A few other websites have taken to calling the offsite preamble to LG Fashion Week-proper “Rogue Fashion Week.” I’m just going to call the whole shebang March Catwalk Madness. Not because there’s anything particularly panic-inducing about eight days worth of presentations but because so many of us get so flustered by a block of shows that doesn’t even last a fortnight. This must be why fashion people carry fans.
So, March Catwalk Madness kicked off last Monday with the Philip Sparks Fall 2011 presentation at the Burroughes Building. There were skating dresses and military parks, duffle coats and even a muff. And that’s all I’ll say since the designer is my significant other and the web is full of reviews, even from Twitter-resourceful reporters who didn’t attend.
Up next was Wednesday’s Mikhael Kale/Mark Fast double bill. After arriving at the half finished Trump Tower, being handed a hardhat and manually shut into the elevator by a security guard pushing the doors together with her bare hands, 150 lucky (to be alive?) ducks emerged into a drywall-dusty, paneled salon that I can only assume will be booked solid with society weddings and million dollar bar mitzvahs some day soon.
That day, however, it was hosting a fashion show. Or was it a seminar? In an awkward twist of the standard catwalk format, the shows were preceded by a cozy, top-o-the-runway chat between UK-based knitwear phenom Fast, crafty dressmaker Kale and Fashion Television host Jeanne Beker. Eventually, there were clothes.
Kale sent out his signature minis and slacks with body con cutouts. While the designer’s last couple of collections have felt a bit busy, his details are still impressive like the chunky crystal cuffs on a tweed tuxedo jacket and tiny chains embroidered on a dress to mimic lace. Fast’s 15 exits were (and, apologies all around, I’ve never written this word before) fierce. Chunky wool was knit to mimic shearling, giving coats and dresses an imposing scale.
Ten minutes later, I was up at the National Ballet School where Calgary’s Paul Hardy had gracefully postponed his show for the crowd migrating from the Trump venue only to be rewarded with a half empty room. Here was another situation where elements worked but the whole was a bit perplexing. Too big bowling shoes upstaged beautiful beaded bomber jackets, camouflage jacquard track pants and eyelash evening gowns.
Wednesday night’s finale was a Rita Liefhebber presentation at Jonathan + Olivia. I know a few of the designer’s fans who have felt let down by her past two collections but they seemed positively smitten by next fall’s raspberry-hued, hand-dyed shirts, rich velvets and boxy outerwear.
Back in the bright Trump space on Friday evening, another too empty room anticipated Arthur Mendonça’s return to the runway after a two-year hiatus. And what a comeback. Mendonça revisited his signature tailored wools and jewel tones but there was a renewed confidence in the fit and styling of shimmering tuxedos, safari suits and bias cut sequin dresses. After the show, all the glossy editors ran backstage to congratulate the designer and, perhaps, call dibs on samples for upcoming fall shoots. I know I would have.
Later that evening, Greta Constantine‘s Stephen Wong and Kirk Pickersgill returned to their old catwalk stomping grounds, an Audi dealership on the edge of the Don Valley. Picking a Friday show favourite came down to whether you liked your jersey tailored or draped. The Greta label is known for the later but, perhaps anticipating Mendonça’s own focus on the fabric, Wong and Pickersgill layered in lots of outerwear (capes, maxi coats) and accessories (obi belts, pom pom brooches), giving the line a more artisanal feeling than usual.
Monday’s runway lineup: Holt Renfrew celebrates its can’t-live-without-‘em Canadian labels, the fur flies at IZMA and JUMA opens fashion week’s new studio catwalk space with a kaleidoscope collection.
