The White Cashmere Collection 2016 will showcase Canada’s four seasons in an exciting new way this September, as 16 of the country’s top fashion designers present their interpretation of spring, summer, autumn and winter. Each designer will create one-of-a-kind couture with luxuriously soft sheets of Cashmere Bathroom Tissue (BT) to interpret our nation’s majestic seasons – from the heralding thunderstorms of spring to the icy breath of winter’s brisk winds.
A much anticipated, annual fund- and awareness-raiser for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, the collection has featured more than 150 Canadian fashion designers to date and will make its 2016 runway debut at an exclusive, invitation-only fashion show at the AGO in on September 28, 2016. #Cashmere16 boasts several firsts including couture specially designed for wheelchair-users, trend-setting active wear and the return of the winner from the inaugural White Cashmere Collection Student Competition in 2006.
This year’s show features exceptional emerging and established designers including: UNTTLD, NARCES, Stephan Caras Design, Lisa Drader-Murphy, DIODATI, DALLA, V-FRANZ, IZ Collection, Will Poho and Joseph Tassoni, KaaDiki, Miriam Baker, Som Kong, House of Knot, AGAME Tennis, Damzels in this Dress and Jon De Porter, presented by Collection Artistic Director, Farley Chatto.
Here is a sneak peek of a few of the fashion designers and their stunning creations:
From the Spring Collection – You might hear Heart or Benjamin Booker tunes playing when Rory Lindo and Kelly Freeman are really in the zone, design-wise. For 20 years this dynamic duo, who met via neighbouring sewing machines in a fashion class at George Brown College, have been rocking vintage-y, rock ‘n’ roll-fueled women’s wear under their Damzels in this Dress label. And now devotees like Feist, Arcade Fire’s Régine Chassagne, Kate Hudson, Kirsten Dunst and Neve Campbell can shop for their clothes at two Doll Factory by Damzels Toronto boutiques. www.damzels.com
From the Summer Collection – Nikki Yassemi’s NARCES line of silk, lace, tulle and chiffon evening dresses, bridal gowns and cocktail dresses oozes a sort of Fifties/Sixties international chic, a sexy Bond-girlish appeal. The source of the cosmopolitanism is obvious – this Toronto-based designer was born in Austria, then spent her wonder years in Iran and the UK before landing in Toronto, where she scooped up a U of T biology degree and an MBA from Schulich School of Business at York University. The fashion know-how may be genetic – her mother worked with esteemed British tailor-to-the-royals, Victor Edelstein. www.narces.com
From the Autumn Collection – Just a year after graduating from Ryerson’s fashion program, Toronto’s Miriam Baker scored a Toronto Fashion Incubator (TFI) New Labels Award and took that encouragement to address a new niche in women’s wear. Her line of upscale, ladylike sheaths, waist-conscious pants, retro circle skirts and pretty blouses is exquisitely tailored to flatter a full-busted woman like herself. Noting that most fashion patterns are drafted for a B-cup while the average woman is a C-cup or larger, the 29-year-old Toronto-born designer says, “I’m just trying to cater to those curves.” www.miriam-baker.com
From the Winter Collection – It’s fitting that a cheeky fashion designer like Vfranz Bernil would attach a silent V to the front of his name. That same dare-to-be-different attitude pervades his V-FRANZ collection of sporty, casual-chic, often skin-baring women’s and menswear, with its signature play of structured fabrics against drape-y jerseys and chiffons. This high-energy, multi-talented Filipino-Canadian launched his line in 2012 during his sophomore year at LaSalle College in Montréal and has since seen his clothing featured in numerous publications (Dress To Kill, Clin D’oeil, and The Gazette). Did we mention he also designs footwear for ALDO? www.v-franz.com
For more info visit www.Cashmere.ca. This year’s Fashion Designer Lineup can be viewed on YouTube.