Meet the founders
Meritta
Meritta is a designer, artist, creative director, entrepreneur and qualified yoga teacher with over 40 years’ experience in designing and the fashion industry. A true creative Meritta made her first suit when she was just nine years old. Today, Meritta works with innovative textiles, millinery and sculpture, combining this with her expert knowledge of the fashion industry and technical skills to create inspiring collections and outfits for her international client base. Meritta founded the successful and nationally renowned, Ail Ruin design centre in 1992 which housed her in-house designs and a carefully curated collection of international labels. Meritta's designs have been featured in many national publications and media outlets. Meritta was head costume designer on award-winning short film The Secret Market, starring Victoria Smurfit and Irish feature film, A Nightingale falling. Meritta studied Fine Art at Galway Mayo Institute of Technology, earned a postgraduate degree with distinction in Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship at Trinity College Dublin, and is a qualified yoga teacher.
Bridget
Bridget is a creative marketer, human rights activist and qualified yoga teacher. Bridget previously worked at the award winning luxury department store Selfridges in London, where she worked in CRM before being promoted to multi-channel marketing strategy within the beauty division. Bridget holds a Bachelor of Civil Law degree from NUI Galway, where she was awarded the Val O'Connor memorial prize in equity, and a masters degree in International Human Rights Law from the Irish Centre of Human Rights, NUI Galway. Bridget's area of research included examining the human rights implications of fast fashion and she uses her human rights knowledge to inform decisions within the company to enable us to make good choices. An environmental activist, Bridget recently co-authored a report on the International Human Rights Impacts of Fracking and is involved in campaigning for Ireland to sponsor a UN General Assembly resolution calling for a global ban on fracking. This work was seen in the Journal , Green News Ireland. Additionally, Bridget has completed further learning in Creative Direction at the prestigious Central Saint Martins.