MAE BY SARA
Sara McKinnon
A resort wear designer who dressed women for the walk from beach to bar, then turned her great eye behind the lens and started keeping time.
Why this conversation
Sara is a friend, and one of those people whose eye you trust before you can explain why. She built a resort wear label out of a real instinct for how a woman wants to feel in the sun, then she did the thing I always find moving in this archive: she followed the eye somewhere new. The same attention that made her clothes feel easy and lived in is now pointed at faces, and the work has only deepened. This is a conversation about dressing for your mood, starting something from nothing, and learning that a photograph holds a kind of weight you only cherish in hindsight.
Beach to Bar
Sara once owned a popular fashion boutique in the Middle East. When she moved back to London a few years ago she went looking for a new creative outlet, and a free spirited resort wear label came naturally, because despite the city she had always been a beach bum at heart. The result was Mae by Sara, made for women who go straight from the water to the bar and look wonderful doing it. Growing up in London, she says, teaches you to dress for your mood rather than the trend, and being half Australian and half Kuwaiti gave her a double inheritance: laidback beach dressing on one side, Bedouin handicraft on the other. Both run quietly through the line.
I want to dress fun-loving, carefree women who go straight from the beach to the bar, and look great while they do it.Sara McKinnon
From the conversation
Greatest inspirations or influences?
London. Growing up here teaches you to always dress for your mood and not follow trends. Anything goes, and I think true Londoners really dress as a way to express themselves, which I love. I am also half Australian, half Kuwaiti, so I have a special affinity for both laidback beach dressing and Bedouin handicraft, which I think comes across in my designs for Mae.
The creative process, and the challenges of starting your own brand?
Starting your own brand is daunting for the simple fact that there are so many amazing, well established designers out there that at the beginning I often wondered if there was actually space for a newcomer. I try to stick to designing things that I would wear, keeping in mind that women come in so many shapes and sizes, and often when a sample is completed I visualise someone I know wearing and owning that style. It is especially challenging today, but also exciting, because the space keeps changing. Social media and an online presence matter so much now, while the more traditional route of PR and physical stockists does not seem to be working for many brands. There is no straight formula anymore.
Fashion icons?
Kate Moss, because she taught us not to care, and that style is not owning the latest trend and wearing it, but throwing together a mish mash of your latest and oldest finds and wearing them with confidence, while having a lot of fun. Seeing women standing around at parties looking immaculately well dressed but totally stiff bothers me a little.
Favourite labels and accounts?
I follow Elle Ferguson and Tesh Safton for some Aussie laidback coolness. Zimmermann and Alice McCall are my favourite labels at the moment. I think Realisation Par is a great little label for essential pieces for women on the go, and of course when finances are up it is Net-a-Porter, and when they are not, ASOS makes some great pieces that do not break the bank.
How would you describe your personal style?
I would definitely say I do not dress to impress. I have always dressed because I love the items themselves, not for anyone else's benefit. I was one of the last girls to wear high heels and makeup, choosing comfort first, but I always liked to experiment with colours and textures. I have a huge belt and vintage clutch collection, and I always preferred that what I was wearing did not scream a designer label but rather a mElange of influences. My friends often tell me I have too many accessories on, or that my earrings are too big. I love getting dressed up, and I am a big believer that your style often represents where you are in your head. I design and wear bohemian shapes because I am quite free spirited by nature.
A Language of Her Own
In time, Sara turned to the thing that had probably always been underneath the styling: photography. For her, taking a picture is a form of language, a way of catching a moment and freezing it so the subject can return to it later. She has noticed that a portrait carries more than a likeness. Whether you smiled or looked sad in it, she says, looking back you remember exactly how you felt in that moment. She often wonders which sense is the strongest, the one that pulls hardest at memory, and has come to feel that a photograph holds a weight we only really cherish in hindsight.
That belief became a book. Dear Mothers is a collection of emotive portraits of single mothers, made to honour the strength it takes to raise a child alone. Sara photographed some in their homes and some in public spaces, posing each woman how it felt natural, and gathered their stories alongside the images: realisations and advice for anyone walking a similar road. Her own portraits and words sit among them, mapping the ups and downs of a road less travelled. The result reads like a sisterhood, full of small offerings of love, light and wisdom, a tangible thing meant to support all mothers, single or not. It is available now by pre-release through Snap Collective.
Let the beauty of what you love, be what you do.Rumi
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Antakly Projects has been in conversation with artists and creatives from around the world since 2003.
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