By offering relatively obscure emerging designers an affordable opportunity to showcase their work, Vancouver Fashion Week (running Apr. 12-17) puts lie to the idea that this city is derivative in its style. For a few brief minutes on VFWs catwalk, fashion and art lovers can escape the cruelties of this citys streets in favour of a utopian alternate reality where high-concept design trumps all.
To get to your seat, you may need to wade through a few Granville Girls (you know, the type who regularly confuse cocktail napkins for cocktail dresses) and their meathead boyfriends (available in two distinct flavours: wannabe venture capitalist in a cheap suit and wannabe gangsta in an expensive hoodie). But once seated, the youthful roster of designers never fails to offer up a few gems.
Last season, the clear frontrunner was Aussie-born Blake Hyland, whose post-apocalyptic pirate-style aesthetic and attention to finishing and detail was a breath of fresh air for a front row full of jaded fashion people. While Hyland isnt on the schedule this season, there will definitely be some challenging silhouettes with clever construction making their way down the VFW runway. Herewith, two standouts were looking forward to.
Saturday, Apr. 16 at Access Gallery (437 W. Hastings), 7:30-11pm.
Conceptual yet wearable, William approaches design from an artists perspective, evincing both a simple, geometric quality and a surprisingly whimsical aesthetic. A student of photography at Emily Carr, William discovered his passion for design at Londons famed Central Saint Martins College. His twists and turns are reminiscent of the fanciful flourishes of Danish designer Henrik Vibskov, with whom he interned in 2007
Thursday, Apr. 14 at Empire Landmark Hotel (1400 Robson), 6:30pm.
Mackenzie Sam is currently studying menswear design at New Yorks Fashion Institute of Technology, where he recently won both the Best Designer and Designers Designer awards at the annual Fusion competition between F.I.T. and rival New York design school Parsons. Its not hard to see why. For someone so young (Sam is 19), he already has a refined aesthetic, remeniscent of such outré fashion designers as Rick Owens and Ann Demeulemeester.
Vancouver Fashion Week runs Apr. 12-17 at various venues. For tickets and schedule info, visit VanFashionWeek.com.
