Hollywood costume designer Edith Head once said, “You can have anything you want in life if you dress for it.”

Those words rang true for Tela Cherice Morris, a Memphis fashion designer who has gone international. She opened the doors to her new shop near the Medical District in February. 

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Her shop serves as the home base for her custom clothing business, Unblemished by Cherice, which sells made-to-order garments ranging from casual chic to prom princess. 

“I really love it. I’m super excited about what’s to come,” Morris said. “I really put my heart into it. I don’t just do it just to make money. I really like to actually do something that puts a smile on someone’s face, to have them light up when they see that dress for the first time.”

Unblemished by Cherice was founded in 2015 when she began selling custom clothing from a hallway in her home. But by the beginning of 2020, she had outgrown that space and moved to a small studio, which was shared with a collective of artists who are now based in Midtown.

Morris and suitemate Candis Gibbs went their own way together and moved into their new digs on the 11th floor of the Union Centre at 1331 Union Ave. 

Morris has been interested in fashion design since she was a child, when she would make custom outfits for her Barbie dolls using hair ties and T-shirt scraps. 

She became seriously invested in fashion design when she took a vocational fashion and fabrics course during high school. Her very first design was a reversible Spongebob vest. 

“I really wish I had it still,” she said. “It was a reversible vest and had my name embroidered on it.” 

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Over the years, Morris has learned to freestyle her designs and hardly uses patterns. Although she may consult YouTube every now and again for some tips and tricks, for the most part, she figures things out on her own by looking at designs around her and on television. 

Materials she loves working with include velvet, satin, denim, leather, sequins and anything else that catches her eye and “has a uniqueness to it.” 

Her top two favorite fabric shops in Memphis are Hobby Lobby and Joann Fabrics. Sometimes, she will order materials from a New York City company, Mood Fabrics, which she found out about through the television show “Project Runway.” 

Morris loves adding embellishments to clothing and does a lot with embroidery. She swears by her Singer sewing machine for stitching materials together. But she typically sews embellishments by hand, and sometimes uses a Brother embroidery machine. 

A garment she said she is most proud of is her Peacock Dress, a black velvet vintage-style evening gown with puffed sleeves, deep plunge neckline and colorful embellishments running down the front. She put about 24 hours into making the dress. 

“I really can see that on a celebrity at the Met Gala or on a red carpet,” she said. “It’s sexy, but it still gives you the vintage vibe. I love anything vintage.”

The Peacock Dress was featured in a July 28 issue of Edith magazine, which is published in Canada. 

Another dress Morris said she is proud of is a red, sequined gown with asymmetrical cutouts held together by mesh, that was featured in a July 15 issue of Shuba magazine in Russia. 

“It was so detailed,” she said. “I had to cut (the front) out and do asymmetrical lines. That was a different skill set.”

Those were Morris’ first two designs to be published in international magazines. 

A wall in Morris’ workroom is adorned with “Unblemished by Cherice” printed in large, gold lettering.

Morris said she chose that name because of its meaning, “not marked in any way; without flaw.” She had considered other names, like “Flawless”, but she wasn’t quite sold on it.

“I prayed about it and looked up names to describe what I was trying to say about my clothing,” she said. “I looked up ‘flawless’ but I didn’t like it. However I looked up the adjectives and saw ‘unblemished’, and I instantly fell in love.”

Paintings on the walls in her workroom express her interest in fashion and Paris. Two paintings show a model in front of a Parisian landscape. 

“Paris is my No. 1 place that I really want to go,” Morris said. 

Although she has not yet visited the city, her dream began to take hold in August when 17:23 magazine in Paris published a design of hers that featured a pink, sequin top and black and floral mesh pants worn by Gibbs.

Another design, with purple, yellow and orange African print pants with a paper bag-waist paired with a purple turtleneck shirt, was featured in a September issue of the French magazine Kazarj. 

She and photographer, Kevin Higgins, have continued to submit images of her fashions to magazines in Canada, Amsterdam and New York. Almost immediately, nearly every submission has been picked up.

“It was like every time he submitted something, they picked it up right away,” Morris said. “He was like, ‘That’s all you. They love your clothes.’ I wasn’t expecting any of that.”

To Morris, Higgins is more than just her photographer. He is a mentor, she said. 

“He’s teaching me to be my authentic self,” she said. “He’s teaching me how to be better with my craft because he was like, ‘It doesn’t just stop with you sewing. It stops with your vision and what you tell the photographer.’”

That vision could include styling, posing and picking the setting or backdrop for photos. 

The Peacock Dress and Rockstar Dress, a purple sequin dress which was published on the cover of Marika magazine in New York City, are for sale. 

Morris has also designed clothing for a model in a Big Boogie music video and for Akono Dixon, an actor best known for his role as Andre in the CW television series “All American.”

“Akono said he was going to wear the blazer I made him on the red carpet when they do something in Hollywood,” she said. “I’m really excited about that.”

Customers can have clothing custom made, or they can choose from a selection of dresses and jumpers from her website.

Customers who shop with Morris are often buying outfits for birthdays, weddings, black and white affairs, proms and more. Custom dresses cost between $800 and $1,500. 

Birthdays are the most popular occasion for which customers shop. “Everybody wants to dress like (they’re going to the) red carpet for their birthday,” she said.

A close second would be proms. People begin shopping for prom dresses as early as August. 

“I have already talked to some moms about prom,” she said.

Other customers like to purchase casual chic and semi-formal clothing, including jumpsuits and fancy tutus, all of which cost between $225 and $300. 

The shop’s hours of operation are based on appointment. Customers wanting made-to-order clothing come in for a 45-minute consultation, where design, measurements, date of event, deposit and cost are discussed.

After the initial consultation and fitting, Morris gets to work on the design and the client comes into the shop for a second fitting to “get everything perfect.” 

Not all of Morris’ business comes from made-to-order clothing orders. She also provides alteration services. The business does at least 20 alterations per month.

Nicole Sykes has been shopping with Morris since about 2015. She hired Morris to do alterations on her wedding dress, and over the years, she has bought clothing for herself, her daughter and husband. 

“She definitely has an eye for fashion,” Sykes said. “She’s almost like a perfectionist in her craft, and she goes above and beyond for her clients. I like that she’s an effective listener. She will listen enough to see what my needs are. She follows through with commitments. She’s always investing in her passion, trying to learn and educate herself and just always willing to become greater than whatever she was before.”

Her favorite garment she has purchased, she said, is the Goddess Jumpsuit with a criss-cross in the back, pockets and wide legs.

“That one is a huge seller,” Morris said.

Morris has just released a line of men’s clothing called Undamaged by Cherice.

“Undamaged means the same (as ‘Unblemished’), but it’s more masculine,” said Morris.

The clothing line debuted when Top Posters magazine in Russia published a men’s design from the line on its cover Oct. 17.

She is working on a fall collection, including vintage-style peacoats and cardigans with elbow pads for both men and women. The women’s collection will also include velvet jumpsuits that can be paired with blazers.

“I’m going for a really conservative type, but then at the same time, you can transform it into urban wear,” Morris said.

Soon, Morris will begin her “Oscars project,” a photoshoot with her four ambassadors, or models, dressed in formal and elegant clothing. She hopes to shoot the photos at the Orpheum or at Memphis Botanic Garden.

Gibbs is one of the ambassadors. She also runs her own business in the same suite, called Candis’ Closet. She styles wardrobes, organizes closets and provides styling services during photoshoots. 

Although the two have separate businesses, they view their relationship almost as a partnership and help each other when needed. In addition to acting as one of Morris’ ambassadors, she helps keep her organized. 

Likewise, Morris helps Gibbs with styling for photoshoots.

“Instead of us building our business apart, and separately, we can do so much better together,” Gibbs said. “She is amazing. She’s very talented. She’s been doing it for a long time. And I just really cannot wait to see where she’s going to be in the next five years.” 

Morris said she hopes to hire an assistant to help her with managing the website, posting ads on social media and cutting patterns out.

She also plans on hosting sewing classes in a suite on a lower floor of the Union Centre. 

She has recently applied to be a contestant on “Making the Cut,” a reality television show on Amazon Prime where fashion designers compete to win $1 million toward building their fashion brand. 

“I’m going to end up being there soon,” she said. “I feel it. I feel it.”

Morris emphasized the key to continuing to be a good artist is to never get comfortable with one’s skill level. There is always room to grow. 

“I never think that I know everything,” she said. “I’m always learning. There’s always room for improvement.”

Next year, she hopes to participate in Art of Fashion, an annual runway show in Memphis.

Her end goals include publishing her fashion designs in Vogue magazine and expanding her business to large cities like Paris, New York City and Atlanta. 

She also hopes to participate in New York Fashion Week one day. She and Gibbs will celebrate their one year anniversary in February by attending the semi-annual event.