ASHLEY & RYAN DURKIN / OUR STORY
New York knows fashion.
New England knows making.
Two histories meet in Boston, with a shared focus on one signature dress.
Discover our signature dressA PERSONAL THREAD
Her New York eye.
His Lowell roots.
Ashley and Ryan’s story brings together two ways of seeing clothes. Ashley brings the perspective of a career spent turning fashion ideas into garments. Ryan brings family roots in Lowell, Massachusetts, and a belief that Boston deserves a vibrant style community of its own.
Mercer & Beacon is their shared invitation to enjoy getting dressed. To make more of the evening ahead. To feel like yourself, with a little more confidence. Their focus is deliberately singular: one signature maxi, in three prints.
THE WOMAN BEHIND THE DRESS
Meet Ashley.
An eye for possibility.
Ashley Durkin, formerly Ashley Moore, knows the work behind a beautiful garment. Her career spans in-house roles at Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors and Elie Tahari, and Head of Product Development at Marchesa Notte.
She founded KAB in 2021, helping brands bring ideas into production through close collaboration with designers, suppliers and makers. Today, she brings that New York experience to a new chapter in Boston.
The ambition for Mercer & Beacon: one dress that makes an ordinary day feel worth dressing for.
MASSACHUSETTS / A HISTORY OF MAKING
Before the label,
there were the makers.
The Commonwealth’s contribution to what we wear runs through mill cities, workshops and generations of skilled hands. For Ryan, whose family is from Lowell, that history is close to home.
Woven into history.
Lowell’s cotton mills helped shape America’s industrial era. Women were central to that story: earning wages, forming friendships, and organizing against punishing hours and working conditions. Their skill and their voices both belong in the history we remember.
Explore Lowell’s history · NPSCraft, from the ground up.
Lynn’s shoemaking tradition is another part of Massachusetts’ fashion story. The city grew into a major center of footwear manufacturing—a reminder that the region’s identity was shaped by people making the things others wore.
Industry & Craft · Lynn MuseumA legacy, reimagined.
The Ansin family’s Anwelt Shoe factory connects Fitchburg to that same history. Sidney Ansin opened the factory in 1936; his son Ron later owned it. Robert “Bob” Ansin subsequently transformed the former mill into Anwelt Heritage, giving the building another life.
Anwelt’s story · The Boston GlobeThis is the regional heritage that inspires us. Where and how Mercer & Beacon’s dress will be made will be shared as production plans are finalized.
THE NEXT CHAPTER BELONGS HERE
Fashion’s next chapter.
Built together in Boston.
Mercer & Beacon and Hudson & Common share a vision for a Boston fashion community: bringing together people from New York City’s fashion industry who now live here, alongside Massachusetts designers, makers, manufacturers and technologists.
We want to build lasting connections between both cities through conversations, shared expertise and collaboration. The ambition is practical: develop more products here, connect with local manufacturing talent, and explore new ways to make things in Massachusetts.
Technology and AI belong in that conversation, too. From design and prototyping to production planning, we want to explore how new tools can support human creativity and craft—and help build the next era of fashion in America.
Ashley’s mentoring with the Lower Eastside Girls Club and advisory work in Design and Merchandising at Drexel University inform that spirit of sharing knowledge and supporting one another.
More about Ashley’s backgroundThe community is in the making. Our two labels are the starting point: one signature dress at Mercer & Beacon and one signature bomber at Hudson & Common. The larger ambition is to help more people build what comes next, together.