As day five drew to a close and fatigue from a long week began to set in, Denis Gagnon presented his spring/summer 2012 collection, reminding us why we love fashion week. In a collection entitled “Denise in the Garden,” the Montreal veteran made a return to florals after season upon season of black, white, black and, well, black. The front row was packed with Gagnon fans, including Jeanne Beker (wearing a black-and-white striped blazer from the spring/summer 2011 collection), Zoomer’s Suzanne Boyd, Greta Constantine boys Kirk Pickersgill and Stephen Wong, Fashion magazine’s Bernadette Morra, hairstylist Tony Pham, the Star’s Derick Chetty and InFashion’s Glen Baxter. The show began with a somewhat drawn-out (though beautifully shot) video featuring Gagnon in a woodsy cottage sipping champagne (a sponsor) and looking out at models who cautiously wandered through a forest dressed in the collection. We can’t say we really understood it, but the ominous music kept us glued to the screen, wondering what would happen next. As the lights dimmed, the brash sound of an accordion broke the silence and playful French crooning filled the room as models skipped down the runway, twirling, winking, waving, blowing kisses and making cheeky faces at the audience before hamming it up for the cameras at the end of the runway (one person commented that the models looked as though they could have been on acid). Check out our review and the complete Denis Gagnon spring/summer 2012 gallery after the jump.

Check out Denis Gagnon’s complete spring/summer 2012 collection »

A dense, embroidery-like floral print took centre stage alongside cropped pants, pleated skirts, short shorts, cropped jackets, sheer blouses with pleated silk fronts, leather bustiers, tuxedo-inspired jumpers and sleeveless jackets—all accented with leather-strap details. The collection still had much of the black, white and leather we’ve come to expect from Gagnon, but the floral accents kept pieces playful and fresh, while many of the models wore sneakers and actually looked like they were enjoying themselves. Accessories included diamonds from Birks, floral clutches, knapsacks, simple leather-strap bracelets and leather visors, and our favourites included a cropped leather jacket with jersey sleeves and leather-strap closures, floral cropped pants, and a long, billowy black dress with white leather belt-like straps. Keeping with the playful theme, the show closed with an odd wedding between two models that, again, we didn’t really understand, but accepted because the collection had been so fun to watch. As Gagnon took his bow like a rock star, flocked by models, the crowd roared with applause and the buzz continued all the way out to the street as we bid farewell to David Pecaut Square until next season.

The ginger society threw a party, and we weren’t invited (Image: Erin Simkin)

Nights three and four of Toronto Fashion Week were completely packed with household names, like Canada’s Next Top Model walk coach Stacey McKenzie, Kimberley Newport-Mimran, InFashion’s Glen Baxter, media mogul Moses Znaimer, Zoomer’s Suzanne Boyd, philanthropists Catherine Nugent and  W. Bruce C. Bailey and more. Check out who was the most adorable duo in the house and who fashioned a dress out of a duvet after the jump.

It was a full house on the first night of fashion week, from Holt Renfrew’s pre-show cocktail to the lineups for passes, lineups for seats and lineups to get bags of cereal. We know it is fashion and meant to be fun, so we checked out the scene a bit to see who was out and about and what everyone was getting up to. We spotted society gals Suzanne Rogers and Jenna Bitove, eTalk personality Sasha Tong, Sarah Gadon, blogger Anita Clarke, Fashion Television host Jeanne Beker, In Fashion’s Glen Baxter and so many more. Check out the scene in a gallery after the jump.

Arthur Mendonça, fresh from a triumphant return to fashion week last season, showed another collection sure to wow buyers and critics alike (it wowed us, at the very least). Mendonça’s move back to Toronto Fashion Week (last year he showed during Rogue Fashion Week) was a superbly well-attended affair: even those lucky enough to nab a seat (it was standing-room only for latecomers) were squished together like sardines, presumably thanks to the FDCC’s overzealous ticket selling. Although we remember the fashions fondly, our most vivid memory is being smashed in a line the entire evening alongside models Yasmin Warsame and Stacey McKenzie (never one to steal focus, she vamped on the runway in an IZMA fur ballgown), hairstylist Jie Matar, rising starlet Sarah Gadon, Fashion Television dude Glen Baxter, Dragon’s Den star Arlene Dickinson and songstress Keshia Chante, who all showed up to support Mendonça and sat with feet firmly planted in the front row. Check out Mendonça’s full show after the jump.

Click on to see Arthur Mendonça’s complete spring/summer 2012 collection »

We thought the entire collection was stunning: peplums (a huge trend from the runways of Milan and Paris this season) on herringbone-print blazers, low-cut jackets and gold-printed dresses, hardware on dresses and black leather trenches, and floral prints with bright bursts of pink, orange and purple were among some of the best looks of the night. But our absolute favourite items were the knee-length dresses in copper and magenta with pleats and golden buttons down the front. Let’s not even mention the rust-coloured sleeved dresses with makeshift sweetheart necklines, since we’ve already fawned far too much. Androgynous model Andrej Pejic walked the runway in a copper pantsuit and blue shirt, but we were disappointed with how the Mendonça team used him—if you’ve got an internationally famous model who can pull off six-inch heels, put him in them, or at least use him to close or open the show. We spotted Warsame and McKenzie laughing uproariously across the runway during the show (if only we were in on that knock-knock joke—we’re sure it was been hilarious) but they were the only ones: the rest of us were too busy gushing over Mendonça’s return to Toronto Fashion Week.

Moon’s one year anniversary party (Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)

Last Thursday, in the Malaparte room at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, Jordin and Saul Mimran’s Moon celebrated its one-year anniversary with a party that included the launch of the brand’s basic menswear line. Leigh Lezark from DJ collective the Misshapes provided the music, only occasionally conversing with Toronto media and friends of the Mimran clan. Guests included designer Alfred Sung, The Bay’s Suzanne Timmins and Christopher Sherman, writer Sarah Nicole Prickett, Ports 1961 campaign creative director Tu Ly, In Fashion’s Glen Baxter and socialite and event planner Ainsley Kerr. See who made a splash at last week’s swishy party in a gallery after the jump

Come to my boudoir (Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)

The city’s straight dudes—who may have spent last night eating wings at Real Sports—likely shared a groan this morning when they found out they’d missed last night’s Lingerie Française, a presentation of skivvies at the Distillery District’s Fermenting Cellar. Local celebs like Craig Olejnik and Ennis Esmer from CTV’s The Listener, In Fashion host Glen Baxter, costume designer Patrick Antosh, actress Tara Spencer-Nairn and former Canadian Idol judge Jake Gold sipped Kir Royales and ogled barely dressed models who strutted down a runway in designs by Simone Perele, Gerbe, Princesse Tam Tam, Lejaby and Empreinte. Performances included awkward fan dancing by gentlemen who looked like waiters in puffy shirts (picture lots of twirling and kicking, prompting many in the audience to exclaim, “Even I could do those moves!”) while a jazz band played to a libidinous audience during and after a very sexy display of the theme, Ladies of the Silver Screen. Thankfully, this year’s festivities were decidedly cooler than last year’s sweltering presentation at Wychwood Barns, thanks to a wall of carved ice blocks and a whole lot of air conditioning. We could go on, but since we presume most people stopped reading somewhere around the words “French lingerie,” we’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. Full runway coverage after the jump.

Click to see the slideshow and details on how to find this lingerie »

Getting a closer look (Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)

Many things can be time machines  (phone booths, DeLoreans and hot tubs come to mind), but on Friday afternoon at Arthur Mendonça’s back-from-bankruptcy show, the elevators at Trump International Tower did the trick, bringing us to the ninth floor and the 1970s.

Check out our full photo coverage and a recap of the scene after the jump

See the photos from the Arthur Mendonça show »

Mendonça, returning to the spotlight after a two-year hiatus, impressed the crowd of society types—as well as designer Jeremy Laing, Fashion TV’s Glen Baxter and Parts and Labour’s Richard Lambert—with a collection of disco-inspired looks that would appeal to any modern Bianca Jagger. Models channelled Studio 54 in slim pantsuits, sparkly minis and silk tunics, styled with oversized hats, sequin turbans and Dean Davidson accessories.

We’re not sure where lion-maned Suzanne Boyd decided to nosh post-show or where Wayne Clark chose to take his entourage of fashion fiends, but we wanted to keep the glamour alive, too, so we followed the show with a very elegant meal at Toronto’s hottest nouvelle fusion bistro, the Eaton Centre food court. Call it a 1970s revival.

Spotted: models at the Brick Works

We already get organic purple carrots and Jamie Kennedy french fries there on weekends, but the Evergreen Brick Works moved from food to fashion last night with its debut as a show venue. Audi presented the collections of Joeffer Caoc, Dimitri Chris and Nada in the massive kilns building, which will be used as a gallery for art exhibitions and installations. It’s an amazing venue, but last night the hangar-like space was unheated, and as the temperature plunged, host Glen Baxter of Fashion Television laughed, “It’s so cold I can see my breath.” Us too, Glen.

If we didn’t know the meaning of the word “synergy” (besides what we learned from watching Jem), it became clear last night: Audi titled the event Audi Presents: The Art of Progression, showed commercials prior to each catwalk walk, and even drove convertibles down the runway to open each show. The women’s clothes from Caoc and Nada came in florals and vivid colours (bubble gum pink for Caoc and royal blue at Nada) and included a line of office-appropriate blazers and dresses. Menswear designer Dimitri Chris trotted models out in everything short–short-sleeved blazers with pinstripes that echoed the Good Humor man, and shorts styled with sock garters. And we thought we were cold. See shots from all three shows in the slide show below.

(Main image: Brick Works by Loozrboy, models by Jenna Marie Wakani.)

Mark Fast at Ame, flanked by two models in his designs (Photo by Karon Liu)

With such magazines as Rolling Stone, ID, In Style, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar and nine editions of Vogue (Korean, Japanese, Chinese, American, British, Italian, Russian, Greek and Spanish) featuring his designs, it’s odd that Manitoba-born knitwear designer Mark Fast doesn’t get more mainstream attention in his home and native land. But that could change shortly.

The 29-year-old was fêted at the Rubino brothers’ new restaurant, Ame, in Toronto on Friday night—a splashy homecoming party following recent successes overseas. Fast, who has lived in England for the past eight years, caused a stir during London fashion week when he chose three plus-size models to wear his form-fitting knit dresses; his stylist quit, saying that the models “didn’t have the walk down as well as the more experienced slimmer girls.” His clothes have recently been spotted on pretty young things, including Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester, and he won a coveted sponsorship from the British Fashion Council to show at London fashion week in February. “All of my ideas came from here, and I don’t want to be hidden away in London forever,” Fast told us on Friday. “Someday I’d like to get a place in Vancouver.”

Wearing a loose untucked shirt and baggy black pants, with wavy blond hair and a cherub face, Fast looks more like a surfer than someone working in fashion. He’s sitting on a low bench trying to make himself heard over the music blasting throughout the restaurant as media and industry types mingle in the bar area. Flashes occasionally go off, though the photographers are disappointed that Canadian model Coco Rocha couldn’t make it due to a late flight. In the back, bloggers congratulate Shinan Govani on his book, and Fashion Television’s Glen Baxter chats with models dressed in Fast’s creations. It’s a peculiar scene for someone who was living in a small town outside Winnipeg a little more than a decade ago.

“There was a subculture of ravers and Goths,” Fast recalls of the local teen fashions. “We had our own sense of style—buffalo chic, or rather bohemian.” He says he has always wanted to be involved in the fashion industry in some way, though he wasn’t a kid who made his own clothes; his mother was the resident seamstress and a source of inspiration for Fast, who would watch her sew at home.

The budding designer moved to Toronto to study patterns and garment making at Seneca College’s Newnham Campus for a year before moving across the Atlantic to get a BA and MA at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (he graduated last February). Fast’s name is now among the school’s famous alumni: Stella McCartney, Paul Smith, John Galliano and Zac Posen.

As for his signature knitwear, he began experimenting with the medium at the suggestion of a tutor at Saint Martins. “All you have to do is inject contemporary yarn into traditional stitching,” he says of his clothes. “I could take the usual sweater and inject a Lycra yarn into it to completely change it.” Fast says he also gets his ideas from old photographs and movies by such unconventional filmmakers as Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam.

“I could say a bunch of worlds like ‘strong’ and ‘brave,’” he says when asked to describe the woman he designs for. “But I design for just about anyone who appreciates good quality and craftsmanship.” His ideal celebrity model? Tilda Swinton.

With that, he gets up to talk to the dozens of other people hoping for a moment of Fast face time before he flies back to London the next day. But this won’t be the last time Canadians will be hearing of him; he has a few (unannounced) local projects lined up and sees the sartorial sparkle in Hogtown. “You can always find pockets and subcultures of great fashion here. Sometimes Toronto can be more fashionable than London.”

Shinan Govani at the launch party for his new book, Boldface Names (Photo by Jen McNeely)

Amid TIFF hoopla, the National Post’s society and celebrity ink slinger, Shinan Govani, held a launch for his book Boldface Names at the Holts Café—an event that seemed to procure more boldface names than Vanity Fair’s tiresome TIFF party the night prior. The event condensed every big schmoozer-boozer in the city, culminating in champagne-induced strategic chit-chat, name-dropping and back-handed gossip.

Few parties in Toronto could hope to pull in so many prominent figures. Here’s a run-down of the crowd: Jeff Stober owner of the Drake Hotel, Amber’s Toufik Tarwa, ever-so-tanned club king Michael King, Zoomer’s Suzanne Boyd, Society dolls Ashleigh Dempster and Amanda Blakley, Ben Mulroney of eTalk, Roots founder Michael Budman, Fashion Television’s Glen Baxter, Hello! Canada’s Ciara Hunt, brash book agent Sam Hiyate, Bustle’s design man Shawn Hewson, PR powerwomen Debra Goldblatt and Natasha Koiffman, actor Kristin Booth, singer Jill Barber, the Globe’s Leah McLaren (who rode her bike into Holt Renfrew) and a sprinkle of hot-to-trot 20-somethings that brought just the right amount of sexiness to mill about the lingerie section.

“I feel like this is my wedding,” Govani chuckled, holding up two giant bottles of champers. Anna von Frances, don of Pink Mafia and notorious troublemaker, also commented on the launch: “It’s about fucking time that we celebrate somebody other than the vapid idiots we normally do. I’m very proud of Shinan”.

Govani loyalists all seem to consider him an ongoing guide for politics, trends, society and influence. A non-fiction account of his work would have certainly sizzled with juicy tales (part of the fun in Boldface Names is decoding the muses) since the man seems to know even the smallest details of people’s lives. That fact was driven home to us, as we we were hitching a ride with Govani on the midnight party train, when a woman inquired whether Megan Fox was still in town, “She left at 3:54 p.m.,” replied Govani. It would not surprise us if he had eyes and ears at the airport security checkpoint.

Jason Batman with his lovely wife, Amanda Anka

One of the most exclusive parties at TIFF was nowhere near downtown. Instead it was in a mansion on the Bridle Path known as The Glass House where the after-party for The Men Who Stare at Goats took place.

Inside, the house was decked in bottles of Vitamin Water (they sponsored the party) while outside, two pens filled with actual goats wearing shirts that read “Don’t stare at me” greeted guests with their blue-cheese odour and menacing jumps (more on that later).

Jeff Bridges was the first to arrive on the red carpet with a handful of reporters like Lainey and Glen Baxter (we assumed most of the no-shows decided Lawrence was too much of a trip from downtown), followed by author Jon Ronson and Peter Straughan, who wrote the screenplay. The celebrity flow then slowed a bit as reporters waited for George Clooney’s arrival (he skipped the carpet and went straight into the house but left about an hour later). Jason Bateman also skipped the red carpet upon arrival but came back out to talk about the joys of fatherhood with his wife, Amanda Anka.

Actors Richard Kind, Gregory Smith (here to promote Leslie, My Name is Evil), Tate Donovan (you’ll know him as Rachel’s boyfriend Joshua on Friends) and Extra TV’s Jerry Penacoli posed for a few shots outside while MTV Canada’s Nicole Holness got a little too close to the goat pen and had one nibble on her gold sequined dress. Mena Suvari, who tells us that she met her beau in Toronto, was a little more cautious when petting the goats, noting that one of them was wearing a shirt that perfectly matched her nails. And while the photographers and reporters waited for more celebrities to show up, Shinan Govani popped out from the house to chat with Lainey.

Inside we spotted Patricia Clarkson, who’s in town to promote Cairo Time (she didn’t like seeing the goats dressed up and locked in the pens), as well as Adam Brody hanging by the entrance. His OC co-star Peter Gallagher also made an appearance and says he still stays in touch with Brody every so often.

Leave it to a bottle of Vitamin Water to bring the old co-stars together.