The house
Riyadh — since 2019
Quiet structure,expressive movement.
Merit Atelier
MERIT makes a small number of things and makes them for a long time. The structure stays still so the cloth can move.
- Founded
- 2019, Riyadh
- Made in
- Italy, Portugal, Scotland
- Collections a year
- Two, plus a permanent range
- Sold
- Directly, and in two rooms
01 The idea
Set up in 2019
Cut a small number of shapes properly, and re-issue them rather than replace them.
MERIT was set up in 2019 by a pattern cutter and a buyer who had spent a decade watching good cloth turned into clothes that lasted one season. The label exists to do the opposite, working from blocks of its own.
The house line is quiet structure, expressive movement. The structure is the part you do not see — a canvassed chest, a faced waistband, a hem deep enough to hang. The movement is what the cloth does once that structure stops fighting it.
02 How the range is built
One garment
Everything is proportioned against one garment.
The Column trouser. Every other piece is drawn in relation to it, which is why the range photographs as a range.
- Jacket
- Drawn to end where the trouser reads best.
- Knit
- Cut to sit over its waistband.
- Coat
- Long enough to cover both.
03 Where things are made
Three countries
The making is not a secret.
We visit each of them twice a year, and we name them on every product page.
- 01
Biella
Tailoring and trousers
Italy. Made outside the town, in a factory of thirty-one people.
- 02
Portugal
Outerwear and shirting
Made in the north of the country.
- 03
Hawick
Knitwear
Scotland. Framed in Hawick, in the Scottish Borders.
Counts are small — most pieces are cut in the low hundreds, runway pieces in the dozens.
When a count is finished it is finished.
04 What we do not do
- No Mid-season markdowns.
- No Fabricated scarcity.
- No Discount codes for an email address.
Prices are set once and hold for the life of the piece, and the sale at the end of a season is the only one.
05 This site
A concept
MERIT is a fictional label, built as a demonstration of what a fashion storefront can be. The garments, mills, counts, prices, stores and stock levels here are invented, the photography is placeholder, and nothing can be bought. The stores do not exist either.
