Image courtesy of Dorsey. Meg wearing the Dorsey Houghton ring.
Meg Strachan is thinking about ambition in the long term. The founder of Dorsey wants to build a company that lasts, create work she is proud of and be home with her daughter. “Ambition used to mean more, faster,” she says. “Now it means better, and for longer.”
The jewellery brand began with a discovery at a Paris vintage market: a pair of earrings Meg wanted to give to her grandmother, until the back fell off in her hand. Then CMO of Anine Bing, she saw an opportunity to create something inspired by the woman who had taught her everything she knew about jewellery. Her grandmother, Dorsey, wore her most beautiful pieces every day, kept her rings in tiny Italian soap dishes by the sink and never waited for a special occasion. That instinct for making beauty part of everyday life became the foundation of the brand that bears her name.
Building it required conviction. A new mother with a full-time executive role, Meg began developing Dorsey on the side, without outside funding. She remembers those years as exhausting and deeply motivating, an education in making careful decisions and trusting an idea before anyone else could see its potential. Today, she describes herself as raising a daughter and a company at once, discovering more connections between the two than she could have imagined.
Her protectiveness over family life has its roots in a difficult pregnancy, during which she was told she might lose her daughter. The experience changed her, and the gratitude she feels for becoming a mother runs through the way she speaks about it: her daughter’s cheek against hers, early breakfasts together, Friday nights with a house full of children. These are the moments she wants to be there for, even as her ambitions for Dorsey continue to grow.
There is a thread connecting the women in Meg’s story: the grandmother whose style and independence shaped her, the mother she has become and the daughter who will one day inherit the ring she wears in her grandmother’s memory. Alongside it sits a belief that meaningful work and a full personal life are both worth pursuing, on terms you define for yourself.
For Luminary Mothers, Meg Strachan talks about building Dorsey from the ground up, finding her way back to herself through style and learning to let go of other people’s opinions; the everyday pleasures of motherhood and the advice from her father that continues to guide her: “Do great work, and don’t miss your life.”
By Alice Codford
ON MOTHERHOOD
Alice Codford: In what ways has motherhood changed you, both personally and professionally?
Meg Strachan: I think about the passage of time very differently now. It haunts me that I won't get it back, so I'm really deliberate about the time I spend away from my daughter. Professionally, I'm not a different person; I'm the same person I always was at work. Personally, my priorities have changed. I want to be home with my little girl, and I want to build a brand that is here for a very long time. In so many ways, I'm raising a daughter and a company at once, and there are more synergies between the two than I ever could have imagined.
You became a mother at almost exactly the same time you were beginning to build Dorsey. What do you remember most about navigating those two enormous new chapters at once?
Meg Strachan: When I started Dorsey, I was a full-time executive and a new mum, and I was building Dorsey on the side with no funding. I'm not sure I could do it again, but I'm very proud of myself for learning to make it all work through those years. I was very tired and very motivated, and I earned a lot of grit. I'm grateful for the experience.
“I really love this phase of life: a house full of kids, pizza on Friday nights, finding a little bear wedged in the couch cushions, all of it.”
What has surprised you most about motherhood?
Meg Strachan: How much I've loved every stage.
What has been one of the more challenging seasons of motherhood for you, and what helped carry you through it?
Meg Strachan: My most challenging season of motherhood was my pregnancy. At about seven months, I was told I was likely going to lose my daughter to severe, early-onset IUGR (intrauterine growth restriction). When you think you're not going to get to have a baby, and then you get to have a healthy little human, your entire experience changes. I feel lucky every single day that I get to do this, and my husband feels the same. For a moment, it was slipping through our fingers. I spent two months on bed rest and developed DVT blood clots. I had a late-stage amniocentesis, among other scary tests for genetic deletions and chromosomal abnormalities. I was at the doctor every week, waiting for new test results, and it changed me. To have a healthy baby girl on the other side of that was, and still is, a dream come true. I think it's because it's the best part of my life, and I guard it with everything I have.
Image courtesy of Dorsey. Teddy bear wearing the Dorsey Isadora Rivière.
Can you share a moment in motherhood that has stayed with you, one of those highs you know you'll never forget?
Meg Strachan: I love the feeling of my daughter's little cheek against mine. There's something so sweet about feeling your little one's cheek against yours, whether it's warm, cold, or wet from the rain. The puffy little cheek of my favourite little girl.
Was there a moment in motherhood where you didn't recognise yourself, and what helped you feel like you again?
Meg Strachan: Getting dressed has always made me feel like myself. A friend told me to nest for 40 days after my daughter was born, but I'd been home on bed rest during my pregnancy, and the last thing I wanted was to be at home. So about three weeks after she was born, I took her out by myself for the first time, to look at coats. When she was a baby, I would take her to breakfast on Saturday mornings, just the two of us, for coffee and eggs at 6 a.m. I've always taken her everywhere with me. She's always by my side.
“I think about the passage of time very differently now. It haunts me that I won't get it back, so I'm really deliberate about the time I spend away from my daughter.”
What do you wish you had known before becoming a mother?
Meg Strachan: That it's so much fun. I really love this phase of life: a house full of kids, pizza on Friday nights, finding a little bear wedged in the couch cushions, all of it.
ON DORSEY: THE BEGINNING & BUILDING THE BRAND
For someone discovering Dorsey for the first time, can you take us back to the beginning? What gave you the idea to create the brand?
Meg Strachan: I had the idea for Dorsey while I was the CMO of Anine Bing. I was in Paris, and I had jumped out of a car about 20 minutes before a shoot when I found a pair of earrings at a vintage market that I loved and wanted to give to my grandmother. But when I picked them up, the back fell off. When I thought about building a brand around everything my grandmother taught me about jewelry, the idea for Dorsey felt very clear.
My grandmother was a jewelry collector with the most incredible pieces, and she taught me everything I know about jewelry. She made me fall in love with archival jewelry. She was known for the way she wore it: her big rings, her earrings. Her jewelry was truly a part of her. When she passed away, one of the things people talked about was the way she showed up in a room. The brand is so her. It's the world I got to live in, from her jackets to her cocktail rings to her vintage French bathroom. I've been working on Dorsey for almost a decade, even though we're only in our sixth year of business, and it's really over these next few years that I feel my full vision coming to life. I wish she were here to see it.
“In so many ways, I'm raising a daughter and a company at once, and there are more synergies between the two than I ever could have imagined.”
Dorsey is named after your grandmother, whose relationship with jewellery had such an influence on you. What did she teach you about jewellery, style and the way a piece can make a woman feel?
Meg Strachan: That jewelry isn't about being precious. She wore hers every day and kept her rings in tiny Italian soap dishes by the sink. Nothing was saved for a special occasion, because the occasion was every day of her life. She taught me that you never need anyone's approval to do and wear what you love.
Image courtesy of Dorsey. Meg Strachan’s grandmother Dorsey, and her husband Howard.
You came into jewellery as an outsider after years spent building fashion and direct-to-consumer brands. Do you think not knowing the traditional rules of the industry ultimately became an advantage?
Meg Strachan: Absolutely. I'd spent years building fashion and direct-to-consumer brands, so I came to jewelry thinking like a customer. I asked why things were done a certain way, and often nobody had a good answer. It was freeing. I wasn't carrying anyone else's idea of how it should be done, and I try to bring that same way of thinking to the company today.
When Dorsey launched in 2019, lab-grown stones were still met with considerable scepticism. What did you see in the category that made you believe attitudes towards them would change?
Meg Strachan: I saw the product. Once you hold one and wear it, the skepticism fades.
You were unable to raise outside funding for Dorsey and ultimately bootstrapped the business yourself. What did those early years of rejection teach you about backing your own conviction?
Meg Strachan: That it has to be yours. Nobody else will see what you see in your head, and that's okay. I grew up around entrepreneurs, so I knew it would be difficult, and I was willing to fail. I still am. Bootstrapping meant every decision was mine, and it taught me to make each one carefully.
“That you can build something meaningful and still have a big, beautiful life. That you don't need anyone's approval.”
Looking back, what has been one of the biggest learning curves in building Dorsey that people on the outside rarely see?
Meg Strachan: How many details there are. Everything from the factory to the packaging to a single email matters. A company is made of a million small decisions, and most of them are invisible when they're done right. It's also easy to forget that companies are run by real humans who go home to their families at night.
Was there a particular moment when you realised Dorsey had moved from an idea you were trying to make work, into a brand with the potential to become something truly significant?
Meg Strachan: I don't think there was one clear moment. It was more of a quiet accumulation. Customers came back, and then they told their friends. I'm still careful not to get ahead of myself. It's a decades-long journey.
Image courtesy of Dorsey.
Traditional fine jewellery has long been built around ideas of rarity, price and exclusivity. What does luxury mean to you now, and do you think that definition is changing?
Meg Strachan: It's a piece you love enough to wear every day for forty years. For a long time, luxury meant rarity and price, because that was the only option. I think more women now define it by how something makes them feel, not by who it might impress.
There also seems to be a shift towards women buying meaningful jewellery for themselves rather than waiting for it to be given to them. Have you seen that change in the Dorsey customer, and what do you think is driving it?
Meg Strachan: It's one of my favorite things to watch. Women are buying the pieces they've always wanted, and some are marking their own milestones. I think it comes down to confidence. A piece you choose for yourself carries a different kind of weight. It doesn't have to be a gift to be meaningful.
Is there a particular Dorsey piece or collection that feels especially meaningful to you, whether because of the story behind it or what it represents for the brand?
Meg Strachan: It's definitely the Dorsey ring. When I look down at the replica on my hand, it makes me smile, and I think of her. I'm passing it down to my daughter.
ON AMBITION, SUCCESS & BALANCE
What does juggling Dorsey, travel, leadership and motherhood actually look like for you day to day?
Meg Strachan: Oh my gosh, it really depends on the day, but it doesn't look like my Instagram. It looks like anyone else's weekday: packing lunches, getting to meetings on time, and coming home to make dinner. Then bath time, late-night emails, and getting done as much as I can.
“Nobody else will see what you see in your head, and that's okay.”
Has motherhood changed the way you now think about ambition, success and where you choose to place your energy?
Meg Strachan: Completely. Ambition used to mean more, faster. Now it means better, and for longer. I want to do great work, and I don't want to miss my life. That's my dad's lesson, and it's the best one I've ever been given.
Image courtesy of Dorsey.
What boundaries have you had to set to make the balance sustainable?
Meg Strachan: When I'm home, I'm home, and I focus on that. When I'm at work, I'm at work, and I'm fully focused.
What's something you've had to let go of in order to grow the business, and how did that feel?
Meg Strachan: I've had to let go of other people's opinions of me, and it's felt quite freeing. There's an enormous amount of pressure to build publicly, and I'm still figuring out my own path and what that looks like.
What does success look like to you now, in this season of life?
Meg Strachan: A house full of my daughter's friends on a Friday night. A team that's proud of the work they do. A company I can keep building for many years. And my daughter knowing I was there.
ON STYLE & SELF-CARE
Your personal style has become very recognisable in its own right. What is your style philosophy, and has it changed since becoming a mother?
Meg Strachan: Thank you so much. In many ways, it hasn't changed at all. When I was postpartum, getting dressed was difficult. Nothing fit the way I wanted it to, but I still wanted to get dressed. In so many ways, I used style to find my way back to myself. It was the only way I knew how to locate myself. I love an elegant coat, a beautiful trouser, a draping earring. I feel most like myself when I'm dressed. I live for a black-tie party and coffee in Levi's. My grandmother was always impeccably dressed, and I used to hang on her every outfit.
Image courtesy of Dorsey.
What are the pieces of jewellery that you never take off?
Meg Strachan: I take everything off! So did my grandmother, Dorsey. I don't have a single piece I wear every day. I'm always changing my rings for dinner, adding an earring, taking off a bracelet. I get dressed around my jewelry. It's the first thing I think about when I'm getting dressed, not the last.
What's your go-to outfit formula when you want to feel confident quickly?
Meg Strachan: Easy: a cocktail ring, jeans, a white tee, a great oversized coat, and a clutch.
“I used style to find my way back to myself. It was the only way I knew how to locate myself.”
What's your go-to handbag for everyday? The perfect work and mum bag?
Meg Strachan: I love The Row's Margaux bag. I think it's one of the most beautiful bags ever designed.
Who or what inspires your style?
Meg Strachan: Old photos from the '90s, and magazines from all over the world, especially the international editions. I will happily carry twenty pounds of them on vacation. I also find inspiration in the women who raised me, who never thought much about what they wore and always looked like themselves.
Image courtesy of Dorsey. Meg wearing the Dorsey Tate ring.
What is on your shopping list right now?
Meg Strachan: So many coats, and draping earrings from Dorsey.
What does your everyday beauty routine look like right now, and has it changed since becoming a mother?
Meg Strachan: In the morning, I wash my face with Revision Skincare Gentle Foaming Cleanser, then apply Revision Skincare sunscreen, followed by a Colorescience tinted moisturizer with SPF. I like a no-makeup look, and I love Fara Homidi and Victoria Beckham Beauty. For my lips, it's always just liner and lip balm.
Oddly, my routine has become much longer since becoming a mother. When my daughter was very young, I noticed how well she did with routine, as most kids do, so I put myself on one too. When I get home from work, I cook dinner. After dinner, I put on a silk robe, do my skincare, get ready for bed, read, and have a cup of Doctor Stolberg tea. I really enjoy a long skincare routine, even though there are nights when I use a makeup wipe and go to bed without finishing it.
Over time, I've realized that I feel more creative when I have a quiet environment and when I take care of myself. In many ways, my life is about being at home with my family, and I feel most creative when I'm taking the best care of myself. I always say that creativity isn't a bottomless well. You really do have to take care of yourself. The ideas have to come from a place of creativity, and for me, creativity comes from feeling like myself.
What are the beauty products you always come back to, the ones you genuinely recommend to friends?
Meg Strachan: I use my JOVS mask every single night. First, I wash with Revision Skincare Gentle Foaming Cleanser, then I dry my face and use my JOVS mask for 30 minutes. Next, I apply Sulwhasoo Concentrated Ginseng Rejuvenating Serum, followed by Sulwhasoo Concentrated Ginseng Rejuvenating Cream Rich. Then I put on a bonnet to sleep (my friend Courtney Grow introduced me to it and swears by it, and it really does work). Finally, I take two Lemme magnesium gummies, pull on my eye mask, and go to sleep.
What's one thing you do that instantly makes you feel more like yourself?
Meg Strachan: Being at home. Dinner on the stove, my daughter and her friends in the house, and no plans. It sounds small, but it's everything.
ON LOOKING AHEAD
What are you most excited to create or build next with Dorsey?
Meg Strachan: I have an endless list of ideas, and I'm really excited for what's to come. Dorsey is finally in a place where it reflects the brand I set out to build. I'll say this: I think in seasons, so there's always something I'm dreaming up.
“Ambition used to mean more, faster. Now it means better, and for longer. I want to do great work, and I don't want to miss my life.”
Dorsey began with the influence of your grandmother, and now your daughter is growing up watching you build the brand. What do you hope she absorbs from seeing that journey?
Meg Strachan: That you can build something meaningful and still have a big, beautiful life. That you don't need anyone's approval. And the best advice I was ever given: be comfortable with people thinking things about you that aren't true. It has been liberating to understand that, especially in our industry, and I'm passing it on to her.
Image courtesy of Dorsey.
What legacy do you hope to create through Dorsey?
Meg Strachan: A few months ago, I lost my grandfather, Howard, Dorsey's husband of 73 years. Together, they built a beautiful and meaningful life. I think the legacy of Dorsey is to bring beauty into the world, and to build with integrity.
And finally, what message would you like to leave with the Luminary Mothers community?
Meg Strachan: Do great work, and don't miss your life.
We're all making this up as we go. No one has all the answers, and no one has the perfect routine. I really enjoy reading about what other women are doing, and I've found so much inspiration in the women around me. I think the beauty of motherhood is that we all know exactly what each of us is doing every single day, and that's why we're always sharing what works for us. We're all figuring this out together.
Life has so many layers: highs, lows, heartache, grief, and everything in between. I hope we all relentlessly chase our own versions of joy and beauty.
I'll leave you with a story about my grandmother, Dorsey. She was a very proud woman, and she took incredible care of herself, from her skincare to her home and her garden. She cared about the details. She would always come downstairs with glowing skin, even in her bathrobe. I never once saw her not at least a little bit ready for the day.
The last weekend I stayed with her, on the last morning I spent with her, I went upstairs to her room to give her her medication. She was 98 years old, and it was the first time I had ever seen her not done. She was in her beautiful bedroom (her bathroom is still my favorite room in any house I've ever been in). Her hair was tousled, she had no makeup on, and she had just woken up with these gorgeous, bright eyes. I'd never seen her look more beautiful. She said, "I'm so embarrassed, Meggie." Then she smiled and said, "Actually, it's okay. It's okay. You get it. You're a mom too."
It was a beautiful moment of understanding between us. I had a little girl downstairs, and she had raised five babies. Even though we were so many years apart, our shared experience was the same. She had mothered me for so many years, and in that moment, I was able to mother her.
Follow Meg on Instagram here. Discover Dorsey Here.