To know Oka Masako is to love her. The Japanese designer is a fixture in sustainable eco-friendly fashion. She’s used bamboo and silk, corn and soybeans before it was the “in-thing” to do and she’s done it very well. Her fabrics have been the talk of the runway since 2003 and since the creation of the ECOMACO line’s launch, her push towards biodegradable fashion has been a staple everywhere.
Masako held a show at Mexico Fashion Week last Friday and it was the talk of the industry. She’s pioneered a new thread using fermented corn syrup. Naturally one would think that her collection is edible since most of her products are used in food, but the point to this as she describes it is to truly make clothing a “second skin”.
ECOMACO may not hit critical mass just yet, but it may be on the road to that. Masako states the pricepoints for eco-friendly fabrics may be high, but this is definitely the wave of the future.
Global Language Monitor, a non-profit institute that monitors the frequency of words and phrases in the media has just put out their annual fashion survey of top cities mentioned online. The usual suspects made the list but also making the list were not-so-usual suspects. The most notable according to the report were Sydney and Dubai. Sydney is of course home to many top Australian fashion designers and Dubai is home to many of the nouveau riche. So what other cities made the list and what was the order in which they appeared? Here you go:
Young models can steer clear of a Josh Goot show. Australia Fashion week has declared young models completely off limits. One the issues that set things in motion is 14 year old model Monika Jagaciak of Poland who was invited to attend Australia Fashion Week. For those unfamiliar with Jagaciak, the teenager has appeared in Harper’s Bazaar and ads for Calvin Klein and Hermes. Apparently seeking to head things off at the pass, the Australia fashion week people said no chance, no way, no how. Jo Kellock of the Australian fashion council said in a statement regarding the banning of young models particularly Jagaciak:
“It’s a child we are talking about here who is four years under the legal age of adulthood, she will be still beautiful in four years’ time and we can still use her then.”
Who says that China is the counterfeiting capital of the world. Here’s proof that there are plenty of original, home grown creations that come out of the country. This is from Beijing Fashion Week.
If Paris fashion week is the grandaddy of them all, then Montreal fashion week is the disowned grandson. While still having all the ingredients of Paris fashion week, the language, designers and flair, it’s still something that no one truly covers with the same excitement as the one at the city of lights. Maybe that will change. Until that sea change happens we’re relegated to blips and snippets. Today’s blip is a look at designer Marie St.Pierre’s wondrous collection. Though not a true put it on and go outside collection, Saint Pierre is illustrating that haute couture need not remain in the realm of the Parisians. The extensive use of jersey, ruffles and monochromatic hues all made an appearance with her Fall line. Are we converts for her line, will we champion this designer. Yes.
With L’Oreal fashion week in the books I though it would be a good time to look and reflect on Pink Tartan’s showing. It was kind of a quasi 80s, punk meets dressup affair. How can you do that without sacrificing your soul? Not completely certain but Pink tartan has found a way to do it. Think about it: a double breasted jacket and tie with two button straps going across the mid-section, accented with biker gloves and chic biker boots. I’d say the execution was near flawless and the designer is one to watch for the Fall. See photo below:
L’Oreal fashion week is going on right now and the pictures are few and far between. That may be because photos are slow to come out of Toronto or that the internet out of the whole damned country is slow, who knows?
Jennifer Toole at Martiniboys has a shortlist of designers worth seeing during the fashion week in Toronto. Seeing as how we’re not very familiar with a good chunk of the designers it’s nice to sort of make an introduction. I’ve been googling them for the past 4 hours trying to get a read on who my favorite are and whether I am going to be buying from their fall collections. In all honesty, there’s something to be said about wearing designers of which the public at large is not familiar. So I’ve decided to parse Jennifer’s list down even more into the designers showing: Evan & Dean, Gsus, J. Lindeberg, Pink Cobra in particular we are really loving Rudsak.
So Toronto Fashion Week starts with Project Runway Canada winner Evan Biddell. While we’re definitely excited to see what comes from this event, fashion week is getting a little long in the tooth. We’ll take the big four, but we hear even New Zealand has a fashion week…or not. So we’ll be bringing photos from L’Oreal’s fashion week. It’s going to be hard to top Montreal though.
Here’s a video showing all the action of the bite my style show from backstage, to footage of the fashion show to designer interview. Interesting little video.. I cant understand a word but definitely worth watching!
HAIR/MAKE UP & HATS FOR BITEMYSTYLE BY NINA THE HEADRESSERVideo courtesy of Nina the Headresser
Here’s a peek at the “Bite My Style” show from Zagreb Fashion Week a/w 2008.Designer: Zoran AragovicHair and makeup by Nina the headresser (www.myspace.com/ninahair)Images courtesy of Nina the Headresser.Last image: Nina at work backstage.
but definitely worth watching! 
Last image: Nina at work backstage.
