Morena Frejenal

Excerpts from an Interview with the Designer

Recorded on: Feb 22 2023 and March 22 2023

Tell me about your collection!

My collection is very juvenile inspired. I have already ordered all my fabrics, and stuff and it's gonna be a very pink theme, La Vie en Rose. So the original idea was to do an after party concept. A lot of shimmery fabrics and a lot of see-through, but classy at the same time, and messy. I would envision a very classy dress and then there's smudged makeup or crazy hair, maybe even one of my models having her heels on her hands.

So that's kind of like a little bit of my concept. And right now I have already taken the measurements of all my models. And I'm working on doing some mock-ups. I have already done some of the patterns I'm gonna use.

What inspired this theme?

My models are my friends, so I know all of them, and they all have very different personalities and very different styles. And even though it's my collection, I wanted each style to somehow reflect a little bit of their personality as well, because they are very great characters (laughs). I originally wanted to do all ballgowns and be very feminine. That's who I am, that is what I like and that's what I've done through my fashion degree. But I wanted to branch out a little bit more, and this after party theme gave me the opportunity to do more pants, like cargo pants with a very nice top or like some see-through and mesh. More messy designs than what I would usually do. So I really like that. I like the challenge of it.

Have you figured out how you want to kind of reflect your friends' personalities and style?

So I have one of my friends who really likes to dress very androgynously, and that's totally opposite to me. For her, for example, I'm gonna do a pair of pants with a blazer, but then the blazer, it's gonna be just half a blazer and the other half's going to be a corset. So that's kind of how I'm reflecting a little bit of her personality, but still keeping it close to what I like.

What challenges have you been experiencing? 

The biggest challenge right now is time. I've been spending a lot of time sewing. I feel like I've been leaving other stuff that I need to do, on the side. So I think that my biggest challenge: it’s to find an equilibrium between doing stuff for the fashion show and the rest of my life.

What is fashion to you?

To me, it's everything.

It's a very big way to express myself. You use it all the time and everything you put on your body, you would consider fashion. It's the most like daily form of expression that we as humans have. And to me, it is the way I live life. If I don't like the outfit I have on, I'll be like, “oh, like this is not gonna be such a great day.” But if I'm feeling super good, it's like I'm ready to conquer the world or something.

So that's fashion for me. And then being able to create fashion on the other side, is incredibly empowering because you have the opportunity to make people feel better through what they wear.