Megan Dean and her Moody Rabbit joins us to talk about her journey in the world of a fashion designer.

Megan Dean is from Dothan, Alabama and learned to sew when she was 14. “My grandmother helped me make my first dress when I was about 14 years old. She was a beautiful seamstress- made many of her clothes and some of those pieces are still around and I wear them frequently. Many of the women on my mother’s side also sew- my mother, her sister, and my great aunts. It is a pair of vintage wide-legged pants my aunt gave me that she and my great aunt created together in the 1960s that sparked my obsession with wide legged pants- it sparked my obsession with fashion. On a slow day of many slow days in my fabric retail shop in downtown Dothan I designed a pair of wide legged pants inspired by the vintage pair my aunt gave me.” So, Dean sold them ‒ at open-air markets in the beach communities along Highway 30A in Florida; during festivals in Alabama and Georgia; on the street to people who stopped her. Short and petite, Dean still includes wide-legged pants as a staple in her wardrobe. -In 2015, Megan was selected as one of the top ten emerging designer finalists in South Walton Fashion Week where she showed her first collection. -In 2016, Megan Dean was selected as one of 10 designers participating in the New Orleans Fashion Week’s Top Design competition. The competition is intended to spotlight emerging designers.

“Then, there’s the rabbit wearing sunglasses and painted in watercolors colors.

The rabbit was painted for Dean several years ago by a college friend. He shows up on some of her clothing in both South Walton and New Orleans Fashion Week. The colors of the rabbit serve as the focal point for the collection Dean showed in New Orleans. All the pieces feature variations of those colors. After New Orleans Fashion Week, I made the faithful decision to relocate to Birmingham to pursue my career in fashion. I moved in May of 2016 and worked a couple of different jobs to support myself while figuring out if this is where I needed to be.

I fell in love with Birmingham. The positive creative energy here is contagious. Everyone has something going on. This is a place where people are kind and passionate about what they do and love sharing and bouncing ideas off one another.

In July 2017 I was given the opportunity to dive right in. I decided to open a retail shop in Homewood offering designers and brands not found in the shops in the area while putting together a collection to carry in house. My shop is called The Moody Rabbit inspired by that very same image of the rabbit I used in South Walton and New Orleans Fashion Weeks. Our collection will make its debut mid-
February.”