Here are a few interesting outtakes from my interview with Comrags
on the occasion of their 25th anniversary this year. As featured in the
newspaper yesterday, they have a rich archive of material and past
collections. I asked designers Joyce Gunhouse and Judy Cornish about
why they enjoy so much success in Canada, and once upon a time sold to
the U.S. and Liberty of London, but no longer seek out wholesale
export. Their answer is sanguine and well-thought-out, just as you'd
expect, and sound wisdom for any designer on the merits of focusing on
domestic business.
Cornish: We stopped having
fun. Joyce and I make all the patterns and always have. The bigger we
got, the less time we got to do what we really enjoyed. We were in
business meetings, and visiting sales agents, listening to them say 'if
the skirt was longer I could sell more.' WE felt really beaten down, so
when we had the opportunity to make a choice about our business, we
thought we don’t want to sell as much and we knew you could be as
profitable, selling far less if you run your business well. And we
wanted to get back to what we like doing which was pattern making and
ignoring people’s opinions about our stuff.
Gunhouse: Even now,
the demand is much greater than we can provide, and we talk about it
alot because we get stores from the U.S. who would like to carry us,
especially with the web site.
But the infrastructure would mean a bigger space, hiring more
employees, and then we are right back to the stuff we don’t enjoy. At a
certain point it is your quality of life. We don’t live an breathe
fashion. We don’t worship it, it is what we do for a living. We want
our lives.
Cornish: For example, we don't show spring on the runway because it conflicts with attending the film festival, going to the cottage in the summer. And it's harder to make a bold statement
[A look from Comrags Fall collection/Credit: Peter J. Thompson]
