amber Valletta, and how before making it big, they were in trouble with the one and only, Kate Moss! Enjoy!
Killahbeez: I know Michelle has her own story, but why don’t you start by telling me how you got into fashion.
Megan George: I’ve always liked to draw and have always been really artistic. I could never afford to buy the clothing I liked so I used to vintage clothes shop and alter everything so it would fit me. That’s kind of how it started: altering clothes.
I never thought I was going to go into fashion. When I was about 20 or 21 I got my first job at a clothing store that carried high-end designers and I got my first experience with quality clothing. It was a small boutique in San Francisco and I was really intrigued with the quality, the level of sophistication, and the construction of the clothing. With that and the experience of sewing my own clothes, I really came to appreciate the industry. It happened kind of organically. I would be sitting on the bus and I would just start sketching clothes, I just figured maybe I should try getting into design.
KB: Is that when you decided to go to school?
MG: When I moved to LA, I knew that I definitely wanted to design so I applied to OTIS College of Art and Design and got in on almost a full scholarship.
While at OTIS, I was working at Fred Segal in Los Angeles which was a hot spot to be and I got to experience so many different levels of my industry. After school I started designing my own line, George, which I sold to Fred Segal. It did really well and I kept going from there.
KB: Where did you and Michelle meet?
MG: We met at OTIS. We became really good friends but we never once talked about starting a line while at school. We stayed really good friends after graduation. She was a stylist and was styling for a bunch of celebrity stylists.
KB: I don’t know if you can speak on behalf of Michelle but as for you, if you weren’t in fashion, what do you think you’d be doing?
MG: I don’t know. I love what I do so much I can’t imagine having to do something else. If we didn’t have our own line, I don’t know that I’d want to design for another company. I’d probably be a pattern maker or something like that.
Michelle might be styling or something with film, or costume design. Not sure!
KB: So how did you guys decide to start MONROW?
MG: One day we just started talking and thought about doing a line together. So I stopped George which got too big for me to handle on my own anyways, and we started a line together. We started in her house, on her kitchen table, cutting samples and drawing sketches. We made our first sample collection in 2007. After we made our samples, we put it in our car and went around to a couple of stores in LA trying to get orders.
I took it to Fred Segal but they passed so we started freaking out. Thankfully, a few other stores liked the collection and placed some orders, but it was nothing to keep us in business. We knew we needed to get a showroom so we took our line around to a few show rooms. One show room took our line and then they started selling it for us on the east and west coast.
KB: So after that the flood gates opened?
MG: Yeah, you pretty much have to get into a show room. They really do handle all of your sales. You need the contacts to the buyers and these show rooms have those contacts. Then they show your stuff and sell it for you. You can only go so far by yourself. You really need to be represented by a show rooms sales agent.
The business really started to take off from there but it was actually the “Kate” tee, the Kate Moss tee, that we got a lot of press on.
KB: What happened that got you the press?
MG: Michelle and I are artists at heart, fashion is just our focus. When we started MONROW, which when we first started was called Harlow, we wanted to have an icon series or guest artist that we could collaborate with.
For our first collection we did the top 5 supermodels: Linda Evangelista, Kristy Turlington, Kate Moss, Helena Christensen, and Naomi Campbell. We printed all of their faces with their names but the one that got the most attention was the Kate tee. It was also around the same time Kate started doing Kate Moss for Top Shop. We actually got a cease and desist letter from Kate’s lawyers because she was launching this line with Top Shop and it was a conflict of identity and interest. So we were no longer allowed to produce the Kate tee and we had to pull it from the line but we had already got a lot of press on it. It’s kind of what put us on the map. Before the Kate tee no one really knew who we were. After it, we were in British and American Vogue, Elle, and so many other major magazines. It was really good for us to get all of that attention even though we did get a cease and desist order.
KB: So since then you guys haven’t printed any more celebrity faces?
MG: We were going to do a follow up line with Shalom Harlow, Amber Valletta, and all the younger models that came out after the first five supermodels. Eventually we also wanted to do a musician series and an artist’s series. But we learned through the Kate Moss thing that you need to get the rights to use someone’s image. So we got the rights to do Marilyn Monroe and we’ve had her for about two years and she does really well.
That’s how our Amber Valletta collaboration came about. We were just getting the rights to use her face and it turned into this whole line that’s launching in November.
KB: What’s MONROW’s design process like?
MG: We start with colour. Some people start with fabric or imagery or what not. Every month we do a different colour palette of seven to nine colours. Once we establish our colour palette, it sets the mood and tone. If it’s all pastels then it’s light and airy. If it’s jewel tones, then it’s dark and vampy. If we use metallics, it’s more rock ‘n’ roll. We have an extensive colour library so we just put different colours together until we find those seven to nine colours that just really create something we can jump off of.
Then we start deciding on fabric. Then the prints: what kinds of prints would look good on this colour palette? Depending on the mood of the colours, we decide how we’re going to generate our prints. We do our own prints. It’s a very detail oriented screen printing process. We’re intensely involved in the whole print process and most of it is done by hand. A lot of our prints don’t look like graphics; they look like fabric burn-outs. We devote a lot of time and consideration into making our prints look different and special.
Our fit is also really important to us. If you want to have a good reputation retail-wise and last long in this industry, you need to have a good fit. Because Michelle and I are professionally trained, we do understand patterns and fit. We do all of our own fittings. We know what a good garment feels like.
KB: What can people expect from your collaboration with Amber?
MG: It’s not like MONROW, it’s dressier. Amber is the designer and Michelle and I are producing it. The way we started was in talking with her: what do you like in clothing? What do you feel is missing? What do you love that you already have? She has this really extensive vintage collection that she’s been collecting over the years through her modelling and she brought in a few of her favourites.
Her style is very girly, feminine, classic, and romantic, all with a modern twist, so that’s very much what the collection is. MONROW is a contemporary line of knits and t-shirts but it’s more casual, every day clothing. The Amber line is a specialty line and each piece is very unique. We’re using washed silks, silk frills, gabardines, lace, etc.
KB: Is her collection a onetime thing?
MG: She really loves it and wants to keep going with it. We’re definitely doing another season.
KB: There are a lot of celeb lines out there now and it seems like everyone in Hollywood can be an overnight designer. Are you feeling any of the resentment toward that movement?
MG: We had a press day in New York and we invited all of the editors from Vogue, Elle, Bazaar, etc. where they could all view the collection. Everyone was surprised. They thought it was going to be another pop-up collection. They could tell the line was unique and really thought out. We got really good feedback. Vogue is going to run the exclusive story on the collection for their October issue where Amber’s going to be photographed wearing the line. I think if they weren’t too serious they probably wouldn’t do that.
We really kept the line true to her. We didn’t try to make it MONROW. We didn’t try to make it what we thought she was about. She decided everything. It really looks like her. For example, what Kate Moss does for Top Shop is more what they already have in Top Shop, it’s just her name on certain pieces. She doesn’t wear that type of clothing, she wears all designer clothing. Amber’s line isn’t a cheaper line. Most celebrities have done these cheaper lines which are totally cool but our Amber line is much more detail oriented, it’s much more sophisticated.
KB: What can people expect for MONROW’s Fall 2009 line?
MG: We did a lot of jewel tones. We did this really cool leopard print with vinyl and this cool long tuxedo jacket. The whole boyfriend look is going on right now so we did some things reminiscent of that.
KB: What’s after fall 2009?
MG: Spring 2010. The t-shirt market works a little bit differently. We do ten collections per year and ship almost every month. We ship new colours, styles, and prints; it’s just the way our industry works. Every month people want to see new things. We’re always designing one collection, shipping another, and doing sales on another.
KB: That sounds never ending!
MG: It really is never ending!
KB: What are MONROW’s favourite trends?
MG: We love little blazers. And we love prints. We do prints ten months of the year and in every collection we offer at least five prints. We borrow from all aspects of life when we’re designing prints: human anatomy, nature, other artists, tapestries, drapery, or textiles from all over the world. We love to travel and we love different cultures so we try to infuse that into our aesthetic. We always have a story when we’re doing a collection. Our Fall line is vampy. The tones are dark and we did this black vinyl print.
KB: Were you guys inspired by the whole vampire craze right now (i.e. Twilight, True Blood, etc.)?
MG: We just liked the vamp, dark nail polish, kind of gothic look. We borrow elements of that look but interpret it in our own way.
KB: What trends do you guys loathe and wish would just go away?
MG: I’m really over the pocket tee. I get it. It was cute when it came out but now everyone has one. It’s just too much now. And racer-back tanks. Enough already!
KB: Are there any other celebrities you guys would like to work with in future?
MG: Yeah we want to keep going with our model series. We love models. There’s something about them when you’re designing. The really set the mood for so many designers. I’m always inspired by them and their personal style. They’ve been all around the world and seen everything. There’s a reason why there’s models and then there’s a reason why there’s supermodels. They really are freaks of nature and it’s really surreal to work with one so closely.
KB: Any other collaborations?
MG: We’re always inspired by artists. We know a lot of artists and we love to collaborate with them. Most people don’t know some of our prints but they are collaborations with unknown artists.
Brett Westfall is our guest artist for fall. One of his illustrations is on one of our shirts. He collaborates with Comme Des Garcons as well. We’ve also worked with Melanie Pullen, a famous photographer, author of a book called High Fashion Crime Scenes.
KB: Well thanks so much for taking the time to chat with me. Every time I wear my MONROW pieces, I always get compliments so it’s great to be able to chat with the creator of those gems.
MG: Thank-you!
Stay tuned for photos of MONROW’s Fall 2009 line!
August 31st, 2009 at 9:01 am
[...] had the chance to interview Megan George of MONROW about her and Michelle Wenke’s success. Check out the interview! .gallery { margin: auto; } .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; [...]
August 31st, 2009 at 11:17 am
Great Interview!!!!
Any news on a possible men’s line?
August 31st, 2009 at 11:55 am
LOVE IT!
August 31st, 2009 at 6:43 pm
I’m a fan of Megan George!
let’s see the men’s line now…