Mershy is my ongoing investigation into what clothing can carry. Rooted in tactile imperfection and analog process: intimate personal artifacts and artwork, scanned sketches, and handcrafted knits. Every piece is handmade, deeply personal, and built at the intersection of the animal and the elemental.

My hands are always in something. Paint or thread or both at once. I collect objects the way other people collect references. These rings have been with me through most of Mershy's life. I find it difficult to work without something on my fingers.

I wanted something to wear when I needed to feel held. The yarn is baby alpaca, sourced from Peru, and I specifically sought out the softest available. The buttons are coconut, shaped into hearts, which I knew would either be too much or exactly right. I think it's exactly right. I wear it on chilly summer nights when the temperature drops and everything gets a little tender.

I love the textures that naturally grow in nature. Moss over stone, roots splitting through concrete, mycelium threading through soil in total darkness. I started pressing my face close to things and sketching what I found there. The embroidery came directly from that. I wanted the thread to behave the way a plant behaves: branching, wandering, finding its own logic.

I’ve been making art my whole life. When I started Mershy I was one person and somewhere in the making of it I became another. My art was always the heart of it. I would draw something in a notebook and then figure out how to put it on a garment or a tag. That translation from the private imaginary world to something someone could hold in their hands is still what excites me most about Mershy. The tree-woman ended up on packaging. I liked the idea of her traveling somewhere.

I competed as a show jumper for fifteen years. The bit hardware started as a memory of the weight of the bridle in my hands. I wanted to wear that feeling and I couldn't stop thinking about it as a garment. The scoop neck halter came from that. There are many ways to wear it, which felt right for something that began as a meditation on control and release.The rings are heavy in a good way. Something about it makes you want to be very still, and then suddenly, not.

When we shot this photo for Spring 2023, the beetle just landed there. We let it stay. I think that's what Mershy has always been about...the willingness to not brush it away.

Emma and Alexa drew this print for me. There's something in the image of a creature that is rooted but also walking. That's the tension I keep coming back to. We ended up testing it on a limited run of pajamas.

I wanted the logomark to feel like it had been found, not designed. We went through a lot of versions. Some versions got messier before they got clearer. I was looking for something that had weight to it but also a kind of looseness, the way handwriting does when you're not thinking too hard. The final mark still has that in it. You can feel where the hand was.