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At a time when pink slips are as common as pink lipstick, Toronto Fashion Week is feeling the love.

It's set to celebrate its 10th anniversary on Monday with a shiny new sponsor, a new marketing team and some very hopeful designers.

Powerhouse adman Barry Avrich, whose agency, Endeavour Marketing, is behind such big-ticket events as Luminato and the Stratford Festival, has a clear message about his new client: Toronto Fashion Week is about celebrating culture.

"I want it to have the same presence as any other culture festival in the country," Avrich says.

And since consumer electronics giant LG swooped in to take over as title sponsor from L'Oréal, which is now "presenting sponsor," Fashion Week founder Robin Kay has also been feeling the love.

Kay survived her own shaky moment in October, when she was escorted from the runway during a rambling and increasingly embarrassing opening speech. Now she's all business.

"Canadian designers have the names; now they're growing and becoming brands," says Kay, who was behind the move to invite the public to the shows and to relocate to Nathan Phillips Square.

The aim is visibility, and the big white tent at the heart of the city provides ample opportunity.

Frank Lee, LG's senior manager of corporate marketing, conceded that the downturn has necessitated a lean approach. "We just have to understand that consumers are being smarter and we are being smarter. Is what we're doing frivolous? No."

"I don't think any sponsor would get involved unless they could reach out to the public and have that exposure," Avrich pointed out.

It was Kay, a former designer and retailer, who founded the FDCC in 1998. An earlier version, called the Festival of Canadian Fashion, was launched by Steven Levy in 1985 and was successful for a number of years. There was then a dry period of several years before the FDCC's first shows in 1999, when they were held at the Windsor Arms Hotel. (They moved to the Exhibition grounds in 2002.)

Few participants remain from the inaugural week. One is Joyce Gunhouse and Judy Cornish's Comrags, which is among the labels Globe Style pays tribute to with this week's fashion shoot. (We're showing spring dresses; in the strange timing of fashion, it will be fall designs that are shown in the big tent next week.)

We are also featuring Fashion Week stalwarts Joeffer Caoc and David Dixon, the new label Lundström (by veteran designer Linda Lundström) and several pieces by Greta Constantine, the label of young duo Kirk Pickersgill and Stephen Wong, who showed their fall collection last night off-site at the Courthouse.

Gunhouse says that, even in a digital age, mounting a show makes sense. "We know we can show everything online — and that is as beneficial as the runway — but it doesn't generate the hype and excitement that runway shows do," she said. "Also, I think it makes people feel more confident in your product."

The Toronto event has attracted labels from Montreal and Vancouver, which often participate for only a few seasons in order to raise their profile. Montreal-based Andy Thê-Anh, also featured in our shoot, is an exception: He continues to show in both cities.

Those two cities have struggled to establish their own shows. Montreal Fashion Week, which ended last week, has a corporate sponsor in P&G Beauty, but still lacks cachet despite the participation of such talented designers as Philippe Dubuc and Marie Saint Pierre. A government fund announced last week, however, will pump $2.4-million into promoting the city as a fashion destination.

On the West Coast, meanwhile, Vancouver Fashion Week will offer a multi-venue homage to emerging trends and streetwear design, but there is no title sponsor. Even so, the event will be open to the public and is already generating significant local interest in advance of its launch next Monday.

Last month, the mood was less optimistic in New York, where the likes of Betsey Johnson and Vera Wang opted for smaller installations instead of runway shows. Although no one has bowed out in Toronto, the number of designers showing is far smaller than in other cities, which suggests that there is less infrastructure needed to keep everyone on schedule (not to mention pique buyer interest).

New this year in Toronto is The Market, an on-site "environment" where buyers can place orders for 15 different designer collections on the spot.

In most cases, though, the week is more about buzz than immediate sales, since most buyers have already seen and bought by the end of February. Caoc, for instance, will show his holiday collection next week, because the look is more "forward" and because buyers have seen the early fall garments. But showing is part of the fun. "The collection looks better presented on the runway," he said. "Fashion shows are so glamorous and seductive; they're like theatre."

Kimberly Newport Mimran, whose label Pink Tartan launched a few years ago, agrees. "I think it's really important to show your perspective and a show gives me the creative freedom to show the collection with a point of view."

The week can also provide a public venue for a label's rehabilitation. Rescued by domestic manufacturer Eleventh Floor Apparel, Linda Lundström is staging her very first runway show. Styled by hotshot George Antonopoulos, the collection is eagerly anticipated.

"It's really a chance to let others recognize all the people who have been involved in the process," said Lundström. "There's a whole string of collaborations involved in the collection and I just felt I was ready to show the world."

"You can't have a good business without a good package and Fashion Week is a package," said Kay, while snacking on mini lobster tacos and Earl Grey tea at a hotel bar last week. "And to become runway ready and media savvy is a big part of the charm and charisma that sells product. There's been a real fusion of reality and fantasy."

For every runway show, in fact, there is a fashion-entertainment hybrid such as Tuesday's Heart Truth Fashion Show, where celebs such as Sass Jordan and Kreesha Turner model dresses created by Pink Tartan, Carlie Wong and Marc Belford. The critically acclaimed documentary Valentino: The Last Emperor will also be screened on closing night.

Kay says that international interest is growing, with representatives from Selfridges in the U.K. and Lord & Taylor in the U.S. attending the week. They join buyers from China, Japan and Germany.

It's all part of Kay's vision. "I have an obligation," she said. "It's a runway but you still have to talk the talk."

And, let's not forget, walk the walk.

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On location

When Queen Street Partners set out to restore the building at 639-647 Queen St. W., they started with research. What they found were 1907 ads for the F.C. Burroughes Furniture Co. Ltd., which sold carpets, stoves, crockery and, of course, furniture. A century later, the Burroughes Building is filled with hip businesses, from ad agency Hey Harry to the men's-wear designer Philip Sparks. "We wanted it to serve the community and meet the needs of the city while preserving as much of the character as possible," says the property firm's Lee Polydor. To wit, the elevator has been retrofitted to move at 2009 speed but the charming old cab is intact. While raw space provided a perfect backdrop for our shoot, Polydor says 80 per cent of the building is occupied. Ironically, the less furniture, the better it looked. www.burroughesbuilding.com