Alison Bezzina

Beyond the elegant CR logo is a simple-confusing surname combination (Borg and van Maarschalkerweerd); a cut-colour-collection routine; a story of two men whose creativity dresses up life.

Charles and Ron met in Holland over 17 years ago. "I'm Dutch," says Ron, "and at the time I was studying Personnel Management while Charles worked as a sales manager in a retail shop. He also sewed dresses part-time in his mother's living room. Before meeting Charles, I had absolutely no clue where Malta was, but then I decided to come here for a holiday and I simply fell in love with it. The weather, the people, the way they live and think is so different from the way of life in Holland. It's a rat race over there - you have to prove that you're working hard to climb the career ladder, to buy a nice car and all that. Malta's slow pace was a great relief for me, so I settled down here."

"The moment I met Charles and saw his sewing creations, I knew that he could take it beyond a mere side job and develop it into a full-time pursuit. Maybe because I was looking with fresh eyes, but to me it was clear from the start that he had enough passion to take it further."

"I was brought up with my aunts, who all loved sewing," adds Charles. "I guess I picked up the skill by observing them. I've never had any formal training and am largely self-taught, except for a very short course that I once attempted to attend. In the beginning, the closest Ron and I ever got to the fashion industry was working in retail shops that imported clothes. Ron was then lucky enough to get a work permit and so he could stay here. Had he not managed, I don't know if Charles and Ron would have happened. He was the one to convince me to take a serious shot at this career, and so we transformed my bedroom into a studio. That's where it all started. We had a handful of clients at first, but we just kept growing."

"A couple of years later," Ron adds, "a friend of ours, Joe Fountain, who at the time was by far more experienced in the fashion world than we were, advised us and also collaborated in organising our own fashion show - we never quite looked back after that. We now do two shows a year, in line with international fashion weeks abroad. This gives us an edge, because we get to express our creativity through our creations."

"The fashion industry in Malta has not changed much since we first started," says Ron. "Maybe the only difference is that now there are more people making a living out of it. 17 years ago we were pretty much on our own, but now there are more models and stylists in the industry. Another reason why I was so attracted to Malta was the fashion vacuum that existed back then. There would be no way for anyone like Charles and I to set up a business like this anywhere else because unfortunately, in most foreign countries, unless you have the formal schooling certificates, you are automatically disqualified, even if you have the talent."

Charles adds. "Our business is now twofold. On the one hand we have our regular clients who come to us with an idea for a dress, and on the other we create our collections for the catwalk. The fashion shows are our advertising campaigns for the year. In most cases Ron does most of the designing and I do the actual sewing, but every dress we create is a combination of our talents. It could never happen if one of us was missing."

"We love this industry and I can't imagine us doing anything else," adds Charles. "Still, we have to work hard. The collections are created in-between client work, and participating in foreign international shows takes a huge toll on us, mentally, time wise, and financially. It's great that we are invited to foreign exhibitions but in order to break into a foreign market, you need to keep at it. You can't go to an exhibition once and expect results. You have to go back year after year, until those interested in your work start to believe that you're a serious contender. It is just too expensive to maintain and though we still get the invites, we don't accept most of them nowadays."

"The fashion shows are hard work," Ron agrees. "I start designing from months before and Charles sews around the clock. It's through the shows that we managed to go somewhat mainstream. Although the clothes that we design are still very particular, fashion shows make them accessible to a lot more people. We've toyed with the idea of opening our own retail outlet, but we don't believe the time is right for it yet. People can buy our clothes from our studio or from Rebelli."

"The future looks interesting," Charles says. "Apart from working on our next show, we are also planning to refurbish our house so that it has a bigger and better working space and studio. We are really looking forward to moving in there."

"When we started trying our luck with the international market," Ron adds, "we were advised to move to Italy. We toyed with the idea for a while but Malta is just too comfortable to leave. We're very happy here, and even if sometimes I try and imagine what it would have been like in Italy, I know that staying here was the right decision."

 

First published on FM Magazine November 2009