City of Toronto Awards for Excellence in Fashion Design
The 1997 Awards for Excellence in Fashion Design were presented on December 18th at the York Street Gateway to:
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- Designer of the Year – Hoax Couture;
- New Designer – Joeffer Caoc and Crystal Siemens (two winners);
- Fashion Graduate – Kelly Smith (honourable mention in this category went to Angela Chen and Alec Popik for headhunter);
- Accessories Designer – Karyn Gingras for Lilliput Hats;
- Specialty Designer – Zalia Ribau for Moka Designs; and
- Industry Achievement award winners Jeanne Beker of Fashion T.V. (Image Builder) and Designers Ontario President Franco Mirabelli (Innovator).
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For the first time the award winners were not notified in advance of the event and the three finalists in each category were presented to the audience. With creative input for the ceremony provided by the production team of Richard Lyle and Anthony Majanlahti, the ’97 Awards ceremony was one of the most memorable to date and generated a great deal of excitement among the hundreds of guests who attended. News releases announcing the winners were sent out nationally following the event. CITY TV provided live eye coverage from 6-7 p.m., as well as a piece on the 11 p.m. news. Both the Star and the Sun ran articles, as did the Toronto Fashion Incubator newsletter, Style Magazine, Audrey Gostlin’s Inside Fashion and Canadian Apparel Magazine.
Once again Smirnoff generously agreed to co-sponsor the reception. Awards co-sponsors included: Flare magazine, who provided a full-page ad to Designers of the Year Hoax Couture; the Ontario Fashion Exhibitors, who provided shared booth space to the new designers, Crystal Siemens and Joeffer Caoc; Jeanne Beker, who donated her $1,500.00 appearance fee for an industry event to the new designer winners; wenches & rogues who provided a $1,000.00 cash award to the student winner Kelly Smith; Welly, who provided a $500.00 cash award to the honourable mention in the student category Angela Chen and Alec Popic; the Mode Accessories Show, who provided booth space to Karyn Gingras; and the Toronto Fashion Incubator, who provided Outreach memberships to the student winners and the three finalists in the specialty designers category.
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/1998/agendas/council/cc/cc981001/ed2rpt/cl010.htm