WORDS

The excitement of Toronto-Fashion-Week is pretty much over. The shOws have shown. WMCTFW gave us their best, and Dare-to-Wear-Love put CANADIAN PEOPLE in CANADIAN DESIGNERS clothes, off-and-on-the-runway, for an amazing cause and the-last-big-hurrah of the season. AMAZING ALL!

 

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I love fashion and I love Canada. The big events of the past few weeks make me reflect on the-past-and-the-present, mine-and-others. I so want success for CANADIAN DESIGNERS, it's why I write this blog, to try to make sense of this world and show it off for others, especially when its not quite so-in-season. We fall off the radar quickly when the media moves its attention elsewhere. My passion for this topic is endless.

 

      

GLOBE AND MAIL 1987                                 FLARE MAGAZINE APRIL 1987

 

I started on design side of the industry in 1979, I've been a gofer, a famous designer, a behind-the-scenes-technician, a teacher, and a corporate middle man. I've been well-off and on-welfare. Nothing seems to get in my way of being a man-with-a-plan, a-designer-of-some-sort, an artist and an idiot.

I loved being a CANADIAN FASHION DESIGNER, although teaching stole my heart away many years ago...

 GLOBE AND AND MAIL 1987
 

I learned a lot being a designer, and I gleefully pass it on. I make sure to include a solid dose of reality amongst the words I say to my students. I got it then and I get it now. Survival, no matter where-in-the-world the CANADIAN DESIGNER may wish to go, requires cash.

I know my students hear me, they groan whenever I bring up the combination of design-sense-needing-money-sense, which is often. I am so pleased when those out-in-practice-of-the-profession utter the same words. I know students well enough to know they don't think of school as-being-a-part-of-the-real-world and so here I quote from-those-they-do-see-as-real!

From several Canadian designers in one-on-one conversations with "Flare's-Emily-Ramshaw", on being asked to comment on (among several other topics), "advice for people who are starting out or want to break out as a designer: 

From"Flare" magazine's website: http://www.flare.com/  feature; "Morning Coffee" during"WMCTFW" March 2013,

18.03.2013
Kimberley Newport-Mimran / Pink Tartan
"The most important thing is to really learn the technical aspects of it, I think designers, when they first come in, get very caught up in the creativity of it. It is important to be as technically savvy as you are creatively savvy, to be able to pull together a creative garment."

19.03.203
Sid Neigum
."..enter as many competitions as possible and focus on sales..."

20.03.2013
Joe Mimran / Joe Fresh
 "You better love what you do, you better work really.really, super hard, make sure you have a point of view, and make sure your point of view has some relevance to the market place or you’ll never get to express it."


21.03.2013
Sunny Fong / Vawk
"The one thing that I know is that you have to treat it like a business. I love the design process, its amazing and its fulfilling, but in the end I think when you make that sale and get that garment out and someone buys it and its worn and that your designs translate to revenue its important. It keeps the business going and its your design."

Thanks for the shows, Thanks for the talent, and Thanks for the words. I hope my students are listening as well as watching....

KIMBERLEY NEWPORT-MIMRAN - http://pinktartan.com/ca/
SID NEIGUM - http://www.sidneigum.com/
JOE MIMRAN / JOE FRESH - http://www.joefresh.com/
SUNNY FONG / VAWK - http://vawk.ca/
FLARE - http://www.flare.com/