MUK started from two things, vintage clothing and wanting to make something by hand.
I’ve been in the vintage world for a while now, but chainstitch embroidery always stood out to me. It kept popping up in old American workwear, and the more I saw it, the more I knew I wanted to try it myself. After some saving, I bought a vintage Singer chainstitch machine which turned out t be a fake so i saved again and bought a cornely a3 and taught myself how to use it.
As for the name one day I came across a set of old wooden stamp letters K, M, and U and imagined how nice that woukd look on some packaging. I rearranged them into “MUK” and something about it stuck.
It was short and said everything I needed it to. MUK felt like vintage, a little worn, a little rough. Some people might see these pieces as mucky, but I see them as broken in. And just like chainstitching leaves a permanent mark on a jacket, MUK became something that felt like it’d last.