About Mary Joyce 

Mary Joyce McFarland, the creator and designer behind Skank Chic, founded the brand in June 2023, before the last year of her undergraduate degree, at the age of twenty-one. She graduated in 2024 from Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, with a degree in Literary Analysis and Criticism, and a concentration on poetry and philosophy. Before the brand, MJ was an active writer, artist, and photographer. Selling paintings in highschool, speaking at poetry readings throughout college, and even styling and shooting an international bag campaign at age nineteen. 

Mary Joyce decided to focus on accessories after an apartment fire in 2022 that destroyed nearly everything she owned. In recovering from the fire, and still wanting to maintain fashion, she found a special value in accessories. Bangles, hats, belts and more, kept her outfits new and exciting, even while owning only one pair of jeans. MJ was simultaneously working in celebrity and editorial styling. Often at work, she found there were few accessories brands that were new and current, to match the new wave of emerging fashion designers in the city. She began making bangles and customized lighters as a pastime, with no intention in having an accessories line. But quickly, people noticed her work, and she started receiving requests for styling pulls and purchases. Within a year of starting, Mary Joyce had her designs stocked at Retail Pharmacy in the Lower East Side, and also had her designs featured in the 2024 fall issues Purple Magazine and Dazed Magazine. Gaining the attention of stylist and editor Patti Wilson, and creating custom works for her upcoming editorials. 

Mary Joyce intends to continue designing, upping the scale of her work to eventually lead to seasonal collections. But her brand Skank Chic, is aimed to possess all aspects of her work and expertise, and have her accessories line only be one aspect of the world that is Skank Chic.