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Sneaking her high-heeled snakeskin pumps gingerly under construction tape, Robin Kay, president of the Fashion Design Council of Canada, leaves behind an office full of people pushing their priorities, loudly, to dash out for a bowl of soup.
Kay's a new convert to the BlackBerry, and her gizmo is on fire. In the 20-minute soup break, she has a half-dozen feverish conversations – and her team of four staffers seeks her out in person to deal with the problems popping up on their BlackBerrys. Her bowl still half-full, Kay leads a tour of the FDCC offices, in the middle of the high-energy construction zone at the new Liberty Market building in Liberty Village, which is being transformed from a starving-artist repository to a lofty, clubby ‘hood.
Kay settles in at her desk, located at the back of the open-concept room, as fancy chocolates and flowers arrive for her simultaneously. She stops to scratch her two small dogs, who are cuddled in their bed in the corner. Master and canines all seem oblivious to the melee around them.
“This is it. This is what we've been working for. All those years, all those naysayers. A dozen heart-stopping crises a day,” she says, flourishing the plans for the L'Oréal Fashion Week tents, gleaming white temporary structures that will stand in the centre of Nathan Phillips Square (the spring/summer 2008 runway shows begin on Monday). The tents follow the model of the Bryant Park shows in New York and the London shows, which take place at the Natural History Museum, not far from Harrods and Harvey Nichols.
Left to right
TEVROW + CHASE: Designer Paul Sinclaire (and partner Joseph Mimran, the Zeus/Zelig of Toronto fashion) offers up funky and mod yet ladylike clothes mostly in the U.S. and recently directly from the Toronto showroom. Chrys brocade coat, $745 (www.tevrowchase.com). Flats, model’s own.
ARTHUR MENDONCA: Considered the coolest kid on the block (think our Olivier Theyskens), Mendonca draws a fluster of downtown hipsters to his shows. Black strapless dress, $795 (www.mendonca.com); sequin pumps, $495, from Zola Shoes (www.zolashoes.com).
JOEFFER CAOC: A man obsessed with the eighties long before the rest of us were, Caoc makes Dynasty look modern. Actually his muse, which changes each season, is always more Carrie Bradshaw than Alexis Carrington. Sequin halter top, $825, and sequin skirt, $735 (www.joeffercaoc.com); purple pumps, $435 from Zola Shoes.
PINK TARTAN: In just five years, designer Kim Newport-Mimran has succeeded in establishing a brand with strong signatures: mod dresses, great blouses, peacoats and classic and clean sixties sophistication. Twiggy dress, $295 (www.pinktartan.com); Patrick Cox T-strap sandal, $495 from Zola Shoes.
DAVID DIXON: David Dixon’s mood has turned to black in the past few seasons: again, his collection is heavily weighted in that classic colour. Noted for suiting and eveningwear, Dixon’s customer is young and headstrong. Black dress, $595 (www.daviddixon.ca); pumps, $125 from Town Shoes (www.townshoes.com).
“We could be more smack dab in the centre of the city, but we'd have to be showing fashion in a dirigible,” she says with a laugh.
It is a big year for Toronto's fashion week, and not just because of the tents. For the first time, the FDCC has bet heavily on promotion, putting out 2.8 million promo pieces on the industry's top talents in periodicals such as Vogue and Vanity Fair, reaching eyes south of the border. Besides allowing the FDCC to use Nathan Phillips Square, the city has contributed a small amount of money and extended bar hours at hot spots around town. The new crop of boutique hotels will host designer after-parties.
The more commercial players (such as Roots) will participate in on-site installations, and the show for Joe Fresh, the hit grocery-store line, precedes the hush-hush Project Runway Canada finale to be filmed Monday night. Once again, seats for select shows will be reserved for the public.
“Like Pride Week and Canadian Music Week, fashion week has become an event beyond the industry. People are excited about fashion. People who never knew my name now know my name,” Toronto designer Joeffer Caoc says.
The turnaround started 14 (biannual) seasons ago as Kay's lonely effort to pick up the industry from the ashes (literally: fashion had depended heavily on cigarette sponsorship before the smoking ban). There was a lot of fracture and distrust among designers who were burned both by sporadic funding and a bad rash of unpaid bills by stores.
Kay, a former designer, created the FDCC in 1999 in an attempt to unify the industry and create a show system. Initially, there was an effort to make the shows national (hence the “of Canada” in the name). But just as shows have spun off from New York (Los Angeles's fashion week is growing vibrantly; Miami is the centre of swimwear runways), both Montreal and Vancouver have their own fashion weeks. Actually, Vancouver has two, because of inter-scene squabbling.
Yes, all the movies and TV shows are not far from the truth: The fashion industry is a hissy snakepit. Kay, herself, is a lightning rod: a woman who minces no words and does not hesitate to mince anyone in her path. But she has wrestled a splintered industry into a single show calendar under a title sponsor (which has been L'Oréal for the past four seasons) with buyers from across the country and more than 200 accredited media attendees (nearly all the major fashion talents are now on board, along with a significant roster of up-and-comers).
This past week, a nasty anonymous petition and blog made the rounds of the industry in an e-mail frenzy. Mainly a personal attack on Kay and filled with misquotes and slander, the protesters, claiming to speak on behalf of the fashion industry but refusing to reveal their identities, succeeded only in causing one day of fuss. Basically, Kay suffered a barrage of tiresome phone calls while simultaneously trying to smile through a Hello! Canada photo shoot.
“For a long time, there has been a culture of a lack of support for designers,” she says. “That has made them skeptical of an ongoing organization. But there are 2,500 fashion graduates each year in this country, and they know what they see at fashion week. They don't carry the weight of the disappointments of the past.”
“We're not saving babies here!” Caoc says of the kerfuffle. “Relax folks, it's just fashion! When things change, there is always going to be grumblings.” Getting things onto a runway helps designers come up with a narrative that ultimately helps sales, he adds.
Indeed, Andy Thê-Anh, based in Montreal, chooses to show in Toronto for the business connections. “I got my London agent through fashion week,” he says. “It is expensive, but as important as the media and the buyers, this gets my name out there.” (Designers typically pay $2,500 to $5,000 for the space and a time slot; production, model and transport costs are on top of that.) But this is Canada, where we have our own peculiar way of bringing down our talent. Still, we are also touched by all the big-fashion-city problems.
Take the skinny-model issue, which boils over every three seasons or so. “I've been in the business a long time,” Kay says. “I have a 22-year-old and a 17-year-old daughter. I'm gonna say this once: Fashion is for me about art and a holistic view of the world. We work with reputable agents. We work with healthy girls.”
She dismisses as “bandwagoning” the recent tsk-tsking of skinny models at Montreal's fashion week, where doctors were on-site.
The recent round of international spring shows that just concluded in Paris raised a fresh scandal: This season, the percentage of non-white models was at its lowest in more than a decade, The New York Times reported last week.
This being multicultural Toronto, one wonders if the city's colour range is reflected on the runways. “I'm seeing a lot of requests this season for a broader range of ethnicities,” says Paola Fullerton, a veteran of Pink Tartan shows who also cast for Project Runway. “I've had a hard time filling the requests. There is definitely a movement toward diversity.”
Skinny models, white models … what about green models? Like the Emmy Awards, L'Oréal Fashion Week is going green. The FDCC has teamed up with cleanairpass, a carbon-offsetting company, and Green Living Enterprises to ensure the production is “environmentally conscious.” Of course, the fashion industry itself has a long way to go; the FDCC's hopeful banner reads, “Awareness is the first step to recovery.”
After tackling the industry's ills head-on, Kay and Toronto's designers are ready to strut their stuff. The tents are rising, the champagne is chilling and we can't wait to fuss about frocks till 4 a.m.
Hot picks
Must-sees
The first night is invitation-only, featuring Joe Fresh, the Loblaws line by Joe Mimran, and the finale of Project Runway Canada, yes with Iman(!), will be filmed (results embargoed until the episode airs later this fall).
The big shows are Tevrow + Chase, Comrags, Joeffer Caoc (the hot show on Tuesday), Andy Thê-Anh and David Dixon (the last two anchoring Wednesday evening). Pink Tartan (by Kim Newport-Mimran) is the other big-name label of the week; the show is an invite-only luncheon at the Four Seasons. Paul Hardy is showing at tea time on Friday.
Hot newcomers
Among new and/or newsy names, check out Bustle, Ginch Gonch from Vancouver, Zoran Dobric, Nada and Damzels in this Dress hooking up with Playdead Cult.
Party central
You can get your clothes steamed and your hair straightened at the Conair booth, and pick up a new bag at the Roots installation.
The truly intrepid style andparty hunters will seek out the Flare party Thursday (invite-only); other late-night shows and parties can be found variously at Maro, Cheval, SoHo Met, C Lounge and Muzak. Leanne Delap
