Olivier Theyskens burst on to the fashion scene around the time I started covering it – in 1998. He was moody and dark, romantic and feminine, and I quickly became a fan. A true talent, he was hired to design the Rochas line, Nina Ricci and then Theory, which put me over the moon as [...]
In the runup to Fashion Preview, a three-day showcase of Montreal labels, I asked: Is this the new fashion week? Well, it is trying hard, but there was not enough exciting content for a three-day event. First, on the negative side, everything was slow, excruciatingly so. When Fashion Preview launched six seasons ago, it was [...]
The Festival Mode & Design, the annual celebration of fashion on the street for the people, came to a close Saturday night. There was something for everybody in this 16th edition – 20 conferences from lofty names like Hervé (Leger) Leroux, Scott Schuman and Charlie Le Mindu, catwalk shows from our high street brands – [...]
I’m back! For two weeks and counting, my online activity involved posting pictures of sunsets on Lake Champlain, checking the weather and GPS routing. And maybe a touch of Facebook and Instagram trawling. Now the countdown is on to the Festival Mode & Design, Aug. 15-20, when fashion takes its place at the Quartier des [...]
One year later, we are sitting in another impressive sunlit atrium of another Montreal fashion force. Again, fashion insiders – designers, manufacturers, executives, teachers and interested parties – are out in the hundreds to try to revive an industry in turmoil. The occasion is the first annual meeting of the mmode “grappe,” or cluster, a [...]