Post TIFF, Hogtown creeps into a bit of a lull until, once again, Fashion Week rears its head. Last night in a loft space in the east end, the first eve of The ShOws was held, acting as a bit of a precursor to the official World MasterCard Fashion Week, still more than a week away.
As in seasons past, Paola Fullerton (the brain behind The ShOws) rallied a clutch of Canuck designers — most of whom are expats — to familiarize Canadians with their work and showcase their multifaceted talents.
“Stop demanding basics!” she exclaimed in her opening speech, asking us as fashion consumers to allow designers to create with freedom.
Fashionable mugs spotted in the crowd included Glen Baxter, shutterbug Tommy Ton (who was just snapping up a NY-London-Milan-Paris storm for style.com), Zoomer editor Suzanne Boyd (who was impeccable in navy fur) and ShOws designer Jeremy Laing (whom Fullerton insisted come fill seats instead of standing in the back).
First up was New York-based design duo Bellavance. Nolan Bellavance (Canadian) and Ava Hama (not) met at Parsons and have been slowly worming their way into the NYC fashion scene with their fresh take on sportswear. (Currently, Opening Ceremony carries the line exclusively.) For spring, the designers sent out a playful collection that was rife with stripes, inspired by architectural components such as scaffolding.
The stripes worked their way into the garments in a multitude of ways: some pieces have the name “Bellavance” embedded within the cloth to appear like a ticking stripe; knitwear pieces explore the stripe through a ribbed knit. The most labour-intensive method is found in the final look, which at first glance appears to be a relatively simple dress, but on closer inspection reveals its quilted qualities, with a total of 142 (!!) pattern pieces needed for its creation.
Calla Haynes returned to the runway for the second show. The Paris-based designer sent out a collection that compounded sea and surf imagery with a series of innovative textiles. Haynes, who always designs her own textiles, sent out two prints: a painterly one based on waves, and a floral print that played off the idea of a well-worn surfboard, complete with subtle wax marks and fibre cracks. Others lifted more transparently from surf culture (think wetsuit-influenced swimsuits with hefty zippers). Perhaps the strongest pieces involved a weave created with paper yarns — a collaboration with the same French house that makes the classic Chanel weaves. Various pieces made use of the weave; we loved a tiered fringe skirt that brought to mind Hawaiian garb, along with a haute take on the Guatemalan poncho.
Tomorrow: Steven Tai and Jeremy Laing