Love of red, fashion, and design gave birth to a fashion designer's career for Joyce Ma. From a very young age, she could recall a love for all things fashion, beginning with dressing her dolls and her Mom. Fast-forward two decades later, she's channeling her passion into Tension Clothing Inc.

Joyce founded the company in 2000—her first collection arrived nationally in stores Spring 2001. Thoroughly a product of her Vancouver roots, Joyce is influenced by west coast living and has made the west coast Tension Clothing Inc.'s home base for both design and manufacturing.

Under her design vision, Tension Clothing Inc. has continued to add new labels to fulfill the modern woman's fashion and lifestyle needs. To date, the company designs four labels:

In addition to designing the clothes and drawing her own technical flats by hand, Joyce styles each season's photoshoots and does her own fashion illustrations.

Ask a dear friend or distant acquaintance her most memorable characteristic and the unanimous response would be her laugh. Spontaneous and refreshingly unreserved, her laugh can be heard clear across her design studio—and down the hall. These days, designing keeps Joyce busy. Poke your head into her design studio and you're likely to find Joyce surrounded by paraphenalia for her four lines—sketches, fabric samples, and prototypes. She keeps sane and balances sleep deprivation with a keen sense of humour!