In a world where fashion seems to have taken on a secular definition, fashion designer Mary Wilson is urging parents to be more aware of the impact of the clothes that they purchase for their families.
Speaking with Freedom Come Rain Newspaper, the fashion designer encouraged the Church to play a greater role in championing modesty and harmless designs in the fashion industry.
“We have to play a stronger role,” she said. “Especially the Christian voice is important, and we need to step up, you know, our voice to say no, our children are important, and we want to save our children’s lives.”
“The industry has been misrepresented,” said Wilson, “and there are not enough people who are taking a righteous stance for what is going on, and it must not be overlooked.”
Having begun her craft through sketches from an early age, Wilson says that she broadened her horizons as a teenager in visual arts, with one of her pieces making its way to the National Gallery. She then travelled to England to gain certification in the field. She has also partnered with organisations such as Pulse.
The goal of her business, Mary Wilson Brand, is to implement God’s statutes pertaining to attire. For Wilson, it is more than just a way of making money but also a ministry.
“A lot of people think it’s just about sewing, but it’s an industry. You have the creative, you have textile, you have the business sector of it as well,” she explained, “And so you learn about pattern making, you learn about marketing, you learn about textiles, production, operation and so forth… But I am fortunate that I went abroad and I saw the many avenues of the sector. So my business really started when I came back to Jamaica and I formalised it. I went to the company director of Jamaica, and I formalised in 2011.”
During these periods, she said that she received great opportunities for exposure to the industry. However, the most significant factor impacting the way she steers her business is the Lord. Upon diving deeper into fashion designing, she began to receive instructions regarding the kind of designs she was to make, particularly those involving prints.
One lesson that she learned was the negative spiritual impact of exposing children to certain prints and designs that the secular world deems appropriate. She therefore is urging born-again believers to be vigilant in the kinds of clothes that they wear and allow their children to wear.
“A simple thing as a school bag. You seeing a skull…and a child looking on that schoolbag or looking at a demonic image. The eyes are the window to the soul, and so that image would affect that child; that child would be troubled, that child would have a nightmare, that child would be tormented, and a parent don’t know what is going on. So, the eye gate is important.”
“We have to cover our children,” she urged, “because the eyes is a portal, and it affects the child, and so it has to be advertised that, you know, we cannot have our children wearing these garments, and some of the parents don’t think it’s important to adhere to what is said in terms of not having children wearing certain clothes,” she observed.
She encouraged parents to wear plain clothing or simple, plain prints that does not have any negative impact.
