Thanks to Susan Langdon, I had the great opportunity to work with the Youth Employment Service’s Passion for Fashion program, produced in collaboration with the Toronto Fashion Incubator.  The program was created to provide free workshops and mentors for young fashion industry entrepreneurs.

It was my first ever experience as a teacher – I taught the class on Visual Presentation for Fashion, and it was an incredible learning experience for me too.  As a student, I don’t think I ever fully appreciated how much work it is to teach a class.  The first time I did it, I was so nervous I finished over an hour ahead of schedule, it was awkward.  By the fifth session, I discovered that teaching is something I really enjoy.  The students are wonderful characters, curious and excited.  Questions and answers are the most fun, and I found it especially delightful when the class would roll with the discussion and start helping each other.

I was also asked to be a judge for the competition portion of the program.  Graduates of the program were challenged to put together a business plan and a visual presentation, to be pitched to a panel of judges for a chance to win a cash prize, TFI membership, and a significant mentorship program.  This was also my first time judging a competition, and again, I felt intimidated.  The other judges were also the other instructors – designers Jen Kluger of Foxy Originals, Kendra Francis of Franke, and business advisor Richard Healy.

Instantly the judging panel hit it off – they are all such smart and kind people – and I overcame my nervousness as we saw each of the finalists in turn for their short presentations.  It was awesome to me how much work they all had put into their business plans – a huge task I myself have never done, and the passion and determination of all the finalists was incredibly inspiring.  Choosing a winner was a difficult task for the panel.  There were a number of great ideas, and some finalists were already well underway putting their plans into action.  After much careful consideration, we selected Stephanie McNeil.

Stephanie impressed us all with the amount of energy she had already dedicated to her business, her eagerness to learn, and her sincerity. The judges all agreed that she would really thrive with the guidance and community of the Toronto Fashion Incubator behind her.  We all felt very happy when she was presented with the award, it was definitely the right decision.

Here in the picture is Sinead McCarthy from YES, Richard, Kendra, Stephanie, me, Nancy Schaefer from YES, and Susan Langdon from the TFI.

Thanks to everyone (and Jen too who isn’t in the photo) I also want to send a super special important thank you to Gabrielle Zilkha at YES, who did so much great work putting this program together.

I’d also like to thank all of the wonderful participants of the Passion for Fashion program.  Especially the finalists.  Watch out for these names in the future – so much enthusiasm and hard work guarantees that these young people belong in the fashion industry:

• Amita Parikh
• Ariel Fu
• Ashley Yankana
• Ginger Martini
• Juliana Carlucci
• Kevin Naulls
• Kristi Soomer
• Larissa Leone and Jenni Wood
• Santanae Luzige
• Wes Misener

15 designers, 17 paper dolls, over 60 items of clothing and accessories to play with.  This is the result of a rather involved project I gave to myself to commemorate the Spring 2010 collections shown in Toronto this October.

The resulting dolls are available in a book from Blurb for $42.95 USD. It was supposed to be available for Christmas but… it’s not unless you’re willing to pay for premium shipping.  So buy it for yourself!  If you can’t afford it, I’ve put together a mini-PDF booklet you can download for free, print off yourself and play with.  Full-size PDF files are also available for just $17.95 – email me for details.

You can buy a book. Or, you can win a book.  How?  Using the JPGs available here, I want you to dress a doll; use Photoshop or another program to help you do it.  The challenge is to use a model from one designer and clothing and accessories from at least two other designers.  The best mashed-up outfit wins a book.

Something like this: Brandon R Dwyer’s model with Jessica Jensen’s clutch and VAWK’s dress. I am sure you can do even better than that.

But that’s not all; I’d like to see you have some fun with it.  So I’ll also give away a few full-size PDFs to entries I think are particularly funny, or wicked, or clever.  Bonus points for photoshopping in some backgrounds and speech bubbles.  Go for it.  To qualify, post your entry on your blog or facebook profile with a link to this post – entries are due December 21st.

Right now students from my old fashion school are competing in a design challenge sponsored by Danier.  As a modern twist, their nerve-wracking design presentations are videoed and uploaded online for rating and commenting.  Watching these videos fills me with nostalgia, embarrassment and relief that I was not videotaped as a fashion student.  Fashion students have their own unique type of intensity, and the videos are a bit too revealing of the bathos of young fashion ambition.

Most of the designs do not live up to their breathless sales pitches.  The cliches of student design – too many snaps, too many zippers, too many buttons, fussy buckle closures, funnel necks, detachable pieces with no practical purpose, mismatching sleeves, restricted mobility for the wearer – are all there.  If you think I’m making fun – just wait until I show you some of my early “designs”.  There is a very good reason why I know what a fashion student effort looks like.  A few entries went above and beyond the rest though – here are four designers whose jackets piqued my interest.

John Hillifer (above) is not charismatic at the beginning, as he avoids making eye contact with the judge – but his conviction becomes apparent as he shows his design – it shows that he has thought of his design in three dimensions, it features a collar which looks terrific both open and closed, and a unique pocket concept including a hidden pocket.  All on a muslin with exceptional finish.  “Dark industrial” may not be very Danier and yet it is apparent that this designer will produce an excellent leather jacket.

Valerie Crisp was the only designer with the guts to go for less instead of more.  While in a muslin this jacket may seem slightly unconvincing, the remarkable restraint for a fashion student shows that she has a working understanding of the Danier brand – and a burgeoning sense of taste.

Monica Kisielewicz has that peculiar intensity to her presentation that is bordering on overwhelming, stating an obsession with status with remarkable candour.  Though her design borders on the obvious/clever interpretation of her inspiration – the zipper placket looks like a highway – it is saved by a sense of simplicity.

Eric Tong’s jacket is so of the moment, and the finish is very confident as was the designer’s presentation – it could have fit in very well in any FW09 runway show, but somehow seems a stretch for Danier.  But maybe a stretch in the right direction?

Right now all 15 finalists are hard at work on making the final leather version of their designs before Christmas.  I can’t wait to see the results.

Rolling back into town on the bus on Friday, I checked my old-school paper planner and remembered that R4 Fashion was on that night!  Lucky chance that I caught the early bus.

This is an image of a pretty dress on the best model of the night (work!) by designer Rachel Chan featuring recycled Coca-Cola cans.  For the full story of an amusing and unusual evening and a couple more pictures, check under the fold.

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The byline for next year’s Toronto Alternative Arts & Fashion Week is “made with love” – sounds familiar?  But knowing [FAT] it won’t be the usual kind of love. They’re seeking inventive designers and artists to participate.

TORONTO ALTERNATIVE ARTS AND FASHION WEEK – CALL 4 FASHION DESIGNERS, VISUAL ARTISTS, MUSICIANS

April 21-24 2010 marks the 5th anniversary edition of |FAT| Toronto Alternative Arts and Fashion Week. We are now accepting entries in Fashion Design – Photography – Video – Performance – Music – Installation Art for the 2010 event.

Entry Deadline: Dec.22/09

To Apply and Participate Visit:  www.getfat.ca

This is a great year to enter the TFI New Labels competition… thanks to Mattel the award now includes a $10,000 cash prize.  Besides the grand award, all four finalists in the New Labels competition get mentorship and advice from an impressive panel of industry insiders.  From the press release:

BARBIE® BRINGS HER FAMOUS FACE AND ICONIC STYLE TO THE TORONTO FASHION INCUBATOR

The Toronto Fashion Incubator (TFI) is getting all dolled-up with new event partner Barbie®. As model and muse, Barbie has inspired some of the top names in fashion and will now sponsor the highly anticipated TFI New Labels® Fashion Design Competition. Applications to enter the competition are available online commencing today at www.fashionincubator.com. Canadian women’s wear apparel designers with less than three years experience have until November 24, 2009 to enter New Labels®, now in its 17th year. The competition winner will be selected on Saturday, April 24th, 2010 at the ELLE Canada benefit fundraiser for TFI.  Guests will be surrounded by the splendour and glory of the 1930’s at the posh Carlu event venue in Toronto, to witness the conclusion of the six-month long design competition.

TFI New Labels® is a national design competition for apparel designers looking to make it in Canada’s fashion industry. This year, the challengers will be given the task of creating and presenting 15 looks, in which 3 of them will be little black dresses taken to new extremes and inspired by Barbie. Judged by some of the most influential people in the fashion industry today, the winner will be presented with a $10,000 cash prize provided by Mattel Canada as well as a prize package valued at over $25,000 provided by ELLE Canada.

Last night I got to watch The Style Box’s preview of the fashions we’ll see on the stage and red carpet of the Gemini Awards.  All of the models were Canadian actors, actresses, nominees and presenters, and they all looked very glamourous in Canadian fashions.

See a couple more photos below the fold.

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Today I saw the 2009 Cashmere bathroom tissue fashion collection presented on the runway.  I’d like to say it isn’t often that you see a dress made out of toilet paper – but with so many toilet paper dresses out there, it just isn’t true.  Considering how mature the toilet paper fashion industry is, I am glad to see that Canadian designers are still pushing the envelope and delivering new shapes and techniques for a fragile, if no longer unconventional, material.  And it is nice to see Kruger, who makes the Cashmere brand, supporting Canadian fashion as well as the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

Here are some of the more interesting dresses from the show – you can see the complete set of photos on my flickr if you’re interested.

Anastasia Lomonova from Montreal made what must have been hundreds of little rolls (sort of like roses) for a dress with a spectacular shape.

That’s not a dress, Greta Constantine, but it sure is freaking cool.  No, the panties were not made of toilet paper.

Kudos to curator Peter Papapetrou for selecting some under-the-radar designers from outside of Toronto.  I have never heard of Patrice Soku, who did this dress with a peculiar pointed bodice.  I guess it is about protecting breasts from cancer?

Calgary designer Paul Hardy’s designs always seem to me to have a “thrown-together-at-the-last-minute” look – of all the designs, his pantsuit looked the most haphazard and about-to-disintegrate.  Sometimes this signature style doesn’t work in Hardy’s favour, but in this case, visually his design stands apart from the rest in a way that is interesting.

Project Runway Canada winner Sunny Fong’s design was the most fragile-looking – in a spectacularly precise way.  Those careful cutouts look like they are about the be torn by a heel at every step but his stunning model kept his design intact, and looked incredible.  The bodice overlay appeared to have been laminated, which is a technique I haven’t seen used before on a toilet paper dress.

I am not familiar with Tavan & Mitto, they created a truly wearable looking parka (if this had been inserted in a regular fashion show I might have guessed it was actually cashmere).  They were also the only designers who did not use the pink accents.

Farley Chatto, who has made a name for himself creating one-offs for corporations instead of collections, delivered the showstopper of the afternoon.  The level of execution on every detail of this complex dress is tremendous.

Thanks so much to Michelle and Ashley at Shopgirls for allowing me drop in and take a few photos of the Walk the Walk fashion show event in support of Windfall, a terrific charity that provides new clothing for those in need.

What was different about this fashion show was that all the models are clients of Shopgirls and personal stylist Wendy Woods of the ReFINEry.  Wendy even gave a commentary during the show describing each woman’s personality and the styling process for assembling each outfit. The models were all different ages, sizes, careers and characters – and the diversity of the looks reflected that.  Some were a little shy but they all looked beautiful and it was apparent they were enjoying themselves.

See a few more photos below the fold.

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My good friend Gail Mcinnes and her bestie Amanda Brugel launched their new venture, The Style Box, last week with a very intimate fashion show event and cocktail.  It was also the inaugural event for brand-new (and internet savvy) PR outfit Knot PR.  Of course all of these ladies are total pros with tons of experience, so for a first event it was impressive and assured.

The Style Box’s mandate is to bring together entertainment and fashion folks in Toronto to create a more mutually supportive scene.  Buzz is the bottom line – and if a front row full of assorted media and accessorized muses is any indication, the Box delivers.

Here are a few of my “arty” (ok, unprofessional) photos… for some really stellar shots (including ones of me) check out the ones Raymund Galsim took for knot PR and the ones Paul Baik took for I want – I got.

Getting a big welcome smile from Gail… she looks so saucy in her Fashion Crimes dress.

Gail and Amanda informally (and a little giddily) introduce the fashion show.

A model strikes a contrived pose in a Brazen Hussy sequinned number.

Little black and white cupcakes by Cake or Death.  Beware the black ones if you’re smiling for the photographers later!

Anita of I want – I got in a yellow Starkers! corset does a television interview.