Megan McGuigan
Megan’s aim is to explore how textiles can be used to create socially engaging artwork that helps us to better understand and interact with each other and the world around us.
Megan McGuigan is a fashion designer and textile artist based in Dundalk and Dublin. She is the founder of the brand ‘Seeking Judy’ which is now stocked in George’s Street Arcade and ARNOTTS in Dublin. ‘Seeking Judy’ is based on 'ideas of escapism and utopia with the natural world often personified through cartoon-like illustrations’, says Megan.
Irish mythology is present in Megan’s work where elements of the natural world such as trees, rivers and mountains have their own unique personalities. Megan believes that because Irish mythology has such great respect for the landscape, sustainability and environmentalism are inherently tied to it. She considers the environment in every step of her process from fabrics, dyes, supply chain proximity and working conditions. Megan’s aim is to explore how textiles can be used to create socially engaging artwork that helps us to better understand and interact with each other and the world around us.
‘From a political standpoint, you don't have to look very far to see how Irish women have used fashion as a medium for change. If you look at Sinead O'Connor protesting the Catholic Church's hold on Ireland, she’s making a political statement through t-shirts, headdresses and a skinhead haircut’, says Megan. She feels that fashion has always played an important part in politics.
Megan says that, until recently, all of her designs were unisex. 'My femininity was something I struggled with’ she says ‘and I found comfort in the in-between’. She leaned into street wear and menswear in her designs and she says that, although she enjoyed this and it spoke to her customers, she now feels that menswear as womenswear should not be the only unisex option.
Last summer, Megan did a residency in Barcelona where she worked on a textile sculpture based on the idea of protection. ‘I spent a lot of time looking at nests, wombs, and organic matter in our bodies like blood, cells and bones under the microscope’, she says. ‘The result was a large knitted structure which ended up resembling a woman's womb’. She made dresses with knitted samples left over from the sculptures that have been shown on male and female bodies and feels the dresses represent the fragility and protective energy we all hold inside us.
Megan’s grandmother, who was a ‘great knitter,’ taught her how to knit and Megan uses her grandmother's machine today to create her work. ‘She is no longer with us, however, I feel very connected to her when I do my work. I love that knitting and textiles have been passed down through a lineage of women in my family’, she says.
‘My designs are made for the cold and harsh weather conditions associated with Northern Europe’, says Megan. She notes for example, that her waterproof bag range was designed for consumers who live in wet climates such as Denmark, the Netherlands, Ireland, Sweden, and the UK, although they are not of course limited to these countries.