After an amazing first day of mine, and third official day at World MasterCard Fashion Week, the metaphorical bar was set rather high for the presentations and runway shows on Day 4 of Toronto’s most important biannual fashion event. After a noticeably empty Montreal Fashion Week schedule this past February that had much of the Montreal fashion community buzzing about where Montreal favourites like UNTTLD and RUDSAK were, Day 4 was an eagerly anticipated day for those faithful to these Montreal fashion visionaries.
UNTTLD F/W 2013
This past season at Montreal Fashion Week, Quebec’s fashion community was only teased with a small capsule collection from UNTTLD, the emerging, edgy label designed by José Manuel and Simon Bélanger, as part of the inaugural Target Emerging Designer Award. Many of the attendees, including myself were eager for more from this talented duo and were pleasantly surprised to see their name at World MasterCard Fashion Week this season. Inspired by “backstreets, alleyways, hallways and other spaces of limbo where shady business and hidden secrets come alive”, the collection had a certain quintessential mood that exemplified the Montreal woman: menswear-inspired pieces like motorcycle jackets and tuxedo pants proved adaptable and complimentary to the more feminine sheer and iridescent fabrics in their collection.
RUDSAK F/W 2013
Montreal-based outerwear company RUDSAK offered up a collection of tight dresses and skirts that instantly got the crowd groaning about their absence from the gym. Featuring lots of natural fur and black separates interspersed by metallic leather and sequins, designer Evik Asatoorian noted pop culture as an important influence in the creation of his fall/winter collection. Short skirts, sheer blouses and body-con dresses left little to the imagination and much to be considered as to how to adapt these pieces for the reality of a cold Canadian winter, but were thankfully complimented by RUDSAK’s popular parkas and jackets.
VAWK F/W 2013
All images via George Pimental
Taking a notably difference stance on what the ideal woman should be wearing next winter, Toronto-based Sunny Fong of VAWK chose to work with a much wider assortment of patterns and colours usually reserved for spring/summer collections: florals, moss green and cream took a predominant role in a collection titled “Nordic Fauna”. Inspired by classic hunting gear and the clean, modern lines of Scandinavian interior design, Fong focused on “re-inventing kitsch” by paying close attention to the cuts and tailoring of the collection. With an extremely sartorially heavy week of mostly black and fur collections, it was refreshing to see a substantially different take on next season that wowed the audience and rendered a standing ovation and audible cheers at the final walk-through.