Fashioning change: alumnus Narishdath Maraj’s passion for sustainability.
Artist
Artist and Fashion Designer Narishdath Maraj was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago. At the age of 17, he left home to attend Fashion school in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Then, he worked for Club Med Resorts, where he designed costumes in Florida, Turks and Caicos, Turkey, China, and at sea on board the MSV Club Med 2.
Now, he has opened a Fashion Design and Visual Arts company in Toronto that focuses on Upcycling and Textile Waste Reduction. As a dedicated Fashion Designer and Project Manager in the textile and apparel industry, Narishdath is committed to pioneering sustainable practices. His expertise lies in reducing and managing post-consumer fashion and textile waste through innovative upcycling and repurposing processes, thereby enhancing product value and achieving zero-waste goals.
If this was all there is to say about Narishdath, History would already be quite remarkable. But like HIS art, there is more to history than meets the eye.
As a young man, Narishdath found his space for artistic expression through painting, drawing, designing costumes, and dancing. What started during childhood as fun designing clothes for his sister, Gayatri's dolls using old Saris, curtains, and old clothes, culminated many years later with his first fashion collection.
Many teenagers leave home to go to school, but few can boast of an academic HIStory quite like HIS: At the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, Narishdath graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Fashion Design, Magna Cum Laude, and earned awards for Best Portfolio, Distinction in Fashion Honours, and Fashion Design’s Highest Achievement Medal, just for good measure.
His journey led him to design a unique fashion collection titled ‘Rajavidya Empire’. For inspiration, he drew on his East Indian background. This ‘Royal’ collection featured clothes and costumes, that fused traditional Indian fabrics, draping, and colors; with English styles and silhouettes that harkened back to the days of the old Empire, upon which ‘The Sun Never Set’. This collection was created by upcycling used and unwanted, Saris and other textile materials. It was a great success.
In the fall of 2011, Maraj parlayed the success of his collection into a full-time position as the Costume Designer for Club Med Resorts. HIS designs there were mainly for theatrical productions, and Maraj designed for dance, circus, and Broadway-style shows in the United States, The Turks and Caicos Islands, Turkey, and China. He then moved on to be the Set Designer and Decorator on board the largest sailboat in the world: MSV Club Med 2. During his time designing for theatrical productions, his creations were featured in over 20 Shows and seen all over the world.
In 2016, Narishdath Maraj chose Toronto to open Narishdath Maraj Design Inc. a company focused on creating Visual Arts and Fashion Design with a focus on Upcycling/Repurposing textiles. In 2018 he returned to the world of Academics to pursue a Bachelor of Design in Fashion Communications at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University). He graduated with distinction in the Spring of 2022.
Narishdath has played a pivotal role in spearheading transformative and sustainable initiatives at Toronto Metropolitan University. Under his leadership as the Project Coordinator for the Branded Materials Transition Project (BMTP), over 12,000 kg of Ryerson-branded materials were successfully diverted from landfills. The project received the Julia Hanigsberg Make Your Mark Award, Sustainability at the Toronto Met Awards, 2023.
HIS art is like HIS life story: Abstract. Complex. Meandering and Beautiful.