Former Moncton Fashion Designer Sells Collection At Holt Renfrew
MONCTON — While walking the beaches of Bermuda with her two children, former Monctonian Melissa Carson Leach was shocked at the amount of plastic they found had washed ashore. She used that as inspiration for when she created Factor Bermuda, a luxury clothing brand now part of the Holt Renfrew catalogue.
“I definitely did not realize the amount of plastics that come in off the ocean on a daily basis,” said Leach in an interview from her home in Bermuda. “When I started to develop the company, I wanted to make sure that sun protection was at its core and sustainability was at the core.”
Leach’s love for fashion started when she modelled as a teenager. After several years, she became more interested in what goes on behind the camera. She got her business degree from Saint Mary’s University and later moved to the United Kingdom for the London College of Fashion.
She then took on jobs at luxury British designer companies like Burberry, Jimmy Choo and an off branch of the British Fashion Council. The latter helped young designers understand what it takes to sell in different markets. But despite her experience in the industry, Leach wouldn’t consider herself a fashion “designer.”
“I know exactly what I want in terms of design, I know the exact look and the exact fit that I’m looking for,” she said. “But for me, the design part has been definitely a learning curve.”
Because of that, Leach took around 18 months to come up with Factor Bermuda’s Capsule Collection. The collection, which consists of several swimwear pieces, is made from an Italian Lycra and is derived from recycled bits of ocean plastic.
In addition, the fabric helps protect the skin from the sun’s harmful UV rays — that was an aspect crucial for Leach’s personal life. While she was working for Burberry in 2007, she was diagnosed with Melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer.
During the scariest part of her life, the diagnosis showed her importance of protecting her skin and set her on a journey to find the “perfect sun-protective clothing.” But no matter where she looked, she couldn’t find the pieces that fit her style.
“I found that search really fruitless because anything that I found at that time on the market was either quite unflattering or was not reflective of my own style,” said Leach. “What I was looking for was something that was chic, elegant, had longevity, minimalist and timeless.”
Factor Bermuda focuses on “slow fashion” wholesaling and direct-to-consumer sales. Her products are made in a small bespoke factory in New York, where everything is made for small batch production, reducing her carbon footprint.
“I think it’s a real responsibility to the fashion industry,” said Leach. “In this day, and age, sustainability is not a selling point, I just think it’s a necessity going forward, and I think that companies need to be a lot more transparent about it.”
Factor Bermuda made it into Holt Renfrew’s luxury department stores in the early part of May, thanks to some of her connections at London Fashion Week. Shoppers can now purchase swimwear and head caps from the brand’s stores in Toronto and Vancouver and online.
For Leach, that moment was a childhood dream come true and made her feel like a “really proud Canadian.” With that, she’s in the process of developing Factor Burmuda’s new collection for next summer. But for now, she’ll quietly celebrate her childhood victory.
“It’s not often that Canadians from a small town are able to create a collection that is launched in a luxury store,” she said. “The morning where I had the conversation that it was on the floor, I had to sit down and take some time to appreciate how far I’d come and how much I’d achieved.”
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Aaron Sousa is a summer intern for Huddle. Send him story suggestions: [email protected].