FASHION Magazine

Every year, we get a new “future of fashion.” Some fifty students—the hopeful designers of next year’s womenswear, menswear, swimwear, whatever-you-can-wear—graduate from Ryerson‘s School of Fashion. It’s the best in the country they say, and we believe.

Their annual show-off, Mass Exodus, is a bigger deal every year. From the fifty, twenty final collections are selected for runway staging. The theatre fills with fellow students and parents, yes, but also people who don’t have to be there: stylists, buyers, and media peeps like us. Plus, an eternal favourite sighting: beloved alum Jeremy Laing.

This year’s titular theme was Zenith & Nadir. Glossy show notes (plus, for the first time ever, a pretty impressive magazine—should we be watching our backs?) explained that Zenith and Nadir is up for exploration, for you to define. Sorry to be all English-y here, but that’s not quite true. Zenith and Nadir are opposite celestial poles, so zenith is used to mean “the highest point,” and nadir, the lowest.

So, we present the highest points of this year’s Mass Ex. But first, claps to all those who showed.

If the future of sustainable fashion were laid on the shoulders of wildly inventive Heidi Ackerman, we’d be in good hands. Known for her boldly-printed knits and space-age silhouettes, the designer has found the magic medium between wondrous and wearable while completely disavowing Holly Hobby’s claim to the aesthetic of sustainable clothing.

Those with a sugary sweet taste in accessories will love the spring collection of arm candy by Nyla Noor. Launched in 2008 by sisters Saifra and Romaana Zia, Nyla Noor’s timeless bags are refined, elegant and high quality with a reasonable price point to boot!

After enduring months of sub-zero temperatures, most of us are suffering from winter wanderlust—the desperate desire to be any place where the temperature climbs above ten degrees. While a stamp on our passports might have to wait, we can imagine ourselves in blissfully blistering Kachchh, India thanks to Amrit Kumar and Mriga Kapadiya, the designing duo behind the new label NorBlack NorWhite.

The thought of getting out of bed for a 7am spin class makes most of us want to dive back under the covers, especially when working out involves wearing a nasty old gym shirt. Enter Michi, a hot new luxury active line that will have you out of bed and feeling the burn before you can say “calisthenics.”

By Caitlin Agnew

Do you long for the days when lingerie was feminine and understatedly sexy? The kind of high-waisted, lacy underthings worn by the irresistible bombshells on Mad Men? Dream no more. Vintage-inspired label, The Loved One, has just launched their debut lingerie collection, capturing that retro romance with perfect pitch.

Everyone loves a Canadian designer in London. From Erdem to Mark Fast to Thomas Tait, it’s a whole new boys’ club over there. But they better make room for one serious creative force of a girl: Kat Marks.

The Calgary native graduated from the Ryerson School of Fashion in 2008. I’ve never forgotten her work at the grad show. While most of her peers were fussily reinventing the cocktail dress, Marks was making balloon-shouldered bodysuits and plastic torsos with jutting hips. Think Margiela, but at a sex shop. Soon after leaving Ryerson, off Marks went to the London College of Fashion, where she got her Masters in Fashion Artefact and all the right kinds of attention.

Today, Marks’ fashion film, The Karass, premieres at SHOWStudio.com. No big deal: it’s just the major-est, most respected avant-garde fashion force in the whole UK. And yes, the short is shot by the site’s mastermind and genius image-maker, Nick Knight himself!

Experience the video for yourself, but be sure to keep in mind that every interchangeable piece of these hyper real tuxedo-like breastplates was made by Marks’ own hands: the vegetable-dyed, heat-moulded leathers, the manipulated bits of brass and the Perspex, which was hand-etched (“tattooed,” she says) with ink.

How did Marks and this bizarre, wearable-but-just-barely work get such a spectacular break? She didn’t. She sent an email. Alexander Fury, fashion director of SHOWStudio, “got it” right away. “It is rare to see pieces as distinctive and strong as Kat Marks’ work,” he says in a press release for the film. “Rare on the catwalks, and certainly rare in a designer so young.”

And so here’s the mega-talented Ms. Marks in her own words, typed over Skype and delivered straight to you.

Another day, another eco-friendly clothing line. The realm of the environmentally friendly, organic cotton using designer is an overcrowded one, beginning to look more like a scene in Soylent Green than anything else. Snide exaggerations aside, with every “But it’s organic!” that we hear, sometimes organic isn’t enough. Another shtick is necessary to get more […]

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