The Vancouver Fashion Festival #VIFFS19 Was Inspirational!

Writing by Colleen Tsoukalas and photos by Dianna Drahanchuk

This is David Chen's fifth Vancouver Fashion Festival (IPOP Canada) and his first at The Vancouver Club. An iconic setting, wonderful catering and welcome, cocktail party and meet and greet, gave us all a chance to take photos, go behind the scene to watch the set up, and be entertained by Junko Shimizu's beautiful voice, accompanied by David's daughter, Sofy Chen, on piano. David always participates in his shows, this time wearing costumes by Yayoi Hirano, in fact Yayoi Hirano, Eri MacGregor and Fumiko Horan collaborated on a whole collection entitled Japanese Kimono, which included Kimono, Masks, Costume and performance. Floral headpieces and floral accessories, a spectacular runway vision as well as a demonstration of the construction of a headpiece, all by Hikaru Seino Canon. This was a Fashion and Art event that was an excellent mix of cultures and a true celebration of the work of established and emerging designers. What a treat to see fashions by VCAD (Visual College of Art and Design) Vendredi by Emily Shaninzadeh, Lantern Collection by Noushin Sahebnassagh, Genita Mujar, Dvita by Jade Walker and Gundula Hirn. Also loved the colourful designs for Fashion Voice by Ozioma Ajibe.

This event was well attended (full house) and I was pleased to see so many Vancouver Fashion writers, Photographers, (Mando Nakamura is pictured here) and Fashion Design Program supporters, bringing their voices and sharing on Social Media, to tell others to put this event on their calendars. Ivan Sayers, well known Fashion Historian and Collector was in the house and was photographed by visiting Photographer from L.A., Arezoo Jalali. Since David's event supports new talent and achievement, it was lovely to meet Face of Beauty International, Arshan Masjoudi, and hear about her success, despite many challenges.

I really enjoy wearing clothing and accessories by local Designers and for Vancouver Fashion Festival, I wore a wrap by Wendy Van Riesen of Dahlia Drive, featuring the Raven by Reg Davidson. One of the best experiences through the Vancouver Fashion Festival is to be an active participant and everyone is very welcome to do this. Thank you David Chen, founder and producer! Always such a pleasure! Thanks once again to Dianna Drahanchuk for her company and her photographs!

David Chen. Producer of VIFFSS19 and Ivan Sayers, 

Fashion Historian and Collector of Fashion and Accessories from 1700-1975.

Crafted Vancouver - Made From Scraps: Volume 1

Photos and writing by Dianna Drahanchuk

This first thing one sees upon entering SPACE, in place of honour, is a 12 foot long portrait of Art Paul woven from deconstructed wood and nylon cord, a creation by bead worker Angie Adair. Art’s business was to turn and prepare large scale logs for building construction and also for First Nations totem poles as an example. Some of the wood used in the show are offcuts from his projects. Other wood used in the exhibit came from the left overs reclaimed from deconstructed old Vancouver houses and salvaged from furniture projects.

Nearby is a beautiful black and white twin set of laser engraved spray painted 800 year old red cedar plaques by lettering artist Brother Jopa. For this work he invented his own script that was inspired by the Rosetta Stone. Playfully hanging overhead is an oversize mobile by jewelry maker Marie Foxall that incorporates abalone, spruce, lucite, brass and cord, a “supersized” adaptation of her typical craft. An 8 foot diameter circle of 900 year old Douglas fir, originally a block 4 feet thick, was retrieved from the Museum of Vancouver archives. By necessity, industrial designer Logan Gilday figured out a way to get it through the doors by prying open and leaving the natural cracks in the wood on display.

Patrick Christie, the exhibit’s producer and maker of the “Made from Scraps” sign, explained that the idea for the show was to bring together artists, designers and craftspeople who do not traditionally work with a certain material to collaborate across a variety of disciplines and to find practical and creative uses for a featured “scrap” material, in this case wood.  Seventy individuals were invited to participate, 40 responded within 24 hours. 

This is intended to be an ongoing series of events and with the enthusiasm shown by the contributors for this one, I can’t wait for the next micro challenge which will be to make something out of discarded “blue jeans”.