Marrisa Wilson on her LAFW collection – Essence

Marrisa Wilson has always had a clear position. At the W Hollywood she tells me she’d like one designer since she was very young. Wilson who founded her label in 2016 New York City has had a concise plan since she was in second grade.

The label of the same name in Wilson’s words, it is a unique blend of utilitarianism, sportswear and artisanal craftsmanship. She finds strength and beauty in embracing the many aspects that make up the individual, especially in her clients. “My brand is centered around this idea of ​​celebrating the superpower of multicultural women,” she says.

For this year’s LAFW, Wilson presented her Spring/Summer 2024 collection entitled ‘Wild Coast’. Many of the pieces are inspired by the Rupununi region of southern Guyana, her family’s country of origin, and broader themes of Western culture. This southern region, unlike the area usually considered Caribbean, is a desert region brimming with rodeo culture. Reflecting on this unique subculture, she pondered the idea of ​​a Caribbean Cowboy and drew inspiration from it for her latest line.

“For the ‘Wild Coast’ collection I wanted to create a mix of land and sea,” Wilson explains. Here she starts talking about this connection throughout her designs. The collection as a whole combines components of her Caribbean heritage with the cowboy archetype. Inspired by the Guyanese method of net fishing, she made a net dress, with handmade tropical floral details, as if they were native flowers ‘caught’ in the fishing nets. She also took the idea of ​​western fringes, applied her personalized print and cut the fringe in the shape of palm leaves.

Pieces in the collection with mesh or fringe detail are joined by pieces with her terrain-inspired print designs, printed directly onto the fabric or woven through jacquard material, offering two detail-rich methods for the prints to be translated. Panels and multi-pocket designs on her suits point to the utility of Western clothing, such as stylish storage options and gun holsters, while sportswear elements such as the stripe under the panel on the sleeves of suit jackets offer a stronger take on women’s clothing.

Her creative process involves various creative mediums. Drawing on the connection between audio and visual storytelling, Wilson always starts by creating a playlist that helps anchor her ideas. For her latest version, she looked to artists like Sam Cooke and Otis Redding to imagine this soulful, reggae-infused archetype. What she ended up with were looks with a Calypso vibe that felt like clothing fit for outlaw cowboys; every look was created through her lens and worldview.

Her detailed prints, all designed and hand-painted by Wilson herself, the manipulation of the fabric and the musical influence, are just some of the many guiding devices used to convey her story. She believes that the artistic process is constantly evolving and wants the message to be expressed beyond the collection, be it through conversations or other creative outcomes.

The designer says that she likes to delve into concepts and sources of inspiration. She uses various media, including campaigns and photo shoots, to showcase her creativity. For this reason, documenting the legacy of her work is also an integral part of the creative process. Sketching, taking concepts apart, photographing, recording, coming back to it, putting it together. She describes how you never know what the final product will be, or whether you have to come back to an idea for another project until you’re completely in a bind.

With the amount of detail, attention and creative utility that goes into each piece, you would almost have to see them in person to get the full experience. This is partly a driving factor behind Wilson’s decision to showcase her designs at LAFW. The designer emphasizes the importance of connecting with her consumers to understand how fashion can be a tool to communicate who they are and the version of themselves they are entering.

“I think Los Angeles Fashion Week is much more consumer-oriented, especially the idea of ​​the market, which was appealing because I wanted to recreate that immersive experience you have when you come to the studio,” Wilson shared.

After experiencing a bit of the fashion circuit in New York, life brought her to Los Angeles. She indicates that the environment matches the creative and personal era in which she currently finds herself.

She enjoys Los Angeles for the space and freedom it affords her to create for herself and others on an individual basis, and finds fulfillment in the one-on-one appointments she now makes with her clients. Being hyper-local and understanding her core West Coast community is her current priority.

Her studio by appointment in Venice is this idea of ​​community building in practice. She witnesses how impactful it is for her clients to have these conversations about fashion and self-expression. “We’re in such a strange time in the world right now that I think art will become more meaningful and urgent. Nobody has time for mediocrity,” she declares.

She has noticed a recurring sentiment, which is that people want to break out of the mold they’ve been in for so long and embrace the multiplicity of their personalities through style, rather than allowing a single version of themselves to dominate their wardrobe. dictates.

This sentiment fits well with her brand’s idea of ​​multiculturalism, which aims to point out the beauty that sets us all apart, and in turn embrace the differences together. The fusion of every creative element and aspects of a personality combine to form her belief that solutions can be found through multiculturalism.

The designer also achieves this by giving a practical meaning to inclusivity. Through her design studio, she has developed a cost-neutral practice to customize styles within her collections to fit the bodies of her consumers as comfortably as possible. Wilson describes how these community-rooted connections have influenced the trajectory of her label. She also explains that it has broadened the horizons of what could come next for her eponymous label.

“It’s not just about creating a new collection. I am moving away from the seasons and want to see collections as stories, with products that help tell that story,” she tells ESSENCE.