Take a seventeen year old graphic designer at San Clemente High School and a fourth year student studying fashion design and merchandising at Cal State Long Beach and what do you get? You get fashion designers Sarah and Trevor Girard. This sibling duo is the creativity and life behind their newest label, META. Sarah, who just finished showing a few of her own garments at the May 9th CSULB Spring 2005 student fashion show, remembers how she has always been interested in fashion since she was a little kid. She admires her younger brother Trevor who she feels has always been a gifted artist his entire life. A combination of Sarah’s keen interest in fashion and her younger brother’s gifted talent towards graphic design was what originally sparked the idea to create their own clothing company, META, a year and a half ago. Although Trevor creates most of the designs, this duo definitely collaborates closely together on design and color schemes until, in their words, “they are both satisfied with the end product.” Today META is currently sold at Shuebox in Seal Beach, Shoe Zoo in San Clemente, and Habit at The Lab in Costa Mesa.
Sarah and Trevor Girard’s story unfolds like many other independent
labels’ journey to retail. The Girards originally printed shirts
just for themselves, which soon morphed into a growing interest from
friends and family. It was then that the siblings decided to start META
the next day.
META currently has three lines, each line consisting of five to six creative graphics on shirts or sweatshirts. After starting with the name META to create their first line, they eventually decided that they wanted to do more with the label and expand into different shirt lines. Each new shirt line has its own unique characteristics and design to itself. Metasaurus, their most popular line, is a shirt line that focuses more on the artwork than just a logo or brand name. Their unique dinosaur artwork stems from their child hood attraction to the fearsome giant creatures of our past. Some examples of their original artwork include a shirt titled “Save A Dinosaur Ride a Bike” as well as a unique shirt of a girl walking dinosaurs by a leash
Growing up in the OC, Sarah and Trevor Girard credit most of their creativity to their father. Sarah reflects back explaining:
“My Dad is a graphic designer and so our whole lives he has really exposed us to all kinds of art. He is always taking us to art shows and bringing home art books. We have always been encouraged to be creative and to create things. Our upbringing really shaped us and made us who we are today.”
Although sometimes it may seem that artwork is taken too serious at
times, it is a nice relief to see the designers of META finding their
sources of inspirations from the silly things in life that tend to leave
strong impressions in our minds. The brother and sister team see both
of themselves as very visual people. It is these silly and creative
images in their minds that eventually come out in the designs of META.
Other projects that Sarah and Trevor are currently working on include
a new line Meyou META. Meyou META’s goal is help drive a collaborative
effort in design and fashion from META, local bands, and artists. META
will help design original shirts with bands and artists. META is not
selfish when it comes to helping other artists and musicians get the
exposure that most independent art forms are in dire need of.
META just launched their new line for summer and it looks better then ever. Sarah and Trevor Girard hope to soon get more exposure and merchandise into stores through the introduction of their new catalog. Their goals are to eventually leave what some may call the “OC bubble”.
When asked what they would be doing if they weren't designers, Sarah laughs, “I would be a tiger trainer or a tug boat captain.” Trevor finishes with, “I would be a cheese connoisseur.” Sounds like an idea for a new shirt to us.
Keep up the great work.
You can visit META on the web at:
