A Quick Look at the Faces Behind BC Fashion Week

October 15th, 2008 | Published in Fashion Lovers

(Above) Debra Walker, Vladimir Markovich, and James Braun.
Words and Photos by Maria

BC Fashion Week has come and gone, but the air will remain saturated with fashion as designers are already getting ready to unveil their newest collections in six months’ time. This biannual event started in 2005 following the model of international fashion centres like New York and London. Although much smaller in scale, BCFW undoubtedly creates an excellent platform four our local designers, as well as the people behind the scenes that make it all happen: producers, makeup artists, hair stylists… the works. Vancouver, however, is already a leading force in all that is sustainable, and getting up to the top while giving our ethical ways as an example to follow.

But whether it’s London or Paris, L.A. or Vancouver, fashion weeks always equal chaos. What chaos? Looking from the outside, everything is orderly, on cue, and splendid, bcfw-photo-2 but behind the scenes… that’s another story. However, that’s one of the fun aspects about BC Fashion Week in particular, as Natasha Campbell, model coordinator would say, “The chaos is my favourite part. The crazier it is the happier I am. BUT–,” she adds, “it’s organized chaos, so I like it.” Campbell celebrated her 1st year with BC Fashion Week this past season and has started her own production company, Tasha E Productions, having had plenty of experience coordinating fashion shows all over Vancouver. She is one of the backstage talents that gets to show off her skills on the platform that BC Fashion Week creates.

James Braun is another of these individuals and has been with BC Fashion Week since day one, having started as a volunteer. “On the very first show there were only three or four volunteers,” he recalls, “It was my first opportunity to explore this whole [fashion] world.” His work in the film industry as a costumer eased him into the fashion industry where he now feels at home as the key stylist for BC Fashion Week. “I thoroughly enjoy what I do,” he quips, “Fashion can be lot of fun– I like to show that I can keep a strong professional attitude and still have fun with it and enjoy what I’m doing.” The volunteer count has risen considerably over the last 7 active seasons, and so has the attention from media, buyers, and the fashion hungry both locally and abroad.

Yet it was not too long ago that we recovered from an unhealthy Gortex obsession, and only recently have we really taken long strides in establishing Vancouver as an emerging fashion centre to be reckoned with in the global fashion world. BC Fashion Week has been a big part of this, and the attention that it’s getting is rising, steadily and surely, with each season’s passing. “There is more and more of a community [within the fashion industry],” states Vladimir Markovich, creative director for BC Fashion Week, “Also, people [outside the fashion industry] don’t just know that [BC Fashion Week] is there, but they are more aware that we have this and they appreciate it.”

Markovich is the creative force and enabler behind each show and it is he who dreams up the themes that go along with each passing fashion week. bcfw-photo-1 This season’s theme: Love. “It’s something that is between us very much all the time,” he explains, “I get my inspiration from everywhere: pictures, magazines, life… love is all around us.” A pure white runway, smooth Tuscan pillars spaced out in the foreground, a soft sheer curtain that veils it all only to open alluringly to the show’s beginning. The set up is also like a blank canvas, easily customizable to each designer’s whim. Certain guidelines apply, however, that pertain to the venue and sound and lighting equipment available. So Markovich consults with the designers to create a unique experience for every show that is in alignment with each designer’s vision. “I really dedicate time to every single show,” he states, “I try to get into the mood with the theme and understand what it means.”

Debra Walker, executive director, keeps him in check, as she takes care of more the business aspect of this operation. Both her and Markovich started BC Fashion Week together, and have since made every season of BCFW a success in its own way. No one doubts that the mere fact that we have a fashion week like this to begin with is a success for all of us in the West Coast, growing more and more in the eyes of the international community. There’s still much room for improvement, however, and the expectations are high. “We want to get bigger, but ‘big’ means so many different things,” Walker muses, “We want higher quality and more recognition from the public—that they are getting behind the initiative, that they are supporting their designers, they are buying local, and [right now] all of the industry is getting together: the stylists, the makeup, the hair… everyone just growing with one another as one.”

The faces behind the show are just as important as those represented on the catwalk. Somehow, sometime, this event would have happened eventually, but if it hadn’t been for all those who work hard right now to “make the hot look hotter,” as Natasha Campbell would put it, then we would have had to wait another couple of years for the fashionable schmoozing to begin. The horror! But truly, it is well that we are on our way to the top cliffs of Fashion Mountain, and we get to laugh our sustainable laugh all the way.

Published in Fashion Lovers