Vancouver Fashion Week has always been a mess, which is why editors of clout and many of the public do not wish to partake in the semi annual debacle.

Apparently in preperation for another season of suck, VFW is making a valiant social media promotion attempt at street style shooting.  These are photos of folks dressed to represent VFW, and I have to say I agree, because many of them are terrible.

My favorite is the “Pinup Mix-Up” whose gut appears to have runneth over.  In my opinion, this is a mix-up of a whole different kind than what VFW is referring to.

Most of the others are decently put together, if not boring, which is no shock when it comes to Vancouver’s style scene.  Concerning the VFW Facebook, view if you dare.. who knows what else will surface on this thing before November.

Concerning Vancouver’s fashion weeks, this piece from 2009 is still relevant concerning failures of both VFW and BCFW.

I feel like fashion event organizers in Vancouver want to fail.  I have come to this conclusion as the 3rd Fashion Week for Vancouver has been announced – Vancouver Eco Fashion Week.

While the Eco Fashion Week has yet to finish its first show, I have no expectations other than chaos and continued displays of previous Vancouver Fashion Week bullshittery this city has been forced to endure.  The other two Fashion Weeks have been clear and unarguable failures – if organizers can’t make those two shows work, there is no hope that this Eco Week will be any different.

We don’t need an Eco Fashion Week.  There aren’t enough qualified designers in Vancouver (and the surrounding areas) to create enough of a varied show [and] afford to pay the registration fees, let alone create product worthy of a Fashion Week.  This is a prime example of the Vancouver way of fixing Fashion Weeks; we re-brand it and don’t change the basics that caused the breakdown in the first place. 

This city does not have enough of a fashion following to warrant a separate event; there is absolutely no reason that this entire Week should not have been amalgamated into another one of the Fashion Weeks, after their weaknesses and failures were broken down, identified and corrected.

For Vancouver to host this third and likely just as dysfunctional Fashion Week is an embarrassment and a farce.  As I’ve previously stated, Fashion Weeks aren’t a right, they’re a privilege.

It’s as the baseballers say, “three strikes – you’re OUT!”

The designers showing in Vancouver Fashion Week‘s FW09 shows have officially been released. It’s good news, folks; the talent appears to be definitely worth attendance.

I’m quite excited to see Marie Saint Pierre, Lauren Vidal, and Vancouverite Drew William.

I will be providing reviews of most runway shows, as well as photography.

Will you be attending VFW?

MARCH 24: Winter wear
Whistler, Garfinkel’s
8:30pm: Frost Sportiva (CALG)

MARCH 25: Opening Gala/Jewelry designer meet & greet
Wednesday – Leone – 757 West Hastings St
Doors open 7pm
All local apparel designers have 1 model dressed in their designs
All participating jewelry designers have 2 models – black dresses plus jewelry

MARCH 26: Canadian/Local Design
Thursday – Storeyum – 151 Cordova St
4:00pm Papillon Eastern (VAN)
5:00pm Gianni al Maanaki (INT’L)
6:00pm Porscia (VAN)
6:30pm Frost Sportiva (CALG)

MARCH 26: Aliqua
Thursday – The Centre for Performing Arts
Doors 7pm
Marie Saint Claire (MTL)
Hair and makeup competitions at Aliqua

MARCH 27: Eco-friendly design
Friday – Storeyum – 151 Cordova St
5:00pm Hawks Ave/Flora&Fauna (VAN)
6:00pm Adele Wechsler (TO)
7:00pm Global Ghetto Organics (CALI)

MARCH 27: Shanghai Night
Friday – Storeyum – 151 Cordova 7:30pm doors
8pm first show – 4 boutiques: Lushuz, Niche, Tokyo Cop, 4th Ave (VAN)
9pm second show – INSH (SHANGHAI)

MARCH 28: International design
Saturday – Storeyum – 151 Cordova St
3:00pm SoulFace Studios/Vixen Little (VAN)
3:30pm Turnover (AMST)
4:00pm Lauren Vidal (PARIS)
4:30pm Joseph Domingo (SF)
5:00pm INSH (SHANG)

MARCH 29: Streetwear
Sunday – Storeyum – 151 Cordova St
5:00pm To The Nines Clothing/Satout (VAN)
5:30pm Undone Clothing (OTT)
6:00pm Gully Klassics (ONT)
6:30pm Nine Grand (CALI)
7:00pm Drew William (VAN)
7:00pm KILLA (VAN)

Vancouver Fashion Week is holding an open model call this Saturday (January 24th, 2009). Information provided straight from the splendid folks at VFW (ie. Shallom; follow her on Twitter) is below:

Vancouver Fashion Week Casting Call
January 24th, 2009, 2 pm
SFU Downtown Campus, Segal Building / CN Room
500 Granville Street, Vancouver BC

Requirements:
*Ability to walk/pose gracefully
*Ability to remember runway choreography
*Ability to handle high-paced, stressful situations
*Minimum height: Females 5″7
*Minimum height: Males 5″9

Please send your information to shallom@vanfashionweek.com

Please include:
- One headshot and one full body photograph
- Statistics (current age, height, weight, measurements)
- A list of all prior experience (previous runway experience preferred but not required)
- Contact information (phone # and email address)

You will be contacted in advance to confirm your participation in this open call. Please bring your portfolio to the audition. If chosen to be a VFW model, you must be available for pre-fashion week fittings as well as all booked runway presentations.

So, if you think you have what it takes to walk the runways at VFW, send Shallom an e-mail with the required info. These folks are very non threatening, so you can do your best without being a borderline stress case.

For the curious, my set from the last VFW (SS09) is located here.

Since Ecko had their runway shows one after the other (and they all looked the same), I’m doing their review on a company level, versus each individual brands. The labels shown were Marc Ecko, Ecko Red, Blac Label, Cavi and Rocawear.

Overall, it was pretty much the same line interpreted with slightly different fabrics and a lot of booty for the girls, and wide leg denim and graphic tees for the guys. While I recognize that all of these pieces will not always be worn together; the thought of this kind of street wear as fashionably acceptable frightens me.

The menswear consisted of flowing wide leg denim and various unimaginative graphic tees layered with hoodies or a cardigan. There was a point when one model came out wearing an American Apparel rip off silver jogging jacket, and I turned on photo autopilot (this was during the “Artful Dodger” brand show). Overall, the “Artful Dodger” had the most thought put into the design, rather than going for the atypical street wear formula, though after a while all the plastic looking abs melted into one mass and everything seemed to look the same.

The womenswear was slightly more creative, but still ended up looking largely like glorified hooker wear. I get that girls (and guys) like short shorts, but this was a distasteful of near-crotch thigh. I guess at Ecko, they don’t teach reasonably modesty. Overall, it seemed like most designs were poor incarnations of blazers, thin pants and dresses. Most of what I saw was a very simple piece embellished with prints; definitely nothing special.

My entire set of VFW SS09 photographs are located here, and the Ecko show photos are located here.  Please contact me if you wish to use any of the images.

Alpha-Ursus struck me as a very average street wear brand attempting to capitalize on trends gone by the hipster crowd that appeared years ago (think the usage of the keffiyeh scarves and neon wayfarer-type eyeglasses).

Apart from the hipster influence, the line seemed to rely almost solely on their split color t-shirt design; something that was seen in slight variations on almost every model throughout the show.  There was very little complexity to the t-shirts (which I assume are the base of the brand) and I found the show itself to be a little dull, since we were seeing the same product repeatedly.

My entire set of VFW SS09 photographs are located here, and the Alpha-Ursus show photos are located here.  Please contact me if you wish to use any of the images.

Karen Wu’s show was actually pretty good.  I could see these dresses actually being worn by women in an office or party setting; they definitely had potential wearability.  I particularly enjoyed the boxy blazer and A-line skirt combination (far right), as well as the full skirted prom-style dress (second to the right); though it seemed a very close cousin to the AA figure skater dress.  There was also a flowing leopard print dress that was particularly nice, though I can’t see many being able to pull that off aside from the model that wore it on the runway.

It was pretty obvious that some of the pieces didn’t seem to fit the models wearing them.  As you can see in this photo, the fitting was clearly less than ideal; and did not paint the clothing in a postive light.  Since runway shows are essentially commercials for these lines, I didn’t really understand why such an important thing as proper fitting was overlooked until Karen herself commented on the NowPublic article citing the same questions (apparently she never saw the models until two hours before the show).

My entire set of VFW SS09 photographs are located here, and the Karen Wu show photos are located here.  Please contact me if you wish to use any of the images.

For a show that we had to watch twice (models were re-styled using the same outfits), they did not earn the right to occupy double the runway time.  I really didn’t understand why so many outfits were centered on floor length Jedi coats(a coincidence between that and the label’s name? I think not). The clothing was not particularly enchanting, and reminded me of a piece you could find on the clearance rack at The Garage in your local mall.

One of the few outfits that did not feature the Jedi duster coat included a pair of 90s faded jeans and blindingly red boots; a color clash that not even Superman would be able to pull off.  The color choices for the pieces were quite poor; and no attention seemed to have been paid towards styling overall.   

At the end of the show, it was the model wearing Uggs and a matching shearling floor length coat that really erased any speculation that this line was a disaster. 

Miryam Asgari’s designs did not impress me, as this kind of clothing did not have a place on a runway.  The entire collection personified amateur hippie clothing design! This line was definitely not something Vancouverites could use as an asset in their wardrobes.

I realize that tiered colors are making their way through the fashion world’s hype machine; but this seems to be one of the worst interpretations I’ve seen yet.  Someone with no formal clothing creation training would be able to create these pieces; and I swear I’ve seen a doppelganger of the the third outfit in on a local Hutterite woman, only this time she’s wearing Uggs (shudder).

It is my sincere hope that no women will don these dresses while mistaking them for something stylish.

My entire set of VFW SS09 photographs are located here, and the Maryam Asgari show photos are located here.  Please contact me if you wish to use any of the images.

While watching the Sea O’Connor lingerie runway show at this past VFW, I found I couldn’t even make a decision on the designs at the time because I was so distracted by the models; these girls were in the worst shape I have ever seen a woman be in on a runway.

I have no idea why on earth someone would put models with bodies like this in lingerie; much less tie ribbons up and down their thighs to draw attention to their most unflattering parts.  I suppose it was admirable of these women to get onstage at all; but the designer really should not have allowed this to take place.  Perhaps the same thing occured as in the Karen Wu show (she never saw the models until two hours before they took their walks down the runway). That is still no excuse, though.

Shea O’Connor’s show is that her designs were decent; though they were entirely upstaged by cellulite.

My entire set of VFW SS09 photographs are located here, and the Shea O’Connor show photos are located here.  Please contact me if you wish to use any of the images.

RE: Jared’s comment:

I was thoroughly disgusted at this shameless display during last weekend’s Vancouver Fashion Week.  The inclusion of so-called “Merder Tees” (essentially second rate graphic design slapped on a t-shirt demeaning a murdered celebrity) was a embarrassment to the whole of Vancouver Fashion Week and to all in attendance.

The graphic designer Duran Bodasing attempted to mask the true insult of their pieces by stating their company donates $5 to a related charity but their offer fell flatter than their runway show.  After all, to whom will they donate their Abe Lincoln charity proceeds to?

Basically, the visual on each tee is the image of the murdered, with horribly demeaning text by it (such as “it it murder” over the image of the late Princess Diana’s face).  More disturbing than that was their image of a plane flying into the twin towers with blood spatter all around the buildings. 

I find this sick, and truly offensive.  Aside from the designer, who obviously thought himself enough of a rock star to prance around ostentatiously at the end of his show wearing the Marvin Gaye shirt shown below, Vancouver Fashion Week should be truly ashamed of allowing this display to get this far. 

As for the pitiful excuse for a “fashion” designer, keep away from our events in the future.  Vancouver does not need a tumbling dickweed to sully the reputation of our event, so please keep your tactless hate mongering someplace where the world can’t see it.

Top photo by Ben Luk, the rest are mine.