Katie was recently featured on Frances Powless’ Substack, Tour de Frances. Frances, a longtime friend of the brand and content creator living in France (who, thankfully, makes the trek to Houston a few times a year), chatted with Katie about the inspo behind MIRTH, where she finds inspiration in everyday life, and of course, her top travel tips.
We are lucky to be the first guest of her à table series, a set of interviews with inspiring people who share a passion for travel, fashion and all things fun.
Read on for the full article...
She’s beauty and she’s grace. This is Katie McClure, co-founder of Mirth Caftans. I met Katie a few years back through a cold call email I sent Mirth asking to collaborate for clothes. Fast forward three years, and we’ve shot spring collections in freezing cold Puglia, sipped rosé in the south of France, and sweat through happy hour in Houston.
Katie may be the designer of a very chic clothing line, celebrating their 10 year anniversary this month at Round Top no less (!!) But what you don’t see is she’s always planning a trip-scouting out cheap flights, offseason hotel deals, and all around cool vibes. Mirth has become a brand not only synonymous with bringing effortless beauty into everyday life, but also an incredible travel resource. She’s just back from Bhutan (I mean who thinks of going to Bhutan?!) and has multiple trips to India planned throughout the year to visit suppliers, manufacturers and designers.
We have a secret bond over being total travel nerds. Whether it’s packing cubes, hairclips or the best natural wine bar in a city, our messages are a constant stream of random links and not so random adoration for Courtney Grow. Enjoy!
Tell us a bit about yourself and how you started Mirth.
I’m Katie, and I co-founded MIRTH 10 years go (!) with my sister, Erin. We come from a Texan family but were raised between Connecticut and West Virginia. The story behind MIRTH really began with both of us rethinking our careers and life plan in general. We were both at a point in our lives where we wanted to make a change and find a way to do something that was both impactful and fulfilling. This crossroad inspired us to travel and do some much needed soul searching.
Before ultimately meeting up in India where the pieces of the puzzle really started to align, I was in Bali where she was shopping for airy caftans -- a silhouette that Erin had been wearing and advocating since her pregnancy. I felt a disconnect between fabrics of the caftans she was seeing and the beautiful handmade textiles in that part of the world. I started brewing on this idea of designing stylish caftans utilizing the heritage techniques that have been passed down for centuries.
After Erin closed her autism clinic, she decided to meet up with me in India. We started talking more and more about this idea and meeting with people who were in the textiles industry in India, and we realized this could totally work.
In classic India fashion, we had this dreamy day of meeting people in the textile industry, scouring basements and markets of antique and new textiles, and then solidifying our dream of MIRTH on an elephant ride in the desert. We were laughing and having this magical moment -- it was pure mirth.
With your 10 year anniversary coming up (!!) your baby has come so far. How has becoming a small business/brand owner shaped how you view the fashion world and an industry of seemingly endless trends?
It’s wild! I think I edit better and show more restraint. Consumption is a concept that has always riddled me. I was quite the over consumer in my twenties and it certainly didn’t improve my life, and I’m glad I came to this conclusion eventually. Seasons come and go so quickly and the clothing is “in and out” of our warehouse every day– it really makes me not want to bring more stuff into my world. Nor do I want to make more decisions in my personal life, since I’m making so many creative & business decisions every day. I’m happy to skip out on trends and happy to adopt some because fashion is still fun! This one of the wonderful things that comes with being in your forties, too. You care less and it is incredible.
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How do you find inspiration to stay unique to your and mirth’s identity?
I’m not always successful here as we have absolutely produced some duds over the years! We have always designed based on gut feeling, and what we want to wear. Meenakshi, our head designer, and I find inspiration in culture and travel. The heritage techniques used to make many of our fabrics naturally come with so much inspiration since they have rooted in history and culture and art. Collections tend to come together naturally and just feel like Mirth. It screams “nope” when it doesn’t so it isn’t hard to maintain identity.
You embody Mirth’s effortless look, but share some secrets with the rest of of us! What are your styling tips? Any rules you love following or breaking?
Well, I’ll take that compliment! I err casual and look to a few gals for advice: Lucy Williams, Lily Sisto, Courtney Grow, Megan Strachan, Monikh, Lu Hough. I also love how Becky Malinsky and Laurel Pantin dissect fashion in a scientific-yet-approachable way to understand dressing and what works for you.
They all put in effort but look pretty effortless. Unfussy. A little fuzzy, I guess is one weird way to put it? Not trying too hard. Pairing dressy things with very undressy things. Balancing well. Right now, I love mixing metals, wearing t shirts with silk skirts, layering a vintage denim shirt open over a dress. Flip flops. Long Bermuda shorts. I’m more a solids kind of person, despite all of the prints we design at Mirth.
If you could collaborate with any brand/designer who would it be, and what would you create together?
I would love to do both a swim collab and a bag collab. There are so many great small brands out there doing interesting things and I hope we can find a like minded partner someday. I’d also love to partner with a brand larger than us to learn from their experience. But full disclosure– designing merch for a small and cool hotel is my dream. HINT to hotels out there… ;)
Upcoming Mirth plans you’re most excited about (and can tell us about)?
I’m really proud of our Spring 26 collection. We have gorgeous eyelets and cool more masculine pieces mixed into our signature prints.
I’m about to head to India with my husband for a new project I’m SO excited about. We’ll be filming a (very) short documentary about a small NGO of women crocheters in Delhi. We’ll feature the mother/daughter duo who left the corporate world to devote their lives to helping these women establish autonomy while living in pretty impossible circumstances. And the work they do is so wildly cool. This has taken me back to the original spirit of Mirth, bringing all the excitement of “this is why we do what we do” to life.
Where do you love to shop for yourself? Vintage, abroad, online the options seem to be endless.
I shop less than ever now and am much more deliberate when I do spend time shopping. Cutting out mindless shopping has been revolutionary for me. I really only look for lounge/gym, shoes, vintage and denim. Vintage I save for when I travel. Japan’s vintage is incredible, as is Antwerp’s. I also like poking around The Real Real to find things I maybe wouldn’t otherwise seek out. A tip I learned is to search for “editors’ picks” in your size and budget so you can scroll and find interesting things. I LOVE etsy. Searching for super specific terms (art deco silver necklace) and then image searching similar items is a game changer. And now I shop substack a ton for those I follow who post deliberate picks (giant round ups overwhelm me!).
Favorite Mirth pieces in upcoming collection, or your tried and trues that are year-round staples?
I wear the heck out of our Santander 100% silk skirts. They are flattering on everyone and look good with everything. (And they are a great price for 100% silk!) I also love our Sheridan dress. This fall, the Moritz cardigan is one I’m so proud of. I wore it almost every day on my last trip. And our Teton jacket is a great, great staple. The hand knit shawl is so fun and looks like a sweater draped but it’s really not. Neat!
Travel notes
What are your tips for finding hidden gems wherever you’re visiting?
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Asking you 🙂
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I keep running Google Maps lists on my phone for places I’ve been and places I know I’ll go to someday. Whenever I see an interesting mention, I add it.
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Substack. Find your people and then find their people and the travel tips will deliver directly into your inbox.
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Find natural wine bars. They tend to be in interesting neighborhoods.
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For cool stores, search for a small brand you love and find stockists in that city. They tend to lead to neat indie boutiques.
What’s your favorite place you’ve ever visited?
Not a fair question, Frances! Here we go… random villages in Alpine Switzerland during the Alpabfahrt (when farmers lead decorated cows down from high mountain pastures to the valleys and traditional festivals abound). Japan. The Louisiana Museum outside of Copenhagen. Rajasthan. The area around Lech, Austria. Deia, Mallorca. Piedmont, Italy. The Burgundian vineyards. Austin in the ‘90s.
Favorite hotel?
I could spend too long on this, so I’m going to do the first few that come to mind: Storfjord Hotel in Norway. Passalacqua on Lake Como. Park Hyatt Tokyo. Forestis in the Dolomites. San Canzian in Croatia. Belmond Deia, Mallorca. Crillon le Brave in Provence.
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Travel uniform?
Pants that don’t touch the ground and are tight around your ankles for fear of gross bathroom floors. Layers. A giant scarf-blanket.
Carry-on essentials?
I bring a full size pillow on every long haul trip. This sounds unnecessary but try it! It is the biggest luxury and provides so much comfort to have this pillow on a flight, even if you just place it on your lap or fill the space between the wall and the seat to lean on. It feels like home, especially if you spray it with Flamingo Estate’s tomato room spray and it actually allows me to sleep because your whole body can lean if in economy or really get comfy if in business. If the hotel pillows are bad, you can pull it out. I found a plastic zip pouch just the right size on amazon that I can stuff it into, so it only takes up about ⅓ of the space in my carryon.
I bring a medicine kit with plenty of Zofran (I fear nausea on a flight!), a tech kit with only 1-2 cords to keep it minimal, Tatcha Serum Stick (the best for moisture without touching your face), hypochlorous acid spray to keep breakouts at bay, and the usual. I bring an insane amount of snacks because I always need a ton of them to keep entertained.
What’s a daily habit or ritual that keeps you grounded no matter where in the world you are?
I start and end my days with a podcast to turn off my brain and feel at home in the audio. I always workout when I travel– this helps with everything from jetlag to energy, and just generally makes me feel good. My favorite start to a day of travel is to wake early, exercise and do a fancy hotel room hair wash, then spend the morning working in the lobby (and people watching half the time) with a strong French press coffee before venturing out… for more coffee.
If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
I was fortunate to live in Zurich in my early 30’s and it changed me forever. I plan to move back to Europe at some point. I searched high and low for another place to live someday but nowhere compares. It’s the greatest quality of life you can have and I just love that city so much.
Upcoming travel plans?
Always! I am finally going to South Korea after a week in India working in November. Please send all the recs!
Last but not least, are you a kelly or a birkin girl?
LOL, neither! I’m not into having a bag anyone recognizes or that sports a fancy label. (I suppose an obscure or IYKYK label is more my speed.) And I would rather do a million other things with that money.
