Contributed by Meredith Howell
Maison Laflare, launched in October 2021, is a luxury fashion boutique that features original designs by Meredith Howell, a fourth-year student studying fashion textile management. Howell began selling her handmade garments in 2020 during the pandemic after photos of her creations blew up on Instagram. Since then, Howell has launched a fashion house that has already taken the industry by storm.
Howell’s designs include handmade, quality pieces like shorts and pants made from vintage tapestries, screen-printed T-shirts and hand-crafted puffer coats. Some pieces are a part of a larger collection, others are made individually for clients. What stands out are the lush patterns and innovative edge that each of Howell’s pieces exudes.
“I typically take inspiration from pieces in my closet,” Howell said. “I’ll see them and be like, ‘This is great, but this could be so much better.’”
Howell sells primarily through Instagram and, more recently, has experimented with TikTok. Her clothes can also be found at pop-up shops throughout Raleigh, Charlotte, Durham and Winston-Salem.
“If you’re going to have a garment, especially of mine, I do want it to be one of your favorite pieces,” Howell said. “And that’s what I love when I see people with my clothes and they’re like, ‘Oh my god, I wear this all the time.’ That’s what my mission is.”
The seeds of Howell’s career were planted in seventh grade when her science teacher encouraged her to go into the fashion industry for her interest in material technology. However, it really bloomed in high school after Howell participated in NC State’s Summer Textile Exploration Program (STEP).
Howell said STEP was the first time she had seen a studio where people were “really making clothes.” Her first sewing project was a blue fur coat, lined with a Picasso silk scarf. She said she didn’t use a pattern and it was not fully functional, but it still remains one of her favorite pieces.
Maison de Laflare may be a new brand, but it’s already making big waves in the fashion industry. In 2021, Howell collaborated with her friend Axel Nyembwe, the style curator for NBA All-Star Zion Williamson.
Howell created custom anime-themed pieces for Williamson to wear at the first round of the NBA Draft in 2019 and again for the New Orleans pick in 2021. Photos of Williamson in the clothing went viral and were shared by major outlets like SportsCenter and Complex. Since then, Nyembwe and Howell have kept in touch and hope to collaborate again in the future.
“She’s the future,” Nyembewe said. “She’s just the future of the new design perspective that’s coming up about designers. Not even just designers, but women designers, Black women designers. How many Black women designers are there out there?”
As a full-time student, Howell was forced to learn how to balance school and running a business.
“I had to grow up, immediately,” Howell said. “Having a business is its own thing. It’s not a liability, it’s definitely an asset, but you have to actively work yourself to make sure that it is an asset. That takes a lot of learning to do. It takes a lot of inner work as well as understanding exactly what you want to do.”
According to Howell, this is just the beginning of Maison Laflare. She hopes to develop more in-house manufacturing with a full team. Ultimately, she dreams of sharing her designs at Paris Fashion Week.
“I definitely want to make an impact, I want people to see my clothes and feel inspired cause that’s what life is about,” Howell said. “I want to do that on a large scale, I want everyone around the country to think about my clothes and think of luxury, comfort, but also I’m sustainable. It’s just like adding to the world’s beauty and the higher vibration of it all.”
Howell plans to release more collections this coming spring, with a return of her popular tapestry-woven shorts. Maison Laflare is also set for a new logo and branding coming soon. Follow the brand’s Instagram and website to stay updated on all that’s to come.