We have a new home!

Have you heard the news? |FAT| has a brand spankin’ new website!

www.fashionarttoronto.ca

And with good reason too: we’ve trimmed our words and are now officially |FAT| Arts & Fashion Week! We’ve also got a new venue and an earlier season. All in the name of offering you a better event than ever before.

Wondering why we dropped the “alternative”? Executive Director Vanja Vasic sums it up for the curious minds:

After 6 years in existence with over 1000 participating fashion designers and artists in total, |FAT| Arts & Fashion Week is no longer an ‘alternative’ to something else, rather it stands on its own ground.

So head on over to our new site, have a browse, and get excited for the upcoming season: fashionSCAPES, happening April 24 – 27, 2011.

Farewell Zoran Sale – This Saturday!

Because the education of a designer is never really done, our beloved Zoran Dobric is taking off to merry old England to get his Masters from the London College of Fashion. He’s made many a fan here in Canada and beyond, and we’re thrilled to see what great things will come from this amazing experience.

With his departure less than 2 weeks away, he’s taken the opportunity to host a sale and give you massive discounts on his stock. Massive. Up to 80% massive. If you’ve been looking to support great Canadian design, this is certainly one of the best times to do it. So come on over, and show Zoran some love.

Watch out England, you’ve got a good one coming your way!

 

Martin Lim makes big at Mercedes-Benz StartUp.

A few months ago, Mercedes-Benz and IMG had a great big announcement to make to the Canadian fashion industry. To the surprise of many, this big news had nothing to do with a buyout or venue change (as several suspected) and instead, focused on the young designers here in Canada. The Mercedes-Benz Start Up was revealed as:

a new initiative that is intended to provide a national platform to discover and support up-and-coming Canadian designers who have been in business for five years or less. [MB Start Up]

With Canadian fashion becoming more and more populated by a generation of young, driven and incredibly talented designers, it’s great to see more people stepping up to plate and giving them a stage from which to show the world what they can do.

What’s even better (for us, that is) is that we’re thrilled to have seen two of our own |FAT| 2011 designers in the running for the top spot! Both Martin Lim and Anastasia Lomonova made it into the Montreal semi-finals, with Martin Lim being selected as one of the top 4 nationally!

Next up for Martin Lim? Danielle Martin and Pao Lim will present their line in a group show with the other 3 chosen designers at LG Fashion Week in October. Following this, the panel will select one designer who will receive 5 months of mentoring by top names in the industry, including Fashion Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Bernadette Morra, in the lead up to a solo show at LGFW in the spring.

We offer a huge congrats to the four finalists: Martin Lim, UNTTLD, Triarchy by Adam Taubenfligel and Cassie Dee.

Best of luck to all of you, though we hope you’ll understand when we cheer just a bit harder for one of our own.

Martin Lim. Photography by George Pimentel/Stringer (Fashion Magazine)

Anastasia Lomonova. Photography by George Pimentel/Stringer (Fashion Magazine)

MARTIN LIM’s Fashion Performance at Bell Lightbox Cinema

We just got word that Montreal fashion label, Martin Lim, who recently showed at FAT in April, will be returning to Toronto via virtual interactive screen at the Bell Lightbox Cinema Center on King St. W.  on Wednesday June 15th from 4:30pm-5:00pm.

The performance is set to take place simultaneously to Montrealers and Torontonians in from of the screen of The Cheating Wall.

Martin Lim references the work of artist Vanessa Beecroft, to create a live painting through a screen that connects two cities. Passersby will experience a fashion performance that evokes questions around voyeurism and the complex relationships between the beholder and the woman.

Here’s a look at MARTIN LIM’s collection at FAT 2011.

Make sure to visit the Bell Lightbox tomorrow at 4:30pm for Martin Lim’s whimsical performance.

http://www.martin-lim.com/

Flashback – Breeyn McCarney’s Paper Dolls at FAT2011

Now that I’ve had some time to decompress from FAT, I get to sit back and reminisce about some of my favorite moments from the festival. Here’s a look back at the incredible show from Breeyn McCarney and Christopher Lewis and their ghostly beautiful paper dolls.

Behind the scenes as Breeyn McCarney and Christopher Lewis make their paper dresses.

AFTv EXCLUSIVE: TFN PERFORM “JUNGLE” LIVE! @ F.A.T. 2011

TFN perform their new song, “Jungle” live at F.A.T. (Fashion & Art Toronto) 2011. TFN have announced their upcoming summer tour “Weekend Warrior” with shows starting in mid June! Check typicalfridaynight.com to find out where you can catch the best.weekend.ever!

Fashion On Film: Pat McDonagh directed by Billie Mintz – |FAT| 2011

Legendary designer, Pat McDonagh gives us an inside look to her life, career and personal life in the fashion industry. A retrospective video, directed by Billie Mintz showcases a sit down interview with McDonagh herself and first account experience with clients modeling and shopping her latest collection.

McDonagh  says that it’s taken some time learning humility – all of which comes with old age. “I try to say that everyday I learn my lesson in being nice to people, not being snippy and not being such an ego tripper – and I really have to control that.” McDonagh continues to say that with her extensive career in the industry she’s learned that she must right all the people she has wronged along the way. “And that is my goal, before I die, every single one of those people, I’ll put it right –perhaps live to about 1003.” Even when being serious, McDonagh cracks a joke.

When asked what’s the vision, McDonagh is quick to respond that her tumultuous life and art is that of a patch work quilt. “I feel my life has been a patchwork quilt of fragmented pieces that are all jagged and are all not going together.” Great metaphor, but she later continues saying that she and her creations are still living — well talent certainly does have longevity.

FAT 2011 | Runway: Miller Monroe

Knowing Louie J. Manzo, one half of design duo of Miller Monroe as a laid-back and extremely amicable persona only high-lighted through his irreverent and flamboyant sense of style; one can’t be shocked  and quite frankly, petrified, to see him backstage before his runway show.

Before the highly anticipated men’s wear show of Manzo and Baby Steinberg I was backstage snapping shots and excited for what I had thought would have been a good luck wish to Louie. Next thing I know I’m dumb-founded by the tenacity and control that Louie demands from his models, show assistants and volunteers. Dressed down and barking orders, and I say this in the highest form of respect. When you’re talented you can’t help but want control and know what you want!

Elegance captured in printed textile skirts, crisp white shirts and detailing in accessories like the reinvented tie – in the form of feathered fixtures – and the amount of skin didn’t either giving the the collection a modern throw back! Notes of cool factors were extenuated with skateboards and the male fascinator took a zero to sixty drive to the conservative eyes of Toronto in a second when a model donned the headpiece! Gender bender? I don’t think so! The appreciation of style and design, more like!

PHOTOS: Steve Alkok. All Rights Reserved

FAT 2011 | Runway: Fashion Whore

Glitter, trannies and sequins light up closing night of FAT 2011!

Fashion Whore sent an array of models clad in bright hued wigs, sequined dresses & separates and we can’t forget the glitter – that I swear I’m still finding all over my bag!

The last model – in strands of pearls and over-sized caged skirt – had a dramatic presentation of undressing and showing her passionate outbreak to the FAT crowd. Truly interesting!

PHOTOS: Steve Alkok. All Rights Reserved.

Stephanie Kloibhofer – |FAT| 2011

As Canadians we’ve all been faced with this question at least once in our lifetimes: “Who is the stereotypical Canadian?”. Unlike other ethnicities – if we can even think of Canada in those terms – it is difficult to pinpoint a ubiquitous characteristic that defines our people. The best I’ve ever come up with is: Canadians really like hockey and we’re all friendly, oh, and most of us will never say no to an ice cold beer.

Kloibhofer’s photo series We Don’t Need the State to Promote Diversity, takes on the question of national identity by juxtaposing stereotypical notions of what it means to be Canadian with other ethnic icons. The photographs are colourful, fun and thought-provoking. The underlying message, in my opinion, is: anyone can be Canadian.

Enjoy more photographs from this set: