Vancouver Fashion Week SS21 Virtually

Written by Colleen Tsoukalas

Photos by George Pimentel

This season, we watched Vancouver Fashion Week, online, October 24th and 25th, from 3:30-5:30. We knew it was coming, and after lots of street fashion photography heads up, the schedule was up! The introduction featured a behind the scenes look at hair and make-up and runway previews. Catchy and quick, it invited watchers directly into an efficient schedule of seven designers: Marisa P. Clark, FAUN, Jordan Kendrick, JK Designs, Libere, Naked, Sabina Low: Sabina Low Official, Jae Smane; Jaesmane, John Pfaff; Skip Floa. Designers presented a video and then their runway collection, with a 15 minute interval between shows. 

I found the Vancouver Fashion Week Designer write-ups informative and the videos showed the range of each collection. Without these, the runways would only be part of the whole story of the inspiration, cultural background, training and focus of Designers and their work. Even more background for the shows, is provided by writer, Marilyn R. Wilson as she interviewed many. I look forward, too, to the analyses of Andrew Jackson. Both of them, as Media, attended the taping of the shows, Oct. 24th, in an almost empty, carefully socially distanced space. So thanks to them for always being there. I miss their voices and all of the other conversations that happen during Fashion Week as we knew it over so many seasons.

Here are my impressions of the shows. I encourage you to look at the websites and instagram for more details and purchase information. I saw a lot of red and orange and can see myself in one of each. Lots of interesting jackets, tees and hoodies. Braids, studs, cutouts, patches, straps, streetwear, workwear, informal and formal. Colour and energy, what more?

First up was Faun Studio by Calgary based Marisa P. Clark. Fresh, sunny yellows and bright whites, masks matched the outfits, silky material made casual, ready to wear, look luxurious. A variety of pants and a stunning jumpsuit were favourites. Loved the fit and elegance of this collection. Marissa's mom, a seamstress in Viet Nam, taught her to sew early. She retains her connection to Viet Nam by partnering with a Production Company there, to ensure sustainable fabric and practice. 

JK Designs by Jordan Kenrick was prefaced with a fantastic video. Lively, fast paced and great music! The jewel tones, especially dark pink colours were favourites. I liked the jumpsuit and a white, off the shoulder dress. This is a made to measure collection and the fit of each piece attests to that. Pacific Northwest Luxury, imagine. Much needed during this time of at home casual. More at 

Jae Esmane of Jaesmane is from the Philippines but Vancouver based, now and a Grad of VCAD, here, 2017. A classically trained pattern drafter, he is interested in shape and form. But he takes his inspiration from everything: Art, Architecture, History, Techno Culture and more. Designing for men and women, his matched shirt and short sets are cool as are his dresses and scarves. Loved the asymmetric dress with cutout detail and the orange vinyl ruffle dress. Great colour and style. 

Vancouver based Designer Rain Secil Turhan is the Designer of Naked, a collection reflecting the search for inner balance and acceptance and the push for self expression. It is a statement collection with its black studs and vinyl. Though the videos music was quiet, this is not a quiet collection with its strong blacks, transparent vinyl and powerful reds. It is layers: masked, skin and blood, protected but pulsing. I liked the reds, best. This is a collection of hand made sustainable pieces that come directly from her to you. Rain grew up in Turkey and Canada, which brings language and journey, fitting in yet expressing creative individuality, all to the common mix that is Fashion. 

Sabina Low is a 17 year old Vancouver Designer who showed her first public collection. Designed and produced here, this collection is colourful and young. I loved the orange sundress with belts as straps. The fabrics are silky and luxurious looking. I like the white, off the shoulder dress as well as a long, hooded blue one. For next Spring and Summer, you will want this line.

Libere Official features street style clothing for men and women. I liked the hoodies, cargo pants with straps, and the wide variety of jackets. Arty T-shirts catch the eye. The brand inspiration: LIBERE =REBORN (LOTUS) in black and white pattern on tops and pants, was really different. Saw some bags and would have liked to have seen a group of them on the runway to be picked up and carried on the walk back. 

John Pfaff''s Collection, Skip Floa has a wonderful variety of jackets, especially! I liked the black with coloured panels and a longer one, worn over pants. Many of the outfits featured patches of different colours. Skip means, literally to skip along, like kids do, and the models seemed to impart this feeling as they walked the runway. Floa means love of animals and John supports many charities for them. Miss Teen Canada 2020, Keena Klee and Miss Canada 2020, Bremiella de Gusman looked fantastic in their dresses, one an orange dress with floral panels and the other in orange and yellow. Bri Lina Shuang Zheng and Myriam Callot also brought the designs to life. Sunshine and new looks for these times.

Thanks again Vancouver Fashion Week for bringing the shows back, safely and with lots of  Design! Thanks Kate Mullen, Public Relations and Media Manager, VFW!

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig and The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel: Brief Escapes and Glad to Be Home Again

Written by Treasure Seeker Colleen

My days during COVID 19, seem to revolve around escape; I escaped to events like Art Vancouver, Art Downtown, and Vancouver Mural Fest, this summer, and now. As I visit a friend in South Granville, I walk to Granville Island to the new bookstore, Upstart & Crow, where I bought two books. whose titles: "The Midnight Library" and "The Glass Hotel" are places I have enjoyed escaping into. Imagine visiting a library where you could choose books that take you to lives you might have lived. And, if I were visiting the remote, rainy dark forests of Vancouver Island, especially around Port Hardy, I would be very intrigued by a sparkling Glass Hotel, accessible by boat only, and a destination for the rich. I know you are going to ask me where Fashion comes into my reading. I always imagine what the characters look like and what they are wearing. Because Vancouver Fashion Week has provided so many opportunities to see the work of local and international Designers, I remember the sets and runway shows and imagine how these might bring a book to a stage or movie. Having been so fortunate to bring Student Designers/Illustrators to Vancouver Fashion Week, keeps me thinking about new fashion perspectives for now and for the future. Here are Student Illustrators at VFW, not so long ago here.

Matt Haig, an award winning British author, introduces Nora Seed, who has great potential but has realized none of it and now, contemplating the end to a life of regret and unfulfilling routines, has a chance to look at how paths she now regrets not taking, might not have worked out as perfectly as she imagined. Although she wants her guide, a librarian from her high school days, to help her choose the book of her best life, she has to make the choice to make the life she really wants. For me, this was a longer read, one that took the same kind of persistence that watching the movie "Groundhog Day", took. I can easily envision Fashion Program students at any one of our wonderful fashion schools, taking on illustrations and outfits for each of Nora's incarnations: Olympic Swimmer, lead singer in a rock band, and many other ideal lives, none of which are her ideal until she chooses her own way to live her best life. I can imagine how they would bring fresh ideas to dressing the librarian, too, being mindful of stereotyping the job of librarian and her age. Our iconic Vancouver Public Library main branch would be the perfect setting for magic and transformation. I think Carolyn Bruce could easily design some symbolic book jackets and book marks and her steampunk/skull jewelry, especially brooches, and necklaces might enhance the magic and mystery of the characters and the setting. Here is Carolyn Bruce's staging and jewelry on stage.  Matt Haig's writing takes readers to new places.  So the subtitle on the cover page: One library. Infinite Lives, sums this one up, nicely. In 2020, there is a way out. More at www.matthaig.com

Emily St. John is Canadian and her latest, The Glass Hotel, is situated on Vancouver Island, and also in Toronto,  and NYC, although the lead character, a wealthy New York Investment Businessman and hotel owner, Jonathan Alkaitis, works and has multiple residences all over the world. He is a confident, charmer, who offers Vincent, a beautiful bartender, a chance to join him in a life free of ever worrying about money, again. But there are hints of trouble from the beginning. Vincent, whose favourite quote, etched by her into a window of her high school, is: "Sweep me up!" And she is swept into Jonathan's Gatsby like world, where he never takes responsibility for the financial destruction of everyone's lives. A second quote, sketched by her older brother, another lost soul,  on the lobby window of the hotel, "Why don't you swallow broken glass", is intended for Jonathan, but of course, he doesn't see it and avoids the threat. As St. John describes: "He carried himself with the tedious confidence of all people with money, that breezy assumption that no serious harm could come to him." So this is a story of being vulnerable, for many reasons: death of a parent, divorce, abandonment, poverty, to list a few reasons, and consequently being swept up and into addiction, ambition, greed, irresponsibility, and poor choices. One story becomes many lives that go well for a while and then end in catastrophe. And not only that, but there are ghosts and the dead are always there. They appear on the dance floor, on a ship, in a jail cell, a dreadful reminder of bad deeds done. In the end, the hotel is still there, empty except for the caretaker who will never trust another human again, and just wants to look after the glass hotel. This is another complex read, one that made me ask if there was any hope for any of the characters.  However, there is retribution and that counts for something. Great writing and I would visit that hotel; imagine a glass and cedar monument to brighten, "...the forest outside (that) seemed mostly dark, the shadows dense and freighted with menace." We have so many special, local Designers who could easily dress and stage a show of "The Glass Hotel". As I was reading, I thought of Shelley Klassen and her store, Blushing Boutique, as a setting for Vincent's shopping on 5th Avenue, NYC. Giovanna Ricci's elegant designs would be great for Vincent's work at the exclusive hotel, and for her daily shopping expeditions with other rich friends, and Sam Stringer's evening dresses, maybe some green/blue translucent fabrics for that sea (swept away) connection or gold, for the story of money. For the ghosts, well, Evan Clayton could certainly create vivid, dynamic designs and sets that would compel one to look and remember and be afraid, be very afraid. After all, ghosts do haunt for a reason. 

Two award winners and days of escape from here to there! A reminder that Fashion is the vision that brings story to life.