Cydney Mar

Cydney Mar ( born August 20, 1958 ) is a Canadian Fashion Designer known for her fashion collection sold primarily through TV Shopping networks worldwide. She resides in Westmount Quebec. A former Canadian National level competitive figure skater, she was almost killed in a skating accident at the age of 18 at the North Shore Winter Club in North Vancouver, BC.
Early life
Born & raised in Vancouver BC, she is the only daughter of Timothy and Evelyn Mar ( née Wong ) . Her grandfathers came to Canada in the late 1900s, one arrived to Vancouver and opened a restaurant on Princess Street in Chinatown, the other arrived as a Chinese Presbyterian Missionary in Toronto. Reverend Ma’s church still stands on Beverly Street in Toronto. Her maternal grandfather married Mabel Angus of Scottish descent, hence Mar’s mixed heritage ( therefore her brown & auburn hair ). This was a direct result of the prohibition of Chinese women to immigrate into Canada at that time in the Chinese Canadian history creating the Chinese bachelor society.
At six, she was aptitude tested by Joe Boucher, one of Vancouver’s first naturopaths & friend of the family and her parents were advised to allow her to follow her natural artists instincts. Enrolled in Vancouver School of Art, she flourished there for two years, until it was also discovered that she would not accept a teachers values that did not respect her own.
At the same time, at six years old, a family trip brought them to Toronto where she skated for the first time at the outdoor rink at City Hall. Thus began her love affair with figure skating, as she was enrolled into Vancouver Skating Club upon the family’s return. Mar had a natural talent on ice and was the protégé of the rink. Mar was the first Chinese Canadian in history to compete at the National level, and was offered to skate for the Japanese Government at the age of 13, in exchange for a dual citizenship as they did not have any strong female skaters at that time ( she declined ). Her coaches were Jack Boyle up until age 13, then Brian Power. She was trained by John Nicks during her summer skating schools in Santa Monica. She competed in the 1976 Canadian Championships in London Ontario, in the Junior Ladies category. In 1977 in the middle of the competitions, she was almost killed in a skating accident at North Shore Winter Club. She was injured in a skating accident in which her leg was slashed by a fellow skater during a practice session between competitions. Her right leg was first repaired, but it became evident that she had nerve damage as her sciatica was severed by 2/3. Her leg was reconstructed 6 months later and was the first micro-neurosurgery in Canada, as her Doctor arranged for the Canadian Government to bring 5 US Doctors to do the reconstruction and create teaching tapes for the Canadian Universities. The operation was considered very successful.
Becoming a designer and her fashion career
Mar learned to sew at a very young age and made her own skating outfits for shows and competition ~ This led her to enroll in Blanche MacDonald’s Design & Merchandising College. She was originally introduced to Blanches at age 13 as she was enrolled in its finishing school and modeling classes. She graduated with honours from the Design & Merchandising courses and went on to win two awards in NYC at the MAAI conference in Design & Merchandising as well as Fashion Illustration. She was also a participant in the Clairol Awards Fashion competition in 1982. She started her own company in 1980 to create her own couture collection, Cydney Mar, successfully selling though Holt Renfrew, The Room, The Bay, Eaton’s and various carriage trade retail stores across Canada. An active member of the West Coast Design Association, she was often requested to do luncheon fashion shows, big charity event fashion shows fully choreographed, her designs were shown at the Wembly Stadium in London, England at the International Hair competitions and to do advertisements for promoting Vancouver. In 1983, she closed doors and began working for various manufacturers, with the desire to design for the everyday woman and learned how to create collections for mass manufacturing and distribution. In 1985 she moved to Toronto and worked with Michael Kan Enterprises, head designer for and creating the Rouie Collection. In 1990 she was head hunted to Montreal and worked for Katescorp, then Conrad C, Coincidence, Irving Samuel, Edwin Jeans. After the death of her parents, she opened a Design Studio and created another label called Inner Peace.
Magazines appearances
Mar’s fashions have been featured in national magazines such as Flare, Burnaby styles, Style magazine, Lucky and in newspapers such as The Vancouver Sun, The Province, The Toronto Star and been featured on TV in Cityline, CTV, and CNN. CTV featured her on a program called “A Day in Life of a Designer “ in the program for highlighting career choices, and featuring her Black Koi Collection for Wal-Mart as well as her work on the George Collection for Wal-Mart.
Television references
She was introduced to QVC UK in 2000 and that is when she found a better way for her to engage directly with her customers and show them how to wear and care for her designs. In 2006 she was a founding partner of Twin Heart Clothing which rocketed to success, however after 5 years and a difference of direction with her partners, she left to set up her Cydney Mar Fashion Design Studio, where she creates Cydney Mar Fashions, as well as a strategic alliance with a Top Chef Gear Collection. She currently shows her fashion collections in QVC Germany, QVC Italia and CNR Mall in China. She has over 10 years experience on TV and over 600 hours of live on air TV experience.
A big advocate of self-care and health, inspired by her early experiences as a skater, Mar is launching her own Cydney Mar Wellness products in late 2014. In September 2012, she had a sore tummy which became a health scare of 8 weeks in the Montreal General Hospital & Royal Victoria Hospital. She had an operation to save her life, got hospital acquired pneumonia, pleurisy and her lungs had to be drained in her fight to regain her health. Ultimately it was discovered that she had contracted mono, which crashed her immune system, and was considered to be episodic. Her return to excellent health and her experiences has created an urge for her to use her expertise on TV to help people make good choices to help support their health. Her paternal grandfather was a medical herbalist in China before he became a Chinese Presbyterian Missionary.
Philanthropy and art
Mar currently supports www.wohi.org and www.windfallbasics.com.
Mar is working on an Art Narrative called Blue Men which is scheduled to exhibit in 2016. It will be an exhibit of 52 paintings, a published Art Book alongside scarves & jewelry that she is designing for the Blue Men exhibit which will be produced in Ghana at World of Hope community center to teach sustainable skills and create an opportunity to sell the merchandise worldwide to support the community.
Personal life
Mar has been married and divorced twice, and lives in Westmount with her three miniature schnauzer dogs and budgie bird. A long time student of A Course in Miracles, Mar maintains that miracles are an natural everyday occurrence.

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