Meet fashion designer Austin whose label walked the runway at Paris Fashion Week

AUSTIN (KXAN) – Austin may not be known as a big fashion city, but that hasn’t stopped a designer from bringing the city’s eclectic style to the international stage.

Madi Meserole, a 22-year-old Austin native, showed off her cutting-edge designs at Paris Fashion Week from September 28 to October 31. 6. His custom fit brand, MEZ Atelier, includes streetwear, couture, avant-garde and vintage collections.

The opportunity to walk to Paris Fashion Week came from a New York-based company that helps discover and promote emerging designers. Less than a year after first receiving the email regarding her participation in Paris Fashion Week, she was showing off her looks at one of the first fashion shows.

“As a designer you can see what you create come to life, not just by stitching it up, but putting it on a real human, and watching him be able to put it on and see how he feels and his original reaction. to wear one of your pieces, ”Meserole said. “The designer’s only real goal is to make his customers feel confident and good about what they wear. And so every time someone puts a coin on and you see that in their eyes, in their face, you know you’ve achieved that goal.

Meserole’s love for fashion is an extension of his family’s propensity to sew. Growing up, she said that her grandmother, mother and younger sister all knew how to sew.

When Meserole was younger, she said clothes never fit the way she wanted them to. As she got ready for her prom, her mother offered to make her a dress from scratch. It was the spark that prompted her to get into tailoring, specialize in college, and create her own brand.

“You can take a flat piece of cloth and do pretty much anything you could imagine with it,” she said, adding, “I like being able to sketch crazy ideas in my head and bring them out into real life. and be able to walk on the track.

Fashion, Meserole said, is a silent offering of a piece of a person’s personality. She said her creativity and nuances can speak to the unique attributes of the person wearing it. With her label – designs that blend feminine and delicate touches with daring features – she sees it as a reflection of her own shyness coupled with a creative and adventurous spirit.

“I think the clothes make a statement,” she said. “Every time you wear them, it’s like your silent declaration to the world.”

While Austin may not appear alongside New York, Paris, Milan and London as fashion hubs, Meserole said the city is still shaping its image. She praised the eclectic nature of Austin’s different neighborhoods and how they have blended together to form a quintessentially “Austin” fashion scene.

From traditional hippie-inspired pieces to a Westside preppiness and emerging edginess, she said Austin’s creative identity is not black and white, but constantly evolving with its growing population.

She also credited the many designers who are expanding Austin’s fashion plan with their own collections. In December, the annual Austin Fashion Week will help promote local designers through biannual fashion shows.

But for now, Meserole has said she enjoys using her brand to represent Austin on the international stage – with a bit of the avant-garde to pay homage to the “quirk” for which Austin is known and loved.

“It was an honor to be able to represent Austin internationally. I mean, my stuff is very present and very different, ”she said with a laugh. “But I think that fits one of Austin’s real mottos: Keep Austin Weird. And so we kept it weird in Paris, and it was great.