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.

See the looks from Western Canada Fashion Week»

Running seasonally for eight straight nights since its inception in 2005, Western Canada Fashion Week (WCFW) offers a platform for both emerging and veteran designers alike to showcase their work in a province that is relatively new to the fashion scene. Alongside expert-affirmation from the Mercedes-Benz Start Up judges last week, we can certainly say that there is some sparkle out west.

From Edmonton darling Nicole Campre, this season’s WCFW Emerging Designer contest winner, to long-time mens and womenswear designer Stanley Carroll, WCFW is nurturing some exciting talent each season at the TransAlta Arts Barns—and here are a few to check out:

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.

Apparently, we were sleeping for a few days last Toronto Fashion Week, because America’s Next Top Model came and went without us even blinking an eye! Last October, the model competition brought their contestants to the tents to strike a pose at a few of the shows, including Jay Manuel (natch), Joe Fresh, Pink Tartan […]

The post America’s Next Top Model hits Toronto Fashion Week! appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

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Bringing in a packed house for their 6 p.m. show, the husband-and-wife team behind Martin Lim is clearly onto something. Winners of last season’s Mercedes-Benz Start Up competition, they’ve already managed to carve a space in the crowded Canadian marketplace and construct garments that are instantly recognizable as their own.

The flyaway details across shoulders and down back seams were all there along with new tricks including sliced car wash swishes of silk, boxy leather tops, a metalicized chinoiserie print (best worn front row by our editor-in-chief, Bernadette Morra) and piped mesh leggings under everything from tunics to dresses. As if that weren’t enough, their bold colour blocking and playful palette are sure to get the cash registers ringing.

View the runway photo gallery »

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View the runway video »

If there’s one main takeaway message from fashion week, it’s that we must recognize, foster, and promote our home-grown talent so that it can grow both here and abroad. With this in mind, the inaugural Mercedes-Benz Start Up competition was held last night, and up for grabs was a year of mentorship from industry leaders (including us at FASHION!) to kick-start a fledgling collection. After a rigorous selection process (preliminary competitions, meetings, tense deliberations) the short list was whittled down to Cassie Dee, Martin Lim, Travis Taddeo, Triarchy, and UNTTLD, and united in Toronto for a runway showdown. Short video montages introduced each designer, their vision, and their inspiration for the coming season. We saw a dark, leather-laced collection (UNTTLD), a western-inspired line (Cassie Dee), a denim parade (Triarchy), some disheveled streetwear (Travis Taddeo), and bright billowy silks (Martin Lim). After a brief designer bow, a surprisingly flustered Jessica Stam took to the podium to announce the winner. Drumroll please… Husband and wife team Pao Lim and Danielle Martin of Martin Lim! Now comes the real hard work—keeping our promises and making sure they get the attention they deserve! Stay tuned for the duo’s wears in an upcoming issue of FASHION.

There’s less than a week to go before the five Mercedes-Benz Start Up finalists hit the runway at LG Fashion Week to show their Spring 2012 collections. Ready to see what Cassie Dee, Martin Lim, Travis Taddeo, Triarchy, and UNTTLD have been working on? As the official media sponsor, FASHION Magazine will be live streaming the entire event. But before the grand reveal, find out more about each of the finalists and what inspired their collections.

As the Montreal and Vancouver Mercedes-Benz Start Up finalists are busy at work on their upcoming Spring 2012 collections, to be shown during LG Fashion Week, we take a look back at how it all got whittled down to the final five: Martin Lim, Travis Taddeo, UNTTLD, Triarchy, and Cassie Dee.

The post Video: Go behind the scenes at the Mercedes-Benz Start Up semi finals in Vancouver and Montreal appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

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After a stellar showing in Montreal, it was Vancouver’s turn to identify a few budding designers looking for a boost from the Mercedes-Benz Start Up mentorship program.

First, the competitors needed to make an impression on the judges, who included Aritzia design director Yumi Eto, journalist and former FASHION staffer Catherine Dunwoody, IMG global production director and Project Runway Australia judge Jarrad Clark, and yours truly, among others.

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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: