When Renata Morales added fashion design to her visual artist
repertoire, she didn’t drop one medium for another. Instead, the
Mexican-born, Montreal-based designer blurred the lines like a
watercolour and found that the two could live together on the runway.
That balance is perfectly captured in designs that feature the
juxtaposition of photo prints of Japan’s cherry blossoms and Belgrade’s
bombed-out buildings splashed across silk charmeuse and silk organza
creations. The strong visual component of Morales’s designs speaks to
her love of painting and the arts. When not expressing herself through
her paintings or her collections, Morales is upping the drama quotient
by collaborating with various musical artists. She has created stage
costumes for the likes of indie bands Arcade Fire and The Duke Spirit
and has worked on video styling and costumes for We Are Wolves.“Music
is a huge influence for me,” she explains. “It’s one of the mediums I
admire the most. It’s an incredible way to collaborate with people who
inspire me. All these different mediums really play into each other.”
—Shauna Hardy