Fashion week
Will be the hot topic when the garment industry meets today.
Will Montreal Fashion Week be revived? Will the Quebec government cough up cash to help fund it again? And will garment industry executives and designers come to an agreement on how best to promote Quebec fashion?
These questions will certainly be in mind, if not on the agenda, when garment industry representatives meet Thursday at Ruby Foo’s for their annual meeting.
There appears to be an impasse on the form of fashion week, making it possible that Montreal — which has long prided itself on its style and creativity — will cede its semi-annual showcase of fashion design.
The task of putting everybody on the same wavelength is daunting.
“We have to find a way to have one strong voice,” said Mariouche Gagné, designer of Harricana, the successful line of recycled furs.
Gagné was among industry representatives who spent two years studying the crisis in the garment industry and, in April, sent a report to Quebec on the state of the fashion and clothing industry. It recommends (among other points) that a cluster of industry representatives — from manufacturing, fur, design — get together to decide what type of event will satisfy everybody.
“Unless you get all your designers on board, you’re never going to get there,” said Elliot Lifson, vice-chairman of Peerless Clothing and president of the Canadian Apparel Federation, echoing Gagné and a longstanding issue at fashion week.
Many designers, particularly established ones, simply don’t take part — because there are few out-of-town media and no new buyers — or they are focusing on building their businesses outside Quebec. Marie Saint Pierre, Denis Gagnon and rising stars Unttld were not planning to show this season. Unttld is among a small group of Montrealers who will show during London Fashion Week. Other Montreal players, notably Rudsak and Mackage, often show in Toronto.
“Either we’re all going to turn to Toronto, which is a bit sad, but maybe better than two weeks,” Gagné said, suggesting — as many in Montreal have over the years — that Toronto and Montreal take turns hosting the weeks.
Evik Asatoorian, creative director at Rudsak, was harsh on the subject of Montreal’s week, saying he does not do fashion week for LaSalle College students: “I do it for media. That’s why I do Toronto.”
Montreal’s week needs a “complete facelift,” Asatoorian said, suggesting that Montreal’s major retail players like Aldo, Jacob and Le Château should take part.
When the February edition of fashion week was cancelled last week, the decision did not come out of the blue.
The die was cast when fashion week producers in September announced they would merge the summer street Festival Mode & Design with the trade event targeted to media and buyers.
But even that did not come out of the blue: Various levels of government have been funding fashion week for at least 10 years, sometimes at about $250,000 per edition.
That money has dried up — for now, at least. Sensation Mode, producers of fashion week, had their grant halved to about $125,000 for the last edition of fashion week. A similar amount went to the Conseil des créateurs de mode du Québec, which created a pop-up showcase for about 20 designers, the Cabinet éphémère, held during fashion week.
Linda Tremblay of the Conseil said the designers’ association is looking for ways to co-ordinate a schedule for designers who wish to have an event in February, when the fall collections — so important to the Canadian industry — are shown.
So far, however, the Conseil has not received government funding, and Tremblay said she believes none will be forthcoming.
Jeanne Beker, the fashion television pioneer, said she does understand the need to amalgamate some of the regional fashion weeks. There are fashion weeks in Ottawa, Vancouver, Atlantic Canada and Saskatchewan.
But any notion that Montreal and Toronto will split the schedule is probably out of the question, Beker said. IMG, which owns Toronto’s week, is a powerful player on the world circuit. Montreal is stylish, Beker conceded, “but it still seems like Toronto is the place where people are doing business.”
But Montreal and Toronto share the same issues on many fronts, particularly with the continuing influx of major U.S. retailers: Target and Nordstrom, and Saks to come.
“How can we compete unless we get these American retailers to understand that (fashion) is part of our cultural national identity?” Beker asked.
“We’ve been out there waving the flag and being the ambassadors.
“If you have the choice between buying something American and something Canadian, go for the Canadian. Because if we don’t, who is going to do it?
“I really worry about our Canadian brands,” Beker said. “How can we compete as brands with such limited markets?”