The Young Meagher Project

Young Meagher is a project inspired directly by the Standard & Ethics proclomation of the original Militant Guild of Rural Tailors (a document presented elsewhere in this research). A conceptual collaboration, the project sheds light on the heretofore-lost history of the MGRT's secret society, which is thought to have been founded during the early Industrial Revolution. Even during its heyday details about the Guild had been shrouded in mystery but knowledge of its existence had all but completely disappeared over the decades since its formation. During the very early stages of project research was unearthed about the Guild and the designers used the dogmas of the secret society's 126 year-old manifesto as a guideline to develop a contemporary men’s clothing concept. In this regard Young Meagher is itself a research project with its documentation taking the form of prototype "test garments".


Each Young Meagher test garment has also been developed to reflect personal attitudes about men’s style with direct allusions to shape and detailing found in clothing from the motorsport, travel , tradecraft and military design traditions. In this respect Young Meagher can be seen as an act of provocation and criticism within the current menswear scene. - Rejecting many characteristics commonly celebrated in menswear fashion (metrosexuality, built-in-obsolescence, overt branding, artificial aging, futurism, class pretense, artificial seasonality, etc).

The impact this approach will have on the contemporary rural tailoring movement remains to be seen. At this stage the concept operates not on a commercial premise but rather in the context of an art project and has been featured at NAKED/181 MARTEL and the D&A ANNEX in LA, the gallery of AN EARNEST CUT & SEWN and GENART NEW YORK FASHION WEEK in NYC and in a special exhibition on the International Creator's Floor of ISETAN in Tokyo.


Comparable in one way to tangible/plastic research on the fringes of fashion design underaken by artists such as Lucy Orta, Vanessa Beecroft or E.V. Day and alternatively to living-history projects like the building and sailing of the Kon-Tiki, Young Meagher undertakes this exercise partly in order to assess the impact of the R,T,S & E dogma on contemporary design. For more on this concept refer to other entries on Young Meagher in this web log or visit their webiste. www.youngmeagher.com