FASHION Magazine

You might say Veronica MacIsaac was fated to be a tartan fashion designer. Born of Scottish descent to parents on Celtic Cape Breton Island, her mother went into labour with her at a pipe band party. Today she is known world’s only fashion designer who specializes in women’s modern tartan clothing. Based out of Halifax, Nova […]

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Still exhausted from last Thursday’s Emerging Designer Showcase, an epic evening of 15 collections, a glance at my sparse program the following evening reminded me of the even-then thin second showcase we experienced last season at Atlantic Fashion Week. With some of our hard-hitters (namely Katrina Tuttle and Deux Fm) nabbing spots in, ahem, shall I say larger fashion weeks, ol’ AFW night two, intended to show our biggest and brightest, was feeling a little sparse.

Luckily, many of our remaining players stepped up to the plate.

On the heels of Wednesday’s jam-packed design-fest, the second night of Atlantic Fashion Week felt noticeably thin with only five collections. Regular show-stoppers Deux fm, Turbine and Katrina Tuttle (read about her show at LG Fashion Week) weren’t on the evening’s agenda—having other projects, from solo showcases to newborns, to tend to—and I darn well missed them.

Padding the blow, however, were new faces, including jewellery designer Megan Allison, an artist-in-residence at NSCAD who knows how to make that statement accessory. Belly-button hovering medallion necklaces were as glamorous in the front as they are in the back, and single earrings—a weakness of mine, as you know—dangled in rich golds with flashes of turquoise and wood.

See a look from Megan Allison’s collection.

Ever run into a friend’s younger sibling, after years, and spend the whole time grinning at how much they’ve grown and who they’ve become? That was the second Atlantic Fashion Week designer showcase for me—an evening of cheek pinches and head pats, or at least the seated, acceptable equivalent: much-deserved applause.

No need for asterisks or apologetic preambles: my city finally nailed down Fashion Week this season—or at least an abbreviated one—hitting a level of success that’s way off the small-town scale.

“Are you seeing those?” I whisper to my boyfriend, sitting attentively to my right. “I need those.”

He responds back with a raised brow and quick exhalation that surprisingly equates—in masculine form—my own untamable excitement for the high-waisted tartan trousers parading on the runway at the AFW Emerging Designer Showcase. The stuff my fashion dreams are made of typically fall into the wildly interesting, but perhaps not always sexy, realm and so his reaction confirms it: these will be my Fashion Week indulgence.