Following hot on the heels of Denis Gagnon’s collaboration with Bedo, Philippe Dubuc had a collaboration of another kind with Montreal-based department store Simons. While most designer/fast fashion collaborations are of the one-off nature, Philippe Dubuc will have a long-term collaboration with Simons’ Icône line. While the designer has discontinued creating womenswear with his namesake collection, it hasn’t stopped him from venturing into the old sandbox in an effort to reach to a larger audience. Simons, after all, is one of the few department stores left in Canada who is actually succeeding in attracting a good number of shoppers thanks to their exclusive fashionable lines of Twik, Icône and Contemporaine, along with a mixture of high-end brands like Michael Kors, D&G, and more recently, to my surprise, Pringle of Scotland, Balmain and Chloé.

For the Dubuc/Icône collection, I decided to give it a whirl to see what he had to offer to the modern woman who could afford his $75-$275 price range.

The collection consisted of 16 pieces nearly all in black except for a couple in gunmetal gray, made up of blazers, pants, skirts, dresses and a couple of sweaters. The ads made the clothes look good enough, but often, looks can be deceiving.

I didn’t particularly like the style that had what looked like untucked hems (pictured above), giving that unfinished look. You could see two fabrics were sewn together (outside black, inside gray). It also meant that you could see crooked cuts, and other flaws. Like a Monet, it looks great from afar, not so hot upclose. Nor did I find the parachute like dress or top to be flattering to the body, especially with such a cheap fabric choice that made me feel like it could rip at any moment.

I liked the cotton wash on the skirt suit set, it shone like it was made of leather, great trick on the eyes and soft to the touch. The cupro gray dress with the soft ruffles or lapels felt a little cheap and didn’t hug my figure as much as I would’ve liked. The sweaters were probably the best pieces of the whole collection, they felt solid and had a neat front satin panel detail or had a zipper along the collarbone, but aside from the satin panels, the knits were void of any interesting stitches or details.

I checked the labels for the majority of them and to my surprise, most of the collection was Made in France. While that would’ve been a surefire plus, I couldn’t help but feel let down by what I saw. Just because it’s Made in France doesn’t mean the products presented were of superior quality. It’s like a cook who is given the best ingredients in the world, but cannot cook a decent meal. The Made in France label was not enough to save this collection, and it was apparent from the unsold merchandise on the racks. I saw a lot of women, from all ages, poking around but walked away empty handed.

Unfinished hemlines, skirt and blazer without lining. Felt like a prototype more than a finished piece.

Certainly, for Dubuc female fans, this Simons collaboration seems subpar than what he’s offering for the male counterparts in his store on St-Denis. As a first contact with the designer’s work, I was expecting designs that were more outside of the box, but they seem to blend in all too well with Icône’s other office looks. For the same price I could go to my favorite mid-end brand, Tristan, and get far cuter skirts and jackets, with better shapes and fabrics (made both Canada and China for some perspective). It’s unclear when Dubuc will churn up another collection for Simons, but for the moment, let’s hope his next effort will be better.

The Spring edition contains the usual suspects – Marie Saint Pierre, Denis Gagnon, Christian Chenail, etc – and a handful of newcomers to the show: Claude Bouchard, Dimitri Chris, Micalla,  and Annie 50.

The highly successful Le Showroom, a sort of trunk show, will be showcasing other local designers’ collections since many are not choosing to run on the catwalk. Curiously, the CIMM is MIA in this edition, where usually the more commercial designers like Simon Chang would showcase the more wearable collections to the public. I would’ve thought they had finally made some sort of business connection with MFW, but I guess that has dissolved?

One has to wonder though how the recession has affected local Canadian fashion industries. More and more companies are outsourcing their workload to Asia, with a very select few companies who still produce in Canada (to my knowledge Tristan and Le Chateau are still hanging in there). The sole and only press conference that could possibly address this issue will be on Tuesday, Oct 15th, the inaugural opening day of Montreal Fashion Week SS10, but I’m afraid it’s nothing more talking fluff to reassure designers.

I do certainly believe that a fashion conference in Montreal is severely lacking in addressing these important business issues. And perhaps it would be to the local designers’ benefit if the industry would stop trying to brush it off by replacing it with more talks about pushing creativity, which frankly is not necessary. Think of all the past talents that have appeared and disappeared under the radar: Yso, Renata Morales, Rush Couture, Nadya Toto, Marisa Minicucci, Philippe Dubuc, and for a time Denis Gagnon. Top tier talents like Dubuc and Minicucci are struggling to keep afloat, or in Minicucci’s case, have to rethink their business strategy altogether. Montreal also has to contend with Toronto, which often has some of our best talents migrating to show such as Rudsak, Andy, Aqua di Lara, Travis Taddeo, and Morales, and our cream of the crops are showcasing in Paris or New York, like Rad Hourani and Mackage. It seems that Montreal is too small for designers who are aiming higher.

If Montreal is supposed to be so axed on promoting local talent and encouraging to buy local, they will certainly need to rethink their strategies to influence shoppers. Because the fast fashion giants down on Ste-Catherine are eating up the local industry’s sales with cheap “chic” like Forever 21, H&M, and Zara. While the talents of the likes of CIMM is totally capable of wowing us with commercial and sometimes innovative garments, yet they are nowhere to be found this season.

Like I’ve said before, Montreal has great potential as a fashion hub, but lacks the direction and support it needs to establish itself as true player among fashion capitals.

Image credits: Jimmy Hamelin, Montreal Fashion Week

Here’s the list of targets I want to check out:

Boul. St-Laurent

U&I
Vivienne Westwood, Ksubi jeans, 3.1 Philip Lam. It’s a higher end casual store tha always looks so somber on the inside, but the brands attract me enough to at least check them out.

Blank
Often referenced as the Quebec version of American Apparel. 100% made in Montreal and a good deal cheaper. Just don’t expect ads and posters of scantily clad women and men in their basic undies around the store.

Rue St-Denis

OLAM
Once reported as a featured store on Musique Plus, there is another one on St-Catherine as well. I passed by the one on St-Denis and saw that they carry a mix of Quebec designers and some high end imports like Miss Sixty.

Philippe Dubuc
Although I long though he had closed down due to money troubles, he still maintains a modest 2 story boutique. He’s been touted as a designer with a great eye for design and tailoring, but I really want to see with my own two eyes.

Muse
I just noticed yesterday that Muse is only two doors away from Philippe Dubuc’s store! Very small boutique from what I could see, only one window? I saw a sale sign, maybe I could find something there.

Rue Sherbrooke

Escada
Always been curious about this high end italian German store (it’s a good thing I don’t write for a newspaper yet), why doesn’t anyone talk about it? Maybe because, egads, their price range is in the thousands. Hmm. It won’t hurt to look right?

Rue Peel

San Remo
Now I’ve been lusting after this store for I don’t know how long and only managed to do a quick runaround only once. Sure, perhaps only the fictional Carrie Bradshaw could pull off those embroidered and sequined concoctions, oh but the fantasy in those windows, so old school, so glittery, oh so very lovely. I’ll try to take pictures when we’re not engulfed in snow.

Rue Crescent

Boutique Encore
A photographer friend referred me to this store but I have yet to set foot in it. He says this store has discount designer goods, usually second hand but still in good condition.

I’ll write up an eventual report on my discoveries (if any) and can hopefully show you some pictures.

Which puts into question as to where Montreal fashion is going business wise. Montreal Fashion Week is coming next month, I really wonder who the buyers are and where they come from. Last fall I attended Fashion Week on behalf of GLOSS, and was surprised that that there were only about a dozen notable designers showing for a total of a mere 3 days. Even our most coveted designer, Andy The-Anh, showcased his collection in Toronto’s L’Oreal Fashion Week in hopes to catch a larger audience. It would appear that the Montreal market hasn’t attracted enough buyers (international and local) to come to our fashion week despite a recent multimillion dollar investment from the Quebec Government.

Ralph Lauren Fall 2008. Simple and could definitely sell.

Muse by Christian Chenail Fall 2007. Could also sell, but are they selling?

 

I made a round yesterday to Ogilvy‘s and only saw Marie Saint Pierre’s name as the only local designer on the store’s 2nd floor. Holt Renfrew did have Rad Hourani’s collection, but where are the M Siamo’s, Philippe Dubuc’s and Andy The-Anh’s in these stores? More over, there are so many specialized boutiques that it’s hard to pinpoint which stores carry which lines, making shopping even harder especially for smaller brands. Not to mention that local designers have to compete with many European imports like Mango, Zara, H&M, and Mexx to big brand designer names like Chanel, Dior and Gucci in the high end sector. Let’s not forget that even our own proud canadian sports label Roots has been shoved aside to make way to American Eagle Outfitters downtown.

Having a good business model is essential to survive in the industry, so far it’s hard to think of one Canadian label in particular which has successfully incorporated themselves into international waters on a grand scale. But unlike Europeans and Americans, Montreal fashion designers currently aren’t attractive enough for financial honchos to invest into their brands. Though $82 million is a generous amount from the Quebec Government, it’s peanuts when the likes of other designers get the same amount for a SINGLE brand in a SINGLE year. It’s not enough to be a designer, it’s now essential to have a working business model. If Canada, even more so Montreal, wants to compete with the big guns they will have to find a way to boost their visibility on a grand scale and be aggressive. We’re being much too docile to newcomers, praising and coddling them through magazines isn’t enough, they need to be able to sell their clothes to buyers and establish some loyalty amongst their shoppers.

Image credits: Style.com, Muse Christian Chenail