Marrisa Wilson, Fashion Designer and Latest In Fashion News

Marrisa Wilson, Fashion Designer and Latest In Fashion News

Episode Transcript

(00:23):
Welcome to Fashion Reverie Talks. Iam Tianna Ibrahimovich and I am Cecily Daniels.
Fashion Reverie takes you from the frontlines of fashion to the front row.
All of Fashion Reverie Talk segments arebased on published content found on Fashion
reverie dot com, so remember,if you want more information in the segments,

(00:45):
go to fashion reverie dot com.This week we bring you an interview
with fashion designer Marissa Wilson and guysnight Out on the Town with Fashion reverie
dot com Associate editor Lauren Pierre Lewis. If you like this episode, and
I'm sure you will, don't forgetto click the subscribe button. We start

(01:06):
every episode with fashion News. Allof our new segments are based on the
Fashion News Alert found on fashion rabbiedot com. So let's jump into the
current events in fashion. I willstart off this week so Peter Dough will
be the new creative director at HelmetLang. The Vietnamese designers new gig has

(01:30):
already started, and so he willremain at his eponymous brand while also working
with Helmet and his first collection willbe shown at New York Fashion Week in
September it will be full twenty twentyfour. So there is a quote from

(01:51):
him that he where he mentioned thatduring the most formative days of my own
fashion education, no one embodied thisspirit more definitely need than Helmet Lang.
As such, it is my deephonor to be entrusted with ushering in the
next chapter of Helmet Lang's legacy.So let's see what happens. Maybe we

(02:12):
would get invited to the September showit to attend. I would be thrilled
to be there too, But ohmy goodness, what are busy? It's
I feel like it's so much whenyou have your own line and that if
you are, you know, incharge of another, you know, huge
leg fashion line, right director,So I'm sure he's I hope, Peter

(02:32):
Dolle, I hope you're getting somesleeps. Well, I'm sure getting some
dough. Yeah, I like that. I like that Tianna speaking of someone
else who has all the dough thatI aspire to. If anyone is paying
attention to who's on the cover,we have an exciting cover this week,

(02:57):
which is Martha Stewart, who iseighty one, who is landed the cover
of the twenty twenty three Sports IllustratedSwimwear issue and she is out there looking
gorgeous in this white suit. Herhair looks fabulous, her skin is glowing.
I was like, come on,Martha giving us all inspiration being that

(03:21):
she is eighty one, and somepeople are like, oh, you know,
you could model past thirty, fiftysixty eighty one, So that's exciting.
She posed for the Swimsuit issue inthe Dominican Republic and she's showing us
a total of ten looks. Andfor those who don't know, Martha Stewart
started her professional modeling career at agefifteen. Obviously, most people have heard

(03:46):
of her enormously successful lifestyle company andof her name, and now there are
a couple of other models who havethat kind of longevity and that is so
she's now in the ranks of Harmon, del Ora Fiche and May Musk.
So we are excited to for allof your continued success, Martha. She

(04:11):
does look great. I mean Ithink it all started with her little selfies
on Instagram and like you know,at a hair salon in the Hamptons.
I mean, if anything, she'spretty photogetic, very photogetic, and she
looks great. I think it's excitingand you know it's it's love. It's
always beautiful to see beauty at allat many ages, so you know age,

(04:36):
Yeah, for sure, she looksamazing. Um. So, last
news alert, Chanel continues to employnew brand ambassadors and the latest Timothy is
Timothy Chela May As. He hasbecome one of the new faces of Chanel,
so they chose him as a newface of the already popular men's fragrance

(05:00):
Blue de Chanelle, and he willfilm a commercial in New York City for
this fragrance and the commercial will bedirected by Martin SCORSESEA so I'm very excited
to see that commercial. I expectit to be like less Mediterranean, more

(05:23):
like hardcore New York City, solet's see. Yeah, it could be
very scorsesey, but you know whoknows. That's so interesting Timothy shallow May,
Scorsese and Chanelle, we will see, yeah for sure. Well,
that is it for our fashion newsalert for this week and next. I'm

(05:46):
very excited to be interviewing Marissa Wilson, fashion designer. Welcome Marissa, so
we're so happy to have you.How are you today? I'm great?
Thank you guys for having me today. Of course, let's start with your
fashion journey. How did everything infashion start for you? Yeah, so

(06:10):
I knew I wanted to be infashion from a young age. My mom
was always super creative. So Iremember when I was in the second grade,
I was making my first communion andshe was reupholstering all of the chairs,
putting up new curtains and all thatthrough the house. And there was
these little scraps of fabric and thesefabric covered buttons that I was playing with

(06:31):
my barbies with and draping and tyingthem to make little dresses. And that
was when she first taught me howto hand so and then from there I
moved up to a little mini sewingmachine. I took classes at f I
t Saturday Live when I was inhigh school, and you know, I
knew I wanted to start my ownbusiness and have my own brand. I

(06:57):
come from an entrepreneurial family, sostarting my own business didn't sound like such
a crazy things as much as itsounds crazy to me that I did this
right now, But I just,you know, took in everything that I
could along the way. I hadmy first internship when I was a senior
in high school, and you know, I received my degree in fashion design,

(07:18):
So I majored in fashion design witha double minor in Fashion Merchandising and
Product Development from Maris College. Ihad six internships before I even got that
degree, and I just really hustled. And then once I graduated, I
you know, I continued on inmy professional career. I got as much

(07:39):
experience as I could. I workedfor big and small brands like Rag and
Bone, dec and Y Calvin Kleinand use all that experience to you know,
help to shape what I wanted mybrand to look like. Wow.
Well, first of all, foryoung people out watching or listening to our
show, as you can tell,there's no use you can get started early

(08:01):
in your childhood and if it's somethingyou love, you have to foster it
and give it that energy in thatcommitment, and then you know you could
maybe have your own fashion mind.That's amazing. Now in your line,
you always inject your own cultural rootsinto your collections. Could you speak a
little bit about that. Yeah,I'm first generation Guyanese American, so you

(08:22):
know, there's always this love ofcolor and flavor and soul that really came
from my upbringing and my parents,and lots of memories of going down to
you know, visit our house inGuyana and seeing where my family grew up
and just having all of that richculture instilled in me from a young age.

(08:45):
And again just that entrepreneurial attitude andjust being able to you know,
really hustle, I think is somethingthat comes from you know, being a
first generation Guyanese American and just thathustler mentality and being able to really see
everything that my parents had done formy brother and I and all the sacrifices

(09:07):
that they made when they came tothis country, and you know, just
taking everything in and being appreciative ofyou know, all those family cookouts and
the food, and again all ofthose rich flavors really come into where you
see a lot of my prints andreally all that color and movement and music
and all of that really comes fromyou know, my upbringing. I think

(09:31):
that's incredible. I mean, obviouslyboldness and colors, it makes your collections
exciting and I really think um givesum where's a chance to express themselves.
I think like when you know youcan find your individual cult, that's really
important. Now, speaking of that, who would you say is your customer.

(09:52):
My customer is someone who she wantsto push the bounds of reward throw.
She loves experimenting, UM, butshe does it in a way that's
understandable. She loves really looking ather wardrobe and seeing like, how can
I pump this up. I'd liketo work within really familiar silhouettes, and

(10:13):
the artistry for me is really throughthe prints and um and bold colors.
So for me, it's really aboutmaking sure that the wearer is able to
bring out their own unique personality.So she's she's daring, she loves to
wear bold prints and colors. UM. It's really a mix of really artisanal

(10:33):
um, luxury textiles and artwork throughthe through the fabric, and then mixing
it with a little bit of edge. She's not so um, she's you
know, she's got a little bitof edge. She's got a little bit
of attitude. I love adding someutility details and pockets and talk stitching in
there. So really this mix ofyou know, luxurious textiles blended with um,

(10:58):
you know, utilities sport edge.So this girl's got attitude and you
know she I really loved dressing awoman who is really excelling in whatever you
know, whatever world's choose in SoI love working with musicians. I'm really
inspired by women in powerful positions,and that's really exciting to me. When
people like that were my clothes,I think that's awesome. And I also

(11:20):
think again, if you have aboldness in your fashion, it's a way
of like claiming your power, statingyour power, letting everyone know like what
you're about. So I think that'sreally exciting. As you already know.
Fashion reverie dot Com recently included looksfrom your Spring twenty twenty three collection and
our girls' night out round up.Who'd you talk about your Spring twenty twenty

(11:41):
three collection and some of your standoutlooks or your favorite looks from that collection?
Absolutely? So. My spring twentythree collection was actually originally inspired by
my Guyanese heritage and memories of goingback the Georgetown and this languid way of
life. But really this again,those bold flavors and colors and fruits and

(12:03):
you know, this really tropical vibe. So I hand drew and had I
hand painted all of the prints toreally celebrate, you know, my heritage
and to understand, you know,where I'm going, I had to kind
of dive deep into where I camefrom. So that's where a lot of
those prints came from. And recently, you know, as we're starting to
grow and really dig into like whoour customer is, we recently did our

(12:26):
Spring twenty three campaign which was calledWear Your Soul, and it's this idea
that allows a customer to be ableto bring out, you know, their
inner beauty, their inner soul,and to you know, not to be
stuck in this box of what societytells them they need to wear, what
they need to be, what theworld has in store for them, and

(12:48):
really just like breaking out and beingable to say, you know, I'm
living my life my own way,by my own rules and doing it my
way. I love that, andI do think they're you definitely feel that
like tropical or that you know,like kind of like it just kind of
it feels like you feel the weather, almost like you feel the sun in

(13:09):
your collection in a certain way,which I think is kind of amazing,
very vibrant with the colors of blues, the pinks, the yellows, like
you really see I think, youknow, like you feel that kind of
energy, and I think that thatmakes it really fun and really wearable for
a lot of different types of peoplebecause you also have a lot of different
silhouettes, you know, so peoplecan find if they're like a short,

(13:31):
short skirl or you know what Imean, versus someone who wants something more
like flowy and you know, likea longer look. So yeah, it's
really really exciting. So thank youfor that beautiful collection to inspire us all.
And then my last question is what'snext for you? And I wonder

(13:52):
if you'll give us a hint aboutyour next collection. Yes, so a
little steak, a little bit ofdevelopment. Right now, we're an early
concept for Spring twenty four, whichis very exciting. Um. And right
now I'm I'm you know, I'vechin deep in sourcing and developing new prints.

(14:13):
I can tell you that it's goingto be a different take, um,
but it's still certainly going to haveyou know, all of the proponents
of Mars Wilson is going to haveall of those you know, it's certainly
going to have that cool vibe still, it's going to have that boldness,
but you know it'll be it'll bea little different. So I'm excited to
see where where this new collection goes. Well, we love it here and

(14:37):
again for everyone looking for a wayto express themselves individually. You're not afraid
of color, You're not afraid ofboldness, and you want to make a
statement, you really need to lookinto Marissa Wilson's collection. Marissa, thank
you so much for joining us today. Thank you guys for having me.

(14:58):
I'm here with our associate editor LaurenPierre Louis, and we will be talking
about his article Guys Night Out onthe Town. Hi Lauren, how are
you? How are you good?Good? So I'm excited about to talk

(15:18):
about this guy's night out on thetown. Whether is getting better? So
I think also in all the majorcities, people can get a little more
inspired and more stylish. So whatare some of the major cities that you
chose for this article and why particularlythose? Well, when me and William

(15:41):
we were talking about making around andwe decided to think of a few cities
that were pivotal in fashion in thiscountry, and you know, New York
obviously came in mind, and thenyou know, we came up with la
Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago aswell. You know, um, both
all four of them, they havedifferent weathers, so there's different styles.

(16:03):
You can wear if you want togo out. And so let's start with
New York City. What did youchoose for dressing for the night out on
the town for Spring twenty twenty threein New York City? So for New
York City, we took a simpleyou know, we got East say Miaki
frame shirt. Basically it's unique,but it has like a simplistic style for

(16:27):
you to stand out. And youknow, as well, we thought,
you know, it'd be nice tohave some shade like the coach on wire
frame pilot glasses, you know,to keep it cool. And I wanted
to stand out a little bit withthe m trousers. You know, we
got the Tom Brown with his uniquetrousers right there. And as well,
I found the product um read nylonbuilt with pouch. I thought it was

(16:51):
very unique. I thought it wouldbe nice to wear it with that outfit
and to end it with the Selenezip boot right there. Look some mamzing
very New York City. Um.So what about La? What was your
inspiration for Los Angeles? Well?Ala, you know, that's where the
stars reside, so I thought it'dbe nice to dress like one as well.

(17:12):
So you know, I wanted toI've been a fan of Manya Devoir.
They're a brand from London and theyhave this nice body bag you can
wear and Marines there. I likethat shirt. I think, you know,
you can evoke, you know,evoke a stylish look to yourself with
the Missoni trousers right there in thebottom, and to end it simple with

(17:32):
you know, with the tom Fordboots. Amazing. Now you are from
Miami and obviously an expert in Miamifashions, So what what did you pick
for Miami? Well, for Miami, I wanted to do um Welles Boner.

(17:53):
They have a very nice um wayof touch with their simplistic outfits,
so I wanted to keep it simplewith their jacket. You know, sometimes
Miami could get a little wendy,so I think it'd be nice to wear
a simple, thin jacket and thenyou know, to pop out a little
bit with Jivinshi. They have anice crystal short necklace you can wear.
It has metal with crystals in there. I think, you know, will

(18:14):
pop out if you were with thejacket, and you know, we wanted
to go with Wells Bonner again withtheir wami ivory jeans. Basically, I
think it could look simple and youknow, don't take a banner. I
thought I wanted to end the outfitoff with a nice you know, velvet
slippers that they have with the brushembellishment in it. Wow, I love
it well all these guys. Definitely, depending on the city, it would

(18:37):
look really that first. So Ihope to really see some of these styles
on the streets of at least I'min New York. So off New York.
Thank you so much. This isreally fun and I'm looking forward to
some of your next articles. Thankyou, Thank you for having me.
Thank you well viewers. That's itfor this episode of Fashion Reverie Talks.

(19:04):
We would like to thank our guestsMaurissa Wilson and Fashion Rabbies Associate editor Lauren
Pierre Louis. For information on theseand other stories, go to Fashion reverie
dot com. Thanks so much forwatching.