From Arkansas to NYC!
by Emily Rowe | 18 June 19
It's been a while!
Perhaps a bit longer than I wanted it to be, but moving across the country and reestablishing yourself in a city where you know a total of four people is no joke!
I'm super excited to announce that, after several long months of behind-the-scenes work, Margu is back, with a redesigned logo, a brand new website (thanks to my husband; if you ever need a website totally hit him up), and a new collection coming out super soon!
When we went on hiatus back in January, I wasn't sure how long it would be for, and I wasn't sure if I was going to keep up Margu's social media presence. After a few weeks of not posting, I realized just how freeing not being tied to Instagram was, and I ended up deciding to go completely dark for months. From the outside, it may have looked like I was calling it quits, but inwardly, I was brimming with ideas, inspired by the new city I call home, more excited than I had been in a long time about Margu. These past few months, I've realized how many things I was doing back in 2018 that felt like going through the motions in every aspect of the business, from designing to sourcing fabrics to social media to marketing. During our hiatus, I spent a lot of time thinking about what I really want out of Margu, and as such I've vowed to focus on the things I really enjoy (and not do things that I don't enjoy but feel like I "should," like updating Twitter. Sorry, Twitter!).
So ... what exactly has been going on these last few months? A brief synopsis:
Back in December, I packed up my studio and left it in Arkansas, and at the beginning of January my husband and I hopped on a plane to New York City.
From the moment we landed at LaGuardia (well, maybe not the moment; the first few hours of not being able to find our friends' apartment and our phones dying from the blistering cold were not the greatest), I have been head-over-heels in love with this city. The energy of New York is electric, and every time I leave my apartment I come back with some new piece of inspiration.
Leaving Arkansas was something I had always planned to do, but the timing was never right. Even after starting Margu, with the flexibility to move wherever I wanted in the world, it was hard to give up the low cost of living and creature comforts of my hometown. This past year, though, I began to feel an incredible itch to move, and I knew that moving to a city with more resources to grow my label was the next step. I had never done something so daring in my life as as hopping on a plane and hoping for the best, but it was the best decision ever — if I could do it over again, I'd do the exact same thing.
It took a while to get settled in the city. We stayed in Airbnbs and sublets all over NYC for several months (so much fun, but so exhausting!) before finally finding an amazing apartment to call our own in a Brooklyn brownstone. I got the new Margu studio (which is still just as tiny as it was in Arkansas) set up in April, and these last two months I've been working on our Spring/Summer 2019 collection, which is coming out shortly.
I'm so excited that Margu is back, and if you've read all the way to this paragraph, I'm guessing you are too. :) Be sure to follow along on our Instagram (@margudesign) for more behind-the-scenes peeks at our studio space/new collection. (Yes, we're back on Insta again!)
