Vancouver Fashion Week: A Part of Our City’s Future
May 31st, 2008 | Published in Event Report | 3 Comments
Words by Maria
All photos by Kris Krüg
Some may say that the BC fashion industry is like a diamond in the rough. Or more romantically like a grain of sand that has slipped into the mysterious depths of an unsuspecting oyster. I like to think that it is past being rough and more significant than a grain of sand. However, we’ve still got some way to go when our fashion weeks are nowhere close to the insanity that ensues during New York Fashion Week or even L’Oreal Fashion Week in Toronto. But dare I hope that soon will be the day when these fashion events that many fail to notice now will in the future be one of the most coveted in Canada?
Our two local fashion weeks, Vancouver Fashion Week and BC Fashion week, are two very different and separate events, but they do have a goal in common: to better our fashion industry and to draw international attention to our shores. For Vancouver Fashion Week in particular, it is important to have not only local designers demonstrate their work, but to have a venue where both international and local fashion meet. Having had fashion icon Anna Sui’s line as part of the latest VFW as well as designers from Mexico in past seasons, we are given an idea of what VFW wants to convey. As Jamal Abdourahman, producer of VFW would put it, “[Our goal] is to establish a place where locals can showcase themselves and to create an avenue where East and West and international fashion meet and showcase also.”
Already an extremely diverse city, and doing a damn fine job at nourishing all the different cultures that we house, you could say that Vancouver is in the perfect place to develop an internationally distinct and prolific fashion industry. But why doesn’t it seem that we are near that place yet? Could it have something to do with that invisible entity we love to blame all our troubles on? Jamal thinks so: “We need government support. We need it in the same way it supports the film industry and the music industry,” he says, “The government doesn’t support the fashion industry so that’s the biggest challenge.” But that doesn’t mean that Vancouver’s fashion industry isn’t growing. On the contrary, interest in local fashion is on the rise: “Vancouver is a great place for fashion. It has its own individual and unique style,” says Jamal, “[local fashion] is more mainstream now. People are paying attention,”
And it’s good that they are, especially when there are so many socially conscious designers amongst our flock and many who are successfully conducting their businesses in an ecological and ethical way, an example worthy of following. More and more BC fashion is getting extra attention, which means more and more demand for locally designed product. And since more demand = more supply this could only mean good things: from more designers to more suppliers to more wholesalers to more media attention. It’s a lovely chain of events, but don’t hold your breath; Vancouver is way past being a rough-looking diamond, but it’s not a Tiffany’s diamond just yet.
June 23rd, 2008
Hey guys. Great write-up and new site. Glad you used the photographs and thx for the links and the umlaut!
August 31st, 2008
Quote
:For Vancouver Fashion Week in particular, it is important to have not only local designers demonstrate their work, but to have a venue where both international and local fashion meet. Having had fashion icon Anna Sui as part of the latest VFW as well as designers from Mexico in past seasons, we are given an idea of what VFW wants to convey. As Jamal Abdourahman, producer of VFW would put it, “[Our goal] is to establish a place where locals can showcase themselves and to create an avenue where East and West and international fashion meet and showcase also.”
PLEEAASSE … how much does the writer of this article know about what fashion week is? … Anna Sui collection and other international designers (like Versace) …were not actually showing their upcoming collections but it is simply what is already available in the stores … and were a hoax for naive ones thinking that any of international designers would be part of such a poorly organized event ..it is shame to be written about at all.
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Local designers should as well ask themselves how to build the industry in the right way… that is, presentable to that international market …and invest in their marketing and promotion, both at home and to the world market…
In this article there was not much mention about the other BC based fashion week , but as a person that had a chance to attend both events, I would suggest to the editor to cover events that have credibility…
September 1st, 2008
Juli,
Thanks for your thoughts. String Magazine’s mandate is to positively expose local talent, giving all equal opportunity. Some may think Vancouver Fashion Week doesn’t have a shining reputation, but that doesn’t mean that it should be ignored. String chose to focus more on VFW precisely because of this, to try and uplift its image, which is what we should be doing, not discouraging its growth by dwelling on its negative aspects. The mere fact that VFW is trying to do a good thing should be commended. We do thank you for your constructive criticism and have changed the title of the article to better fit its content. We hope you take a look at our other articles!