FASHION Magazine

See the Matière Noire collection »
See the Malerie Urbanovitch collection »

The tie that led to Edmonton’s Malorie Urbanovitch and Montreal’s Cecile Raizonville sharing the runway at World Mastercard Fashion Week last night could have felt like a showdown. Instead, both designers held her ground, a testament to the growing strength of the Mercedes-Benz Startup competition that brought them there. After a Canada-wide search for talent, Urbanovitch and Raizonville, who designs under the label Matière Noire, were declared winners at a Toronto fashion week event in October. Last night’s show, along with industry mentorship along the way, was their prize.

Matière Noire opened the presentation with boxy tops and tulip skirts accented with lunar photo prints and geometric patterns inspired by Inuit tattoos. Some were knit into pullovers or embroidered on belts in collaboration with Quebec weaver Marie-Anne Adams. Most intriguing was the way Adams had trapped strips of leather under net for jacket sleeves.

Now in its third year, the Mercedes-Benz Start Up competition celebrates some of the most exciting newcomers to hit Canada’s fashion scene. This year, two winners share the prize and applause: Montreal’s Matière Noire and Edmonton’s Malorie Urbanovitch. We go behind the seams of their award-winning spring collections:

See the Mercedes-Benz Start Up Spring 2014 collections »

It was a tough decision.

So tough, in fact, that choosing a winner of the Mercedes Benz Start Up competition at World MasterCard Fashion Week proved impossible.

So last night, the judges, including myself, did the only possible thing we could think of: we declared two winners.

Edmonton’s Malorie Urbanovitch and Montreal’s Matiere Noire share the prize: mentoring from industry experts, editorial coverage in FASHION Magazine, and a runway show at the Fall 2014 collections in Toronto. Judge and Holt Renfrew’s vice president Ruth Ann Lockart lauded Urbanovitch’s strategic decision to focus her business on washed silks, a market niche. Her pale, loose-cut dresses were topped with chunky Italian-made knits that have a whiff of modern grunge.

View our Montreal Fashion Week gallery »

The Montreal Fashion Week party s’est terminé. Edition 24 of this four-day event celebrated its second instalment at the massive Arsenal Gallery in Griffintown. Here, in chronological order, were the ten most Instagram-worthy moments: