Malorie Urbanovitch Spring 2015: See the designer’s first solo showing at World MasterCard Fashion Week

by Jacquelyn Francis October 24, 2014

There have got to be perks to working outside of the Toronto fashion scene, and this comes to mind during the Malorie Urbanovitch Spring 2015 collection. The Edmonton designer has built steady momentum since winning the 2013/2014 Mercedes-Benz Start Up design competition, and for her first solo show she didn’t appear remotely self-conscious or mired in minutiae. No bells, no whistles, no explosions. The designer’s muse: The Emancipated Woman. quietly sexy and youthful with a preppy stride to her loafer.

“The collection was inspired by the women of bygone eras who exuded a particularly strong sense of spirit,” said Urbanovitch after the show. “I wanted to create a spring collection that felt fresh and surprising in its display of colour and texture.”

That translated to summer knits and 100 percent washable silks in maxi cardigans and drop-waist dresses presented in approachable hues like navy blue, burgundy and moss green. If it seemed unorthodox for summer, it spoke to the current fascination with season-less fashion and our need to collect pieces that move easily between time and place. As Urbanovitch put it, “Fashion that is unusual yet effortlessly wearable interests me the most.”

The lengths were modest, with knits that revealed womanly assets in a peekaboo manner. If at times the ghost of The Great Gatsby’s Daisy Buchanan hovered in the air, it’s one that felt plucked from her day and dropped into decades of recent past. The show’s score, a long-play version of the hypnotic “Moments in Love” by Art of Noise, lent the affair a sleepy ’80s summer’s eve vibe.

It was also opportunity for Urbanovitch to reveal pieces from her handbag collection—all small, compact and portable—because “Daisy” prefers to travel light. It will be interesting to observe Urbanovitch’s upcoming progress. Her collection is a reminder that quiet clothes can be the hardest to construct and perhaps the most rebellious.