Strong Montreal showing
TORONTO – Montrealers made up close to one-third of the Toronto fashion week schedule, which wrapped last Friday. More than 35 designers showed, including Montreal labels Mélissa Nepton, Rudsak, Travis Taddeo, Soïa & Kyo, Mercedes-benz StartUp winner Martin Lim and Rad Hourani, a regular in Paris and New York.
Nepton hopes to repeat the success of her first Toronto show last October, when she opened several new retail accounts. “The market is stronger here,” she said. Soïa & Kyo’s Ilan Elfassy agreed. “There is better exposure in Toronto and we have a large clientele in Toronto and Canada,” he said.
Last after New York, Milan, Paris, London and Montreal, the five-day, movable event featuring fall 2012 collections was held for a second season at David Pecaut Square, a patch of cobblestones in the city’s entertainment district on King Street West.
With an infusion of cash from new sponsor MasterCard, the week was redubbed World Mastercard Fashion Week and featured a more than 40,000-square-foot tent, the largest single fashion tent in North America, according to Robin Kay, president of the Fashion Design Council of Canada, which hosts the event.
There were no paparazzi moments off the runway this season but some stellar fashion moments on it. Here’s what stood out. Doomed Generation was the cheery inspiration for Montrealer Travis Taddeo’s collection of luxury urbanwear. An atomic bomb, ash cloud and volcanic eruptions were the touchstones for his colours – blacks, smoky greys and fire reds. It’s for a woman looking for her place, Taddeo says in an opening video clip. His notes call her determined, confident and defiant. In lamb leather jackets with Mongolian lamb sleeves, silk tulle tanks, leather jogging pants, leather shift dresses and clingy tencel, we call her well dressed.
Lucian Matis kicked off the week with a show in the ballroom of the Royal York Hotel on Monday night, followed by a show of his diffusion collection, Matis, at the tent on Tuesday. His eponymous line was a study of Old World couture meets modern with mini dresses and gowns in oversized, macraméd lace inspired by forms in nature, and feathers that were not inspired by Black Swan, he says. The finale piece took one person t wo weeks to make and weighed about five pounds.
Arthur Mendonça’s new backer, Eleventh Floor Apparel, has not affected his sophisticated, edgy esthetic. “(It was) so chic. Well styled. A beautiful palette,” said Nicholas Mellamphy, creative director of The Room at The Bay. “I loved his use of white on white.” Among his favourites: an elegant full-skirted winter-white dress and silk gowns with patent leather bodices.
David Dixon played on his strengths: sublime fit and finish, curve-hugging ladylike looks and texture-contrasting fabrics, like clean-lined cream coats embellished with black lace. He says he was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 horror classic The Birds. Black feathered jackets and dresses were obvious nods to the movie, but a tailored strapless dress featuring a peacock print referenced a less frightening bird.
Joe Fresh knows how to stage a fashion show, which explains why the accessibly priced grocery-store brand packs the biggest crowd. It was fast. It was energetic. And the fashion wasn’t bad either. If the opening clip of ’60s model Veruschka writhing around for her photographer in the 1966 movie Blow-up didn’t tip off the mod trend, the overblown-houndstooth dresses, modular grey coats with pops of royal blue and patent go-go boots certainly did. In a bit of a mod departure, but certainly a “fresh” move: taking a cue from luxury shoe label Louboutin, Joe Fresh shoes featured an orange sole.
Pink Tartan riffed on the theme of rich materials and rich colours in mostly monochromatic pairings: a forest green leather panelled skirt with green turtleneck and fur chubby; a red ponyskin-like tunic and cigarette pants; a navy jacket, fur vest, turtleneck and pants. “(It’s) always a polished show, elevating Toronto fashion week,” said Mellamphy, whose favourite piece was a green sleeveless top with peplum and boot-cut trouser.
Pavoni is a newcomer to the fashion scene, but it already seems to have become a celebrity favourite. The evening-wear brand, cofounded by Montreal natives Gianni Falcone and Mike Derderian, has been available only for about a year, but has appeared on Miranda Lambert at the 2011 Country Music Awards, Fergie on New Year’s Eve with Dick Clark and Carrie Underwood on Girls’ Night Out. Glamorous, glitzy, gutsy – any of these adjectives describe its dresses, which range from minis to sweeping gowns with sheer lace effects, crystal beading and roses. Not a bad showing for its first time. Falcone and Derderian say clients called their retailers and asked them to place orders the next day
Joeffer Caoc layered sparkly sequins under subdued tweed and structured leather. Colours popped on abstract print dresses and coats with oversized collars. Skirt suits were belted, peplums were prominent and he focused more than ever on the seaming, draping and mixing of textures – “the things I like to do a lot,” he says. This may explain My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music, an odd ending to the show, because it doesn’t fit his inspiration for the line: “an eclectic housewife with a rocker past.”
The fur flew at Rudsak where Evik Asatoorian upped the fashion quotient by layering rabbit, fox or Mongolian fur in strips on hoods, shoulders, collars and sleeves of its leather coats. One fur-front vest was as light as a sweater. You may have seen a few of Rudsak’s coats on celebs at Sundance in January because Asatoorian wants to show in New York next season.
Montreal native Rad Hourani showed for the first time in Canada on closing night. The 29-year-old is a regular at the Paris and New York shows. Sponsored by the FDCC, his Toronto presentation celebrated his fifth anniversary. His minimalist collection of black and khaki pieces, are seemingly simple, but are reversible and unisex. What resembles a neoprene coat is actually a fusion of crepe and leather. Layered under it is a hoodie in satin or matte crepe and a shirt. Skorts with leggings or khaki-striped tuxedo pants act as bottoms for both the male and female models. “I’m allergic to trends,” Hourani said. “It doesn’t make sense. I wanted to create a wardrobe that wasn’t masculine or feminine, without limit to age, race, gender or trends.” The collection, sold around the world, is made in Montreal.