L'Oréal Fashion Week Fall 2007 – It Begins!

L'Oréal Fashion Week kicked off last night with "a retail piece", a show of work by six designers who are all sold through Boutique Le Trou. Just to gve you a feeling, here's a piece by Jason Matlo.

The night continued with Elisa Dahan and Eran Elfassy of Mackage, showing mainly jackets. I thought the work was interesting; it was informed by a classic sensibility and a strong Carnaby-Street vibe, but it twisted away from the expected: trench coats with kilt bottoms and even the odd bishop sleeve (shades of 1835!) Most fun was a long knit sweater coat with holes near the hem that double as sleeves so it can morph into a two-piece sweater set!

You might wonder why I would cover a widely publicized event in a blog that's about the unknown aspects of the city. It's because I feel that local fashion, like local theatre, local visual art and – perhaps to a lesser event – local music, film and books, are only known, appreciated and sought out by a rather small segment of the population. If you've been following the news lately, it looks like government is starting to take a harder look at supporting Canadian fashion. I think that would be good.

Of course the shows are only part of the fun of Fashion Week. Holt Renfrew hosted a kickoff party yesterday afternoon, where people drooled over gorgeous handbags and sampled canapes. (Hosting tip; the big thing apparently is to serve bite-sized hot tidbits by nesting each in one of those white ceramic Chinese soup spoons.)

At Holt's, Fashion Week head Robin Kay pointed out that those in the fashion industry here are "far more recognized outside of our own country than we are within it.... I think it would be a real shame," she added, "if we didn't go as high as we can go in the industry that we love." I forgot to ask who Kay was wearing, by the way, but I noticed she's got one of the gold maple leaves that were being sold at the Spring 2007 show (last fall) to match the theme of Canadian Cool.

Bronwyn Cosgrave of BBC, British Vogue and TV's Fashion File (and author of the book Made for Each Other: Fashion and the Academy Awards) was the keynote speaker. She recounted her "biggest fashion moment", when, at the age of 18, she bumped into (possibly) the 20th century's greatest fashion figure Audrey Hepburn while browsing right here in Holt's. Cosgrave mentioned who she was wearing, but I forgot. Anyway, she looked hot in it. (Thanks to Bernadette Morra of the Star, I now know it was by Erdem Moralioglu.)

Speaking of hot, here are (left) designers Shawn Hewson and Ruth Promislow of Bustle, perhaps toasting the launch last Monday of their new uniforms for staff at the Pantages Suites Boutique Hotel and Spa. They came up with really nice, sexy but understated black suits for men and women, in a hard-wearing and washable fabric that still has a nice feel (I felt it so I know).

And still on the subject of hot, these are not movie stars (right); they're twin sisters Dipika and Ravika Gupta, the Montreal design team known as Kavi Kavi, with heartthrob designer Arthur Mendonca. The Kavi Kavi gals are wearing their own line.

So who else was wearing Canadian design? I was glad to see that corporate sponsors L'Oréal Paris not only talk the talk but frock the frock. Here are (left to right) Dominique Decelles in a soft pink Marie Saint Pierre blouse, Isabelle Randez in a black Marie Saint Pierre dress with a mini-bolero jacket over it, and L'Oreéal Paris communications director Anik Gagnon is a fab blue dress by Toronto's Izzy Camilleri. I really go for those great big blue rosettes all around the bottom! These three pieces were all shown at the Spring 2007 edition of Toronto Fashion Week.

And let's not forget more streety lines like Peach Berserk, whose instantly recognizable cotton prints are stylishly represented here by Canadian Press fashion reporter Lorraine Anthony. (The peace sign on the posters stand for this season's punning theme, by the way, "World Piece".)

L'Oréal Fashion Week continues through Saturday. I'll post more as I can... Meanwhile, I've got more coverage of last night here.