Stay up to date on Fashion Week 2019
Last week, thousands of Toronto fashion trendsetters flocked, to the Bloor-Yorkville area, to be among the first to check out the Spring/Summer 2019 collections at Toronto Fashion Week (TFW). From September 4-6, fashionistas wore their finest, as they indulged in fine food at the newly invented Style Plate event, listened in at the live taping of Fashion Talks podcasts, and browsed and shopped at the RE/SET Showroom at 87 Yorkville Avenue.
The Bloor-Yorkville BIA was a proud Community Sponsor of the event, along with Lead Partner Yorkville Village, and Founding Partners Hill & Gertner, The Hazelton Hotel, Freed Developments and in collaboration with RE\SET™.
The event had live podcast tapings of Fashion Talks, hosted by CBC’s Donna Bishop, which drew a large audience of fashion-lovers daily. Alex Kavanagh, Leslie Kavanagh and Christine Toye from The Canadian Alliance of Film and Television Costume Arts and Design (CAFTCAD) enlightened the audience by detailing the process of bringing a costume to life onscreen. You can still check out some of the work by CAFTCAD members in the ‘From Concept to Creation’ exhibit in the atrium at Yorkville Village on display until Sept. 30.
Donna Bishop also sat down with photographer Caitlin Cronenberg and set designer Jessica Ennis to discuss their book The Endings: Stories of Love, Loss, Redemption and Beginning Again. The duo’s book release took place opening night and included an art exhibit of their work. The exhibit is now on display at Taglialatella Galleries, located at 99 Yorkville Ave., until September 19.
Also featured was Dr. Alexandra Palmer, senior fashion curator at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), who discussed the importance of Fashion and Textile Collections for museums and its visitors. Her latest work, Iris van Herpen: Transforming Fashion, is currently on display at the ROM.
Top-tier Canadian talent took over the runway in Yorkville Village, with more than 20 shows and events, centered around the innovative creations by Christopher Bates, Hayley Elsaesser, Hendrixroe, Narces, Zoff, and RE\SET™ Designers Alex S. Yu, Christopher Paunil, Hilary Macmillan, Mani Jassal, Mikhael Kale, Namesake, Tara Rivas, and Victoria Hayes. The Royal Ontario Museum welcomed Mikhael Kale’s Spring/Summer 2019 collection in an exhibit designed to highlight the connection between fashion and art.
Leather jacket fans headed over to LUMAS Gallery at 159 Yorkville Avenue, to check out RE\SET™ 004 with 13 on-of-a-kind pieces on display by Rosa Halpern, designer and creative director of NAMESAKE, and participating artists in the NAMESAKE Artist Collaboration.
Proceeds for each jacket purchased directly benefit, Fashion Revolution, a not-for-profit organization, who’s initiative is to change the way clothes are sourced, produced and consumed by ensuring safe, clean and fair conditions for workers in the manufacturing industry. Jackets are currently on display in the oval of Yorkville Village for the month of October, allowing consumers and the general public access to see the collection first hand, and engage in supporting this initiative.
The Launch of Style Plate invited foodies to enjoy a new dining experience in which chefs and mixologists, from participating Bloor-Yorkville restaurants & bars, teamed up with select Fashion Week designers presenting to craft a unique dish and/or cocktail inspired by the designer’s collections. Participating restaurants included Amber, Bar Reyna, Cibo Wine Bar, Kasa Moto, ONE Restaurant, Sassafraz, Sofia, STK, Trattoria Nervosa, The Oxley and Planta. The new event was a smash hit, and garnered a significant amount of media attention including the front page of the Toronto Star, as well as full front-page coverage in their Entertainment and Life section.
To round-off the exciting week, Yorkville Village played host to the annual Toronto Life and FASHION’s “Best Dressed” event. The venue was transformed with photography from FASHION’s most-recent issue, palm trees and even a star-shaped swing. Guests indulged in make-up applications, delectable cheese and oysters, specialty cocktails, wine and ales before hitting the dance floor.
Once again, the success of Toronto Fashion Week attracted over 10,000 visitors to the Bloor-Yorkville neighbourhood, and continues to receive excellent coverage from media including; The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, National Post, Fashion Magazine, ET Canada, CBC, Hello! Canada, Post City, Now Toronto, Daily Hive, Fajo Magazine, The Talk, Trend Hunter and Toronto Life.