Madame Magar

Leigh Magar was born in Spartanburg, SC, when it was still known as a textile mill town. She studied millinery/hat-making at F.I.T.—the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York—while working as a maid and later assisting Hatter Rod Keenan in Harlem. Magar moved back south to Charleston, SC, in 1995 to open a hat shop: Magar Hatworks. Magar sold hats to Barney’s NY, Isetan Japan, and The Hat Shop/SOHO. Her work gained national press from many magazines such as the New York Times and Martha Stewart Magazine. Celebrity clients included Elvis Costello, Michael Stipe, and Padma Lakshmi.

In 2015, Magar moved to rural Johns Island and created a new label: inspired by art, nature, folkways, and history. She created a “seed to stitch” project inspired by Eliza Lucas Pinckney—planting indigo and utilizing wild indigo (found during a morning walk) to use for one of a kind dresses, textile art, and accessories.

As a textile artist and designer, Magar is interested in exploring the place's past by utilizing overlooked or discarded (scrap) resources while embracing the future through innovative ideas, techniques, and methodology.

During her residency at the Gibbes Museum, she will explore the museum's famed Miniature Collection and expand her indigo Silhouette Portrait Series (inspired from paper cutouts and quilt-making) of artists and creative women with ties to Charleston, such as Corrie McCallum, Edna Lewis, Marty Whaley Adams, and Kat Hastie. The Miniatures will be hand stitched with studio grown indigo dyed scrap fabric and painted with indigo paint.