In the studio with Mulcair

Juliana Bennett, the talented designer of Montreal-based fashion label Mulcair, is exactly as I imagined her: intelligent, approachable and very stylish - qualities that I would also attribute to her line. She launched Mulcair, named after her grandmother's maiden name, during her senior year at the Parsons School of Design and fashion editors have been paying attention ever since.

I, too, have been paying attention ever since. You see, Juliana has a knack for designing pieces that you want to wear over and over again; architecturally boxy yet feminine pieces with a vintage influence. Not surprisingly, her home/studio embodies these characteristics as well! I had a chance to meet Juliana in her classic Montreal rowhouse yesterday and her home/studio is a great amalgamation of her many influences. It's colourful, filled with interesting details and loaded with art.

Mulcair HQ is where Juliana creates her designs which are then sent off to Montreal seamstresses for assembly. There are beautiful sketches lying around kitchen counters, bright fashion prints purchased in an Old Port gallery adorning dining room walls and organic fabric samples stacked in the corner. Juliana is as fashion conscious as she is concerned with designing clothing that is consistently ethical from concept to completion.

She has a design room that, up until Tuesday, was filled with the Spring/Summer 2011 collection. Although I missed an opportunity to see the pieces in person, Juliana did give me a sneak peek at the look book which they had photographed a few days earlier (I can tell you, there is LOTS to look forward to from Mulcair!!). She also has a bright orange office where she has a large collection of books and an inventory of previous Mulcair collections. I really had to stop myself from trying everything on...

A HUGE thank you to Juliana for being such a gracious host! Mulcair will be launching their online store in the Fall but in the meantime, you can check out their incredible Fall/Winter 2010 collection on their Facebook page.