ABOUT THE DESIGNER: (www.annemulaire.ca)

Andréanne Mulaire Dandeneau was born in St. Boniface, Manitoba—Winnipeg’s thriving French quarter. She is the great-great-great-granddaughter of Catherine Mulaire, who was born in 1843.  A daughter of a Voyageur and the first rural Métis teacher in the Red River Settlement, Catherine was also an accomplished seamstress whose embroidery continues to inspire the designs of Anne Mulaire today.

Andréanne was raised to embrace her Anishinaabe/French heritage, respect all people, and honour the planet we share—principles that still guide her as a businesswoman and a designer. Her mother, Huguette, raised her to care deeply about the environment and, as a teacher, taught her to be proud of her Métis heritage. Her father, David, influenced Andréanne through his art. He brings his talents to the table by creating Métis prints for the company’s Heritage Collection. Today, Huguette and David still work by Andréanne’s side—motivating and inspiring her.

A business guided by strong ethics, Anne Mulaire is a designer label women can wear in comfort, confidence, and pride. Shop for durable, beautiful, environmentally friendly clothing that reflects who you are. The planet thanks you.

DESIGN STORY: We met with the Anne Mulaire team and went through their vision, ideas, wants and wishes. They presented all their branding materials, new line, colors, fonts, etc. We asked Andréanne what she envisioned for the evening and what sort of feeling she wanted to convey to all the guests. Using their new brands, she really wanted to see some natural, modern touches and still wanted to incorporate some of her french and Métis heritage.

So we came up with a proposal for them that went a little something like this…..

DESIGN INSPIRATION: Our inspiration was natural materials presented in a modern way.  First of all, the offices are located in this really cool warehouse-type building, so they had the fashion show and party on one of the office floors which was very industrial and modern. I think it was perfect. So first things first, we proposed this board, mixing acrylics, woods, and greenery.

DECOR: 

RUNWAY INSPIRATION: For la piece de résistance, we wanted to keep things clean, sleek and modern, but we also didn’t want to break the bank. As you can see in my drawing below, we ordered walls from Creating a Scene and they painted the outside walls and middle wall a light beige/yellow (the colour in Anne Mulaire’s brand palette) The other two walls were covered in faux grass. It was important that we put money in her logos, and that they were displayed flawlessly. Laser of all things nailed the black acrylic stick-on logos. (check it out below) Instead of bringing in a runway or stage (the runway would be used as the dance floor after the fashion show) we decided to mark the runway with a gold metallic tape that I order from Uline.ca.  Now of course when designing something, things can change, and on set up day, we decided to move this “fabric swag” we had made to the back wall where all the photo ops were. The swag is made of all the scraps in the Anne Mulaire workshop. Reuse baby!

FOOD AND BEVERAGE INSPIRATION: The team didn’t want to do much food and a simple bar menu so we came up with two food stations “HUNTER” and the “GATHERER” station. All presented on harvest tables with modern and acrylic pieces to help display the platters of food. Chef Ben Kramer http://www.chefbenkramer.com/ hit this one out of the park, everything was meticulously placed and everything was thought out and fresh fresh fresh.  For dessert, we decided to do a pass around dessert “mini scones with fresh berry compote and maple sweetened cream” and put together and chocolate charcuterie board and also had one of Andréanne’s friends Amanda https://meltchocolatecompany.com/ that owns Melt Chocolate Company to make custom chocolates for the event.  Andréanne was a big tea drinker and wanted to incorporate this somehow, and of course, being French we had to have some wine. The tea actually came from another one of Andréanne’s friends. Check it out https://www.natureltea.ca/

HUNTER + GATHER STATIONS:

CHOCOLATE CHARCUTERIE: 

MELT CHOCOLATES:

BAR:

VIGNETTE INSPIRATION: We really wanted to tell the story and show the evolution of Anne Mulaire. The team at Anne Mulaire did a great job creating a timeline of Andréanne’s career, starting with her passion for dance all the way to the birth of ANNE MULAIRE. When I got the timeline, I went through it and divided it into sections. Then sitting down with the team again, we came up with a title and dates for each wall/panel. The idea was to create an inspiration board/display on a wall. Andréanne’s mother went through all materials They gave me all the materials: newspaper articles, awards, special moments, special photos, past projects, past clothing line etc.   Then with the help of my secret weapon (Holly) we started working on display.

VIGNETTE 1: LE COMMENCEMENT 

VIGNETTE 2: IN TRAINING

VIGNETTE 3: MJ ANNE COUTURE

VIGNETTE 4: VOILA PAR ANDREANNE 

The Anne Mulaire event touched my heart, it made me so proud to be a French Canadian in the creative trade world. I truly felt inspired by this client and all the things she has accomplished, I will forever be grateful to have had a part in the history of Anne Mulaire.  I also loved doing this event with planner extraordinaire Melissa Meilleur of Letter M Events.