First thing’s first.

I’m from Northern California and went to CCA—California College of the Arts and studied painting. Actually, for a good year and a half of college I was really focused on printmaking, and that has had a huge affect on all of my work right now because it’s essentially printmaking work.

When I got out of school, it was kind of like I just had time to do more of the stuff I never had time to do when I was in school. One of them was sew. I always had one particular thing that I wanted but never had any money, and I didn’t like to shop. So I started making clothes and working and waitressing and people would always be like, ‘Where’d you get that?” And I’d say, “Well I made it.” So I started selling.

Coming from art making, it’s a big struggle for a young artist to have a dialogue with any consumer because you’re making these paintings—and why would anyone want to buy them? Art is luxury, clothes aren’t. You and me, we by clothes, but we might not buy art. So for a young person getting into the art world, it’s really difficult and frustrating. And clothes were like—I could talk to my grandparents about it! Everyone got it. People bought it. I would just make something, and a girl would buy it. And it was so…it was almost magical.

Eventually, I got to this point where I had had a lot of friends move to New York over the course of a couple of years before I had come out. I just had a really big community of people out here. Both friends I already knew and people I was meeting when I would come out to New York to try and sell my clothes to various stores.

I felt like it was the time to come out. I tried it out temporarily in New York at first and loved. …I mean, you know, of course I loved New York.

‘The men want Mary Meyer.’

A lot of the Spring prints are paintings. All of those prints I did while at the Rockaways. I rented my friend’s bungalow and spent a lot of time out at the beach. Spring was very beach inspired. The colors are very beach. There’s the sand and coral, which I feel is very eighties surfer. The influence of what any particular print is kind of what’s going on around me. I’m a sucker for African textiles, I just am. I keep wondering if I’m going to stop being a sucker for it. Not yet.

I’m really excited about the Fall line, which is not online yet. There was an African textile show at the MET. The color palette comes directly from African rugs. Also, a lot of girls told me that they wanted pockets in their capes…so I put pockets in them and made them longer. There will be a thermal jumpsuit, a cropped sweatshirt…

I think we’re going to debut a Men’s line Spring 2010. That’s…that’s…the plan. I don’t think I’m going to say what they are.

Working for the children.

I love doing art with kids. I left it for a long time because I started focusing on fashion. After I had been out of education for about five years, I started really missing it. I wanted to do something as a part of my work that was just part of helping other people. I love making clothes. I love doing this business. I love giving girls beautiful things and making girls looking beautiful, but fashion in general lacks a certain humanity—and I was missing that in my life.

Step Right Up is a program that I’m very involved in with friends Anjali Suneja and Bonnie Pipkin. We started it in Fall 2007, and we’re in the middle of our third session, which has been a full year-long. We write and produce plays with a group of kids in the Lower East Side at P.S. 15. We do all sorts of story telling projects and character building stuff. And eventually we come up with a story and characters, give it a script, cast it, and make the costumes. Then we put on a play.

‘Rock music in my very own home…’

Part of the Mary Meyer Art House is combining unusual things, especially bands and art. I like to host parties. I like to host barbecues and events. It’s just something I like to do and have been doing for a long time, and people like to come to them. This ‘Art House’ title was kind of making it more official. It was a little bit like trying to showcase the people I know in this community who are really talented and really cool. I guess it’s a little bit like a modern day salon.

Plus, rock music in my very own home, breaks my heart. It makes me so happy. The bands play right there [points right behind chair], and there’s fucking beer all over the place. People are throwing beer at you and you’re in your apartment and it’s like…I never wanted to live in one of those band houses that is disgusting all of the time. But to live in a nice home, and then a couple times a year just let everyone go nuts is wonderful!

‘Is that a good enough answer?’

My goal for the future is to be making enough money so that I can have chunks of my profits be going into the after school program and grant money for girls to go to college. I want to somehow start a nonprofit within my company, so that I have ten, twenty-thousand dollars a year so that I can fund art projects I like. Right now I’m doing it on a very small level, but I’m helping my friend put out a book who does amazing art. I want to do more projects like that. …And have a house upstate.