- What magical hands this extremely talented guy has! I met Mack back in the summer of 2005, when I started working as Assistant Designer at Heatherette. I was so amazed by his knowledge of garment construction and his passion for pattern-making. More importantly Dugan is a down-to-earth individual with a kind heart, which is very rare in today's NY fashion scene. I love this guy!! Since the glitter and star-studded days of Heatherette are long done and over with, Mack has been working diligently on his name sake menswear line called "MACKDUGAN." It was a "must" to highlight this technical genius.
Check out his Spring/Summer 2009 collection. You go Mack! :)
Elliot Dugan was born in South Dakota in November, 1980. He acquired his nickname Mack from his father before he was born, and was moved to the other side of the planet, Wellington, New Zealand shortly thereafter where he was happily raised. He learned to sew at age 12, and from that point on has had his hands in an avalanche of diverse projects. After winning a prestigious high school fashion competition, Mack left Wellington to study Textile and clothing at a trade school in Berlin. In 1999, he returned to complete his formal fashion training at Massey University Wellington.
Mack's first romance with the fashion industry came along with his job working for independent designer Natlija Kuchija in Auckland, NZ, where he had the opportunity to work hands-on with production, cutting patterns, and sewing, gaining experience and perspective and leading to his first namesake pieces. The MACKDUGAN brand debuted, in its first incarnation, at seminal Auckland boutique "RIP SHIT AND BUST". In his free time, Mack was also dabbling in the indie/art scene as a founding member of "The Fame Game", an ensemble of rag-tag artists perilously navigating the party scene and pretending to make art.In the scorching summer of 2002, Mack escaped New Zealand with his life and one suitcase containing only his pattern blocks and a few beloved and spectacularly impractical articles of clothing and headed for New York City. After joining forces with the only soul he knew, Wellington comrade and stylist Kate Ruth, he was soon plopped into the eye of the fashion storm, assisting super-stylist Patti Wilson.
On a fateful David Lachapelle photo shoot, Mack was introduced to Heatherette's "accidental fashion designers" Richie Rich and Traver Rains, who had chosen a name and a theme for their next fashion show but had forgotten to make the clothes to go with it. With 2 months until fashion week, they adopted unsuspecting Mack and he found himself thrust into a glitter-encrusted fashion week whirlwind. Immediately following his first turbulent and chaotic New York Fashion Week experience, he thought to himself, "I'll never do THAT again".
How wrong he was. Mack has since presided over 20 full-scale fashion shows at Heatherette, 10 in New York, and countless others in LA, Moscow, Mexico City, Miami, St. Barths, including a particularly over-the-top retrospective at Vienna's Life Ball 2007, to name a few.As Heatherette disbanded in 2008, Mack found himself a happily experienced and well-seasoned free agent, utilizing the multitude of varied skills he'd picked up over the years to keep his hands in different types of projects. At present, he continues to freelance for stylists such as Patti Wilson and Yana Kamps, and is a contract pattern cutter for global brands such as TSE, The Row and Pepper & Pistol. Mack also dabbles in freelance fashion styling and blogging for Paper Magazine. At night, he can be found hosting a few weekly parties at NYC area clubs.
In a PAPER Magazine blog interview, Mack was asked who is the MACKDUGAN man and he stated, "This collection is deliberately made of easy pieces so it will work for a diverse cross section of guys. What makes this line modern is that it easily adapts to different people. The clothes themselves are staples which could work great separately or as head to toe looks . This collection would look just as at home at the Bowery or Barneys as it would at the Beatrice Inn or Barnes & Noble."
I will keep you posted on upcoming collection, events and exclusive info on the wonderful Mack Dugan!
Check out his interesting website:
http://www.mackdugan.com/
Also check out PAPER mag blog interview:
http://www.papermag.com/blogs/2008/11/mack_dugan_solo_star.php
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