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| Marla M. Calandra, Designer |
Marla Calandra, Designer Profile Bio Artist/Designer Marla Calandra, knew
at an early age that some day she would be embracing the fashion industry and it would be embracing her. As
a 7 year old child, she began designing her first clothing collection. While sitting in her 2nd
grade English class, she would sketch very elaborate ballroom gowns ornate with roses and netting, while the rest of her class
doodled the usual smiley faces and flowers when boredom set in. Marla went on to develop her sewing
skills, by attending trade school for Apparel Design and Construction while still in high school. She furthered
her fashion knowledge by obtaining a specialized degree in Fashion Merchandising and Design in 1988 from NCC.
Marla’s formal wear designs were first publicly featured in 1988 at the American Cancer Society’s
Charity Fashion Show.
Working with various artistic mediums has always been the highlight and inspiration
of Marla’s design work. In her early 20’s, she began to veer her designing skills in the art
of jewelry making after her father built her a Native American beading loom. Since then, she has expanded her style
into women's contemporary exquisite designs in both custom handmade jewelry and handbags with the latest addition now including a jewelry line for
Men and Children.
With
a fast growing customer base following, in 2005, Marla established her professional business, Marla
Calandra Designs along with her merchant website.
Marla Calandra crafts her own custom design jewelry pieces which she creates from precious
metal wires, Czech glass, Swarovski crystals and semi-precious stones. She
also designs and constructs handbags and totes from vintage & contemporary
fabrics making
many of her handbags one-of-a-kind originals.
Marla has
always had a deep love for culture and enjoys studying people, their languages and lifestyles from all over the world.
This love continues to exists today and can be seen as an influence in some of Marla's other designs such as "Calandra's
Culture Collection" where she creates handbags honoring countries from around the world. Each handbag of
this collection reflects a part of that culture in style and/or fabric.
Fashion Industry Accomplishments:
Marla Calandra was the creator and director of the International
Fashion Show where she employed international exchange students from around the world to represent their heritage by
“modeling” their country’s cultural dress. Marla hosted the
show and as each country was represented down the runway, Marla would brief the audience with facts about the country and
describe the costume and its cultural significance while music from that country played in the background.
The foundation of the show was to support Anti-Racism. It was created not only to entertain people about cultural fashions, but also to educate about culture
through fashion. Marla’s platform was that she believed that “One
of the main catalysts to stereotypes and racism, was ignorance.” The show gathered more than 2000 people, wining
her The “Best in Show” award at Northampton Community College’s Family
Day event in 1994.
Other Interesting facts about Marla Calandra: Her
other talents include making all natural handmade soaps and bodycare products from herbs,
teas and essential oils, drawing and sketching portraits through various mediums such as
watercolor, graphite, oil and acrylics. She also has had a great love for writing
and poetry since the age of 8 and is an accomplished published author where
her own poetry is featured in over 12 books and anthologies. Marla's has a deep passion for the Celtic and British Cultures which were fueled after receiving a book on Ireland & England when she was a 7 year old child.
She absolutely loves its history, people and music. Aside from her designing career, Marla is also a Registered
and Licensed Occupational Therapist and has been practicing in healthcare for over 10 years. Marla says she can honestly say she is never
bored! She states that sleep has become something of a commodity to her, she bargains with it, however, she finds
it rather a nuisance, as there is so much more she wants to do but not enough time in the day.
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