In living colour

>>Marie-Ève Sirois’ fiery designs have your good mood in mind

by GENEVIEVE PAIEMENT

There are people whose careers depend upon keeping abreast of each season’s “new black.” And then there are people—count local designer Marie-Ève Sirois among them—who categorically deny the supposed chicness of the head-to-toe-black ethos all together. To hell with dull shades of dark, these candy-colour-loving hellions seem to say, and let the proverbial sunshine into wardrobes across the land. “Especially since in Quebec we have such long, cold winters, I always have a lot of colour in my collections—they bring clothing to life,” says 27-year-old Sirois, whose Marie-Ève line is in its second year of incorporation. “I’ve never been the type of person to wear all black—it can be so boring.”
Sirois, who graduated from College Lasalle in ’96, spent a few years travelling before working for Buffalo Jeans in New York City for half a year. She then came back to Montreal where she began to create one-of-a-kind pieces, building up a client base of nearly 150. Now working on her fourth seasonal Marie-Ève collection, Sirois produces the line with partners Tommy Piscardeli (who moonlights as her boyfriend) and Marie Martine. And though the operation may continue to grow, Sirois’ client base (women 16–35) and ideas about wearability remain the same.

“My clothes are comfortable, but very feminine, with a sexy edge,” says Sirois. “I work with soft fabrics, often close to the skin, lots of stretch.” From this framework, each collection will most likely contain clues to which part of the world Sirois has been spending time in. “Whenever I travel, I incorporate what I’ve seen into my clothes,” she explains. “My first collection was inspired by a trip to London, so it was more hardcore and sexy. I went to Jamaica just before working on spring/summer 2002 and it definitely shows, with palm tree, floral and butterfly prints, real shells, bits of wood, and colourful little bikinis.”

As for the future, Sirois likes to keep her plans rather hush-hush, a matter of old-fashioned superstition, it appears. “You can’t get ahead of yourself,” Sirois cautions. “I have big plans, but because I’m a bit superstitious, I don’t want to talk about them too much. People can talk about a lot of things and then nothing really happens. I prefer not to say anything.” l

Marie-Ève designs (495-8666) can be found at Style Exchange, U & I, Fly and other locations