Canadian-inspired, fur, paper cotton, vintage Italian fabrics and high-end flannel.
Anita at BlogTo interviewed Philip before his recent Burroughes Building show >> about this season’s Peter and the Wolf theme. >>
All photos digitalfabrik.ca
Toronto’s newly branded LG Fashion Week kicks off in Toronto today and is sure to to wipe out the hundreds of folks working in the industry by next weekend.
Although public tickets are available for shows, the fashion week crowd is mainly made up of editors, journalists and photographers; the designers and their crews of stylists, models, producers, etc.; the behind-the-scenes executive committee; retailers and buyers; and family and friends of designers.
Most of Canada’s top designers participating include David Dixon, Joeffer Caoc, Pink Tartan, Andy-the-Ahn and Lucian Matis. Local favorites include Comrags, Ula Zukowska and Zoran Dobric. The Joe Fresh showing is sure to draw a standing-room only crowd as is the Bustle collection with its tightly-themed stage show to match the clothes.
During the week, we will be following:
Nathalie Atkinson, The National Post (Ampersand)
network.nationalpost.com
FASHION Magazine
www.fashionmagazine.com/attheshows
as well as tweets at http://twitter.com/FashionCanada
Andrew Sardone, NOW Magazine
http://www.nowtoronto.com
FashionTelevison Videos
www.fashiontelevision.com
BlogTO
http://blogto.com/toronto_fashion_week/
Sarah Nicole Prickett, Torontoist
http://torontoist.com
David Graham/Derick Chetty, Toronto Star
www.thestar.com/living/fashion
plus all our blogger and twitter friends:
Call it Canadian Pride. Maybe it’s because we haven’t been hit as badly by the Recession as the US – or maybe it’s because Quebecois Soldiers were damn good-looking – but Canadian Pride is in the air and Phil Sparks is leading the pack. Sparks showed his Fall ’09 collection last week at the historic and newly restored Burroughs building after making his New York Debut last season.
The Burroughs building – where his studio is located as well – is quickly becoming one of the hottest spots for designers and artists to show their work. With it’s brick walls, wooden floors and high beam ceilings it was the perfect space to show off his rustic-Canadian tailoring. He has already earned himself rave reviews from the Star, who labelled him “one of Canada’s preminent menswear designers” and from Holts menswear buyer Andrew Lepp. Despite doubts from some about the ability of designers to show successfully without the media support from LG fashion week, the runway room looked packed to capacity as the show started.
Inspired by the 1936 Russian fairytale ‘Peter and the Wolf’, Sparks clothes are wearable and perfectly tailored, but peppered to the limit with cheeky Canadiana references like hunting sweaters and caps, long johns and of course perfect plaid flannel shirts. Sparks credits many trips to the reference library to research early Canadian costumes for the authentic look of the collection. Boyfriends beware – you’ll have ladies sneaking his stuff into your closets this season faster than you can say “Habitants”!
Fashion Takes Action (FTA) is holding an online Eco Auction with nine of the sustainable garments featured on the runway at last fall’s Fashion Takes Action Green Gala.
Designs by Project Runway Canada winner Evan Biddell, Thien Le, Zoran Dobric, Nada Yousif, Thieves, Eugenia Leavitt, Carrie Hayes, AIME Luxury and current Project Runway Canada contestant Jason Meyers are up for grabs!
The FTA Eco Auction will be hosted on eBay for five days, beginning at 10 p.m. on Sunday March 15th and closing at 10 p.m. on Friday March 20th. Each garment is featured on the FTA website with a photo from the Green Gala runway, along with new photos that highlight the garments’ features. Each winner will also receive a Rowenta IS9100 Professional Garment Steamer valued at $200, to help with the care for their new eco garments.
Fashion Takes Action is known for producing Canada’s greenest fashion events – The Green Gala and the Sustainable Style Show. On April 22nd, 2009 (Earth Day), FTA will be launching as a member-based organization whose mission is to have a socially and environmentally positive impact on the fashion industry. Fifty percent of the profits raised from the Eco Auction will be given to each of the designers, and the other half will be injected into FTA’s Education and Awareness programs.
by Daniel Wilson
Caitlin Cronenberg was the belle of the ball at CONTACT photography festival fundraiser recently at the Burroughs Building. As the guest artist of the party she was showing dresses she sewed herself (with some admitted difficulty), printed with her photographs of Canadian women in the arts. The photographs were part of a project created in designer Rosemarie Umetsu’s basement where local figures in the arts played dress up and climbed in a eight by three foot wooden cage built by Cronenberg and dressed with fabric. The results were fabulous and as powerful as the women in the photos. Visit www.caitlincronenberg.com as soon as you can.
Continuing with the obvious photography theme of the event, famed local photographers Alex vs Alex created a mini photo studio where guests got the chance to be styled by the incomparable Kealan Sullivan of 69 Vintage and shot by AlexvsAlex (www.alexvsalex.com). As people mingled, the photos were projected on one of the walls and everyone waited anxiously to see how fierce they looked.
And with a handful of very noticeable exceptions the guests did look fierce. Toronto dj superstar and single name celeb Vaneska looked ravishing in a vintage print dress bought just that day. Fritz Helder and The Phantoms prowled the party like a gang of wildcats escaped from Karl Lagerfeld’s personal zoo. Kealan breezed through the party as effortlessly as always making everyone question why they weren’t wearing what she was and if they could ever possibly look as good in it. The celebrity wattage was upped by the early appearance of one of my art heros David Cronenberg, looking every bit A Director.
Thanks to Morad Affifi for pulling off a fantastic event that may have been the pre-Fashion Week break from hibernation this city needed. It was so refreshing to see people out and dressed up again, recession be damned.
For more information and details on the 2009 CONTACT Toronto Photography Festival, May 1-31, visit www.contactphoto.com
