Dualité

Ok, I guess that’s a bit harsh to say that there are upcoming sales on the calendar, but as you can imagine, I have no doubt that retailers will want to make up for their sinking profits this year.

Au Coeur De La Mode Nov 16th, 2008

This fashion charity event will hold its bi-annual sale at Palais Des Congres, where the $5 entrance fee will be donated to the AIDS Foundation. Once again local brands will hoist up theirs goods with prices slashed above 50% off. You’ll find a good mix of local and popular European brands like Miss Sixty and Horst. It’s a huge sales floor, so you can be there for hours.

Ogilvy en rose Nov 19th, 2008

This yearly charity fashion event will be hosted at Ogilvy on Ste-Catherine promising schmoozing and entertainment, as well as a 15% discount (in essence, sans taxes) on items sold on the floor. There will be of course a fashion show, some local celebrities, and a contest to win some prizes. Tickets are steep, $100 each. Funds raised will go to the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation.

Winners all year round

What can I say, this place is always on sale.

It’s no doubt that if the shrinking confidence consumers continue on, there are strong chances stores may close all together. Following lay offs in all corners of the market, one has to wonder who will be hit next. Even NRDC, owner of the recently acquired The Hudson Bay Company, will have to face some serious challenges in this dreary economic climate. On CNNMoney.com, Lord & Taylor recently replaced their CEO with a Neiman Marcus executive as they all brace for one of the worst holiday seasons in recent years. Bad economies could put the Hudson Bay Co. at risk of suffering more loses and reputation despite of their recent buyout.

Timing is of essence in business, and there are no worse timings than J. Crew’s recent store opening of their brand new high end store. Ouch. Let’s just hope Millard Drexler, responsible for launching The Gap into stardom in the 90s, knows how to weather this nasty financial storm.

Let’s just say – thank god for blogs!

The shuffling of the cattle (me and the public) and disorganization at MFW hasn’t changed since last season. It’s amazing how such a large number of people like to consider themselves ultra important therefore are allowed to cut in line and act like the prima donnas that they are. Learning from previous seasons, I repeated “patience is a virtue” to myself as I inched along to my awaited seat.

Andy The-Anh’s show was delayed 30 mins due to crowd mismanagement, but everything was cool once we filtered into the showroom. I was seated near the backstage, up on the last row in the bleachers. MFW figured out that bleacher seats were prime and labeled an entire section as “VIP”. I was not VIP, I was just able to sneak into VIP (nobody really checks except the front row).

As mentioned previously, the show is to raise funds for the Breast Cancer Society. Now, I have nothing against raising funds for cancer, but I do have a problem in trying to associate a fashion show with morose poetry reading. My only question is…with all the money the Breast Cancer Foundation receives every year, wouldn’t you think they would’ve found a cure by now? Or are the money grubbing pharmaceuticals really just jerking our chains in saying there isn’t a cure for cancer? That’s for another blog….

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MFW officially kicks off Oct 13th with Aqua Di Lara at Koko Restaurant at the Opus Hotel, corner Sherbrooke and St-Laurent. Though most of the shows are for industry people only, MFW has made available two shows where you can buy tickets to attend.

La Diva

Laboratoire Creatif is a union of over 100 local designers who share the same facilities to confect their creations. This season they will be collaborating to raise funds for women living with breast cancer. The show will happen Oct 16th at 7pm at Marche Bonsecours.

Tickets are $30 and can be purchased at Admission.com, type in “La Diva” in the search engine.

Glamour

Andy The-Anh will be showcasing his Spring collection at MFW for an event called “Glamour” where all profits will be donated to the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation.

**Edit** The date for Andy’s show is Oct 14th at 9pm at Marche Bonsecours.

Regular tickets are $25 which will allow you to see the new collection and a chance to win a raffle

VIP tickets are $150 which will guarantee you a reserved seating inside the the runway show, a complimentary brooch by Andy-The Anh, admission to their private cocktail hour and a chance to win the raffle.

I know I said I wasn’t going to go to MFW, which is sort of true. I’ll actually be attending only this show and no one else’s since I’ve never seen Andy’s runway show and I might as well see one. I’ll be seated up in the back bleachers (where they have the best view after the front row seats, anywhere else has a pretty craptacular view).

Fall is just coming around the corner everyone, and you know what that means: fashion week madness for a month and a half. Of course as a small time blogger, one can only count to be so lucky to attend a local fashion week at all. Those who are full time fashion journalist get to do the merry-go-round the globe in four (sometimes five) different countries: New York, Milan, London, Paris and Tokyo.

On our Canadian end, we have Montreal, L’Oreal (Toronto), and Vancouver Fashion Weeks – no surprise here. The obvious difference between say NY Fashion Week and one of ours is the scale and size of the shows. NY has approximately over 70 designers last I counted, while as MFW had like – 12 designers to showcase. Also, I’ve noticed that the Canadian designers seem to showcase more so on functionality than full on glamour like the rest of the world. On one hand, this is good for buyers who own small boutiques and want to get past the flashing in fashion and get down to saleability. We’re also in an economically advantageous status as the US economy keeps going down the drain, American buyers are less likely to pick the more expensive European brands and might even give a break to local Canadian talent because – well, they’re cheaper, I’m afraid to say.

Tickets to Attend Fashion Week

This seems to be relatively new to the scene of L’Oreal and MFW for a couple of years. Both websites have posted possibilities to buy tickets to see fashion shows, unprecedented a few years ago as fashion week is usually a very restricted “media and professionals only” circle. My guess is that there are two reasons for it:

1. Because Canadian Fashion Weeks aren’t as popular, media and buyers don’t fill up the entire seating chart of many shows. This I can attest, when there are smaller, unknown brands showcasing, it’s sad to see these seats half filled. Selling tickets will fill those seats and will generate extra income in the process.
2. Fashion is a hot commodity thanks to magazines, reality shows, websites and blogs. The instantaneous 24/7 fashion wire can’t even compare to the “real deal” experience of a real fashion show. Going to one of these things is like going to see a concert of your favorite band, nothing compares to the real thing. Organizers know this, and they will play that card this year.

The big guns over at NY, London, Milan and Paris don’t need to sell tickets because people are just fighting to even have rights to get in in the first place. Everyone is just dying to see these shows, and bless the lucky souls who know others in the business to attend these prestigious fashion shows, they are something else all together.

This blogger is staying home this year

While the chances of bloggers attending fashion shows and events have risen over the last couple of years, fashion week is still a little out of our reach. But this may now slowly change with the likes of Inside The Tents making an initiative in helping bloggers get to these events. I’ve already attended 2 MFWs and quite frankly don’t think I’ll miss it much since I won’t be attending this year. It’s long hours, crowded, expensive (the food), and all too much brouhaha for a 20 minute show. I’ve only enjoyed 2-3 collections but there really isn’t much to say about them except describing their looks. That’s all what fashion week is about – describing a collection. 95% of the time it’s “fabulous” and a season’s “must-have”. We’re not really told why certain designers didn’t showcase this year or last year, most of the time it’s due to money constraints as they can’t afford to show at fashion week. Plus it’s a hassle to drag the numerous (useless) swag they give you, what am I to do with a plastic martini shaker and made-by-crocs shoes that don’t fit?

I suppose it’s another story if I were to go to the bigger venues since the usual suspects usually turn out more interesting pieces for show. I’d be happy to just attend one of each of the big shows just once in my life and I’d be happy enough.

I’ll be watching MFW from the comfort of my own home, in pajamas, lying on my couch with my laptop with pepsi and chips. Now that’s luxe.

So the DJab special event at Simons was Saturday. I passed by to have a look at what was on display. They’ve actually cleared a small patch of retail space in the men’s section to make way for a color changing DJ booth, flanked by two sets of painted canvases.

On one side you had a couple of the artists painting a replica of their printed t-shirt version, on the other there were outlined illustrations in black and white. The curious (including myself) were invited to actually color in the illustrations with paint markers of flashy purple, pink and blue colors. I participated in coloring one of the flowers on the panda filled canvas (subliminal message that Dahlia is a flower). It was fun, silly and interactive.

I bought the DJab CD because I digged the sound and took a few photos. It wasn’t particularly a party per se, but it did attract curious onlookers to check it out. They were also selling all sorts of DJ-related goods like headphones and more listening stations on the inside of the store.

Not sure if the guys digged the t-shirts since it was too early to say if the event was a success, however it did make for an interesting shopping day.

Saturday Aug. 30th, there’ll be an event thrown by Simons at two of their locations, the one on downtown Ste-Catherine and the other at Ste-Foy. The event calls for a DJ spinning some special tracks and live painting from local artists. The party is actually hosted by DJab, a street clothing line for men being exclusively sold at Simons for the occasion.

If you’ve passed by Simons, there’s actually a listening station outside the store where you can preview the compilation album called “I See The Light” that will be sold for the event. From my impression, it’s one of those electro 80s inspired albums, which isn’t too shabby to listen to on a Sunday morning to pump you up in the morning.

While H&M may have had Lindsay Lohan’s girlfriend spin at the opening of the downtown store, it’s an interesting coincidence that Simons will collaborate with musical and street artists with much fanfare for a new collection they’ve just acquired. It’s especially notable that this is all for the men’s collection, which often gets overlooked and rarely receives any attention from the media. For a department store, Simons has done everything to keep its inventory fresh, exclusive and young, pushing past the traditional boundaries of department stores and really turning it into a fun shopping experience.

We can see that music is increasingly sharing the spotlight with fashion, which really has always been the case since the inception of popular music. We can associate music and looks with the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. Music has really caught the eye of fashion.

Expect the party to go down at Simons from 12pm to 4pm on Saturday, I’ll be there to take in the scene and take pictures.

If there’s one thing I love about the fashion industry are the fashion shows. It’s fun, it’s exciting, you get free swag, the atmosphere is engaging, and it’s more fun when it’s people you know who invite you to these fun events.

Unfortunately I had to turn down one of these events since I’m simultaneously involved in the local Japanese cultural side of things.

However, if you want to attend the event, feel free to go! The event I’m missing is a fashion show thrown by “Only” a Danish Denim brand at the Miss Swiss boutique on St-Denis, Aug. 13th @ 6pm. You can have a taste of what their clothing looks like by watching their videos on their website.

Here’s what’s written on the Facebook event page:

Hello everyone!

Danish female denim brand ONLY will present a new Fall 2008 collection at the Miss Swiss boutique on Wednesday August 13, 2008 at 4271 Rue Saint Denis. The highly anticipated fashion show will start at 6:00 p.m. The concept of the fashion show is inspired by nature and the latest trend of being environmentally responsible.

Invited VIP guests and the first 50 customers that make a purchase will receive exclusive gifts from ONLY, NARS Cosmetics and DaLish Cosmetics. Along with the runway show, guests will enjoy an exclusive night of ultimate shopping, refreshments and musical entertainment by the fantastic DJ Joey Dalleva.

Come see the new collection and join us for celebrations!
RSVP before August 11, 2008!

For more info missswiss@rapidweb.ca or onlyfashionshow@hotmail.com, tel: 514-281-8461

Miss Swiss is a store that carries a mix of European brands for trendy 20-somethings, and “Only” is going to be trumpeted in with much fanfare in a couple of weeks. This is also a good opportunity to come and show support for the people who actually organize the event (any kind of event planning is a huge endeavour to take on). Also, it gives a chance for people who aren’t in the industry to make some connections for beginners. I know it’s tough out there and you often don’t know where to start, but I would say events like these will help you expose to the environment a little, so get out there!

Image credits: Only

H&M can now be dubbed as Hu-Mongous, according to The Gazette, it will be 15,000 sq.ft of space. The Grand Opening starts at noon and the first 250 shoppers will get a gift card worth $10 to $200, and each customer who purchases on opening day will get a special gift.

I gotta hand it to them, corporately, they know how to make business. Attracting fashionable clothes at cheap prices, smack in the middle of downtown (will Simons feel the heat of competition?), and enticing shoppers by giving them armloads of freebies. It’s a lethal combo, how can any mass consumer resist?

H&M workers f33r the crowd.

Come November my lovelies, nobody will be safe.

For some reason I get the feeling the 2nd H&M store on St-Catherine West is gonna suffer. But then again, I could be wrong.

P.S. I’ll probably hang out on the street to take pictures, but I stand by my choice, I refuse to buy.

So I’ve made a round at the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts the other day. The (un)timely death of the designer must have sparked a huge flock of fashion followers around the world to come to this exhibit, which will be in Montreal until September and then move on to San Francisco.

As I arrived with my friend on a Wednesday, tickets were half priced at $7.50, and the museum was crowded with women (with a few men). The huge staircase leading up to the exhibition already had a dozen mannequins with several YSL-esque outfits – an hommage to Yves from local designers Renata Morales to Helmer.

With a red carpet entrance to the second floor we’re greeted with a mirror-like wall with screens playing different biographical videos of the french designer. There’s a thick guestbook you could flip through to see who has signed, but being not much of a handwriting expert, Anna Wintour could have signed and I wouldn’t have known.

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Hello everybody,

I apologize if there were any lack of updates as of late, my personal life has been kinda taking over my free time as I’m in the midst of moving, I have a performance to prepare for and a trip to plan for.

Concerning Montreal fashion, I haven’t had much time to consume and divulge much on that front, for that I apologize.

However I am going on a trip to Japan in a couple of weeks, so be rest assured that I’ll be reporting on Japanese fashion from abroad I’ve also read much about the glittering glass flagship stores sparkling in the Ginza district like pretty jewels, so loads of photos to come.

Afterwards I’m going to Sin City aka Las Vegas for kicks and maybe if there’s time to rent a car, make a trip to Desert Hills Outlet designer discount store (as per mentioned in Dana Thomas’ “Deluxe”).

It’ll be a bit difficult to keep things Montreal-centric as I’ll be traveling around quite a bit this year. But here’s a recap on what will be happening in terms of store openings:

• H&M flagship store on St-Catherine, the construction tarp is drapped across the building already right across the HMV store. Opens Fall 2008
• 
  TNT (The New Trend) on Westmount Square – Toronto-based trendy designer store. NOW OPEN! Check out their official site blog to see pictures galore of the new site.
• Agent Provocateur - Location TBD. UK import’s sexy lingerie line arrives in Montreal in late 2008.

The biggest upcoming fashion event will be happening during the Grand Prix celebration, for the Montreal Fashion & Design Festival from June 4th to the 8th, 2008. Showcasing at least 50 labels in a free, open-air catwalk fiesta with free goodies, bar terrasses, music, and street entertainments.

Shopping Events

Of course, Montreal is famous for it’s St-Laurent sidewalk sales which happens twice (or maybe more? I always think that there’s always a sale somewhere) a year. This year’s first sidewalk sale will coincide with the St-Ambroise Fringe Festival (don’t worry, it’s still in Montreal) pulling along another bazaar-like opportunity to shop for locally made goods at Fringe Art Marts. The sale and festival happens June 21rst and 22nd, 2008.

Summer is right around the corner which means BIG upcoming festivals: beer, jazz, just for laughs, francopholie, grand prix, fantasia, you name it, it’s going to happen. Enjoy your summer everyone! I will be back soon hopefully to write a little more before my trip and will give you updates on my journey to the Land of the Rising Sun.

Amusez-vous bien