Canada, The Undisclosed Fashion Hotbed
One of the great privileges of my job is getting to be part of an incredible creative industry, and twice a year the world comes to London to celebrate the beauty of joy and brilliance of fashion with us. This season I’ve felt an odd gap, usually my fashion week is packed full of shows, meetings and events that are social as much as work, but something was nagging at me, I really missed the event thats sits as the true start of my Fashion week, a trip to the Canadian embassy for Showroom Canada and the best of the Toronto Fashion Incubator.
There is a thought that fashion is all about 4 cities, that they hold the keys to the castle, it’s all smoke and mirrors, fashion is global, it’s something that belongs to the world not individuals, and as TFI Executive Director Susan Langdon weaves through the crowd introducing us to the exhibitors at each season we get a timely reminder that brilliance goes beyond geography, talent is talent, and it’s borderless.
For instance who could deny the brilliance of TFI resident Sid Neigum and his use of geometry to produce statement pieces that stop crowds, who could suggest that Kuwalla Tee haven’t nailed streetwear, or Shelli Oh isn’t producing brilliant garments. The joy of incubators is that they nurture talent, they deliver generation after generation of talent to an system that sometimes struggles to embrace the concept of longevity in an industry of the instant.
Offering designers a space to develop their businesses supported by industry leading advisors and mentors has kept Canadian fashion growing, and while don’t miss the cold of a fashion week night in February, I do miss the warmth of the people inside and the hot hot looks they bring on the plane.
The event may be cancelled physically this season but like all love affairs, this is merely a wait for me to return, and we’ll see you guys soon.
By Ross Pollard Emerging Designers Fashion Editor
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