Alumni Features

Alumni Profile: Sarah Morgan, M.I.D. '04

The last thing Sarah Morgan, M.I.D. '04, expected to be was a handbag designer with her own company.

She thought the entertainment industry was her future; after all, her father created one of Canada's most famous radio and television comedy shows. 

After a childhood spent between Canada and Britain, Morgan moved to New York to work in music production. 

"After a while," she says, "I wasn't feeling fulfilled. I found myself doing a lot of drawing at my job-which is never a good sign. I had won awards for art in high school, so I decided to look at Pratt." 

Once at Pratt, fashion still never crossed Morgan's mind.

"I did my thesis on lighting," Morgan says. "Never in my life would I have thought I would go into fashion."

However, Morgan took a fashion elective in her final semester, encouraged by Pratt's emphasis on trying different subjects.

"Pratt is about exploration," she says. "For me, Pratt was an experience of learning how to communicate visually, and helping define who I was and how I wanted to spend my time."

For the class, Morgan created a handbag collection, which landed her a spot in the Pratt Design Incubator. There, she laid the groundwork for launching her handbag company Eenamaria.

Fast forward six years: Eenamaria is flourishing. Morgan is launching a collection for Target.com at the end of May and working on one for ShopNBC.com. Her bags are sold in more than 100 boutiques around the world and are regularly sported by celebrities. They have been seen at the Golden Globe Awards and featured in top magazines.

Morgan says she credits Pratt not just for teaching her to design, but giving her the confidence to run her own design business. 

"I never trusted my talent working in the entertainment industry," she says. "My job now requires that I rely only on my talent. My teachers encouraged me and gave me the confidence to trust my abilities."

 

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