Originally published March 2009 for TFI News Blogspot
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Philip Sparks
Easing us into the impending madness of LG Fashion Week were two off-site shows held the week before. The first being menswear designer Philip Sparks. In a loft space in the Burroughes Building, where he also has a studio, the vibe was relaxed and friendly. It was my first time there and I instantly fell in love with the raw, yet historical charm of the structure. Inspired by the story of Peter and the Wolf—a Russian musical symphony written for children—Sparks showed us a dressed-up outdoorsy collection of shirts, jackets, and sweaters using fur, flannel, wool and a paper cotton, strengthening his reputation for creating charming, boyish looks. —GM
Friday, March 13, 2009
Greta Constantine
Design duo Kirk Pickersgill and Stephen Wong proved themselves two of Canada’s most visionary designers. As I walked along Adelaide towards The Courthouse I saw a long line of people I was expecting to already be inside. It was half an hour after the doors were supposed to open. The venue wasn’t ready for the cold and fashion-hungry crowd of celebrities, fashion editors, and buyers who huddled together outside. Some were shocked to hear one of the bouncers yell, “I don’t care if you’re VIP or media —you’re not getting in!” Not exactly the welcome we were expecting. Finally, about an hour after the doors were supposed to open we got inside. The crowd was expansive and pushed back towards the bar making it impossible for some people to see. Stepping away from their reputation as luxury jersey gown designers, the Greta Constantine presented a collection of separates, coats, and layered dresses. Standout pieces included the gold leopard print jumpsuit, the mesh layered jersey dresses and the seatbelt jackets (which supermodel Coco Rocha wore Thursday evening to the Project Runway Canada show). Here are some images below but you can view the entire collection of my photos here: www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=65970&id=516494126&l=5895e93ee2 —GM
Monday, March 16, 2009
Holt Renfrew Cocktail
It was my first time being invited to the Holt Renfrew Media Cocktail so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had been warned by a few regular attendees that it’s really quite boring and the speeches fill up most of the time. This year it seemed those whispers had found their way back to the higher ups at Holts and it was more of an actual cocktail party. The speeches were short and to the point, followed by brief presentations of five designers: Greta Constantine, Mikhael Kale, Jeremy Laing, Philip Sparks, and Montreal’s Denis Gagnon. Many media outlets called out the fact that it was an entire line up of male designers, which was pointed out in many articles that followed. Read The Toronto Star’s article here: www.thestar.com/article/603360. —GM
The Fashion Twitterati
I had signed up for Twitter in March last year after receiving a few invites, but only one person I knew was on there at the time so I threw it back into the Internet void along with Friendster, Hi5, and MySpace. Then November came around and suddenly all my friends were talking about it, so I logged back in and started micro-blogging. It was a nice little place with a few friends sharing interesting links, but then media caught on and everyone starting joining. LG Fashion Week was fast approaching and suddenly en mass all the fashion journalists joined the pack. During fashion week you’d be inclined to think the likes of Derick Chetty from The Toronto Star weren’t interested in the clothing being sent down the runway because they were constantly tapping into their smart phones, instead they were sending their thoughts into the Twittersphere. To catch up on all the tweets go to www.twitter.com and search for the hashtag #LGFW to see what they were saying. You can follow me @TheStyleBox. (P.S. TFI’s Susan Langdon is on there now too!) —GM
Costa Pavlu Premiers Menswear Collection
I tend to avoid Ultra during fashion week for its unofficial fashion week after-parties, but when I heard that Judy Inc fashion stylist Costa Pavlu was premiering his menswear collection, I had to go cheer him on. (I used to represent him when he was at Plutino Group.) I was completely impressed by his collection of leather and cotton jackets, shirts and pants in grey and black. It seems like he’s targeting the casual, yet professional man—a great audience in Toronto. After the show I went to congratulate him. He was so gracious and thankful that I had attended and wanted my honest opinion, which I gave wholeheartedly. —GM
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
The Art of Fashion
Spotted at many of the shows with sketchbook and pencil in hand was fashion illustrator Danielle Meder who decided to create 4×6 postcards of watercolour pencil sketches from each show she attended. “I’ve been pencil sketching from the runway for a few seasons now, and this time I wanted to do more finished pieces. I had these postcards in my drawer so I brought them to Philip Sparks and did a sketch,” she says. “As I was blogging the image, it occurred to me that it was a nice compact finished art piece on its own, and maybe someone would like to buy it. So I went to the art store and bought more cards and sketched all the shows I went to.” The original artwork is for sale for just $50. Visit www.finalfashion.com to view the postcards. —GM
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Closing Week Parties
The volunteers in the tents were handing out flyers all week to the official closing night party at Muzik nightclub down at Exhibition Place. I didn’t go—and no one I know went. I haven’t even read a thing about it. I think they were all where the true party people were at—the Burroughes Loft Party where local fashion favourite Fritz Helder & The Phantoms, who recently was the first act to be signed to Nelly Furtado’s new record label, performed. BlogTO had some great images from the night: http://blogto.com/toronto_fashion_week/2009/03/fashion_week_finale/ —GM
