From Daingean to Paris with style!

When Meritta Gorman attended her Debs, not only did she make her own Debs dress but she also made dresses for 15 other girls in her class!

In fact, the youngest daughter of Peter and Mary Gorman from Daingean was so talented at dressmaking that she made her very first suit (navy with white polka dots) when she was just nine years of age. “I had to make it all by hand because I was too young to use the sewing machine as it had a foot pedal,” she recalls.

Meritta certainly didn’t lick her talent off the ground as she had one of the best teachers to look up to in her formative years. Her late grandmother, Bridget Betson, was “the dressmaker of Daingean” and spent her whole life making clothes for young and old alike from all over the Midlands. “I used to sit beside her as a child and watch her sewing and I was just fascinated with the whole process,” she admits.

The family tradition of working with fabrics has passed down along the line to Meritta’s eldest daughter, Bridget, who, despite being a qualified lawyer, is also the co-founder of a slow, sustainable fashion and lifestyle label called ‘Mise Tusa’ which she set up with her mother in September of last year.

The label – which translates into ‘me’ and ‘you’ in English – is currently taking the fashion capital of Europe by storm since the pair opened a pop-up shop at the iconic Jardin du Palais Royal in Paris during Paris Fashion Week.

She says the pop-up shop is doing so well that they are considering retaining it for a bit longer than planned.

“We had the senior buyer from the Netflix series ‘Emily in Paris’ into the shop last week and she loved what we are doing, and she is also the International Buyer for Saks 5th Avenue in New York, so you never know where this journey might take us,” says Meritta Gorman-Geoghegan , who now lives in Clarinbridge in Galway with her husband, Dermot.

The couple met in the Gresham Hotel in London when Meritta was working in a design room in Camden, where she worked her way up from junior sample cutter to a senior pattern cutter/designer.

They returned to live in Galway, and have three children, Bridget, Oisín, who is studying computer science and Moya, who is studying for the Leaving Cert.

Growing up, Meritta says she “very busy at everything bar studying” but she was hugely influenced by her Home Economics teacher in Tullamore College, Mrs White and by the art teacher, Ms Mona Cleary. “I used to love going into Morris shop in Tullamore to buy maybe a yard of fabric to make myself something to wear to the Harriers,” she laughs. “I was the go-to person for anyone who wanted anything made and I never had a needle and thread out of my hands.”

She also made all the costumes for the Tops of the Town group from Daingean, so she says she “never had a spare minute”.

Creating and making has always been such an integral part of life for Meritta that she readily admits she “wouldn’t be able to breathe” if she wasn’t creating something.

The Daingean native regards herself as being blessed to have her eldest daughter, Bridget, by her side in their new business venture which came to fruition partly as a result of Covid. “Bridget had followed in my footsteps by moving to London, but the arrival of Covid saw here returning home,” says her mother “and multiple lockdowns later we ended up launching our own fashion label focusing on slow and sustainable fashion, and it has been a wonderful journey so far.”

Not only are Meritta and Bridget mother and daughter, but they are also self-avowed best friends. “She is as equal as I am in the business and we get on great,” says Meritta, who recalls how her eldest daughter was “always very formidable” even as a child. “If she felt aggrieved about something she would write us a letter setting out her grievances,” laughs her mother.

Bridget looks after all the marketing and promotion for Mise Tusa, while her mother designs and makes all the pieces in the various collections from her studio in Ardrahan in Galway, with the help of her staff, Siobhán and Tatjana.

One of their regular models is Nance Dunne (nee Mangan) from Daingean who is a first cousin of Meritta’s mother, Mary, who still lives in the family home in Daingean and is also 84.

“Nance is a wonderful model and she even came to Paris with us for the opening of our pop-up shop during Paris Fashion Week,” says Meritta. “And she enjoyed it immensely.

Meritta’s beloved Dad, Peter, who was a well-known plumber, passed away three years ago, while she also lost her eldest sibling, Declan. Her two sisters Nuala (Hanlon) and Carmel (Smith) both live in Daingean, where Carmel delivers the local post, while her brother, Peter, lives near her in Clarinbridge.

As for her unusual name? “Well, I have heard many versions of my name, but the best explanation came from my father, who said there was a packet of Marietta biscuits beside the bed when I was born, but they didn’t even call me Marietta after all that, so I think my life was set for confusion from day one,” says Meritta with a hearty laugh!