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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).

While there was much fanfare of another high end store establishing itself in Montreal, Toronto-based TNT was sort of lackluster in presentation when I finally made my way to their store last weekend.

I was anticipating a stylized interior with blue lit frosted walls, gray slated tables, and open spacing like the pictures I saw of Toronto’s stores. Unfortunately, even at 5000 sq.ft, the presentation was little more than bland and cozy. Montreal’s TNT had low ceilings and dark wooden walls with a white floor tiling. Clothes were hung up on one single rack that lined the walls in no particular order, finding brands mixed together. There were a few tables containing accessories, and on the main floor there were shelves displaying the shoe collection.

Looks cool right? Montreal’s TNT isn’t as snazzy.

Brand-wise there’s a lot to choose from, and for those who enjoy the hunt of finding something particular and special will perhaps enjoy the non-orderly mix. All of them are of pretty high quality and you can find some gems in here, so I have no complaints of the choices offered.

I myself settled on a Mackage woven wool coat with some leather details. I had to have the sleeves taken in even as an XS, but fortunately TNT offers free tailoring service (and the seamstress did a good job btw).

The problem with TNT is the shopping experience, had it not been for the good choice of clothing, I wouldn’t really return to this store. A store of this size should maximize the spacing and probably would’ve benefitted from multiple frontal (vertical?) racks rather than horizontal since the clothes aren’t properly presented. I like stores who make you want to fend for those looks on a mannequin, or arranges coats so that I can clearly see them when I pass by. These high end clothes deserve to be given some emphasis, they are too beautiful to be buried amongst others. Lackluster presentation can drive shoppers away especially in these difficult economic times, retail stores will really have to step it up if they want to survive here.

Image credit: TNTBlu

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.

Keeping up with a fashion blog takes some work. I get a lot of emails of companies pitching me a new line or new product in hopes of getting the word out there. But what’s really striking is the fact that I get a concentration of emails from one camp in particular: denim.

I don’t know how many denim companies are out there, but I think there are way too many. Especially in Montreal, I don’t know what it is about this city, but they’re full of denim designers. How well these small companies do is hard to say, but it’s suffice to say that I am about up to here with denim overload.

I mean I love my jeans, I read somewhere that the average shopper owns at least 5 pairs of jeans, which isn’t too far from the truth to what I own. So I’m assuming because people own so many pairs of jeans that there’s a hot market for it and a huge demand. Premium denim costs a pretty penny and I think shoppers are getting confused and lost between the difference of premium and a regular pair.

I’m no denim expert, but from what I’ve learned, premium is the kind that will last you forever. The way jeans were originally meant to be. Denim was conceived to be durable, and so farmers and laborers wore this material as they worked. Then it made its way with cowboys in the 1930s and popularized into fashion after WWII. You can read more about the history of denim on Lifestyle Monitor’s 2007 issue at Cotton Inc.

With everyone jumping the bandwagon and attaching “premium” to high priced jeans, or with the recent green movement that everyone is saying that they’re using organic cotton,  there needs to be a simple certification system issued by the top guns in using organic fabric if you ask me. Like many things in fashion, education is essential if you don’t want to be duped, but it’s becoming increasingly complex. You’d really have to be a Denim Nerd to differentiate premium and fashion jeans. Something I personally can’t be bothered with. I equate jeans as practical winter wear, if they can survive the slushy cold streets of Montreal, they’re good in my book.

Image credits: Cotton Inc

Since a good friend of mine has been physically and mentally preparing herself for the big opening of the H&M flagship store downtown, I thought I’d pass by to give her a moral boost. Obviously, I wasn’t in for the hot cheap deals, mainly because the store was packed like a hot club on a Saturday night.

A DJ booth was set up near the escalators on the entrance floor. A sea of shoppers bubbled left and right, not an inch was spared of retail space. Surprisingly, the clothes are still holding togethers as H&M sales associates continually return clothes other shoppers didn’t want and refolding any misplaced tshirt. It was a cacophony of endless chatter and music.

I scanned the first floor for my friend. This collection is the most fashion forward and most suitable for office wear. I made my way onto the second floor where you can tell the more trendy (and disposable) fashions were grouped together. 20-30 girls lined up to try on their goods, some trying to return some items to sales clerks as they passed by with armloads of clothes to restock.

I see my friend pass by and poke her. She appeared more calm than I had anticipated (H&M has a knack of picking very special people to work their sales floor), and had a brief chat with her.

“It’s been insane since early this morning. I think there were like 500 people waiting outside to get in,” she said. When asked about how the staff was handling the onslaught of customers she replied that they were “on edge” as it appears many customers are ill-mannered, leaving food, drinks, trash all over the store (who does that?? Ill-mannered indeed!), trying everyone’s patience. Usually H&M staffers are bold with their opinions and don’t put up with client shinanigans. Still, from my observations, staffers had it together. We’re momentarily interrupted when a female customer holds up a blue long sleeved tee asking if there are any more in size 6. “If you don’t see anything back there where you got it, we’re sold out,” my friend answered politely. Sold out? On opening day? H&M must love that.

Respecting The Swedes

You would think a retail clerk doesn’t know much about that specific style of sweater and color, or the section it came from and would probably want to shoo away pesky customers on a busy day like this…but you’re wrong. After hearing about the kind of training H&M staffers receive, these little helpers are bonafide fashion gurus. I can safely say that my friend knows more about fashion style and trends than I do. Of course, I can’t say much on exactly how H&M functions within their business, but after hearing hours of what my friend has done over her training, I can safely say that working at H&M is nothing like working in regular fashion retail. And it is because of this fantastic business method that they’ve convinced me that they have set the bar in retail organization and service (among other things).

Other retailers should quake in their booties

St-Catherine looked more crowded than usual, and the beautiful day encouraged loads of shoppers to take to the street to shop. H&M bags are everywhere. I took a glance at Guess, located across the street from H&M and I could see in one of the sales associates’ eyes that she was longing to be on the other side, wanting a piece of that Swedish dream. The store was comparatively empty next to their neighbors. I mean, nobody would line up to shop at Guess.

In essence, H&M is magic. They cooked up the perfect storm, and it has Montreal fans raging. Recession? H&M. Plenty of money? H&M. It’s a win-win situation.

Image credit: The Gazette

Now that shoppers can snap up the latest fashionables with a click of a mouse or browse through endless specialized boutiques – what’s left for them to experience?

Customization of course. I’m talking a little more than Carrie’s gold name plate frenzy back in the 90s (and I can attest that this was very popular in New Orleans back then), or having your name spelled out in beads on a string necklacle. In 2008, custom-made apparels are popping up in the accessories at affordable prices.

First there were shoes. Vans, Nike, and Converse are perhaps the most well-known companies who have prided themselves in offering their clientele a choice for self-expression. For the ladies, it was Steve Madden, who back in 2007, had the internet crowd a buzz with it’s new service of customizing over 45 different styles of shoes in your own colors and trimmings. Sadly, as I looked at the site recently – customize thy shoes no more. It appears that this gold mine service is no longer in service on Steve Madden’s website. Maybe they didn’t anticipate the high demand for customizable heels?

Second, there are hats. Specifically baseball caps. In Montreal’s underground shopping mall there’s a highly successful small booth (yes booth, they don’t even have store) which attracts teenage boys like moths to its fiery needle that stitches original graphics onto blank baseball caps. A computer is set up to program the stitching machine, as well as implement any new designs the makers come up with. You can flip through an album with hundreds of premade designs like a tattoo example album.

Thirdly, underwear. Stores like Bang-On adds a personal touch to your daily undies by transferring graphics onto them by hot press. You might remember this as high school homework for Generation Y people. They mostly use American Apparel’s er, apparels, as they’re a perfect canvas to work on. Think CafePress, but cooler and in a retro 80s store.

Finally, we have sunglasses. Perhaps geared towards the more affluent clientele, sunglasses are just another new addition to the mix. “With custom glasses, you can choose not only the frame but also other components, such as the bridge — the piece that rests on the upper part of the nose — and the temples — the arms that go along the sides of the head,” according to the Wall Street Journal. Therefore, creating your own specs at your own specifications, much like custom made clothing.

As shoppers are given more and more choices, it’s only obvious that to stand out from the crowd, we must express our individualistic style. By that, other than dressing differently, how about adding your own personal touch by having someone else do it for you without breaking the bank? As the rich turn to bespoke clothing, the mass consumer will turn to customizing entities. While the likelihood of getting your apparels Gucci-fied is no longer possible due to trademark laws, getting custom made clothing at an affordable price could be a new luxury market that remains untapped. Surely it would be difficult to maintain every single individual style, but given a proper organized system, the idea can surely fly. If we can deck out our iPods, we can surely deck out our closet.

Call it Tailoring 2.0.

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

That once in a blue moon when the local English newspaper publishes a meaningful fashion article is indeed a special occasion.

Flattery or Fakery? talks about the dicey situations about the knock off industry and how legal pursuits in Canada are long and drawn out processes. Here’s an excerpt of what Daniel Drapeau, a lawyer for Ogilvy’s, said about companies profiteering of the knock offs:

What he doesn’t like about the “cheap chic merchants” is that “these guys kill true innovators,” he said, citing Montreal’s Salvatore Parasuco as a design innovator. “The Zaras of the world are killing that. Should we be encouraging people like that? What are they contributing to society?”

Though knock offs have propelled some fashions to spin out into their own subculture (like Hip Hop/urban fashion), very few actually become cult-like and command a loyal following.

There is something you can spot especially on the Bape hoody with diamonds. Look carefully and you will see the difference. Take a close look at how the diamonds are placed. The real Bapes have the diamonds “on” the letter. The fake ones have it “around” the letters. Also the quality of the material of the real Bapes does make a difference. The designs look cleaner and clear, while the fakes ones look slightly faded or a little lighter than the real ones. Take a close look at the diamonds!

Here’s a useful site for any of you Bape aka A Bathing Ape fans out there looking for the real deal. How to spot a fake Bape gives you image references as to what makes a piece real or a fake. After being thoroughly brainwashed by a single request from a cousin of mine to purchase a Bape hoodie in Tokyo (where the brand originates from), I’ve come to believe that high end urban apparel do exist. Perhaps it may not be that they’re made of cashmere, but the Japanese know how to package and execute their products flawlessly. My experience at the Bape store in Tokyo was so entrancing, I’m seeing Bape stars and camouflage when I think of urban apparel. If I had to say so myself, if I were to wear urban streetwear, it’d be Bape.

Btw, I’ve actually seen Bape apparel in Chinatown right next to La Maison Kam Fung restaurant in the shopping mall. Most likely they’re fakes, but I haven’t had time to go look and see. If they are, please don’t support the fakes and buy them. Authentic clothing always feels better on you if they’re real right? Why spoil the fun?

Image and text credits: nigobape.com