About Kate McGuire

Kate McGuire is a British ‘refashion’ designer, influencer and sustainable fashion activist. 

Renowned for upcycling or ‘converting’ preowned clothes into ‘new’ couture pieces, Kate’s designs are seen on the global fashion stage, from New York Fashion Week to the Oscars, Grammys and BAFTAs. But it was when Sarah Jessica Parker wore McGuire’s designs as Carrie Bradshaw in And Just Like That S2 (HBO Max)  that upcycling officially received its Fashion Royal Warrant.

By positioning her upcycled couture in the public eye, and shoulder-to-shoulder with the global design houses, Kate is challenging the status quo and showing how low-impact fashion can, and will, take its place at the heart of the fashion-forward sustainable future. As the planet gets hotter, upcycling gets cooler and Kate is at the forefront of the movement, proving that our old clothes really can become the desirable ‘new’ clothes of the future.

Kate’s passion for upcycling clothes began when she chopped up her mum’s shirt and turned it into a dress, aged 9. It wasn’t long before she was customising her school uniform, studying textiles and treating the London City boardrooms to her ‘converted couture’. After a career as a headhunter she set up Converted Closet in 2016 as a platform for sharing her designs and ‘conversion’ secrets, empowering her followers to upcycle for themselves.

Today McGuire can be seen presenting on the Today Show, appearing on podcasts, speaking on panels, featured in the press and championing upcycling as part of the UN’s Conscious Fashion network, She continues to inspire thousands of people via Converted Closet, helping to bring about the large-scale behavioural shift to upcycling we need to help save our planet.

Kate studied sustainability at Cambridge and Harvard and now lives in NYC with her husband, three children, Vinnie the dog and an enormous stash of haberdashery.

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