Every once and a while us fashion folks who usually ask the questions get asked some questions ourselves.
It happened to me this week when Toronto Fashion Incubator blogger Carolyn Rohaly asked me for some thoughts on breaking into fashion journalism and how designers can connect with style media.
Luckily, the questions came by e-mail so I could devote a good two hours to writing, erasing, editing, hitting Starbucks, writing some more and replying with my answers to six questions (maybe not luckily after all considering the loss of a good part of an afternoon).
Carolyn’s final question offered me the best opportunity for putting my foot in my mouth, “What are your thoughts on the current state of Canadian fashion?”
It’s the sort of topic I usually shy away from unless I’m in the presence of other fashion geeks and I’ll let Carolyn break my laboured and diplomatic answer when her article appears on Monday. Fashion, after all, is just fabulous darlings and creative challenges or business conundrums are meant to be drowned in big gulps of prosecco.
A little introspection and realism might be a better pill to swallow right now though. With Toronto’s fashion week only a month and a half away, I put an e-mail out to a few industry peers and asked them what the biggest question facing Canadian fashion is today? Here are a few of their queries:
What sets the Canadian fashion industry apart from others? – Brooklyn Brownstone, Designer Coordinator for the Fashion Design Council of Canada and L’Oreal Fashion Week.
Why don’t we buy more locally designed and produced fashion? – Marlene Shiff, owner of Boutique Le Trou.
The biggest question facing Canadian fashion is the same question designers all over the world are asking: what’s next? – David Dixon, designer.
If you have an answer for one or, miraculously, all of their questions, feel free to comment.
P.S. New York Fashion Week begins tomorrow and the best example of cross platform coverage to whet your catwalk whistle is Refinery29.com’s The Countdown videos. The series follows five designers including Thom Browne and former Travoteers Shipley & Halmos on the road to the runway. No Canadian content this season but check out the Spring 2008 archive for Jeremy Laing features pre and post last fall’s show.
