November 2, 2011

O Canada!

Just a smidge north of the fashion and glam of NYC, is a city known to be slow-changing but perhaps on the cusp of an arts and culture revolution…

Now in its 25^th season, Toronto Fashion Week SS12 was evidence of the slowly but surely blooming fashion industry in a country known mostly for… well not much in the creative world. With fashion festivities abuzz, off-site events saw the homecoming of ex-pat Canadian designers Calla Haynes, Jean Pierre Braganza, Thomas Tait and Todd Lynn all showing their SS12 collections. On-site, amidst mostly rainy weather, members of the nation’s fashion set took cover under the tents at David Pecaut Square in Downtown Toronto to partake in celebrating ‘Canada Cool.’ With the help of the Fashion Design Council of Canada’s affiliate, The Fashion Collective, a roster of young, fresh Canadian talent had the opportunity to take to the runway, here’s i-D online’s top TFW trio.

lgfashionweek.ca

Text: Hazel Ong

Sid Neigum

Currently based in NYC, Sid hails from Drayton Valley, Alberta. His show-stopping shoes, were handmade by Sid and Uncle Neigum from blocks of cedar. Not one to dumb-down the design process, the golden ratio and Fibonacci sequence were both put to use during the pattern-making process as a means to determine style lines, proportion, hem lengths. We’re already lost! Injecting a bit of pizazz into proceedings, androgynous Andrej Pejic opened the show.

sidneigum.com

Chloé Comme Parris

This sister design duo have a background in costume design and metal smithing. Their SS12 collection focused on shapes, silhouettes and Victorian era dressing. Keeping it in the family, the girls collaborated with their fine artist Mum on the prints for the collection. Buttons, buckles and all other hardware was custom-made by the girls

chloécommeparris.ca

Amanda Lew Kee

This 21-year old Torontonian was first featured on i-D online here. Recently returning from her summer getaway in NYC, Amanda’s SS12 collection drew inspiration from the cityscapes of her favourite cities, Toronto, New York and London. The prints in her collection were all self-designed using reworked photos of the buzzing metropolises. Amanda worked with neoprene, silk, stretch jersey and leather for this collection.

amandalewkee.com

fashion

O Canada!

Just a smidge north of the fashion and glam of NYC, is a city known to be slow-changing but perhaps on the cusp of an arts and culture revolution…

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