Kimberley Mimran | Rebecca Tay, FASHION western editor

Decor & More gals | Irene Stickney & Laura Mensinga

Joe Fresh
There were definitely many hungover fashion-faces Thursday morning on, following mid-fashion week’s party circuit. My attendance began at the Fashion House Condos where the Mimrans hosted a well-dressed and attended fete. Fashion editors, wealthy neighbours and business associates were treated to superb hors d’oevres and vodka martinis – in a brightly lit space that made it easy to check out all the eye candy.

Shinan Govani @ Spice Route
From there, we hopped across King Street to the gorgeous Spice Route with its lit torches guarding the massive front door. The party consisted of simply sitting in a large U-shaped booth, drinking Belvedere vodka and Moet (we caught Shinan for a brief moment) – and taking in the illuminated walls, Buddha statues and Asian-influenced decor. Individual washrooms have a huge glass wall that looks onto a grassy lane – complete with functioning fountains that take the lounge washroom experience to a whole new level!

Evan Biddell @ Burroughs
The coolest/hippest/hottest party of the week that I attended was undoubtedly the Evan Biddell after-party where we ran into dozens of faces from fashion students to fellow fashion week designers to actors and models taking great advantage of generous liquor sponsors (unfortunately I missed the next best Greta Constantine party at Fuzion)!

The open-concept, loft space was an awesome aesthetic with its floor to ceiling windows and warm hardwoood floors that supported several groupings of leather seating areas – no matter what corner you turned, you were sure to find interesting people.

Fashion Television’s Glen Baxter managed to make it ’til 3 a.m., while poor Biddell likely didn’t remember the end! On descent, packing into the ancient Burroughs Building (639 Queen St.) elevator with a few gals who couldn’t put down their wine glasses, Shinan Govani specified a custom-order Susie Love tie before heading off to an after-hours up the street.

The prairie boy-turned city hipster is definitely everyone’s new favorite, especially after handing out new K-Swiss kicks to everyone at his show!

Celeb stylist HOST for the evening, Phillip Bloch with designer Lucian Matis

FDCC Chair Joe Mimran (in his slippers:) with FDCC President Robin Kay (in Lucian Matis)

LG Electronics Canada, Toronto fashion’s newest BIG sponsor, went all out for L’Oreal Fashion Week’s finale with a grand fete that brought the fashion industry, actors & performers, and lucky ticket winners together in style!

For its closing party, LG flew in Maroon 5 for an intimate concert (people outside in the cold got to watch the show through a see-through wall AND giant projection screen set up in Nathan Phillips Square)! The fashion show included designers such as Greta Constantine, Mikhael Kale, and Wayne Clark. Other highlights of the night include presentations by top international design students, Agent Provacateur and Canadian swimwear designer, Shan.

Hot tights of the week

Fashion Television’s Jeanne Beker | SHAN models show off the lates LG phones

In Fashion delivers an extensive L’Oreal Fashion Week and Fashion Fusion recap Sunday, November 9 at 5 p.m. ET on CTV; followed at 5:30 p.m. ET with FashionTelevision Presents: LG Fashion Fusion; a full episode of FT dedicated to Fashion Fusion showcasing all of the evening’s highlights.

Renata Morales was F**king amazing! More on that later, but it needed to be the first thing I said.

Well, if Evan Biddell’s show didn’t make enough of an impression on fashion week, his after party certainly did. The entire Toronto fashion community seemed to be hellishly hung over after going to Mr. Evan’s party and was vacillating between warm loving feelings and cursing the man’s name.

The first show I caught today was Morales and I can’t rave about it enough. Absolutely the best show of the week, Renata blew everyone else out of the water. Its sad that a mediocre show like Joe Fresh drew a line-up around the block and yet many people missed true art with the Morales show.

It began with an almost disturbing op-art black and white video projection – and the clothing that came out could cast Morales as the Canadian Issey Miyake. I can only guess that each piece on the runway took two weeks minimum to make with their endlessly elaborate pleated and gathered and ruched chiffon. Knock-outs included dramatic pleated chiffon layered over metallic gold sequins, a tiered pleated cream almost wedding dress with a slash of red over the heart and a floor length column dress entirely sequined in the image of a giant Japanese-style doll face (the dress was so narrow the model could barely walk). Renata proved fearless in creating a few pieces that were actually not pretty by any means but worked perfectly to express her vision. She also beautifully used prints of her own of the Montreal skyline and trees in flower. Even the music was the best show music I’ve heard all week.

Rudsak did well to sober me up after the deliriously elated state Morales left me in. The show was filled with great leather jackets and deadly trench coats that will sell like water, but the need to bloody edit. One does not need to show every single item you manufacture in every single possible colour on the runway. By the second half of the show I had completely lost the ability to distinguish one outfit from the last. Apparently the leather pants they showed were not actually theirs which is good because whoever made the shiny black leather hot pants for summer should be shot (also used were giant western style cowboy belt buckles that added an unrequired hint of tacky).

Into the evening, I stayed for Gsus – I don’t know why. Obviously PR for Gsus wanted to pack the house and they succeeded by filling the room to the rafters with ginos and thugs and people that generally looked non-fashion week. When Gsus is styled on the runway, it can look amazing and even approach creativity but sadly that is not how it will get worn on the street. The show did have several good points; the denim was wonderful – high-waisted and baggy. Low points included the men’s underwear models clear stuffing and an unpleasant sack-like onesie. My visibility was also ruined by riff raff standing in the aisles. When the Gsus show wrapped up, one shirtless model came out sporting a giant Tommy Hilfiger logo on his undies. I’m not sure if it was a joke or just a styling accident, but it was embarrassing.

Photos by Christina Pal

Rudsak, a Montreal leather fashion brand, shows a limited and wearable collection in, what else, leather. Monster Elvis Presley belts (circa fat and drug addicted), and a splash of hot cherry save the collection from depressing conservatism. Still, the sprayed on leather pants are a great wardrobe staple, and worth checking out at their 315 Queen St. West location. LZ

Morales Spring 2009

Montrealer Renata Morales trips out on contemporary Tokyo style with sculptural organza and chiffon printed with Yoshitomo Nara’s ubiquitous nasty children. Butter yellows, electric orange and robin egg blue dominate this collection that takes 50′s cupcake prom dresses to Harajuku heights. Top it all off with headgear that makes Elsa Schiaparelli look conservative. This is the kind of show that makes you cover your mouth to keep from screaming like a soccer fan! LZ

‘Addicted to Biddell’ Fritz Helder and the Phantoms with Biddell’s stylist Sarah Jay

This diary entry, dear readers, nearly did not happen, but through the fog of my hangover I will piece together what I remember.

The Zoran Dobric show was unique in starting precisely on time, but that seemed to be where the uniqueness ended. The show had lot of strong elements, but seemed ultimately like a Frankenstein monster made of several collections sewn together. The Issey Miyake-like architectural structures were interesting in the first part but were abandoned for hand-painted satin floaty things. There was even a jacket that looked like a pattern copy from Preloved! I loved the dropped crotch shorts and skintight Jackson Pollock pants. One of the oddest things was the music which shifted abruptly between opera and techno without the benefit of mixing or blending. Spotted Matti Bygod in the front row without his usual fashion week companion, Caitlin Cronenberg.

Raptor Chris Bosh backstage | Rory Lindo and Kelly Freeman

This season for the second time Playdead and Damzels In This Dress paired up to put on the most fun and irreverent show of the season. Damzels rocked the runway with Riot Girl attitude to burn and models fighting, smoking and cradling babies. Extra kudos to Damzels for using a plus sized model who was the hottest girl I’ve seen on the runway all week. Playdead’s show was big on theatrics but played safe on design. Their half of the show started with a terrific short film of giant headed grim reapers making clothes and having design meetings before the reapers made an appearance on the runway in person to usher in the first model. Their designs played up their strongest feature – silk-screening. Major ‘aww shucks!’ factor when the grim reapers brought out tiny little children to strut and show off their tiny little ho0dies.

Then comes Evan Biddell. I liked most of Evan’s collection and feel that he is maturing as a designer. He presented dropped crotch pants that seem to be required in every show this season and a really wonderful eyelet fabric jump suit. What I loved most is skirts for men! I myself have been rocking them off and on for years and finally menswear is coming around. Evan’s are short, denim and pleated in the back but absolutely not kilts or skorts ! I want one badly! (with the leggings from the show and maybe the tattooed model wearing them).

After Evan I took a break and brought the fabulous Vanja Vasic back to my house for a glass or three of wine and an outfit change. Two outfits for the day is a bit diva-like for a journalist, but three would have pushed me over the edge into Jeannie Beker or Robin Kay territory.

Shinan Govani at the Joe Fresh party | Elle.com’s Rachel Singer and Canadian Living Asst. Style editor Julia McEwen

After parties make fashion week survivable and are often the only place to get sustenance without it costing a limb or first born child as it does in the tent. First up last night was the Joe Fresh party where an unfortunate woman was making a scene trying to get in by screaming that she shops at Loblaws and should be allowed in. She took one look at me and said, “Well I guess I need to wear more eyeliner to get in!” Inside, I ran into Shinan Govani checking in with the Mimrans before his own party at Spice Route. Shinan and I compared notes on our Robin Kay stories and I must say I was pleasantly surprised that he reads my writing. Kim Mimran looked sleek and elegant in all black, though she said she’d been flying and driving and boating and possibly helicoptering all day and hadn’t even looked in a mirror (lucky biatch).

Then to Spice Route for Shinan’s party where things became fuzzy. Val Dooley was there sporting a new dark bob and looking every bit the icon she is, and I remember a giant, $500 bottle of Belvedere vodka. That bottle, and the Moet is why I can’t report on more, sorry kids.