Vancouver Fashion Week: The Women Behind Womenswear
Last week, StyleCircle had the privilege of attending Vancouver Fashion Week (VFW). VFW was especially refreshing as it spotlighted female designers and gave opportunities to smaller, less established creatives. The intimate space allowed for the audience to truly connect with and admire the detailed work of the collections.
Fashion has historically been geared towards women in its promotion, trends, and shows. Yet it remains a mostly male-dominated space behind the scenes. It was incredibly captivating to see the stories and visions of so many female designers presented on the VFW runway. Several designers stood out to me especially.
On Day Two of VFW, the Nancy Mak Award for emerging designers, an award honouring a late friend of VFW, was presented to designer Delayne Dixon, a contestant on Project Runway Canada who displayed her designs this season. Dixon’s collection was ocean-inspired and was an absolute standout of the week, featuring creative wave-like designs and a theatrical runway experience. She closed her show with the most theatrical piece of the week, in my opinion. The stage lights were dimmed to introduce a model wearing a gown reminiscent of a chandelier, with glowing candles illuminating the runway.
On Day Three, the shows opened with a commanding runway experience by CLDCMNTY. A brand founded by Chloe Duncan of North Vancouver, bringing textured, streetwear-inspired, futuristic designs to the runway. This collection felt inspired by brands like Diesel, Balenciaga, and DSquared2, yet remained very fresh and unique. A piece I found quite memorable was a distressed miniskirt with stylized CLDCMNTY branding printed on it, which felt as though it encapsulated the brand's vision and aesthetic.
A common trend across the collections was enhancing the body without sexualizing it. There were many designs that spotlighted the body specifically, through mesh, silhouettes, shapes, and textures. Each collection felt like it told a story to the audience, and each designer had a clear vision of what they wanted to say.
The shows were a wonderful example of why opportunities should be given to emerging designers, more specifically female designers. The collections each respectively brought a unique perspective and style to the runway. It was a wonderful experience and a beautiful way to honor local British Columbian, Indigenous, and Canadian designers.
Comments