Designer Profile- Stanley Carroll

image via Kelly Rosborough

Local designer Stanley Carroll is a long-time favourite in the Edmonton design community, consistently producing beautiful collections that push the envelope while remaining incredibly wearable. Producing full collections since Spring 1983, Carroll has finessed his work, creating clothing that is remarkable, both in terms of design and production quality.

 He cites his main source of inspiration as being from books or common attitudes, rather than from visual sources. This year, he chose to separate his men’s and women’s collections in order to allow them to tell their own stories. He explains that this season’s women’s collection was inspired by the woman who shops at second-hand stores and online, to create a collection that could make clothing fun again and to promote discovery—of the self and of design. For menswear, he looked at pictures of Ernest Hemingway in 1920s Paris, wearing berets and pushing the boundaries of men’s fashion. This season’s men’s collection captures that idea of self-expression and fun, giving men the opportunity to try to express themselves fashionably.

 Carroll no longer sells through stores, but instead through guerrilla marketing, putting on pop-up shops, and through his website. He explains his motive to move towards this was largely driven by his female customer base feeling that shopping was becoming something they feared, not a fun opportunity for discovery. Stanley Carroll will be selling pieces from both his women’s and men’s collections at Phabrik on April 7 and 8, from 12-5.