By India Pearman
Staff Writer
Contemporary meets chic in junior Maeve Tomalty’s designs for Gémeaux.
Tomalty explored her interest in fashion by creating Gémeaux, a clothing line that intends to represent a strong woman and their desired fashion. The line consists of seven completed pieces right now, with six more currently in the process of being made, including bomber jackets, t-shirts, sweatshirts, and many more. Maeve’s production team began the process in Sept. 2016 and are still designing and perfecting the items.
“My whole life I have been super into fashion,” Tomalty said. “When I was a little girl I used to play dress up with my Mom’s clothes, and when I was in sixth grade, I used to take pictures of outfits that I liked online, print them out, and put them in my closet.”
Tomalty meets with her product developer, Tracie Fields, twice a week to brainstorm ideas and finalize designs for Gémeaux. The process of making each item involves creating a design, choosing the fabrics, cutting a pattern, then they are handmade in Los Angeles. Tomalty gathers inspiration for her designs by watching runway shows and looking at fashion icons, such as Rihanna.
“I really like the clothes because it is really important to her and a lot of it represents female empowerment,” junior Jack Drinker said. “I think that she will be successful because she is very determined and I know that she has spent a lot of time on it.”
Tomalty’s sister, Morgan Tomalty, helps Maeve with the designs, so they chose the name Gémeaux because it means Gemini in French, and they are both Geminis. They also wanted to represent the duality of the clothing being both “glam” and “punk,” which is her idea of street style with a high fashion feel. They also decided to have the name in French since they are originally from Canada, which has a large French influence, and wanted to represent this along with their love for the language. Tomalty projected that girls from about 15 to 25 would be interested in buying these clothes.
“They are clothes that you can wear out in multiple situations,” Tomalty said. “You can dress them down, dress them up, and a lot of the pieces definitely stand out and I think that being proud of having a unique style is definitely a very important thing.”
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The first time her team went through the process to make their first item, there were many kinks in communication and timing that were later worked out to allow the next items to be made faster. The stages include her ideas being brought to life as they are passed various people and companies. Tomalty described their team as working as a well oiled machine by the time the later items were made. Along with her sister, Tomalty’s mother, Victoria, has been a big part of the process, and according to Tomalty, she couldn’t have started this without her.
“My favorite part of the process is designing the clothes and having the ideas, and then being able to wear it,” Tomalty said. “I remember the first time that I put on something that completely came from my mind, and that is crazy to me because it didn’t exist and then all of a sudden it was on my body.“
Tomalty plans to have the items for sale soon and to continue designing into college and for as long as she possibly can. She wants for people to love the line and to feel confident wearing what one wants to wear. Her end goal is to eventually start selling her line in a store, but for now, updates about the line will soon be availabe online at: gemeauxbym.com or on her company Instagram @gemeauxbym.
“The biggest goal is people loving it and actually wearing it,” Tomalty said. “I hope to be able to keep on making clothes for as long as possible and to see those clothes on people that I respect.”
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