Independence. Design. Fashion. Post Office.
These are all words, many of which we exchanged with Meme Gold, one of the best independent fashion designers regularly visiting Post Offices. The Manchester creative DJs, dances and designs, putting her genuine self into every mix, move and maxi.
We hung out in some Hulme sunshine and chatted about all sorts for ISSUE EIGHT for an interview that you can read fully by ordering the magazine here. Naturally, the designer and the brand Meme Gold were more than just delved into; we learned about Meme’s teenage dreams of archaeology and then dug deeper and deeper to unearth gems of wisdom that we can probably all apply to our own lives.
From the confines of lockdown to the self-expression that she puts into every garment she makes, we had questions and Meme had hefty answers that are worth their weight in Gold.
Firstly, we like to get everyone to introduce themselves in their own words, so over to you…
My name is Meme Gold, I’m a person, a creative person, and I’m living my life.
Your tagline sums up nicely what you’re about as well – ‘wear Me-Me, but be You-You’ – could you explain what that tagline means for the people out there?
It’s the summary of the different kind of interactions I have, particularly with women, to do with my clothes and how they see themselves in them. The point is not to be like me or to behave like me. It’s not any of those things. It’s ‘Hey, I’m being a person, and you can be your own person’. Buy my shit obviously, that’s really cool, but do it your way.
What’s your favourite Post Office?
It depends where I’m spending my time. If I’m sending stuff from home, I’m using my local one. For a time, it was the Stretford Post Office. There are a few in town actually, a few lesser-known ones, need to shout them out. The one is Shudehill, it’s in a big general store, next to the hotel.
There’s one at the back of Manchester Arndale, next to a coffee shop. It’s under that tunnel round the back. You don’t have to go to Spring Gardens Post Office and wait in line. The lesser-known ones need money too.
Your commitment to accessible fashion in terms of sizes is great, and we’d love to see more of it from the industry. Have you ever had to turn down opportunities working with people because of their lack of commitment to accessibility?
I’m glad it seems that way, that’s kind of just who I am. There were things that concerned me when I started making clothes, and I wanted to include as many people as possible. Now, buzzwords surround these things, which kind of makes it clearer what I was doing initially. As I’m learning more and more, it has made it a bit clearer what I am doing.
There have been things that have come my way, and after a bit of research, I’ve just decided that they weren’t for me. I didn’t want to be associated with them. I think people usually get what I’m doing though.
What initially inspired you to get into fashion design?
When I was in high school, I had a roommate, and we got on really well, she wanted to be a designer, and I was just leaving my ‘I want to be an archaeologist’ phase. We just used to sit and draw outfits, and that sparked something in me. When you get to 13/14 years old, and you get told, ‘make decisions about your life right now,’ and that was where I was at. So I went to college to study it and found that people there also liked to express themselves creatively, like myself.
Then I went to Uni to study fashion. I had an interest in fashion as a whole, I loved models and wanted to be a model, and I loved making clothes, but I also wanted to wear them. I wanted to do everything and thought Uni would teach me how to be better at creating. The course taught you how to go directly into the industry though, and that’s not what I wanted to do, so I dropped out. I worked in retail, and it was frickin’ boring, but I was happy to do that and party. When I lost that job, I was bored, so I made things. Some friends would be like, ‘wow, that’s cool, can you make me one?’ Then I started to make stuff for multiple people, and I was just doing it and seeing what happened.
I just tried to stay open to things—a full circle. I want to do fashion, and I want to do it myself. That’s the short story with a lot of help and support, turmoil, identity crisis, and imposter syndrome—the classics.
Read the full Meme Gold interview in ISSUE EIGHT of Off Licence Magazine
