Now more than ever we all need a bit of colour in our lives. Textile guru, Megan Crook, owner of Get Crooked, talked to Paula Kioko about being a firm believer of being as bright as the day and as wild as the night.
At 16, Megan Crook fell in love with knitwear. Whilst working as a waitress back in her native USA, she found herself spending all her tips on knitwear pieces from the most expensive shops in town. One day Megan received a discount code, her face filled with confusion when she asked why?
“You’re our best customer,” they said. She then realised that she couldn’t be their best customer if she’s only 16.
With her passion and love for knitwear, she wanted to save her money and the only way she could do that was by learning how to knit.
After school, after work and even underneath the desk at school, she taught herself all the skills she could and made it her life. A natural bond between her love of yarn and knitwear to her love to create.
Her passion and skills grew stronger, evolving into patterns cuts, embellishment and embroidery with the use of yarn to create her own textiles.
“It’s a very diverse range because people are diverse, and I’m very multifaceted just like everybody else and I like to create a body of work that reflects that,” Megan says.
She watched her son grow as she was able to continue her passion from the comfort of her home until one day she found herself in a rut due to the lack of escape this work environment created.
The time to move house came and the Rainbow Studio was born in 2019 and transformed through lockdown in 2020, a new home to both Megan Crook textiles and Get Crooked.
“For me, this space is like a dream come true, all of that extra stress far outweighed in all the benefits I have in terms of quality of life, content and work that I’m now able to produce.”
Megan Crook textiles (the textile guru) focuses on machine embroidery to create and design unique patterns and pieces. Get Crooked is her fun festival fashion, the perfect place to splurge once lockdown is lifted and festivals rise again.
With the sister brands, Megan focuses on free spirit fashion, a form of fashion she classes as a way for people who don’t dress for others, and are comfortable in expressing themselves.
“It is about confidence for me, by making clothes that represent that it’s like, go big or go home, there’s no other way for it. There’s nothing more important for me as a designer and a business owner, I want to be making garments that look good on real people.”
“The idea is someone putting something on and going yes girlfriend!”
Megan Crook – the textile guru
“Knowing people are going to go out and have an amazing time, they’re going to go and make some memories and the idea of being a part of that even if it’s just a very small part but it’s still really important.
“I think clothing has an amazing way of lifting your spirits, it can be a mask but it can also brighten your whole mood and make other people happy too.”
Megan aims to keep her businesses sustainable by ensuring that their rainbow studio in Nottingham runs purely on clean, green renewable energy, and only using biodegradable packaging materials when sending out orders. Also introducing a ‘made to order’ model, limiting excess stock where possible to limit any wastage.
This Valentine’s day, Megan Crook Textiles are launching a Valentine’s craft special, a way to stitch a message to send to your friends and loved ones using the studio offcuts and waste from their in-house garment construction, making them sustainable. The brand is pledging to donate 50% of all proceeds to the mental health charity Mind.
Kind regards, a common email sign off that we all tend to use but what about, Stay bright, stay sassy, stay fabulous. A goodbye more familiar to the cheerful textile guru who continues to put a smile on everyone she encounters both physically or digitally.
Follow Megan and her designs on The Textile Guru and Get Crooked. Alongside her website, Get Crooked.
By Paula Kioko
