If it seems like Martha Gibbs is in three places at the same time, that’s because this high-energy visionary can’t stop moving. Running from room to room, she welcomes visitors to her home in the Meadow Lea neighborhood with an easy smile and an up-for-anything attitude. Offbeat colors, playful patterns and sculptural silhouettes are as integral to Martha’s home as they are to the clothing she designed for her popular Neubyrne brand, which attracted national attention and still has a cult following even after she wound down the business in recent years to focus on her family. Even now in her mom-of-two era, Martha isn’t slowing her pace, instead reimagining herself as a gallery-shown artist, a stylist to athletes and celebrities, and, yes, someone with an eye for memorable interiors. Look in any direction, and it’s clear that this is a woman who fearlessly embodies her brand.

Down the Rabbit Hole

The brand broke into brick-and-mortar stores in Baton Rouge and way beyond with its spring/summer 2020 collection—just in time for the COVID shutdowns. “That was really, really bad timing for me,” she says. “If you’ve looked at my stuff, it is not the kind of thing that you would wear during lockdown; it’s for going somewhere.”

Luckily, Martha had another trick up her sleeve in March 2020: the premiere of the fashion competition TV series Making the Cut, on which she was a contestant. Hosted by Project Runway royalty Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn, the Prime Video series showcased Martha’s eclectic design sensibilities to living rooms around the country as she conceptualized looks for a runway in Paris. “It was such an experience—just a wild, wild ride,” she recalls. “It gave me so much more confidence. The other designers and even some of the judges told me that I had such a unique vision that was so clearly communicated in my clothes.”

As the world emerged from its COVID cocoon, ready to live it up, Neubyrne’s bright and optimistic designs felt perfect for the moment. Buoyed by Martha’s newfound conviction that her aesthetic was worth sticking to, she was able to make more and more industry connections. By 2022, Neubyrne pieces were being sold in 75 stores worldwide, and famous fans were lining up to wear her designs. When LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey wore a pink feather-trimmed Neubyrne jacket on the sidelines of the 2023 NCAA Tournament, the look became a national sensation.

“I started to really crush it,” Martha says. “But it’s crazy how you can have all these huge aspirations, and then once you feel like you’re hitting them, they just get 20 million times bigger. So you’re always kind of reaching for something unattainable. No matter what milestone I hit, it was just like it was never enough.”

Through the Looking Glass

By then a mother of two young children, Martha made the difficult decision in 2023 to “fully pump the brakes” and shift to other creative pursuits that would allow her to devote more time to her family. “It got to be very clear to me that maybe it didn’t fulfill me as much as I had originally thought,” she reflects.

Martha seamlessly slipped into the role of fashion stylist. After all, she had been dressing people in her own brand and putting together their entire looks for years. “I’m really good at shopping,” she says. “I can shop on anyone’s budget and find something fabulous.”

This new avenue eventually led to an impromptu styling session with Kesha in Aspen—“She bought the entire outfit I was wearing when I met her,” Martha says—and to a Vogue-style group photo shoot for the LSU women’s basketball team. For the latter, Martha curated cutting-edge looks for the glammed-up ladies of the hardwood in December 2024. “It was very much out of their comfort zones, but they felt incredible,” she says. “They gave me creative freedom, and I pulled pieces from some of the biggest designers for them and put them together in ways they didn’t expect.”

Out of that project came a collaboration with LSU point guard Aneesah Morrow, who asked Martha to help her create high-fashion images for social media and then to dress her in a fully accessorized custom Coach outfit for the 2025 WNBA Draft. “I’ll never forget going into the suite in New York where we were dressing her,” Martha says. “As I walked in, one of the guys from Coach was like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s Neubyrne.’ Turns out he had followed me forever on social media and loved my style.”

A trip to the Country Music Awards in Nashville, for which Martha wore a memorable Gucci-Adidas silk gown, led to connections for styling gigs for the wives of a few country stars. Styling, she says, fits perfectly with her penchant for reinvention. “If I’m looking at a skirt, I want to think about it as a top,” she says. “I like to style things in a different way than they were intended to be worn, and then to use a lot of accessories and really make a full look. And I love mixing patterns and textures and shapes—really anything that’s over the top and dramatic. I think more is more.”

Curiouser & Curiouser

Martha’s more-is-more design methodology is also reflected throughout her home, which she and her family moved into in December 2022. The location was perfect, since her parents and sister also live in the neighborhood, so when she heard that it would soon be on the market, the decision to make the move was quick and easy. The house required only cosmetic changes, like paint and wallpaper, to make a major impact.

“I love having a blank canvas to go crazy in,” she says of the decorating process. “My house is just so bright and happy and funky. It’s a total mix of patterns, textures and colors, and it’s always evolving.”

The maximalist motif is apparent from the moment a visitor enters the foyer, which Martha covered with a large-scale mural wallpaper in bright colors. Dozens of bag charms and other tiny baubles cover a mirrored cabinet, just a hint of the many unique collections Martha has assembled in recent years.

Just off the entryway is a supersized closet and styling studio, with rolling racks and stuffed shelves surrounded by walls papered in a pattern from the final Neubyrne collection. This is where the puzzle pieces get put together for Martha’s endless array of memorable looks. “I get very inspired in a place that has so much going on,” she says.

The open living room, now one of Martha’s favorite spaces in the house, is home to more than 30 chandeliers that she hand-dyed in pink hues for an ombré effect. “I’ll never forget the electrician saying that hanging these was the craziest thing he had ever done,” she says.

The shelves of the built-ins flanking the living room fireplace hold sculptural art pieces Martha created by layering feathers and yarn onto clay jars. Art is all around, from Martha’s own abstract paintings to others by some of her favorite creators around the country. Like the bangles and earrings she layers onto an outfit, she creates continually growing gallery walls with collected fiber art pieces, paintings and other treasured finds.

Mad Hatter

Recently, Martha had the opportunity to show her original paintings for the first time in a gallery setting at The Collector’s Selection in the New Orleans French Quarter. Mentored by gallerist Ann Connelly, the mother of Martha’s close friend Adrienne Connelly Adams, Martha had spent around a year painting in a rented studio space. “Ann has always been such a great role model for me, and she’s been very validating,” Martha says. “She told me, ‘Martha, you are a true artist.’ And that meant the world coming from her.”

The canvases that emerged from that period were as unique as Martha’s fashion designs. “I wanted them to have a distinctive artistic voice and style,” she says. “The same way my clothes made people feel, my art is intended to make people happy.”

Martha is now in talks with other galleries in New Orleans, Dallas and Aspen for possible future shows of her paintings, as she feverishly slings bright colors around her studio to build up her body of work. Meanwhile, she has plans for a collaboration with a cowboy boot brand and other potential fashion collabs. “I’m focusing more on designing something for others who already have a brand and handle the business end of it,” she says. “I get to be involved in the design process, which was my favorite part. It would be great to design for a bunch of different brands with totally different aesthetics.”

Meanwhile, she is also growing her social media presence, but with an equal emphasis on authenticity and eclectic style. Most of the posts on her
@neu_byrne Instagram account feature Martha with a cowboy hat or baseball cap pulled down low over her eyes as she strikes a pose in a mountaintop hideaway or on a city street or in her own vibrantly hued living room.

Martha’s 250,000 Instagram followers appreciate not just the way she puts together an outfit but how she stands for something original, something hopeful. The platform is an ever-changing reflection of this new phase of life, a wonderland full of possibilities piled high with sparkly embellishments. “Your style is wildly genuine,” reads one comment on a recent post. “You’re not just following trends—you’re rewriting them.”