What does it mean when some of the country’s biggest fashion designers decide to boycott their very own fashion week?
Pagination
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Toronto plays host to one of the top three film festivals in the world. We attract renowned architects to refashion our museums and galleries, and act as a launch pad for theatre and musical tours de force. We court artists, musicians and even politicians from all corners of the globe to entertain and engage us. Yet, despite all these world-class achievements, Toronto simply can’t seem to get a grip on fashion week.
To wit: On February 22, the Fashion Design Council of Canada (FDCC) announced a converted warehouse space at 30 Ordnance St. to be the new, semi-permanent home of LG Fashion Week. Two weeks later, on March 10, the FDCC announced a 160,000-square-foot convention hall on the Canadian National Exhibition grounds to be the newer, semi-permanent home of LG Fashion Week. The fall/winter 2010 shows were a mere 18 days away. What happened?
There was talk of appeasing sponsors, of Toronto fashion week requiring “a much larger canvas to articulate its vision,” a press release stated. But the grumblings couldn’t be ignored. A very big ball was dropped.
To top it all off, the Allstream Centre, where the shows are currently being held, is in a virtual no-man’s land of limited transportation options and nary a kiosk to grab a sandwich. It does, however, have indoor toilets as several reports have listed as the only plus.
Although this season’s schedule boasts the usual hotly anticipated shows — Pink Tartan, Andy The-Anh, Comrags — a few designers showed a week early. Like Stephen Wong and Kirk Pickersgill of Greta Constantine: “We like to show directly after Paris because people still have a fashion forward mindset,” they explained. But the designers were quick to quell any rumours that their decision to show off-site meant they didn’t support Canadian fashion.
Read about Paul Hardy's 'gong' show experience last season on the next page ...
Designer DNA: Evan Biddell
Designer DNA: Toronto Fashion Week; The Veterans
Seventies vibe
