Montreal Fashion Week Diary Part I

Tags : Mode, Soirées

While power-walking across the cobble stone of the old port in high heals is no easy task, waiting in line to get your tickets, ten minutes after the show is scheduled to begin had me worried I would have to sip overpriced wine in the showroom while waiting for the next show to begin. Thankfully, Muse by Christian Chenail accommodated the fashionably late and I shuffle into my seat with time to spare to people watch. I spy 2 c-list Québec celebrities, about 300 well-coiffed and highlighted hair-bobs and plenty of eye-makeup.

The show begins with a dance remix of Françoise Hardy’s Comment Te Dire Adieu and immediately my brain wanders to images of fall in the 60s by the Eiffel tower- until the first model comes out wearing textured leather and I am hesitant.  I hold my breath, waiting for the second model. Wait- were those arm warmers? Yes. Ouch.  All in all, the collection looked like it had been crafted by a first year fashion design student in the 90s, fishing in the cheap bin of Fabricville. There! I said it! If you’re going to use fake fur, just don’t use fur at all. We can tell… especially, if you use a 20cm strip of it to hem a full dress.  It’s unfortunate that a designer with such notoriety and experience would produce such a deceptive collection. Should we blame the recession for this too? One pair of pants got the thumbs up from this girl (which is saying a lot, because I don’t actually wear pants). Loose at the top and just tapered enough at the bottom, I thank the heavens for its appearance in the show that allowed my heart to regain its regular heartbeat. When all is said and done, Christian Chenail will be dressing lots of the province’s 40-somethings, and I will still be unemployed. Maybe I’m bitter; maybe I just need a drink. Onto the next show!

I enter Bodybag by Jude full of prejudice and cynicism. Thankfully, I am proved wrong. Even though I can hardly see through the woman in front of me’s weave, all my pre-conceived notions that Bodybag was nothing but just another streetwear line quickly melt away as one after the other, purple and yellow plaids, tiny hyper-feminine pleats, girly 50s veiled hats, long leather gloves and knee-length dresses parade down the runway. The whole show mixes geek-chic with brit pop-rock and it’s all very ‘‘young Canadian literature student on her first year at University of London’’. While Bodybag by Jude mainly featured more structured and tailored pieces, the designer’s other line launched last night, J.U.D.E., was all about movement with its long fringes and silk ruffles. Local celebrity sighting: Loft Story’s Elisabetta clearly reads Nightlife Magazine and took our fashion writer Catherine DeMontigny’s advice to dye her hair red.

We end the evening with the Godmother of Quebec Fashion: Marie St-Pierre. The room is packed and yours truly has to stand. Everyone is taller then me, I’m tired and grumpy and about 5 thirteen year old girls with bad haircuts are sitting in the front row. Thankfully, David Majer of Live MTL takes pity on a poor short girl’s inability to see and shuffles me to the other side of his camera where I have a prime lookout spot onto the runway. Now I have never really understood the hype surrounding the Queen Mother of local fashion, and as the lights go off and we wait through a 5 minute conceptual musical intro, I’m still crabby and un-convinced. Then all of a sudden, the lights come on and with one look at the runway, my mood changed; Folio’s Delphie, my favourite new model (featured in our February fashion spread) walks out in a thin, black, jersey tunic and I am sold. My pained toes feel like a travesty after witnessing girl after girl sashay down in what seems like 10-meter-high heals. The title is justly earned as every monochrome PVC leggings, thick rib knits and smooth jersey drapes look perfectly fitted and finished and the show features, by far, the best selection of models I’ve seen at Montreal Fashion Week to date. Local celebrity sighting: rocker Marie-Chantale Toupin (or a perfect look-alike), blocking her ears, seemingly unable to take the volume of the dark and moody soundtrack.

Tonight, I'm taking the night off in order to attend Thursday night's shows in full force and maybe after a good night's sleep I will have more faith in the future of local fashion.

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