26 hot looks from the runways this week
Canada's best designers took a note from the chilly March weather on Tuesday, when they showcased some warmer looks on the runway.
It makes sense that a Montreal-based designer would call on an ice castle for inspiration, especially considering the city's extreme snowfall last night.Jenna Marie Wakani
Duy Nguyen's fall collection was timely, then — and also quite good. The theme was just literal enough, best explored through suggestion in the nubbly wool knits in the form of graceful body-con dresses and knitted rosettes.Jenna Marie Wakani
Cold blues appeared throughout, glossy like ice in leather and in a standout wooly cropped bomber. I fell for anything in an embroidered tulle, which was gold and regal, and killed it when it veered towards casual in cropped trousers.Jenna Marie Wakani
Those last few dresses in metallic embroidery? A feat of detail and construction.Jenna Marie Wakani
While the formal wear was of a different vein, it picked up on shapes presented earlier in the collection for a cohesive look.Jenna Marie Wakani
Looks like the industry mentorships that came with his win paid off — especially when paired with all that talent.Jenna Marie Wakani
While Duy embraced the ice, John Muscat and Jennifer Wells escaped it like proper Torontonians. Their Line fall collection called on the idea of protection from winter elements, but also kind of surrendered to them too: If you have to go outside, you might as well do it in metallics and leather.Jenna Marie Wakani
And, oh, what I would have given to drape myself in any of those knits, particularly an oversized ribbed sweater which was paired with a holographic blouse and super slouchy pants.Jenna Marie Wakani
One all-white look, knit peplum skirt included, proposed a heightened ideal of sweater dressing (ahem, no soft pants).Jenna Marie Wakani
It was sophisticated, not sloppy, something that can also describe the show as a whole.Jenna Marie Wakani
Styling elements, like the stiff leather collars, were like wearable armour. I wonder if they'll be at retail?Jenna Marie Wakani
Toronto has such a great pool of young talent, and one of the best parts of fashion week is seeing how these designers develop. Which it one of the many reasons why Sid Neigum's show last night was so fun (even if he was channeling post-apocalyptic).Jenna Marie Wakani
It was an optimistic end-of-days, with stark looks in all-white and all-black opening the show - which really served to highlight Neigum's knack at tailoring.Jenna Marie Wakani
Later, the prints softened the aesthetic, even romanticized it stark black and white roses - a lovely departure from a designer who really favours black.Jenna Marie Wakani
Also fun: Playing 'guess that print' with the last few green looks. Globe contributor and stylist Odessa Paloma Parker thought it was marble; I though rock covered with algae.Jenna Marie Wakani
Whichever way you interpret it, it was beautiful.Jenna Marie Wakani
Viva la femme. Armed with a social consciousness targeting women's rights, Toronto designer David Dixon presented a strong collection of power suits and sharply tailored dresses triumphing the force of the feminine.Jenna Marie Wakani
Opening his sleek, fast-paced show of 36 looks with a 1950s BBC film instructing women as to their intellectual and social inferiority, Dixon restored the imbalance with a black and white collection -- sumptuously rendered in houndstooth, black lace and sequins -- in which opposites boldly co-mingled.Jenna Marie Wakani
These were clothes for real women with jobs, kids, social commitments, said Dixon backstage: "The whole ideas was to keep it simple, strong and elegant."Jenna Marie Wakani
Real women love colour and half the collection was in the-sky's-the- limit blue, seen in a strapless jumpsuit, one of the designer's personal faves, adorned with broken glass jewellery by Rita Tesolin.Jenna Marie Wakani
The piece de la resistance was the finale number, a black hand embroidered tulle and organza gown with a fan bodice and skirt festooned with appliqué flowers in a sun burst pattern. It had queen of the night written all over it.Jenna Marie Wakani
Urban nomad Laura Siegel believes clothes are a home for the body. But as evidenced by a collection inspired by the native habitat of the grizzly and polar bears, home is an open concept. Her predominant burgundy colour palette suggests elemental earth and the blood of the hunt.Jenna Marie Wakani
Fish imagery silk screened into floor skimming, liquid as water tunics represent the bears' principal food source in the wild.Jenna Marie Wakani
Besides motifs from nature, the collection of 15 carefully considered looks showcased tie dye, embroidery and knitting techniques by artisans in homelands as far away as India and South America.Jenna Marie Wakani
Siegel, a 25-year old Toronto native who studied fashion at Parsons in New York and Central St. Martins in London, took the different artisan techniques and cleverly recast them as cosmopolitan street wear, for example this leather bomber in a shade called midnight forest.Jenna Marie Wakani
Tight pants were signature item and these were made from baby Alpaca and a stretch material fused together: an example of the animal world and the human finding a mutual home in a single garment.Jenna Marie Wakani