This year’s clothes clothes are luxurious, dark, dramatic, funky, cool – and Canadian, eh
TORONTO – A smoky blue velvet dress, rich gray-black tapestry jacket, slouchy wrap pants, ruffled jersey dresses, mink and lace evening gown, ribbon-trim blazers and a $10 sailor stripe T-shirt.
These were some of the very covetable items shown here last week as designers from Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver trotted out styles for fall 2006. (The sailor T was spring, but never mind.)
The clothes were luxurious, dark, dramatic, funky, cool – and Canadian, eh. Look for dark, sober styles – high necks, long sleeves (duh, it’s winter and Canada) – and vanity coats galore for next season. Also: ’60s mod, ’80s rock, ruffles, leggings and waists cinched with wide belts.
But the issue at fashion weeks in Toronto and this week in Montreal is not only what the big trend or colour is for next season, but who is going to buy, wear, sell and promote Canadian fashion.
The front rows were packed with top editors from the magazines, stylists, retailers and celebrities – just the folks needed to promote Canadian style.
We asked some of the front-rowers what they would like to take home from the catwalks:
Tammy Palmer, market editor at Flare, was keen on pieces from Andy by Andy The-Anh, particularly the chocolate brown and gray knit dresses, with ruffles down the front. His neat black pantsuits were quite wearable, too, she said. And from Toronto’s David Dixon, Palmer was lusting after the steel blue mohair coats and short jackets, attracted by the volume in the sleeves and fullness of the coat’s skirt.
Luigi Carrubba, fashion editor of Wish, is in the business of predicting what women want. Comrags, he said, delivered the goods, luxury fabrics that looked expensive but comfortable, structure without rigidity. Slate gray easy pants – a cross between a wrap skirt and trousers – and the suitings were winners, he said. Cute little day dresses from Fantine were also covetable.
“Anything from Comrags,” said Noreen Flanagan, managing editor of Elle, when asked what she would like to wear from the collections. The men’s shoes, tights, wrap pants, lacy top and winter jacket cinched in the back appealed. Also Joeffer Caoc’s cream satiny jacket and David Dixon’s “poetic, melancholic,” pieces.
As for Izzy Camilleri, who paired leather bustiers with billowing sheer paisley shirts: “I haven’t discovered by inner dominatrix yet, but if I do, I know where to go.”
Marlene Shiff, of Toronto’s Boutique Le Trou, stocks Canadian designers. Here’s what she’s looking to buy, either for herself or her shop: Zoran Dobric’s hand-painted pieces, Envers’s menswear, Comrags’s tulip skirts, David Dixon’s blue silk with silver sequins, Camilleri’s hard-to-miss mink and lace gown, Andy’s furs – a silver fox shrug was another showstopper – and Fairyesque’s twirly floral skirts.
“Anything from Rudsak,” said Cara Vogl, director of public relations for Le Chateau, explaining she liked the leather detailing like low-waisted belts. Rudsak, Montreal leather and handbag specialists, worked wool with leather this season, mainly in brown, black and winter white.
And from Pat McDonagh, Vogl liked gray chiffon gowns – “fluid, drapey, oops, something might pop out” kind of dresses. (In fact, one model’s breast was exposed during the show.)
On actress Emily Hampshire’s wish list: a coat from Mackage, a harness from Comrags – leather harnesses were worn over blazers in the show – anything from Joeffer Caoc, a silk charmeuse gown with ruffly details from Andy, Camilleri’s mink and lace gown – “I would love to be Monica Bellucci in that dress,” Hampshire said.
For Jennifer Carter, president of Hermes Canada, ribbon-trim jackets in navy and cream from Pink Tartan were the must-haves. Sailor-detail pants, fur boleros, a gray sweater, and shirts were other picks for Carter.
On fashion director Barbara Atkin’s shopping list, for her or for Holt’s, perhaps: a skinny suit and those jersey ruffle dresses by Andy, a black swing brocade coat from Paul Hardy, the blue velvet dress with twisted hems from Joeffer Caoc, capes and coats from David Dixon, Arthur Mendonca’s black chiffon high-collared dress with the rose ruffle at the neck, and the navy wool high-neck dress worn by Heather Marks, the top Canadian model, on the runway at Pink Tartan.
efriede@thegazette.canwest.com
Montreal Gazette
SIDEBAR ONE: Toronto fashion trends
– Black. Yes, it’s back after a brief summer respite. Canadian designers again took a walk on the dark side, following in their European counterparts’ gloomy footsteps. And if it’s not black, it’s gray, midnight or brown. Key items: black dresses from Fantine or Arthur Mendonca, a black suit from Comrags or Andy The-Anh.
– Modesty, sobriety: Blouses up to your chin, punctuated with giant floral appendages. Turtlenecks. Sleeves. Ladylike dresses.
– Ruffled bibs. That bare camisole from last season will look very naked by next fall. On the bright side, you’ll be warmer if you go with the style change.
– Mod: Empire coats, minis, houndstooth, plaids, tartans and Doris Day-worthy brocade coats.
– Leggings: Get with the program. Leggings were everywhere, from Andy The-Anh to Joeffer Caoc to Fantine. But don’t worry if you don’t like the look: with winter boots, it will appear you’re simply wearing tights.
– Pants: Skinny, cropped or slouchy. And gauchos, for a thoroughly confusing mix. Watch for Comrags’s loose wrap pant, Pink Tartan’s gray gauchos and Andy’s skinny suitings.
– The waist: Wide square-buckle belts were dominant at Izzy Camilleri and Arthur Mendonca. Think patent leather. Too retro ’80s for you? Consider a classic belted, fur-collared coat.
_ Eva Friede, Montreal Gazette
SIDEBAR TWO: Fashion Week Notebook
TORONTO Canadian designers today can’t exist without the American market, declares Barbara Atkin, fashion director of Holt Renfrew and probably the most influential person in the industry in Canada.
But as soon as they start to get recognition here, they feel the need to go to New York, a motivation Atkin says she understands.
Atkin contends it’s important for our designers to start with a consumer base here. She lists some of the domestic talent that is sometimes barely available or known in Canada: Lida Baday, Arthur Mendonca, Paul Hardy, Mercy and, new to the game but creating a stir internationally, Jeremy Laing.
At 26, the Torontonian has worked with Alexander McQueen and been covered by Vogue, Elle, WWD, the New York Times, Style.com, Village Voice, Paper and Nylon. This month, in Fashion magazine, he declares, more or less, that fashion shows are useless. (He did not show in Toronto but did in New York.)
Now his clothes – a quick glance at his Web site, www.jeremylaing.com, reveals ravishing velvets for fall, to-die-for voluminous silks for spring – will hang at Holt’s World Design Lab. That’s the first stop to success for any Canadian designer.
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One designer – if you can still call him that – who does it in Canada is Joseph Mimran, who took the opportunity of fashion week to unveil Joe Fresh Style, a line of unbelievably inexpensive, great clothes on sale at 41 Loblaws and Real Canadian Superstores, although not yet in Quebec.
The man who trailblazed the cheap-chic path with Club Monaco – and sold the chain to Ralph Lauren – is delivering style at a price (under $40) to the mass market.
Think $8 T-shirts in just the right colours, $6 camis, $29 for a tan eyelet skirt, $14 gold ballet flats, $8 for the perfect striped sailor T – in their own 5,000-square-foot space with three dressing rooms amid the carrots, broccoli and frozen pizza.
Mimran is partnering with Galen Weston, creator of President’s Choice, one of one of the most successful brands in Canada, he says – and incidentally, someone with deep, deep fashion connections as owner of Holt Renfrew, where Mimran consults on private label design.
“People make choices. The world doesn’t need more of anything,” Mimran replies, asked why someone would buy a $100 T-shirt. “The point is, how do you make the choice simpler for the consumer.
“More and more, that’s why the mass players are winning – because more and more, they’re offering a style equation and a value equation that is making sense.”
And yes, the middle is getting squeezed, he says, just like the signature orange of his new brand. “You either have to be a specialty store operator with a unique voice, or you have to be on the very low end offering incredible value and style.”
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Strange sightings, incidentally, at the showing of Pink Tartan, which is decidedly not fashion for the masses and designed by Mimran’s wife, Kim Newport Mimran. In the audience, along with the usual stylistas, celebs and socialties, was wrestler Trish Stratus. Also, a fellow who looked like Santa Claus, with long white beard, long white hair, red jacket, white pants. Very odd. The show opened with Ashley McIsaac, in tartan skirt and combat boots, doing a medley on his electric fiddle.
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There is style, there is value, there is odd, and there is whimsy. Montreal’s Fairyesque and Vancouver’s Chulo Pony offered up that bit of magic in Toronto last week.
Fairyesque’s show was playful, with models twirling their way down the runway toward a suitcase of finery, picking, choosing and sauntering backstage.
Chulo Pony’s Chris Kopeck and Crystal Heald, showing their stuff in L.A. this week, created their collection based on a story they commissioned called The Lost Letter. It involves twins, a theatrical family in Prague and old family albums. The clothes include crushed velvet capelets, boiled wool, ruffled plaid and corduroy suitings, brocade, tuxedo gauchos and velvet opera coats with puckered fronts.
“Vancouver loves us because we’re just a little bit off the beaten track. We don’t design in Goretex or polar fleece,” Kopeck said.
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Strange coincidences. Two popular designers – one in Toronto, one in Montreal – both got the jump on fashion weeks with shows in churches. Renata Morales put on “Armee” at the Eglise St. Viateur in Montreal, while Paul Hardy unveiled “Grave Deliverance” at the Church of the Redeemer in Toronto. Both shows were dark and just a bit gloomy.
Morales said she was travelling to Europe for sales meetings so could not wait for Montreal’s week, now on, to show. Hardy might have been upset with last season’s organization at L’Oreal Fashion Week, when his opening night show started after 11 p.m., hours late, even later than a Marc Jacobs show in New York.
Is it any coincidence that both cities’ fashion weeks are supported by multinational mega- corporations with umpteen beauty brands? L’Oreal, title sponsor of Toronto’s week, owns brands from Lancome to Garnier, and is about to buy the Body Shop for $1.14 billion U.S. In 2005, its sales were in the $17.6 U.S. billion range. In Canada, it is headquartered in Montreal. Procter & Gamble, involved in Montreal’s week, owns Cover Girl, Clairol and Crest, among many, many other brands. Its net sales in 2005 totalled $56.7 billion U.S.
Eddie Malleterre, star makeup artist for L’Oreal in this country, lives in Montreal but treks to Toronto to provide artistic direction for fashion week. P&G’s Cover Girl boasts makeup artist Pat McGrath as creative director. The artist, famed for her outrageous looks for John Galliano, did a cameo in Montreal Sunday to guide fall makeup trends for Montreal Fashion Week.
– Eva Friede, Montreal Gazette
Credit: CanWest News Service; Montreal Gazette
(Copyright CanWest News Service 2006)