FASHION Magazine

It’s no secret that Canada breeds incredibly talented young designers. And if you thought we were finished with fashion week coverage, think again! We saw a number of incredible Spring 2016 collections during World MasterCard Fashion Week a couple of weeks ago, but several of our favourite collections didn’t showcase at the tents, and they […]

The post 6 Canadian Designer Collections You Need to Know About for Spring 2016 appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

See the Steven Tai Fall 2014 collection »

Designer Steven Tai has always put an emphasis on textiles and working with technological innovations that can be carried into everyday wear. This helps explain why his previous collections have included pops of silicone created by hand in his London studio, elaborate embroidery and artistic collaborations. This young man treats fashion as if it was a science lab and, if it takes two months to craft a showpiece for his runway presentation, so be it. Tai’s knack for the novel has put him on the radars of Vogue, Style.com and a local darling, sold at Holt Renfrew.

But absent from Steven Tai’s Fall 2014 presentation Tuesday night at The ShOws (one week in advance of the official World MasterCard Fashion Week) were the geek-chic pieces of past. In their place are pleated pants and tennis-like skirts, stacked embroidered blooms that recall Prada’s now signature flowers, lurex tweed and jacquard fringe. As moderator Alexandra Palmer put it during her post-show Q&A with Tai, his third official collection seemed, “actually kind of normal.” Of course this was meant in a good way, Tai’s work is now closer to next wave luxury than mad scientist gone gorgeous.

See the biggest Spring 2014 fashion trends »
See all our fashion month coverage »

With the end of fashion week in Toronto marking the close of Spring 2014 show season, it’s time we looked back at all the trends that emerged. As much as the runway sets the pace for what’s to come for the top Spring 2014 trends, the streets play a major role as show-going trendsetters give us the relatable breakdown of how to wear what’s hot next season. Prints take two spots on our top Spring 2014 trends list through those with a painterly quality and those influenced by international cultures. At Hérmes, Rousseau-inspired water lily florals were printed on luxurious fabrics while at Diane Von Furstenberg, dresses and skirts depicting an African wilderness roared. As for fashionable time travel, prepare to keep reminiscing about the youthful 1990s, which haven’t ceased to get reincarnated season after season. Designers like Rodarte, Balmain and Jason Wu have reinvented the decade’s essentials yet again. To help with your daydreaming of long sunny spring days we’ve compiled the ultimate gallery of top Spring 2014 trends as dictated by the runways and our favourite street style stars in New York, London, Milan, Paris and Toronto! Feel free to let this be your guide to budgeting and creating closet space for next season’s must have pieces.

View by trend: 1. 1990s | 2. Art-Inspired | 3. Athletic | 4. Blue | 5. Crop Tops | 6. Embellishment | 7. Metallic | 8. Pleats | 9. Sheer | 10. Worldly

The clean, crisp look of Steven Tai’s future sport Spring 2014 collection was consistent with the hair and makeup for the show. Covergirl makeup pro, Amélie Ducharme, aimed to make girls appear “natural but still done”. First, skin was primed using Covergirl Clean Makeup Sensitive Skin ($8, well.ca) and blush was applied wider and lower than it normally would be to make models “look like they were shy,” explained Ducharme. Skin was then given a dewy finish using a rather unconventional skin product: lipgloss. Ducharme applied a pea-sized amount of Covergirl Wetslicks Lip Gloss in “Clear Radiance” ($7, well.ca) to the back of her hand and, using a sponge, dabbed it onto cheekbones and well as a little on the temple, nose, and top of the lip. A light sweep of mascara, and this fresh, spring look was complete.

See the Steven Tai Spring 2014 collection »

What Steven Tai does in his fabric lab is probably above all of our heads, but that’s just as well; the instant attraction to his clothes is easy enough to understand. The London-based and Vancouver-bred designer brought his latest masterpieces to Toronto last night on the second day of The Shows, and if we had a loonie for every gasp in the room, we’d be rich. (Or at least have like, a few hundred bucks lining our wallet.)

On the surface, what Tai showed was an airy touch on this season’s arts-infused sportswear trend. Perforations, painterly prints and ombre effect pastels, check. It’s all part of the Spring 2014 book. But upon closer inspection (and Tai’s explanation), the inner workings reveal themselves as something much cooler. Those perforations? Actually, a grid style laser cut silkscreen that is a self-contained pattern on its own. That painterly print? Actually, a pixelated collage of England’s Eden Project by Spanish artist Lola Dupre that’s been messed with on a home printer and adhered to embroidery. Even his accessories have a geeky backstory, with helmet style baseball hats molded to reflect Eden’s dome structures.

New York, London, Milan and Paris may host countless (and mind-blowing!) shows during September, but with October quickly approaching our minds are already prepping for Toronto Fashion Week. When it comes to saving the best for last, our city is wrapping up the Spring 2014 season with stellar home-grown talent.

The packed Toronto schedule includes both The ShOws and World MasterCard Fashion Week, both of which are sure to show spring collections that will have us wishing we could just sleep through winter. Need more intel? Read on—we’ll be updating this guide to Toronto Fashion Week Spring 2014 as the details roll in.

Jump to: World MasterCard Fashion Week | The ShOws

See the biggest Fall 2013 fashion trends »
See all our fashion month coverage »

Fashion month may have finally wrapped, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to forget about the trends that emerged for Fall 2013 on the many runways of New York, London, Milan, Paris and Toronto—In fact, it’s time for them to take front and centre. While shoppers everywhere are snapping up the best of the selling floor’s offerings for spring and summer, designers, buyers and editors alike are busy prepping ahead. And since we know y’all like to keep ahead of the curve, we’ve sorted through hundreds of photos and selected 10 of the top Fall 2013 trends so that you can mentally prep (and save) too!

Next season, it’s all about fur, which landed in both faux and real on runways including Marni, JW Anderson, and most strikingly at Fendi, where it was combined in a dizzying multitude of punky ways. The 1990s were back for another resurgence, continuing Spring 2013’s grunge trend at Saint Laurent in Paris and Chloé Comme Parris right here at home. On the street, the look was easily created by many fashion week attendees who layered plaids on waists, under jackets and even on tights. And while practically speaking, it may be no major surprise that outerwear was one of the top Fall 2013 trends, this show season we saw jackets take on new forms with quilting, oversized shapes and bold colours which were mirrored outside the shows, with equally interesting choices hitting the pavement

Here are 100 images to help jog your memory of the top Fall 2013 trends spotted inside and outside of the fashion week stents, so sit back, click through, and relive the fashion month in all its street style and runway glory.

View by trend: 1. 1990s |2. SKIRT SUITS|3. FUR | 4. HATS | 5. OUTERWEAR | 6. PINK | 7. PLAID | 8. STATEMENT ACCESSORIES | 9. CRAZY COMBOS | 10. UNIQUE PRINTS

Missed Toronto Fashion Week’s first batch of shows? Have no fear! In this short and sweet video, we recap some of the best moments on and off the runway as well as speak to two of our favourite hot young talents, designers Tanya Taylor and Steven Tai. Visit our Fashion Week page for complete coverage […]

The post Video: Behind the scenes of The Shows at Toronto Fashion Week Fall 2013 appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

See the Steven Tai Fall 2013 collection »

If the meek inherit the earth, the geeks will inherit the fashion industry. At the second day of the off-the-grid fashion week, The Shows, we were introduced to Vancouver-born Steven Tai, who virtually blew the room away with his abnormal talents. We mean abnormal in the best way possible. A self-professed mad scientist who concocts fabric mixes as if they were potions, Tai showed a vibrant, street conscious and highly wearable Fall 2013 collection made of new and unique fabrics like…silicone. “There’s a big future in silicone,” he told me after the show. How so? Well, take the two apocalyptically quaint looking sweatshirts that closed the collection (exhibit A and B). Their quirky combinations of magnets, embroidery (the little gals pictured), digital prints (the UFOs hovering menacingly) are easily covetable, but the Kool-Aid orange and turquoise poured silicone is what really makes them stand out from the rest. Tai’s fabric experimentation also extended to his use of unusual quilting on cotton pockets and jackets and his peekaboo pant pleating was extraordinary. Any way you slice it, really, Tai gets two thumbs up.

At long last the fashion-week train has pulled into Toronto. The 10-day (or so) extravaganza kicks off tomorrow night with The Shows before moving to King West on Monday for World MasterCard Fashion Week at David Pecaut Square. A truly Canadian affair, both of the Toronto Fashion Week enterprises bring a wealth of global experience and influences home, and for the Fall 2013 season there’s no shortage of world-class newcomers on the roster.

In addition to our tried-and-true favourites (Chloé Comme Parris, Jeremy Laing and Pink Tartan), we’ve got our eyes on four promising Toronto runway first-timers: Steven Tai (who presents his latest collection at The Shows fresh from its debut at Paris Fashion Week) and Lacerda, Maison Matthew Gallagher and Thomas Bálint, all to be featured in the tents. Put together, these labels have combined experience in São Paulo, New York, Milan, Berlin, London and Macau. For some, this season will be their international coming-out party, though one of them has already found a fan in influential Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto.

Here’s our insider intel on what these talented additions to Toronto Fashion Week are bringing to the runway »