Orbital sanders turn Catherine Morris on. The founder of Red
Rooster, who folded her fashion PR business into the Rowland Company
this week, is really looking forward to getting her hands on some power
tools. But this is not another of her projects to renovate an East End
property.
The ’merger’ with Rowland gives the 41-year-old the opportunity to
extend her skills in new areas such as interiors, cars and ... DIY
equipment.
But best of all, Morris says, the real benefit of the deal is that it
allows her to return to what she is good at: working with clients,
rather than wading through administration, worrying about office systems
or generally getting bogged down in the business of running a
business.
Last month, the agency Morris founded in 1991 with Tanya Lake split in
two, Lake becoming managing director of Red Rooster Beauty and Consumer,
and Morris becoming managing director of Fashion and Lifestyle.
The decision to form two separate companies was prompted by an offer to
buy the lease on its Regent Street offices and, she stresses, the split
was entirely amicable. Lake moved to new offices in Soho and Morris
rented space in Rowland’s offices. The latter has subsequently agreed to
transfer her clients and staff to Rowland and drop the Red Rooster name.
The agency effectively becomes Rowland’s fashion arm, with Morris at its
helm as director.
While Morris is keen to broaden her client base, she is far from casting
off her first love. Fashion is in her blood and her friends and former
colleagues describe her as ’having the best brain in that business’. Her
grandmother was a couture-level seamstress who first sparked Morris’
interest in clothes.
Morris, who was born in Manchester before emigrating with her family as
a baby and being raised in Canada, went to fashion college with the
intention of becoming a designer. She came back to England at 21 because
she was bored with Toronto and began work for the Burton Group in buying
and merchandising. After a couple of years, Burton offered her a press
office job, which was not something she had considered before, but which
got her involved in photo shoots, image creation, graphics and
branding.
Her proudest claim to fame during this period was getting Evans, which
specialises in clothes for big women, to use models ’who actually had a
bit of weight on their bones’.
One of her earliest contacts, and later most loyal client, was Red or
Dead, which had a concession in the Burton Group’s Top Shop. In those
days, the founders Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway had just left college
and had a market stall in Camden, rather than a multi-million pound,
ultra-trendy fashion house.
After a year as fashion editor of now defunct men’s mag Unique, Morris
became a freelance stylist, before working in Red or Dead’s press office
on a freelance basis, and it was Wayne Hemingway who suggested she set
up on her own.
Morris PR was founded in 1991. Within six months, it became obvious that
there was too much work for just herself. As a result, she teamed up
with Lake, who she had met at a dinner party and who was on the verge of
leaving Lynne Franks. Red Rooster was born, the name based on the legend
that roosters crow because they believe that if they don’t, the morning
won’t come.
The deal with Rowland frees her to get back to front-line work. PR
agency Origins partner Martin Evans, who has known her for 15 years,
says that she is an ideas person, brilliant at brainstorming, intuitive
and lateral.
She is never happier than when taking dead brands - the sorts of labels
that make the fashion conscious blanche - and making them cool
again.
This is the woman who got white stillettos into Vogue. Much as she might
be excited at trying her hand in other areas, fashion is her lifeblood,
as a slip of the tongue reveals. Talking about homewares and other
products she innocently remarks: ’That’s a whole new ball gown.’
HIGHLIGHTS
1987
Fashion editor, Unique
1991
Co-founds Red Rooster
1999
Folds Red Rooster Fashion and Lifestyle into the Rowland Company
