Fashion Week adds new mentorship award
Providing a platform for emerging designers is nothing new for Saskatchewan Fashion Week (SFW). But devoting an entire evening to new talent is.
It’s a natural evolution for the provincial showcase, explained Saskatchewan Fashion Week’s president and co-founder Chris Pritchard.
Since it began seven years ago, the event has provided an important springboard for aspiring designers. As interest from students and emerging designers continued to grow, SFW organizers decided this group deserved their own night.
So on Thursday, May 10 – opening night of Sask Fashion Week 2018 – the focus will be on youth, student and artist prodigies.
“We’ve always had emerging artists as part of our event,” Pritchard said. “But we felt that it was timely and an important move to go towards creating an entire night dedicated to that concept, where it’s emerging artists, students, up-and-comers, and giving them a chance to hone their craft (and) get their foot in the door, have a larger stage and audience, but not the high-end pressure of our main event nights, which are typically the Friday and Saturday.
“I think it’s better for everybody involved to have an evening dedicated solely to nurturing and growing talent, and giving opportunities and mentorships to such an important aspect in this industry – the up-and-coming new talent.”
To make the evening accessible for family, friends and students, SFW organizers decided to make all tickets for Thursday night, including table seating, $40.
“We even have promo codes leading up to the event that make it even more attractive to get tickets for that night,” Pritchard said.
A new mentorship award will be presented at this year’s event, providing an opportunity for an aspiring designer to hone his or her skills. The winner will be mentored by veteran Regina fashion designer Dean Renwick, an internationally acclaimed designer who has mentored more than a dozen emerging local designers over the past 15 years. The award recipient will be selected by Renwick, Dr. Roberta McKay and Elmer Brenner, Regina philanthropists and avid supporters of the province’s creative industries.
“The mentorship will help get them a jumpstart in their career,” Pritchard said.
“It’s a natural fit to be able to help train somebody and mentor them,” Renwick said. “Once we find out who the winner is, we want to customize the internship for them. We want to sit down with them and discuss what it is that they’re looking for, what they’d like to learn and train.
“They’ll see the process of how we build, and how we make our garments, and then they can incorporate it into how they make their garments,” he added.
Eight fashion designers will be vying for this year’s mentorship opportunity, Pritchard said. They include students from Lethbridge College’s Fashion Design and Sustainable Production course, an indigenous designer who designs and manufactures genuine leather goods, and the creator of bold and vibrant designs inspired by African prints.
The youngest designer showcasing a collection will be 11-year-old Raina Haus of Regina, who made her Saskatchewan Fashion Week runway debut when she was only eight. In 2015, Haus was invited onstage to show the audience the dress she made for the event. For the 2018 event, she has created six standard-model-size edgy, formal designs.
The evening will provide a platform not only for aspiring designers; two youth dance groups will be showcased as well.
“We are really excited to continue building more and more different kinds of mentorship and growth opportunities into this Thursday emerging (talent) night in the future,” Pritchard said. “There’s a lot of excitement and energy opportunity surrounding this new element to the event.”