Western Canada Fashion Week: Fall/Winter 2010

I didn’t attend the last Edmonton Fashion Week in the spring, the first that had been rebranded as Western Canada Fashion Week, but was looking forward to seeing what the event had in store this time around.

I met up with Amanda on Saturday night at the TransAlta Arts Barns about forty-five minutes before the show was to start, as we assumed the crowds would be large. It wasn’t so, at least not on this night – the Westbury Theatre was barely even half full.

Me and Amanda

The show’s ultimate draw for both of us was Sid Neigum, a young designer from Edmonton who won Fashion Week’s Emerging Designer competition last year and was recently accepted into the Fashion Institute for Technology in New York. He had first billing on the evening’s program, but unfortunately, when the lights dimmed and his name was announced, it turned out he wouldn’t be showcasing his collection at all. Instead, WCFW wanted to honour him and dressed two models in what Amanda thought were designs from his last collection. Why the organizers chose to include his name in the program at all was beyond us – we were mislead, but were hoping the rest of the evening would make up for it.

Sid Neigum

Next up was Luxx by Derek Jagodzinsky. Amanda liked some of the bright, almost tribal-printed leggings, but we both thought the collection he exhibited was quite limited.

Luxx (the first model is Linsay Willier, known for competing in Canada’s Next Top Model)

E squared offered a similarly brief snapshot of their menswear line, most outfits which included shiny bursts of silver fabric reminiscent of futuristic space designs.

E squared

My favourite showcase of the evening was Joeffer Caoc (put on by My Philosophy) – clean lines and designs meant to show off a woman’s figure, I could see myself picking up many of the pieces. More than anything though, this set had many more models than the previous two designers, and instead of having the models walk and finish the runway on their own, built up a good rhythm during their segment by sending the subsequent model down when the first was about halfway done.

Joeffer Caoc

The show wrapped up with Lanvin Menswear (put on by Henry Singer) and featured suits and business casual attire.

Lanvin

After Sandra Sing Fernandes came out and did her usual call for audience members to “walk off” and closed the evening, I looked at my watch – only an hour had passed since we started at 8:15, and with the fifteen minute intermission, meant that there ended up being less than forty-five minutes of actual fashion. Compared to the previous EFW shows I’ve attended, this show seemed short.

Western Canada Fashion Week continues until September 23 – I hope the remaining shows provide more than just the fleeting glance that we received that night.