Maria McManus Fall 2023 Ready-to-Wear

Maria McManus showed her fall collection at her home in Tribeca. On the rack yellow knits (butter and lemon) immediately caught the eye. McManus had recently watched the Sinéad O’Connor documentary and was struck by how much she had suffered for standing up for her beliefs back in the 1990s. “I was living in Ireland in the ’90s, and it wasn’t until I saw the documentary that I realized how awful it was here,” she recalled. “Then I read the interview in the Times where she was like, ‘I was delighted, I never wanted to be famous anyway, it just made me think about, how can you move the needle?’” McManus is a designer by trade, but at heart she’s an environmentalist, and at appointments she generally begins with a breakdown of what new materials, sources, and products she was able to work with. The Sinéad influence was more of a vibe that added a bit of a raw edge to the clothes.