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.

Heads up fashion students – fabric wholesaler TÉLIO is once again sponsoring a Canada-wide fashion design competition for some serious scholarship money, plus 25 finalists get a show at Montreal Fashion Week (including travel expenses).

Toronto, August 18, 2009 – On the basis of last year’s highly successful national Design Competition, TÉLIO, one of North America’s leading import/export and distribution companies, with textiles that are at the cutting edge of fashion, will offer students across the country the chance to participate once again in its 2^nd annual competition. In maintaining its commitment to supporting up-and-coming design talent in Canada, TÉLIO will award students five scholarships totalling $10,000 during an exclusive collective fashion show presented during Montreal Fashion Week on March 4, 2010 at 7: 00pm.

Fritz Helder and the Phantoms are coming out with their album, Greatest Hits, on July 7.  Right now you can listen to their single “Lagerfeld Lady” straight up or remixed on their site.

The Helders are on the Gaga route to stardom for sure.  There is a lot to love about this band – the outfits, the art, the music – but what really wins me over is their strong sense of community.  Like Nelly Furtado (who just signed them to her label), the Helders love to wear Canadian.  They celebrate the creativity of all their talented fashion designer friends, and Fashion Cares, with their new project, PLATINUM.

Combining their loves of music, art and fashion, FH&TP have teamed up with Fashion Cares, ACT and 10 very talented designers to create SPECIAL EDITION/ ONE OF  A KIND Fritz Helder & The Phantoms concert merchandise that will be SOLD ONLINE in part  to celebrate the release of their upcoming album, “Greatest Hits: Platinum Edition” on newly formed label, NELSTAR Music.

Proceeds from the sales of the limited edition designs will go to Fashion Cares / ACT!

Amazing photos of all the designs here.  Love the high-fashion spin on merch.  Love how these rising stars are also raising the profile of Canadian fashion designers and supporting such a tremendous charity.

It took me a while, but I finally learned who the illustrator of the “Show Love” campaign for LG Fashion Week is – Andrea Stajan-Ferkul.  I love the lightness and the movement of this illustration – simple and yet spontaneous, it is a classic fashion illustration.  It was displayed everywhere in the tents – including a very cool animated graphic projected on the background of the runway between shows.

I asked Andrea about how she did the illustration:

I was asked to create a loose drawing (with no detail) of a woman walking up a runway.  I began with a more detailed drawing to get the basic proportions; much of the work is done in this preliminary stage.  I cleaned up the drawing in the second draft – then in the third, I eliminated the detail, creating a simplified version by using loose and spontaneous strokes.

I had the great pleasure to meet Andrea in person and talked about her career – she worked at Simpsons in the 1980s doing graphic design.  It seems so incredibly distant a time – back then they did graphic design by hand, and now there is no such thing as Simpsons (it was a department store).  Are there even any in-house art departments left? It was fascinating to talk to her about the business and craft of fashion illustration – there are so few working fashion illustrators in Toronto, I love the rare opportunity to talk shop.

Now Andrea focuses more on fine art and exhibitions – you can see more of her lovely work on her portfolio website.

Check out this amazing party for Worn Journal, the Bata Shoe Museum and Fashion Cares.  All the info – and a few pictures of terrific shoes customized by amazing artists – is here and you are invited.

They asked me to customize a pair of Keds too.  Here they are – top picture courtesy of Worn Journal, the rest are mine and if you click them you can see them even bigger.  These Keds will be on the auction block for a great cause at a great party.  I hope to reveal how I did them at the party, so if you are curious (or want to make a bid), please come up and say hi on June 6th.

After seeing 30 plus shows at [FAT], I got to see four more at the TFI New Labels Gala show.  It was held in the Carlu, and this is what the runway looked like before the show.

While all the gala-goers were eating their dinner, I checked out the tail end of the ELLE Show.  I got to try the YSL Touche Eclat, which I am told is their best selling product and really does give a brightness to the eyes.

There was a silent auction going on with lots of fancy things in a room overlooking Yonge Street.

Rapp Optical had a booth at the show too and they let me try on some of their locally made artisan frames.  Rapp does really cool, eccentric glasses with loads of character.

The show was hosted by Anne-Marie Mediwake, who is an anchor at Global News.  She looked so beautiful in a David Dixon dress.  Before each designer showed, they did an interview on the runway – here is Sonja den Elzen of Thieves being interviewed.

The questions asked included one about which international designers they admired (three out of four designers said Rick Owens, his recent media blitz must be working well), and another about what they would be if they weren’t fashion designers.  The latter is a bit of a bitter-sweet question I think.  It was obviously a great challenge for the designers to be interviewed on the runway but it was also an interesting way to learn a bit more about them.

I didn’t do a lot of shooting of the outfits but caught a few details, including the ruched tights in the nomadic, tundra inspired Thieves collection.

Here you can see the TFI’s Susan Langdon and the judges watching Jody Leigh‘s World War Two inspired collection.

Gushue Swim opened with some Rio-style carnival girls dancing on the stage.  It was fun and bright and gaudy which contrasted with the subdued colours and classic shapes of the swimwear.

Ideally you should get to see all the outfits for yourself.  You can see more (and better) pictures here and here.

At the end of the night, Rita Silvan, editor of ELLE Canada, announced the winning collection – Faren Tami for her futuristic, confident line with its distinctive draped shapes and deep blue colour with yellow accents.  Congratulations to all the finalists and the TFI for a terrific show.