By Saoirse MacCarthy
McKinney Co. Designs, based in Limerick, offers refined western wear with an absolute devotion to sustainability. Created by Rachel McKinney, who originally hailed from Michigan, USA. She has brought her love of traditional Western wear with her to Ireland, where she moved in 2017.
In 2024, Rachel graduated from Limerick School of Art and Design with a BA Honours degree in Fashion and Textiles for Product and Costume Design. That same year, she also won the Crafts Council’s Future Makers Award. This gave her the funding to enrol in business classes and launch the website, McKinneyCoDesigns.com.
Much of Rachel’s inspiration comes from her family; her father, an environmental engineer, instilled in her a strong passion for sustainability. “We were always being told to reduce, reuse, recycle.”
While Rachel grew up in the suburbs, her father was from the countryside.
“I have cousins who do rodeo, and my grandfather was always wearing Western shirts and cowboy boots”, so naturally, western wear is held close to her heart. “I couldn’t count the number of pairs of cowboy boots that I saw at my wedding and at my grandparents’ funerals.”
Her designs draw from all things Americana; one of the merino wool jumpers is inspired by cheerleader uniforms and varsity jackets. “So, making that jumper, I was like, hey, I can be a cheerleader finally. That feels really cheesy to say.” Although Rachel never got to be a cheerleader herself, she enjoys the process of examining her past for inspiration.
Starting her degree during the pandemic forced Rachel to be resourceful. Materials became much harder to source; one day, the students were encouraged to use materials they had at home. Rachel found inspiration from other students in the university to find ways to be as sustainable as possible. “The years above me at the time also had a whole project that was based on like zero waste and using things that already existed. And I loved watching their projects. Now my year didn’t get to do that project, unfortunately. But seeing all of that work really inspired me as well.”
This resourceful nature has become one of the cornerstones of McKinny Co. and an integral aspect of the designs. Rachel spends much of her time sourcing deadstock fabrics and second-hand sheets from charity shops.
“I have a lot of pieces that are using second-hand materials and a lot of that is just quite literally running around to all the charity shops in town once a week… And just kind of literally just hoping that you get lucky. And some days you walk away empty-handed, and other days you walk away with like seven bed sheets, and then you’re sitting there like basically hoarding these bed sheets until you get to make the item.”
The clothing Rachel creates is entirely sustainable, even down to the labels. The labels are printed with vegetable ink on fabric made from recycled bottles, and the yarns used for the garments are mechanically recycled yarn. She found both suppliers during her time in university.
Rachel creates every item by hand; she joked that although she may not sew every individual stitch. Since she uses a sewing machine, but “every single stitch of this is done by me, by hand. Maybe with a sewing machine, maybe with a knit machine, but those are still hand-operated. Every single stitch of it is, it takes time. So, when you see that embroidery, that’s hours’ worth of embroidery. When you see the knit, it’s hours’ worth of knitting.”
Rachel pours all of herself into each design, her history, her culture and her time. Her goal is not for her customers to have 100 items of hers in their wardrobe, but to have one or two items that they will love, as much as she does, for the next twenty to thirty years.
“This isn’t something that was fed through in a factory. This is something that has been made with love and lasting quality and a story that’s going to last you a lifetime.”
Rachel McKinney’s clothing is available on her website mckinneycodesigns.com, and to keep up to date with her progress, the Instagram @mckinneyco_designs where she regularly posts upcoming events and designs.
