FASHION Magazine

After rolling through Halifax and Edmonton, Mercedes-Benz Start Up will be pulling up to Quebec City this month in search of the city’s newest crop of design talent.

Though there can only be one winner at the end of the design initiative’s run, if last year’s cycle was anything to go off of, it’s a win-win for everyone in the running.

The initiative, which is in its second year, is aimed at finding Canada’s brightest emerging talent, fostering and mentoring their design skills and giving them a unique opportunity to gain some national exposure.

View the winning collection »

Edmonton had never seen anything like it before. Over the course of two short days, fashion industry experts from New York and Toronto bulldozed into a city of over a million people and changed its fashion beat.

The Mercedes-Benz Start Up program, now in its second year, has again begun its search for the next big Canadian designer, and last night, asked five of the top designers (after a grueling day of interviews with the top 10), to show their collections at the semi-final runway show at David Morris Fine Cars, an Edmonton Mercedes-Benz dealership.

The Spring 2012 collections, taking place October 17–21, will mark the 25^th Toronto fashion week. Having previously announced the location of the new venue, the Fashion Design Council of Canada has now released the schedule and details about the week.

While we’re not sure what to expect with the week’s theme of “CanadaCool,” we’re excited about the new venue, David Pecaut Square. With the new venue being downtown, we no longer have to teeter down to the exhibition in four-inch heels.

Each season showcases Canada’s design talent and Spring 2012 is no different, with collections from fashion heavyweights Joeffer Caoc, Pink Tartan, Denis Gagnon, and the new and exciting Amanda Lew Kee and Chloe Comme Parris. This season is also going international with established American designer Cynthia Rowley showing three never-before-seen looks.

With a new name and venue, we hope that the collections from Canadian designers are equally as fresh and thrilling.

View the photo gallery »

As we reported back in early June, Mercedes-Benz and IMG have introduced Start Up, their internationally lauded joint competition and mentorship program for up-and-coming designers to Canada. Well, here we go!

Early Wednesday, the first Start Up step was put into place, as I—along with a slew of notables including designer Marie Saint Pierre and FDCC president Robin Kay—judged the Montreal semi-final applicants. As a fan and avid supporter of Canadian fashion, I was thrilled to be a guest judge. Especially since FASHION Magazine is the official magazine sponsor!

Last night, industry folks were treated to an old fashioned game of suspense. Ushered into a location much further east than most knew existed⎯the sleek Mercedes-Benz dealership that straddles the DVP⎯we gathered to hear an announcement about an upcoming project. Most guessed that it would be fashion week related… a new sponsorship deal? A new location, perhaps? What was announced instead, was something so much more exciting: the launch of Mercedes-Benz Start Up. Produced alongside IMG, LG Fashion Week Beauty by L’Oréal Paris and the FDCC, Start Up is a new initiative to help foster new and upcoming designers on a national scale. Promising to nurture young businesses rather than a simply a competition based on creativity, Start Up is as its title suggests… a magnified launch pad for Canadian talent.

So, how exactly will it work? We break Start Up down:

When attending [FAT], Toronto’s alternative arts and fashion week—with its norm-subverting, boundary-busting mandate—it’s impossible to predict what’s in store for the (equally eclectic) audience. Runway presentations over the first two nights have featured ballerinas, acrobats and a puzzling—albeit comical (though maybe not intentionally)—light-saber dual. But beyond the showmanship, we were delighted to discover some true talent. Here are our favourites from the first two nights:

Lucian Matis has been named the winner of the first FDCC Designer Development Fund award. The fund will be awarded annually in support of Canadian fashion designers who demonstrate potential for growth. A business mentorship with FDCC prez Robin Kay is part of the prize. “We want to extend the potential to build their brand and assist the designers with the necessary tools to help them emerge nationally and internationally in this new economy,” says Kay. [LGFW]

Georgia May Jagger will join Coco Rocha as the two new faces of Rimmel London’s campaign starting in 2010. [The Cut]

This week’s New York Magazine has named Anna Wintour one of the 12 most powerful New Yorkers. This news didn’t come as too shocking, but more confusing is the fact that the Vogue powerhouse is the sole woman to make the list. [The Cut]