Morena by Marcy Ross

May 29th, 2008 | Published in Designers | 1 Comment

Photo by Kari
Words by Maria

Bunnies and trains and birds and bears… Frillies and trees and deer and hares…

These are some of the things you’ll find in Marcy Ross’ designs: all in one known as Morena Clothing. Marcy’s creations evoke a feeling of the fantastical—like a Walter Crane illustration of a brothers Grimm tale—using a vivid, yet subtle colour palette. Whimsical and fun, Marcy’s choice of fabrics and draping makes her garments quite flattering. Plus, she manages to carry out her line in a sustainable and ethical manner, all the while keeping her pieces uniquely fabulous.

Marcy’s inspiration comes from many different places, making it impossible to pinpoint an exact muse. But that only makes for a more enjoyable line, for her ideas come from things that she sees, hears, or is surrounded by. “I like the relationship between man and nature. I kind of just play around with it, usually in imagery that is added on [to the garments],” she says. In one instance she was enthused by listening to a story on CBC radio about this very relationship between man and nature. “Bear cubs kept climbing on top of the trains and they were riding the rail,” she describes, “it’s so crazy how nature has pushed itself into civilization and how they inter-relate with each other.” The train hopping bears story made it into one of Marcy’s skirts featuring a spray-painted train with a couple of bear cubs hanging out at the back.

Like many things that happen in life, Marcy’s full-time designing endeavour was not something she had planned on. Having gone to art school, she always had an appreciation for design, but ending up where she is now was an unforeseen event. “I was making little art shirts [on the side]. I’d make like 5 and they’d sell and I was like, ‘well… maybe I’ll just do this a little bit longer…” Marcy says.

Now she is well on her way with Morena and she recently participated in the Generation Next competition held as part of BC Fashion week. However, being rich and famous in the fashion world is not on Marcy’s to-do list. You could say that Marcy is not a conformist when it comes to this ‘fashion world’. She does not see eye to eye with the “industry standards” for model sizing and she is not particularly happy with the seasonal organization for collections. She also does not believe that you have to go anywhere outside of Canada to make it big as a designer, and that includes going to third-world countries for manufacturing: “I’d never do that. I’m more into creating a sustainable and ethical company than making it big in a high fashion kind of way.” She plans to keep manufacturing home-made, but even then it is hard to pay workers a fair wage once the volume of manufacturing is increased and Marcy struggles with the idea of Morena getting to that level. “I have this conflict within myself where I just don’t think it’s fair that people work for minimum wage in manufacturing houses in Vancouver. I just have a hard time knowing that,” she says. “I don’t know if other people have that same conflict. I just think about it a lot.”

Creating an organization with a co-op sort of idea behind it that benefits all the workers in the company is something Marcy has thought a lot about also; and it very may well be the answer to her conflict. But for now, one should find it pleasing that many designers do have that same conflict or one similar to it. Everywhere you look there is a designer boasting about their organic fabrics and their sustainable practices. Go to Portobello West and all you see is home-grown talent and locally-made goodies. BC is so full of life and creative genius that it hurts. Marcy agrees, “West Coast fashion is awesome. I find that there are a lot of independent minded people here and that they are really comfortable with who they are.”

Indeed, there are a great deal of non-conformist fashionable folk hanging out in our great West Coast. We are eager to change industry standards and practices– small as we are and incomparable as we may be to the great international fashion centres. With that in mind and having had a small taste of Marcy’s forward-thinking, I leave you with a famous quote by Ms. Margaret Mead that we Vancouverites seem to like:

“Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has.”