What is Montreal’s Sustainability Factor?
If you haven’t noticed already, the Montreal Fashion Week website has been update and spruced up for it’s Spring Summer 2010 edition. Miraculously, I’ve been given media accreditation as a fashion blogger so I’ll be attending some of the shows.
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
Fantasme and Style
Last night’s Fantasme event was a pretty big success considering the last minute venue change from The Darling Foundry to SAT on St-Laurent. It was perhaps the best congregation of stylish Montrealers that I’ve ever witnessed in my life. A true street style photographer’s wet dream.
The mash up of the 80s trends with strong shoulders, boyfriend jackets teamed with mini dresses, strappy booties galore, and several men dressed in high heels and skinny jeans and rockin’ the casbah. I envied them as even I wouldn’t be able to walk in their fabulous shoes.
Where have you guys been hiding all this time??
I apologize for the lack of photos, I’m not exactly papparazzi skilled.
Fantasme is a collaboration between Andrew Ly and Melissa Matos, both a fashion designer and a jewelry designer respectively. Conceptually, it was a multi sensorial experience they wanted to project to the audience with video and audio projections and of course, a fashion show. It is their first show collaboration but they both have shared the stylist scene working for various local publications.
When asked about Ly’s ideas behind his collection, he had stated about the “complexity of simplicity”, where garments were stripped to their very essentials - such as a jacket only joined at the arms and not the shoulders, or leggings represented by strappy, stretchy bandages around the legs, as well as the geometry of garments such as an architectural caged skirt.
Matos’ collection was created in conjunction to her jewelry designs for PowerHaus, although it was the first time creating a clothing collection, she too made allusions to the semblance of garments as coiled pearls were wrapped around the arms to create a sleeve effect. She described the soft flowy see-through tops as armor that people wear, separating their self with the world.
But what about commercial purposes?
Ly’s response was that any fashion creation has a commercial purpose in the sense that it can be sold to those who are interested in buying. If there is a demand, they’d be more than happy to provide. Imran Amed, chief editor of The Business of Fashion, was in attendance and he had wondered during the presentation as to why would they show a fashion collection outside of season. Matos responds in true Montreal spirit: why not? Why not show a fashion show out of the season, instead of designated fashion weeks? As most natives know, Montreal follows its own creative beat.
We’re not expecting mass production here, this is still a showcasing event of concepts and ideas, and Fantasme fulfilled its purpose that night.
I had contributed with Business of Fashion on a few occasions, and was delighted to meet Imran in person. We chatted for a bit about his “Canadian tour”, as well of an upcoming project concerning BoF. While seated and waiting for the show to start, I had realized I sat next to Rad Hourani, whom I’ve interviewed through email for BoF and had yet to meet him in person. Exciting! Imran caught up with him and chatted about his upcoming show in New York. I had the opportunity to squeeze in a couple of curious questions like how he came to collaborate with Tommy Ton, of Jak and Jil Blog, which apparently they’ve known each other a few years and that they happened to bump into one another at a show. Small world! He also spoke about his admiration for Cathy Horyn of The NY Times and Suzy Menkes of IHT as how these women really knew fashion and know how to write about it. My idols. I felt incredibly lucky that night to have met both of them.
Other guests naturally included Canadian fashion editors from Flare, Loulou, Fashion, and The Gazette, and some local fashion designers like Denis Gagnon and Yso, whom I wasn’t sure if it was really him (was later confirmed on Twitter) and he had this amazing sparkly (sequined?) white jacket and the smoothest skin ever. Amazing.
Image credits: me! and Melissa Matos
The Avant-Garde’s Sartorialist - Jak and Jil Blog
Scott Schuman’s photos tend to go towards the classically elegant, well-put together person, interspersed with some kooky and fun outfits. But at Jak and Jil, Toronto photographer Tommy Ton will aim for the “so unusual that it’s cool” photos - in high definition - of perhaps the most amazing shoes and accessories collection I have ever seen.
The photos focus mostly on the details, or taken in a way that your eyes are zooming on the glaring obvious item that’s making the entire outfit pop out. You might be familiar with the photo of the fake Chanel paper bag, or a photo of another fashion photographer strolling the street, that’s Tommy Ton, and I believe he’s a rising star.
Reading up on Tommy Ton, it’s to my own surprise that yet another Canadian fashion star is born. Having started his blog only last year in Sept 2008, after being online for only 3 months, China’s luxury retail giant Lane Crawford had contacted him to shoot their 2009 campaign, according to the Toronto Star. I mean, the guy is still living with his parents and busing his way like any normal Canadian citizen to New York for street photos.
It’s also great to know that just a couple of days ago, another fellow Canadian, Rad Hourani had shown his new bridge collection called Rad by Rad Hourani in New York’s Soho Grand Hotel. You can find the photos of his collection shot by Tommy on JakandJil.com. He’s now on the run making shoots for another Montreal-based company, Complexe Geometries (who by the way are gaining quite a lot of exposure, seen them in Clear Magazine as well), and recently gushed about seeing Balenciaga’s Nicholas Ghesquiere in his hotel lobby on Twitter.
I must admit that it’s been difficult to blog about Canadians in the fashion industry, but it’s so refreshing to see new talent gaining the attention they deserve. Not only are they discovered, but discovered ONLINE. I mean Lane Crawford is huge in China, how did they get the memo about Tommy Ton? I’m totally perplexed. By the way, Lane Crawford’s current success is owed to former CEO, Bonnie Brooks who is now CEO of The Bay, so expect The Bay to change in the near future.
The fashion industry definitely has its eyes set to conquer the online world.
Image credits to Tommy Ton
Avant-Garde Sites For Your Black Soul
If you’re over the vintage and mainstream looks from high fashion, you might want to turn thy self to the dark side. I’m not sure if it’s politically correct to say “avant-garde” anymore according to the Kaiser on Twitter. However, I’ve seen it enough to be able to distinguish it from other fashion styles. Mainly because it sticks to the monochromatic look with the occasional flash of bright colors, with funky cuts giving it an “edgy” look. Whatever the case, designers who design these non-mainstream looks are coming out of the wazoo.
Here are three stores that that I found to have a large selection with photos so bareboned that they remind me of sexless Terrie Richardson photos (is that even possible?). I’m planning on visiting Oak this fall on my Labor Day trip, I’m setting my expectations high.
Reborn - Montreal
Though this store has probably been covered to death in local Canadian magazines and newspaper, it’s only with good reason. This tiny Old Port boutique has an eclectic and very black selection, selling equally black and gunmetal gray accessories such as laptop cases, handcrocheted bracelets, and leather bags. Among the brands are a couple of homegrown designers like Rad Hourani and Complex Geometries, and man-of-the-moment Alexander Wang. Expect to pay an ultra shiny penny for these pieces though.
Oak- New York
I found this store online while perusing for Alexander Wang outside my usual Net-a-porter playground, and discovered some pretty rockin’ accessories with equally amazing shoes (too bad they’re all sizes 6 and up). Even better was their impressive list of 50+ designers in the same genre. And what about those amazing editorial shoots? Très chic mes amis.
Dover Street Market - London
Ok, so their best arsenal isn’t quite available online, but it’s worth a mention since Helene from TheLuxeChronicles had told me about it a couple of months ago on my trip to London. It is perhaps the mother of all avant-garde stores, curated by none other than the Queen of Avant-garde fashion, Rei Kawakubo from Comme Des Garçons. Here you’ll find coveted pieces you probably won’t find anywhere else and find bewitching pieces by the likes of Azzadine Alaïa, Hussein Chalayan, and Gareth Pugh. Spread across 5 floors, you’ll be swimming in heaven from top to bottom. A must-see for anyone traveling to London.
Image credits: Oaknyc, Reborn, Dover street market
Montreal Designers Need To Kick It Up A Notch
There seems to be a huge cyclone brewing in the fashion world, with a bad economy, it would look like fashion seems to be rearing its ugly head for what it has truly become. Fashion designers who love their craft are fighting to stay afloat, but how can they beat the likes of H&M when they have little to no financial backing and lack the resources to truly sell their brand?
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
