Alfred-Marcel
Apparel & Fashion - Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Alfred-Marcel Employees
Alfred-Marcel Details
The Alfred-Marcel brand was originally founded in 2010 in Kapuskasing, Canada. Jocelyne Fournier Gagnon, the founder's mother, was an active seamstress who would spend hours on end working on sewing stuffed bears and several different arts and crafts projects. Pascal questioned his mother about the different projects she would work on and was very intrigued why his mother would not sew clothes. As his mother replied that she did not know what kind of clothes she could sew and therefore an unbelievable collaboration was born. The first couple of pieces were experimental in their nature as to get a sense of direction for the brand and the duo. The very first Alfred-Marcel piece was an above knee-length sheer-white cotton dress adorned with gold satin midriff and gold patterned straps. Pascal would design the dress, choose the fabrics and direct the creative process while Jocelyne would take care of the handwork and bring the piece to life by doing all the sewing. Two of these dresses were produced in 2010, one of which was given to one of Pascal's closest friend, Chanelle Lacroix, as a gift and the later was reworked and a tailored version appeared in Alfred-Marcel's first every collection for Spring/Summer 2013.ETYMOLOGY OF BRAND'S NAME The brand's name, Alfred-Marcel, does have a historical reference. Both Alfred and Marcel are a collection of the founder's two grandfathers. Alfred comes from Pascal Gagnon's maternal grandfather Alfred Fournier and Marcel comes from his paternal grandfather Marcel Gagnon. Although Alfred Fournier and Marcel Gagnon were not particularly involved or interested by fashion, both were hard-working talented men in several types of handicrafts including crochet, carpentry and woodworking. The name was therefore chosen because of its origin and personal family references. Unfortunately both men had passed before seeing the company's first days.
