We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Madeline Manning. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Madeline below.

Hi Madeline, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I began Madeline Marie with the intent to create special dresses for myself that I did not see in the industry. I wanted a dress that had huge puff sleeves, that fit my chest perfectly and was just the right length. As I began making these dresses and customizing them to my body, my friends and family began wanting dresses that fit their body perfectly. Before long I was creating custom dresses for friends of friends of friends all sizes, shapes and walks of life. If feels so intimate and special to me to work with each client creating a dress that fits their body how they feel most confident. Dress shopping can be so daunting for so many, the devastating feeling of staring in the mirror under the florescent lights of a fitting room or ordering every dress online and not a single one fitting. For me, to have the opportunity to make women feel beautiful is why I make these dresses and why I feel so passionate about my dresses and business model.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Madeline Marie Manning, I founded my own dress label, Madeline Marie. As a little girl I had dreamed of being a designer and moving to New York, cheesy I know.  I have found pages and pages of my sketches from girlhood signed – “by madeline marie”. It is sometimes hard to believe that now here I am 15 years later designing dresses under my label Madeline Marie. I am from Texas, I attended Oklahoma State University and studied Fashion Merchandising and Design with a minor in business. The second I graduated I packed my bags and moved to New York City in 2019. A dream I finally had the opportunity to chase. I began my fashion career working in the corporate fashion world, which was cut short by covid. I went home for a few months and began searching for a creative outlet. I had a sewing machine, newspaper, and my sister’s vintage fabric collection. That’s when I began hand making my own patterns and creating little dresses. To say it was a learning curve would be an understatement. Every morning I would treat my sewing like my 9-5 job and it wasn’t long before I fell in love! Since then I haven’t stopped pursuing my dream of designing custom dresses. I learned that I found so much joy in sourcing fabrics from all over, from vintage linens, deadstock textiles, fabrics from my local fabric store, and now the garment district. I find immense inpsiration in sourcing linens, it’s almost as if the dresses begin to sketch themselves as I stare at the beautiful fabric. In August 2020 I went back to new york with my sewing machine in tow. From there I turned my apartment into a little factory. Bless my dear roommates, they have accepted my factory with grace and ease.
Every day I am working on new projects that fuel this burning passion I have to create dresses for all shapes, sizes, and occasions all tailored to fit YOU.
Working hand in hand with my dresses, my second passion is for styling. That is now my “full time” job assisting the many insanely talented stylist in New York City. Assisting these stylist has opened a wealth of knowledge for me, I have learned more in this past year about myself, my style, my business than I could have ever imagined. Through this industry I have been blessed with the chance to have many of my dearest stylists pull my dresses for magazines, editorials, celebrities and commercial shoots. It has truly given my dresses more opportunities to be seen than they may even deserve, and I could not be more grateful.
Today I am still dedicated to my custom dresses, giving each dress every attention to detail and fit just like with the first dress I ever made.
I have expanded my e-commerce platform on my Direct to Customer page, I had NYFW event this year sharing my collection in person for the very first time. I am sold in store at SORA and online at Fireplace Concepts. I have been featured in Grazia and Tidal Magazine as well as Excluded Fashion. All of these accomplishments I attribute to my friends, family and customers that support me day in and day out. They believe in my vision, my story and my mission.
To say the rest was history would be a stretch, Madeline Marie has been the most beautiful, crazy, exciting journey that I am still on. Learning, growing and expanding each and everyday. Life IS the journey.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of my day to day life is feeling fulfilled at the end of each day. Not to say that every day is a piece of cake, but knowing that each day I have had the opportunity to work towards my dream and work my hardest and give it my all fulfills me. There are so many aspects to this business that bring me joy that I did not know was possible. I feel like I am always meeting so many other amazing creators and networking. Getting to work one on one with my clients, hearing their feedback on the dresses once they are delivered is so special to me. I feel so beyond grateful that my day to day tasks are something I dreamed of as a little girl. I try to soak in each day like every day is a milestone. It gives me my gratification and purpose for this dress label.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When I was 21 I lost my mother to her battle with cancer. It has truly one of the hardest challenges I have ever faced in my life, and still face everyday, She was my best friend, biggest supporter and greatest role model. She taught me how to sew, how to be a confident strong woman and how to treat others with the utmost respect and kindness. She lives in my heart and mind everyday, I know she would right here with me in this dress business every step of the way. With the support of my amazing father and sister we have become a stronger unit together to support each other and care for one another in my mothers absence. I would not be who I am today had it not been for my mother who taught me to chase my dreams in every-way. Challenges in life, and in business make you a stronger person and shape who you become.    

Contact Info:

• Website: https://shopmadelinemarie.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madeline__marie_/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/91603936/admin/

Image Credits
Gabriella Spiegel, Aliesha Hatalovsky, David Kaminksy, Cheyenne Kline,  Lauren Cassot, Leanna Siupinys & Jimin Ou