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Toronto Life - The Goods

A compendium of the latest store openings, hottest parties and runway shows and all the buzzy fashion gossip. Sign up for the Style newsletter for weekly updates

Rogue Fashion Week

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March 12, 2012 | 5:06 pm

Krane hosts its fall/winter 2012 presentation way offsite—in a condo

Models wearing looks from Krane’s fall/winter 2012 collection (Image: Priscilla Yu)

Ken Chow’s Krane was the lone straggler on Sunday night, the last to show during Rogue Fashion Week. One editor said showing on a Sunday is “sacrilegious,” which is why that person wasn’t present. Rick Byun, director of Veritas Communications (proudly wearing one of Krane’s S&M-esque black leather zipper ties), hosted a small group of fashion folk at his Yorkville area condo to view Krane’s fall/winter 2012 collection. Guests like Jeremy Laing, CP24’s Jee-Yun Lee, photographer JJ Thompson and GlobalTV’s Minna Rhee noshed on cheese plates, brazenly networked on the Sabbath and occasionally peeked at the clothes.

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Rogue Fashion Week

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March 12, 2012 | 1:42 pm

Sarah Gadon and vodka make an appearance at Greta Constantine’s fall/winter 2012 show

Greta Constantine fall/winter 2012 (Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)

Greta Constantine’s over-the-top fashion shows are always a spectacle, whether it’s poolside at a Georgian mansion, in a King West club, at a sleek car dealership or, most recently, at the Arcadian Loft. Fact: Stephen Wong and Kirk Pickersgill love a good party. It was the end of a busy Rogue Fashion Week, but we still saw Sarah Gadon (named one of TIFF’s rising stars for her work in David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method and Cosmopolis), Little Mosque on the Prairie’s Zaib Shaikh, songstress Kreesha Turner, Corner Gas-ers Gabrielle Miller and Tara Spencer-Nairn, society girl Sylvia Mantella (who glided through the room in a black jacket with a train, then tripped on said train as she was leaving), Fashion Television’s Jeanne Beker and Zoomer’s Suzanne Boyd (who kept warm in a mink bowler hat she said she forgot she even had). Check out every look from Greta’s sci-fi-themed show, including some really unflattering peplum details, in a gallery after the jump.

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Rogue Fashion Week

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March 9, 2012 | 12:29 pm

Model Amanda Lew Kee wears Amanda Lew Kee at the Amanda Lew Kee show (hi, Amanda Lew Kee!)

Amanda Lew Kee: back in black (Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)

Runway is out, apparently. Presentations in bars with white sheets hanging on a wall and projections of a model (that model being the designer herself) on those whites sheets are in (again, apparently). It was a black leather–clad guest list at The Hoxton last night for Amanda Lew Kee’s fall/winter 2012 showing, including Lew Kee’s bestie Jaclyn Genovese who wore one of ALK’s designs, model and industrial designer Jano Badovinac, Plaid magazine creator and editor-in-chief Odessa Paloma Parker (wearing Marni for H&M and a little colour, one of maybe three people in attendance who did so), Perfecto magazine’s Diego Armand and fashion photographer Paolo Azarraga. Check out all of Amanda Lew Kee’s fall/winter 2012 collection »

Rogue Fashion Week

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March 8, 2012 | 2:02 pm

Zombie Boy and Heather Marks draw a crowd for Mackage’s fall/winter 2012 runway show

Rico “Zombie Boy” Genest (Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)

Rogue Fashion Week continued last night with a show by Quebec-based label Mackage at the Distillery District’s Fermenting Cellar. The event was both a party and fashion show, and its circus theme could be seen everywhere but the clothes (though one stylist noted, “Well, there was that one red coat”). We spotted cotton candy, snow cone cocktails, buttered popcorn, miniature ice cream sandwiches, performers with illuminated hula hoops (they truly are everywhere these days), stilt walkers and a relatively attractive male model shackled to the wall wearing face paint, a kilt and spiked loafers (the circus is here!). The evening was organized by ASC PR’s Suzanne Cohon, who’s famous for her over-the-top events, and who, in a moment of familiarity, told us to call her “Suze.” Guests like Suzanne Boyd, Glen Baxter, Derrick Chetty and more had piled in to check out headlining models Rico “Zombie Boy” Genest (known for his appearance in the Lady Gaga video “Born This Way”) and Calgary-born Heather Marks—oh, and the clothes, we guess. Our take from the runway and a complete runway gallery (say hello to Zombie Boy!) after the jump.

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Rogue Fashion Week

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March 7, 2012 | 4:05 pm

Basch is much more subtle with Wesley Badanjak at the helm for its fall/winter 2012 season

A new Basch (Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)

Two scarlet finale gowns—a glazed, architectural floor-length piece and a gathered cap-sleeved jersey dress—created a statement that made this season’s Basch collection worth taking a second look at. Unfortunately, those were the last two dresses, and there was a lot of filler, including a Bianca Jagger–esque fur jacket (which seemed to chew up and spit out the rather cute chiffon dress underneath) and a black chenille jacket with a weighty pleated apron. Basch was formerly designed by Project Runway Canada alum Brandon Dwyer, but gone are the days of crotch-bearing gowns and sagging mini-dresses. Check out how Badanjak updated the brand in our full runway gallery after the jump.

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Rogue Fashion Week

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March 7, 2012 | 12:25 pm

Ombré tweed, micro chenille and cobweb knits are winners at Lovas’ fall/winter 2012 show

Wesley Badanjak takes a bow (Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)

Let’s talk about Wesley Badanjak. He recently took over as designer at Basch, a position formerly held by Brandon Dwyer, but has continued working on own his label, Lovas, which in the past has typically catered to older women. He’s in the business of making money, as most designers are, and if he can’t do that with two collections, then surely there’s something wrong (plus, all of fashion’s cool kids design or have designed more than one collection). Last night at 99 Sudbury, “celebrity” guest host Amanda Brugel (sold to us as playing some character on NBC’s cast-off-to-Saturday-night The Firm) MC’d to a crowd of guests including heartthrob designer Arthur Mendonça (many were swooning), womenswear designer David Dixon, fashion editors Nathalie Atkinson and Andrew Sardone and a smattering of bloggers on the front row (who were not yet high-profile enough to come with bag-carrying assistants in tow). The show itself was a mix of highs (ombré tweeds and cobweb knits) and lows (sequined dresses), and Badanjak demonstrated that he’s really narrowed in on the woman who wants Chanel tweed but is tired of looking like her ladies-who-lunch friends. Our full rundown of the show after the jump.

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Rogue Fashion Week

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October 17, 2011 | 12:39 pm

Todd Lynn packs the house at the Ritz-Carlton for the last runway of “the ShOws” series

Todd Lynn greets his packed house—the only packed house at “the ShOws” all week (Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)

Todd Lynn closed out “the ShOws” at the Ritz-Carlton on Friday with the busiest crowd we’d seen that week. Rumours swirled about Juliette Lewis (who sported his designs during TIFF) attending (we couldn’t spot her), but others, like Alexandra Weston, Tommy Ton and Jeremy Laing, were still seen in the front row. Lynn served up a collection with a blue and grey colour palette: satiny dresses, revealing knit sweaters (on men and women) and microsuede coats. We liked the metallic rods (which look like safety pins from afar) affixed to cropped jackets and low-cut blazers, but the enormous top paired with short pants was a look best left to the Lady Gagas of the world (let your freak flag fly). After the runway show, guests gathered to discuss their Friday evening plans, and the “HER” party at La Perla thrown by Frank Griggs (Laing’s husband and creator of the much lauded fashioncalendar.ca) seemed to be the place to be—designers Calla Haynes and Thomas Tait were spotted outside smoking and discussing their inevitable stopovers in New York City before returning to London, and we noticed an indoor scarf–wearing Jean-Pierre Braganza inside discoing the night away. It is hard to believe that Toronto Fashion Week hasn’t even started yet. Check out our complete Rogue Fashion Week coverage to see what you missed last week, and check out our full gallery of  Todd Lynn’s spring/summer 2012 collection after the jump.

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Rogue Fashion Week

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October 17, 2011 | 11:17 am

Jean-Pierre Braganza’s spring/summer 2012 collection draws oohs and awws from the most frigid fashion editors

Jean-Pierre Braganza’s beauties (Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)

Day two of “the ShOws” at the Ritz-Carlton started off with Jean-Pierre Braganza, a Toronto expat and mainstay of London Fashion Week since 2004. Model Coco Rocha introduced the collection, rolling her Rs like an English speaker trying to speak a foreign language and even joking, “I love saying that: Brrrrrrraganza.” Showing at 4 p.m. doesn’t make for a crowded room—many of the seats went unfilled, which was too bad for fashion lovers with day jobs, since the collection was so strong. Models looked like they were plucked straight out of a Robert Palmer video, with fishtail braids, sharp lines of red on models’ cheeks and dresses in a muted palette of black, grey and many variations of white (cream, beige, ivory). See the full collection after the jump.

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Rogue Fashion Week

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October 14, 2011 | 1:14 pm

Thirty fantastic prints from Calla Haynes’s spring/summer 2012 show at the Ritz-Carlton

The second show of the “ShOws” series held at the Ritz Carlton was by Torontonian Calla Haynes and her eponymous line Calla. The 29-year-old was once a Havergal girl, though she has lived in Paris for the past eight years, working with huge names like Olivier Theyskens and Nina Ricci before launching her own line. Tommy Ton, fresh from a gruelling stint covering the myriad fashion weeks before Toronto, was spotted with designer Jeremy Laing, model Coco Rocha, James Conran, style guru and columnist Karen Von Hahn and, obviously, scores of fashion media. Check out Haynes’s amazing prints in our spring/summer 2012 gallery after the jump.

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Rogue Fashion Week

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October 14, 2011 | 11:22 am

Thomas Tait evokes “haute turtles” and much hotter versions of Jay-Z and Kanye West at his spring/summer 2012 show

Thomas Tait wants world peace (Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)

“The ShOws” (no one has given us an answer to why there’s a capital O in the name) is a series of runway presentations to showcase Canadian talent without the designer incurring any financial cost, creator Paola Fullerton says. Fullerton’s idea is to bring Canadian designers who already show elsewhere (London Fashion Week, for example) to Toronto, without leaving them with a substantial bill for lighting, runway space, models and promotion. Thomas Tait, the first show of the series, took place yesterday afternoon in the ballroom at the Ritz-Carlton (there were probably only 150 seats)—Tait is a Canadian who studied at La Salle College in Montreal before graduating with an MA from London’s prestigious Central Saint Martins in 2010 (the youngest student ever to complete the course). Tait was introduced by another displaced Canadian, model Coco Rocha, who’s in town to promote her short documentary Letters to Haiti, a work that a few guests described as self-indulgent. Though Rocha read off a sheet of paper, we heard that even she, ever the professional, feverishly practised her speech backstage (looks, acting chops and perhaps a Toastmasters member? She’s just like us).

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Rogue Fashion Week

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October 13, 2011 | 3:20 pm

One boy’s journey into the world of beauty and glamour: backstage at Greta Constantine spring/summer 2012

A model gets her closeup backstage at Greta Constantine (Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)

While the clothes always take center stage (or runway, as it were) at fashion shows, the beauty component is an equally important aspect, helping tie the looks together into the designer’s cohesive vision. We went backstage at Greta Constantine—not only to scope out the half-naked male models—to give you the skinny on how the makeup artists and hair team get the models (normally a haggard bunch) looking catwalk ready. Hair was styled by Hair on the Avenue under the supervision of Colin Ford, director of education at L’Oreal Professionnel. Ford says “the clothes are both structured and unstructured and kind of androgynous,” so he wanted a similar look to the hair. It reminded us of a woman who vacations in St Barts: very sleek on top with a tousled look at the ends. The team achieved this by using L’Oreal’s Mythic Oil, a nutritive oil, on the ends and Lumicontrole, a cream wax, at the roots for shine. Though it took the stylists fifteen minutes to achieve the look, they told us anyone could do it at home in only five (but, of course they’d say that).

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Rogue Fashion Week

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October 13, 2011 | 3:16 pm

Calla Haynes, Thomas Tait, Todd Lynn and Jean Pierre Braganza are going rogue at the Ritz-Carlton

Calla Haynes, Thomas Tait, Todd Lynn and Jean Pierre Braganza are Canadian designers who live abroad, typically making a name for themselves outside of Toronto Fashion Week. This year they’ll be showing at “The ShOws” at the Ritz-Carlton, and in an attempt to create a larger audience, the organizers will be streaming their shows for all to see. The beauty of seeing it live is, if a model falls and creates an haute pileup, you can say you were there to see it. See the schedule after the jump.

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Rogue Fashion Week

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October 13, 2011 | 11:38 am

Lucian Matis is the second down the rogue runway at the off-site shows

Is this woman’s calling a stage show in Las Vegas? (Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)

Lucian Matis held his spring/summer 2012 Rogue Fashion Week show at event space 99 Sudbury for a packed crowd of tastemaking elite: bloggers with 100 page views a week, fashion editors Lisa Tant and Derick Chetty and an assortment of fashion enthusiasts we’ve never seen before. We spotted the FDCC’s Robin Kay (who allegedly nabbed a neighbour’s swag bag before rushing out), MuchMusic’s Sarah Taylor and a whole slew of primped and preened ladies striking poses in their finest club wear (including one who thought a downpour was the perfect weather for her finest feather bustier). Amid the thudding techno beats and blue LED lights was a collection that—at times—was perfect for cocktail parties: appliquéd rosettes, New Year’s Eve–appropriate colours like pink, royal blue, purple and shocks of orange, and flouncy pleats. We weren’t sure if the cream-coloured one-piece outfits were bathing suits or just incredibly daring, and some pieces could have used an edit or two, since many had competing elements, like colourful basket-weave silk, studding and an inelegant smattering of appliquéd flowers—whether some of these elements were handmade is moot, because an outfit is not merely its embellishments. Check out our full runway gallery after the jump.

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Rogue Fashion Week

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October 12, 2011 | 12:27 pm

Greta Constantine draws a big crowd at Century Room (yes, that Century Room) for the kick-off to Rogue Fashion Week

Draped, as per usual (Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)

Rogue Fashion Week is upon us, and Greta Constantine kicked it off last night with a show and after-party at King West’s Century Room. Designers Kirk Pickersgill and Stephen Wong are known for their extravagant shows (held at car dealerships, Rosedale mansions and TIFF hot spots with celeb models), so it was no shock to see the bevy of gussied-up Torontonians at the typically bottle-service-heavy club (oft complete with heavy beats, and rowdy men and women) for Greta Constantine’s spring/summer 2012 show. This city always seems to show its love for the Greta boys, and last night was no exception, with the many guests including socialites Suzanne Rogers, Sylvia Mantella, Amoryn Engel, Jenna Naumovich, Alexandra Weston, Suzanne Cohon and Catherine Nugent, gossip columnist Shinan Govani, performer K-os, ET Canada’s Rosey Edeh and MuchMusic personality Sarah Taylor. We also spotted Global News anchorwoman Anne Mroczkowski smoking outside with FDCC chair Robin Kay (who carried out an entire conversation with someone across the runway during the show using only hand gestures) and club king Toufik Sarwa, but the most interesting gossip was about Vanessa Mulroney, who requested 10 front row seats for her gal pals, a collection of Maple Leaf hockey wives—no word of a lie. Sitting front row alongside socialite Mulroney were Emilie Witt, Brittany Perlman, Jessica Peczek, Katarina Brown, Ania Rembacz, Dale Chaplin, Jeanne De Partout, Mel Armstrong and Jessica MacArthur. Check out our full collection gallery after the jump.

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Rogue Fashion Week

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September 27, 2011 | 2:03 pm

The first Rogue Fashion Week shows have been announced: Calla Haynes, Thomas Tait, Todd Lynn and Jean-Pierre Braganza

Rogue Fashion Week takes place a week or so before Toronto Fashion Week, and yesterday it was announced that on October 13 and 14, Proctor and Gamble and the Ritz-Carlton will be hosting a collection of runway shows by Canadian expats Calla Haynes (based in Paris), Thomas Tait, Todd Lynn and Jean-Pierre Braganza (based in London). Rogue Fashion Week is an opportunity for a designer or a group of designers to showcase their latest collections at a time and place of their choosing—there are no seemingly endless lines with volunteers shepherding guests into runway rooms like cattle, and although some shows get uncomfortably crowded, the sponsored libations are gratis and not sold at inflated prices (like at “the tents”—which we’re fairly certain is not legal).

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