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Last week was Startup Fashion Week, a fashion week meant to empower the next generation of designers and fashion tech makers. Founded by Jodi Goodfellow, SFW differentiates itself as a cross city designers fashion week, with a focus on the ones in the hosting city, allowing them to present full or capsule collections with fewer pieces, which is ideal for fairly new designers without full collections in their portfolio yet. SFW started with a kickoff party at Old Montreal’s marché des éclusiers near the water where attendees were invited to connect and network with fashion talents, the media, industry players and the SFW crew. There were also conferences and talks the following days through The Gender & Fashion Forum and the Business of Fashion Conference.
Held at the C2 Space of the Fairmount Reine Elizabeth, the runway show, open to the public, kicked off with an alumni from last year’s SFW edition Emy Armor, the edgy accessory designer from Montreal. I particularly loved her shoulder chains, shoulder fabric covers and body belts positioned at different unusual places. Atelier Melia followed, opening the mini collections runway shows and presenting vibrant ready to wear hues for everyday looks. Then, Pair glove went where not many glove makers dared to go, beyond artistic design: unusual cuts, lines and zipper placements. This brand is like an upped and refined game of the biker glove. As we were soaking in what we had just seen, ShapeOn came in, creatively showcasing their shapewear. The stylist did a great job at picking outfits that, at the same time featured and blended in with the shapewear. My amazement peaked as entered the scene Samira Dossani, the bespoke women suiting and work attire designer. Her classy models conveyed a strong statement on the runway carving women confidence all over it with their statement professional pieces, extra long pony tails and the matching music. There was even a cameo of Jodi Goodfellow, the executive producer of SFW, as a model. Next, Entin Gartini brought a winning combination of modest fashion, stylishness and coolness to the runway with her fun colorful fabrics and layering, classily styled with chic fabric matching accessories. I had seen pictures of the designer’s work prior to SFW, but I have to admit the pictures I had seen did not do justice to what I have seen on the runway. Another amazement peak happened as I got to witness a pretty cool thing on SFW’s runway like Wicked Mmm’s lacy handmade lingerie for people with packages, with some matching sets for ladies. This is pretty amazing in terms of fashion inclusiveness and norm smashing.
During the second part of the fashion show, the full collections took the runway starting with Beri, the swim and chill wear showcasing art through red/cyan anaglyph technology that is quite interesting to look at, at first without the 3D glasses, and even more interesting with the glasses. Their collections also include eyewear. The second full collections designer, Jonia Antoine was like a funky flirty sister to Samira Dossani with silky fabrics, cropped and short cuts and slits and camo style fabrics. As a Canadian fashion week stamp, Furlux almost made us wish it was winter so we could wear the stylish coats and accessories they had to show us. What caught my attention about this ethical brand was their use and combinations of materials such as cashmere, alpaca, leather and fur, the bold colors and the creativity in details like a reversible cream coat and a mustard yellow coat with a fashionable tie à la Gossip Girl. Closing the runway, Helen Oro Design served the audience the perfect ending with an energized set of bright fluo accessories inspired by her traditional First Nation roots. From mouth to full face accessories, visor sunglasses and fringed necklaces.
On the tech side of things, there were presentations from Tech Nomad and Teqmarq. Teqmarq’s Tap2Tag wearable tech helps people connect with others with a device in the form of a watch per example. The person decides what information is shared and saved on her online account, she can even imbed videos and upload files. These devices are commercialized in the business, medical and pet fields. Tech Nomad is another technology that is integrated to clothing as a fashion, active or workwear add on. It illuminates and changes colors based on voice command or gesture recognition, it also has a auto light detection feature. It can be used as a safety or lifestyle feature.
Sponsors & Partners
Host: Bianca Simard, Fashion Contributor at Style Canada.
Official Red Carpet Correspondent: Jay Chevery.
Media Production: RA Enterprise.
Hair Sponsors: BLOME Salon.
Makeup Sponsor: Rachel Shultz Cosmetiques.
Spray Tan Sponsor: House Of 24 Aesthetics.
PR Sponsor: Fash PR.
Afterparty Sponsor: Connectwear 2019 – Teqmarq.
Flower Sponsor: Boîte à Fleurs Mtl.
Photo Credits
