Laura M celebrates 10 years

 By Cristina Kyle, Saratoga Sun reporter

Saratoga clothing designer Laura Morrow will celebrate the 10th anniversary of her store “Laura M” Thursday from  4 – 8 p.m. with a western-style BBQ and reception.

Morrow moved to Saratoga in May of 1997, a month before she opened the doors of her shop to the public. Prior to the move she had been in the clothing business, designing her own line for 23 years.

After taking a break from designing and working with Maurices in Oregon, she wanted to return to designing her own line and fill an order she had received from the catalogue Simply Southwest, so she moved to Saratoga.

“In order to set up for the catalogue I needed to get production going again. I had a good reputation in Saratoga because I had been doing shows up here for 10 years,” Morrow said in a June 14 interview. “I found a store front next to the Blackhawk where the Chamber (Saratoga/Platte Valley Chamber of Commerce at 106 N. First St.).

“I moved over here because I heard there were a few seamstresses that were very good in town,” she said.

In the beginning, Morrow intended the store to be production only, with her wares available in catalogues and other stores, but she said she soon saw interest in the line and she “decided to open up my retail store in June” of 1997.

Laura M remained in that location for two years before the current location at 114 E. Bridge Ave., became available. There was a difference in show space and rent between the two locations and Morrow decided “it was worth a gamble.”

The gamble paid off and eight years later the store is still open and offering a line of clothing which is “out of the ordinary,” according to Morrow. The offered items, including her own line of clothing and others, sports wear, leathers, sweaters, hats, scarves, gloves, and  other accessories including jewelry, fulfills a niche need in Saratoga.

“It’s a holiday resort line,” Morrow said, with items which can be worn for special occasions that caters to Front Range customers. Some of the repeat customers “come to Saratoga just for my store.”

Morrow, who had moved away from serious production of her line for the last year-and-a-half, is exploring options to return to production of her line with the possibility of returning to catalogue sales.

The Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins is opening up a garment shop and Morrow is designing a fall for the prisoners to produce. The move would allow Morrow to concentrate on design and production, which she said is truly her passion.

Morrow takes periodic trips to the prison to oversee the prisoners, who she pays to put together the outfits.

“Right now in the next month or so, they’ll be doing production for my early fall line which includes linens, and rayon, and maybe some denims.

 

They (the prisoners) will be doing my production for me after I get orders from boutiques and catalogues, and maybe some larger stores.”

Lonesome Dove in Laramie carries the line and with the expanded production there is a possibility of 5-10 more small chains stores picking up the clothing starting with the spring 2008 designs.

Morrow touts all of her Laura M products as made in the U.S.A. and said one of things that makes her clothing so popular is the sizing and on-site quality control.

Some of the other lines start with a small as a size 3/4 according to Morrow. The Laura M line starts with size 6/8 as a small and carries up to 18/20 as the extra large.

Morrow, a Nebraska native before her family moved to Wyoming and eventually settled in Cheyenne, started in the clothing business 33 years ago. She was in Hawaii trying to join the Peace Corps before giving nursing and social work a try. She decided to “get into something I really enjoy doing. I put my hand on my hip and said I’m going to be a designer,” Morrow recalls.

She returned to Cheyenne after a brief stint in Chadron, bought $100 worth of vintage denim, lace, and linen at an estate sale, and began doing custom work creating vests, skirts, and even some wedding dresses out of the recycled material.

Eventually she shared store space with the Dancer’s Emporium in Cheyenne, where the 80’s style wrap around skirts and knit tops complimented the dancers outfits “very well” Morrow said.

After awhile she moved her collection to the Merchandise Mart and into 100 other stores through sales reps in 25 different states.

After the economic crash of 1985-86, she stayed afloat for the next couple of years before working for Maurices for four years in Oregon.

Morrow said she has stayed in Saratoga for the past 10 years because “something keeps me here. I’ve tried to leave on several occasions but something always pulls me back.”

She said in a Wednesday interview, “I love the retail customers and I think that’s probably what’s kept me here and their response to being one of the longer last stores in Saratoga.”