Back to the Bones

An interview with designer Alison Mclean.

From the moment I started planning The Inspired Spiral, I've known that Alison would be my first Muse of the Month. She is a dear friend, a mother of four and the owner of Shelter Clothing, a brand that empowers women to feel confident and comfortable every day. Together, we talk about creations from mind to matter, size inclusion and scaling back to grow more.

When we met, you were taking maternity leave for your second son. Recently, you had three kids under two years old. Tell me what you currently do in your work life?

AM: It’s very, very little. It would be nice if I could just let it all go, but I really love my job. I find that a lot of things are happening internally. I’m thinking about it all while functioning in my life and then when I have 5 minutes to take quick action on something like an email, look for fabric swatches or share an idea with [my seamstress] Beverly, I do that. I am a mother and I am an artist. Right now, I have no space in my hands to make art so I make it in my mind then I share it with people who can take my idea and turn it into a tangible piece to be consumed and seen by others.

Practically, what I’m doing is I get maybe 10 one minute moments on my computer throughout the day where like, with my wrong hand and no punctuation I can send a quick note to somebody. When I get to spend time troubleshooting a leg that I want to see on a pair of pants, I feel very creatively fulfilled. That is really my work life.

What do you love most about the work that you do?

AM: Two things immediately come to mind. One is the actual excitement of having something be completely in your brain to being able to see it in a real piece of art. It’s such a spectacular excitement and it is so fun to then make edits on it and have it get closer to this vision that you have in your mind.

The second thing that comes to mind is the feeling that I can help women feel the way that I felt when I started allowing myself to wear what I wanted to wear and not what I was supposed to wear. It affected my life in such a positive way where I actually felt the difference in my posture and like, the difference in how my face and eyebrows felt as I walked into a space that I might have otherwise been anxious to walk into. If I had something that I wanted to wear, I felt excited for my day. The positive feedback that we get from returning customers proves that these clothes are doing that for women, and that is very exciting to me.

SM: I’m dressed in Shelter right now. These are luxurious and really reliable pieces in my wardrobe.

Your brand is well known for being size inclusive. What inspired this direction?

AM: I mean, it felt like an absurd injustice that women were only able to dress themselves if they were a specific size. Outside of that size they were limited to a specific set of garments. It just felt really ridiculous to me.

When I started this company I was a size large. I found that so frequently, I would go into a store and they wouldn’t have clothes for me. And I just felt, well, it’s enraging. Starting with my body as a sample size has always made it feel like we can create clothes for women with all different bodies. The dream is that each time I make a collection, I can continue to expand and that people are going to give me feedback on how these clothes are working for their bodies or not. 

Having options in your wardrobe feels like, as a woman, I mean I’m not a man so I don’t know how that feels, but as a woman it feels like my right. And I just can’t believe that it’s not available. It shouldn't matter what size you are. Having clothes that fit and feel like they represent how you want to show up helps everyone. I’m going through so many body changes right now with the babies and I have this societal dialogue that I shouldn’t buy new clothes, I should get back to the size that I was before. It’s like, actually I’m breastfeeding three babies and my fucking pants don’t fit. I need new pants. I would so rather have the dialogue in my mind be “I want my back to feel strong” but even showing up to a fitness class I feel like there’s this idea that I’m there to lose weight. And I’m like, I want a strong back so I’m not in pain. And I’m just going to buy new pants.

SM: Or make your own.

AM: That’s right. Where it came from originally is that I wanted these things and they weren’t available even to me as a size large or extra large. So we changed it. They’re clothes that are on my body and I feel at ease. I didn’t know what that felt like, until I made these clothes.

You’ve recently moved your operations solely online and have come into a bit of a rebrand – Can you speak more to this?

AM: Yeah. Inclusivity plays a big role in who I want to be as I show up online. Of course, we know what it is like to put something on your body and it feels great. I’m really trying to pay attention to the obstacles of people actually understanding what they are purchasing and how it might fit on their body. It’s a massive task and it’s motivating. When someone emails with something like “this shirt was tight on my bicep” I can feel their pain. I have so much compassion for that experience and I really, really want to do my best to overcome that with our online and social media presence. 

SM: I find that you’ve done a really good job of it in how you work with models. You get familiar with their bodies and make a sample for them. It’s not like you’ve made a sample and now you need to find the right body for that piece. You’ve made a piece for the body you choose to work with and so it accurately represents how it should fit. I’ve always thought that was really beautiful.

AM: Yeah. And what was happening is when I was looking at my website and looking at my logo I was just feeling that it didn’t really look like me. It didn’t feel like who I wanted to be. And I don’t even know where I’m going right now. It just feels like I’m stripping down to see what it becomes. Branding is such a crazy science and world that I don’t really understand. I still have a dream of working with a branding expert but the reality is, I don’t even know who I want to be yet and so, how do you turn that into a visual imagery? I don’t know. So, just kind of bringing it back to the bones and I’ll see what happens.

"It felt like an absurd injustice that women were only able to dress themselves if they were a specific size."

Last question. What is the best piece of advice you’ve received, from yourself or another, that you keep coming back to?

AM: Right now what I’m really trying to do is do things well and slow. Um, so far as I have the ability to in the slow fashion world. It feels like everything needs to move really fast or you’ve missed the train.

‘Be honest’ is another thing that I really focus on, as a human and the way in which I interact with the world but also the story telling on social media. I find that it’s way more interesting to know the reality of what’s going on and that it’s way more interesting to know real people versus a business. To have a person that comes to mind when you wear a Shelter garment and not just the branding — that’s the dream.

 

Read more about Shelter Clothing here.

This conversation has been condensed for clarity.