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Dispatches from Montreal Fashion Week 03-25-2006
The Globe and Mail
As the event evolves, direction comes through in the styling and the details, writes LEANNE DELAP
LEANNE DELAP
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This crazy kimono from Cluc Couture is so bad it's good. This is a city where big prints match big ideas, and the floral theme, so strong in stores right now, appears to be on the Montreal social calendar again for fall. Just make sure to watch your cocktail consumption in this number, or you'll catch your sleeve in the limo door.
We've been screaming about the waist's return and it looks like someone was listening. The designing sisters at Falbala, who showed in hip Outremont, offer this sexy little black dress as evidence. The waist is nipped with a satin ribbon, the décolletage is cut low and the hem is shorn high. Short skirts and dresses, while appealing for The O.C. set, were a little too prevalent at the Montreal shows. What will the grown-ups wear?
Mackage is a Montreal-based success story that also shows in Toronto and New York. As befits a city renowned for both its stylish women and its intense winters, coats here are sexy. For fall, the outerwear is slim-fitting and tailored, with dramatic collars and lots of leather detailing. On that note, Montreal women like to show off their form, so designers delivered many fitted leather pieces, from skirts and pants to jackets.
With frills and frou-frou strong international trends for some time, Montreal designers did feel a step or two behind in their interpretation of Victoriana. But here Morales uses both pleats and ruffles to modern effect: The designer incorporates her own sketches and paintings into prints each season. For fall, her vision is as dark and satisfying as usual.
Continuing from last year, navy comes on strong. But these navies are nothing like the working-gal, fit-in-with-the-boys pieces of the eighties. Other royal colours such as red and purple also appeared across the board. This satin Renata Morales suit, shown outside the official week, is a work of art that would cheer up any board meeting. Note the skinny legs, flat shoes and layered sleeves.
Montreal is the fur centre of the country. And Montreal designers embrace pelts wholeheartedly. The show of Charlie par Caroline Frenette, show here, was very girly, with lots of fun little flippy dresses. Each outfit was gilded with a piece from Harricana par Mariouche, the company that takes vintage furs and fashions them into high-fashion pieces.
The new proportion is cropped, and here Montreal is right in step with the international marketplace. At Morales, the fresh length of Bermudas with stockings is paired with a jacket sporting bracelet sleeves. These kinds of combos require advanced fashion skills. Once you muck with proportion, you have to keep adding and subtracting till you find the right balance.
This eighties staple has been stubborn about its comeback. Fashion pundits and the advance guard have been heralding the return of footless tights for years. It seems Montreal stylists - who do a great job jazzing up sometimes less than stellar craftsmanship - are all over the look. Leggings were shown under coats (here at Mackage), under skirts and under shorts. Seems the ankle is the new erogenous zone.
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A navy dress by Nadya Toto features the dramatic sleeves that were seen all over town. Clever detailing in collar, cuff, shoulder and sleeve make wardrobe basics fun; the thing to remember about drawing the eye with such forces is that you must balance out the look. big hair would look wrong here.
Gigantic collars were one of the strongest statements of the week. Face framers, like this men's monk coat at Cluc Courture, appeared in almost every show. Cluc is a fun, high-energy label, similar in fancy to Toronto labels Hoax Couture and Fashion Crimes by Pam Chorley. Think sexy, street looks for the diva. (Or in the case of the men's stuff, which included zany plaid and a purple frock coat, a penchant for the dandy.)
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