Attention turns to political support for Canadian fashion as fall previews launch in Toronto.
It looks as though the Canadian government may be turning its attention towards the possibility of more funding for Canada's fashion industry. That's all good, but it was always more about the clothes than about the politics, said Fashion Design Council of Canada director Robin Kay at a launch for L'Oréal Fashion Week (Fall 2007 collection) in Toronto yesterday.
"The industry success relies on the mosaic of people interested," said Caryn Lerner, President and CEO of Holt Renfrew (pictured) as she introduced a Fashion Week kickoff reception in the luscious handbag section of Toronto's flagship Bloor Street retail shop. She said this season's Fashion Week theme, "World Piece", is partly about bringing together all the pieces, "the part we must all play if the industry is to achieve worldwide recognition. Some of us are the storytellers and some of us are the story," she said, but the Canadian industry will only move ahead "when you assemble the pieces."
After all, "it's not as though we're missing a chromosome in this country," said Robin Kay. "There are designers and there are producers." Many of the designers were present at the opening party, and will be represented on the runways at the rest of Fashion Week, where people are looking forward to previews of work by the likes of Arthur Mendonca, Izzy Camilleri,. Andy The-Anh, Comrags, David Dixon and Bustle, and the more fashion-forward Lucian Matis and Zoran Dobric.
After the Holt's reception, guests made their way across town to the Liberty Grand at Exhibition Place for an opening show featureing works available in Toronto retail outlet Boutique Le Trou by designers Jason Matlo, Karamea, Nada, Christina Darling, Marie Saint Pierre and Jason Meyers.
After a short elbow-to-elbow scrum in the multi-room venue, where models in floor-length tutus proffered silver trays of sparkly L'Oréal lip gloss in nail-polish-style bottles, and guests dug into gift bags to discover "telescopic" mascara (also by L'Oréal, of course), guests hereded back down a tented outdoor corridor to the runway room where, to the opening strains of the Beatles' "Get Back" (Beatles were everywhere last night!), Robin Kay reminded the crowd that "you are part of history" and said, in reference to the waming political climate, "we are now in a position to be as fashion crazy as we want." Then the crowd was treated to a very wide selection of outerwear by Mackage (Elisa Dahan and Eran Elfassy).
At that point, the already footsore journalists and many industry types high-tailed it home to rest up for a long Day Two (with shows from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.), crossing paths with eager clubbers ready to hit the after-party with Don't Tell My Booker. You can see a chatty rundown of some of the designers and other Fashion Week attendees here.
