New Ways and New Worlds – Megan Morton for Women’s History Month

Megan Morton is forever chasing “it” which for her loosely equates to encountering something bigger than oneself. Uncovering these sometimes fleeting yet prodigious moments is what drives the stylist and “interiors authority” in her varied pursuits, guaranteeing newness and eschewing the ordinary. A believer in staying nervous and never hiding her enthusiasm, Megan’s exuberance is magnetic, and she shared a generous piece of it with The Local Project as part of Women’s History Month.

Megan’s career has been richly coloured and, much like the French interior designer Andrée Putman – who Megan credits as a great source of inspiration in both work and life – she is unafraid of renewal. After working in publishing for many years across some of Australia’s leading women’s titles including Dolly Magazine, Marie Claire, Gourmet Traveller and New Woman, Megan moved into “the interiors world” where she trained under “the brilliant Helen Tribe”.

“I noticed that a lot of women – not just my age or stage – were consumers in the kitchen not producers of their lives,” Megan reflects. “I really wanted to create something with The School where people could come and not consume something but produce something.”

From there, Megan started a photo studio – describing it as “very ambitious and big” – which eventually became The School. “I noticed that a lot of women – not just my age or stage – were consumers in the kitchen not producers of their lives,” she reflects. “I really wanted to create something with The School where people could come and not consume something but produce something.” What started out “very innocently” with styling classes and shibori workshops rapidly evolved into trips to Paris for Maison & Objet, to Japan for ikebana classes and to Lamu Island to make soap. This year, she will lead guided trips to Paris, Puglia and India for groups of women because “there’s enough places for men but there’s nowhere for time-efficient women [to] tap out.”

These trips are an extension of Megan’s innate love of travel and its ability to amplify our perception of things. As she says, “travel is very much a part of feeling alive.” She adds, “I say to anyone – my kids, neighbours, friends, anyone who comes on my trips – if you want to feel big again, go feel small again.” She recalls a time recently in Paris when she exercised this exact philosophy to great personal effect upon visiting an exhibition of Sally Gabori’s work at the Fondation Cartier. “Just before my guests came to Paris, I sat for three days straight and just got engulfed by this incredible exhibition. I was so moved, and I just thought: my God, the glory of sitting somewhere and being amongst ‘it’.”

As Megan says, “travel is very much a part of feeling alive.” She adds, “I say to anyone – my kids, neighbours, friends, anyone who comes on my trips – if you want to feel big again, go feel small again.”

“Art dates”, as she refers to them, are not her only tonic for finding ‘it’. Whenever she feels stuck, she refers to her laminated worksheets from her stint with Helen Tribe. It is in these decades-old, wisdom-filled pages that she inevitably finds the answer to any misgiving. Alongside Helen and her valuable teachings, there are three women Megan often “takes riffs from, and they’re from very different areas”. Megan describes Andrée Putman – who reinvented herself in her late 50s to become one of France’s most influential designers – as “so stealth and chic”. She continues, saying, “not many people realise [she] divorced at 53 and tried to materialise her intense feeling of emptiness. At the time she lived in a room furnished only with a bed and two lamps. She said she lived in ‘total austerity, because she no longer knew what she liked’.” Among many things – her curatorial eye, appreciation of craft and her stoic independence – it is in Andrée’s ability to turn this experience of “total austerity into such richness” that Megan’s admiration lies.

There is also the British film director and screenwriter Joanna Hogg. “She casts actors and non-actors, and that’s what I take from her – mixing high and low, or the pedigree with the found,” she says, adding, “I love the kind of social realism she brings to her work; the milieu she makes. But mostly, I love her incredible extended takes [with] minimal camera movement. It is this kind of succinct efficiency that I really admire.” Megan’s energy when speaking about Joanna’s work is palpable, and the influence on her own work is rich and clear, despite being another medium entirely.

Lastly, German textile artist and printmaker Anni Albers – a key figure in the bauhaus movement who worked alongside the likes of Paul Klee and Walter Gropius – has proved to be a great force. “She made work but travelled and taught ferociously, as if time was being stolen and there was no time but to learn, share and go again,” Megan says. “It’s very much how we run our travel with The School.” Megan’s curiosity in and admiration for the sheer multiplicity of these women’s respective outputs and philosophies is what makes her own endeavours all the richer. As she says, “[these women] have imagined new ways and new worlds and I believe this to be the invitation to women in or out of industry today.”

Megan is a broad thinker who possesses the rare ability to identify and share her inner-most reveries with such sincerity. It is an attitude that has undoubtedly fuelled her success and, as such, she has much to be proud of. “[My husband and I] have raised three beautiful, articulate, smart and sensitive kids, and I’ve enjoyed a career that has taken me all over the world, written four books on my favourite topic and am as excited today as I was when I started in this industry.” Yet, as satiated and fulfilled as she may seem, she refuses to rest on her laurels and will instead “always be sniffing for ‘it’.”