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Fashion

Inside the Drake General Store.

The Drake Hotel and The Collections toast a new collaboration that celebrates local fashion

Ahead of a busy few weeks of style-focused events popping up around Toronto, all staged in an effort to fill the void left by the demise of Toronto's official fashion week, The Drake General Store, a Drake Hotel venture, and The Collections, a fashion production and marketing agency that has had hand in launching the careers of a number of young designers, hosted a party to debut a smart collaboration that puts Canadian-made clothes in front of Canadian shoppers.

DJ Karim Olen Ash.

Dwayne Kennedy, Vicki Milner, Mel Ashcroft, Tanya Black.

Through Oct. 6, on the mezzanine level of the Drake General Store's Queen Street West flagship, as well as its online shop, more than 20 Canadian creators will have the chance to get their wares not just seen by local shoppers but bought. Over the course of the forward-thinking collaboration's six-week run, groups of five to eight fashion and accessories labels will be highlighted for a dozen days each, with trunk shows and sales taking place in the shop, too.

It all combines to gives shoppers an oh-so-important opportunity to meet some of bright young creators who make up the gen-next of Canada's fashion players, among them Alberta-born designer Sid Neigum, fourth-generation fine jewellery maker Taylor Lash, Toronto-based Tara Rivas, and Vancouver/London-based women's-wear designer Alex S. Yu.

Kofi Gyekye and Andrea Bolley.

The launch of the collaboration was hosted, naturally, in the The Drake General Store, just a few steps from the Drake Hotel, and fashion followers and scene regulars packed the quaint space for an after-dark celebration. Among those out: stylist types including Joelle Litt and Susie Sheffman; featured designers including Corrine Anestopoulos of jewellery label Biko and Montreal-based designers Andy Long Hoang and Tinashe Musara of the label WRKDEPT; painter and party regular Andrea Bolley; Canadian Arts and Fashion Awards co-founder Vicky Milner; entrepreneur and fashion plate Kofi Gyekye; fashion consultant and former Holt Renfrew fashion director Barbara Atkin; Scotiabank's director of sponsorships Gallant Law; Saks Fifth Avenue's man-about-town marketing director Shayne Stephens; and The Collections' co-founders Mel Ashcroft, Dwayne Kennedy and Brian Richards.

Susie Sheffman and Hannah Factor.

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