The Shows TO 2013 – Fashion Week

Fashion Week(s) in Toronto was recently kicked off with The Shows. The Shows Toronto are a runway event sponsored this year by P&G Beauty and Grooming and DHL that focus the spotlight on Canadian talent in design, hair, makeup, and modeling.

This year, five designers (Comrags, Jean-Pierre Braganza, Tanya Taylor, Steven Tai, Jeremy Laing) were featured at the shows and I was very excited for the opportunity to attend! Hosted by the wonderful people at Brill communications, the event brought a different kind of fun feeling and intimate environment. Located at the Andrew Richards Design venue, The Shows were kicked off with a networking cocktail reception where buyers, members of the media, and friends of designers were all able to network together in the same setting, which was a nice personal touch to the event.

It was fantastic to see so many different styles and approaches to fashion represented through the different designers. One interesting addition was that each designer had an interview with Dr. Alexandra Palmer from the ROM to talk about how they incorporated different textiles and designs into their looks.

We found the event to be inspiring and an amazing showcase of Canadian talent – hope you guys will feel the same way from our recap!

Comrags

Comrags is a label started by Joyce Gunhouse from Victoria, British Columbia and Judy Cornish of Burlington, Ontario. With a collection that focused on simple construction with visual interest in the form of colour, texture, and pattern, their styles were very much modern yet feminine. One interesting fact about their looks – for some of the pieces they used the backs and fronts of fabrics. And we are very proud to hear that they’re made in Canada too!

Jean-Pierre Braganza

Jean-Pierre Braganza is a London, England born and Montreal and Toronto raised designer who has won a number of prestigious awards for his unique and fashion forward designs. Created with textiles from a mill in England, the Fall/Winter 2013 collection is no exception, featuring a variety of different constructions and modern takes on classic looks. We especially love the contrast of the neutral colours!

Tanya Taylor

Born in Toronto but raised internationally, Tanya Taylor impressed us with a very versatile collection that included an edgy femininity in each piece. Inspired by the art of Jean Pierre Renault, she incorporates a variety of textiles, including a white and blue plaid that was developed together with a mill in Italy. Her looks are as international as her background with the knitwear collection produced in an old German knit factory in New York that still has designs from as far back as the 1930s for selection! When it comes to this collection, we especially loved the ability to tailor these fun looks to ones personality.

Steven Tai

Vancouver born, Steven Tai’s designs were some of the more eccentric pieces and placed a great deal of focus on the artistic composition of the pieces; we also found it fun that most of the collection was inspired by skiwear. Out of all the shows, we felt that his were the most interesting to look at, especially the ones from his graduate collection! Inspired by his interpretation of the nerd, a lot of the inspiration came from the design of book binding and the nerd body shape. Steven Tai’s looks were funky and his adorkable personality shone through at the interview! We are looking forward to seeing more from him in the future.

Jeremy Laing

Jeremy Laing’s story is a designer with a very interesting story; born in Toronto but raised in a German army camp, he first became interested in fashion at the age of 13 when his mother taught him about sewing. His unique approach to fashion design shines through in the variety of textiles and constructions he uses to create his collections. We were very impressed with the range Jeremy Laing showed through his looks!

Article by: Julia Toadere
Twitter: @JToadere

Please visit http://www.theshows.com/ for more information on the actual event.

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