The FAT is in the Fire

Artifice at Alternative Fashion Week

The FAT is in the fire

Cailin Smart writes on Alternative Fashion Week (April 21-25 2010), for Urbane Magazine.
Photos couresty of FAT.

It is very difficult to experience the times when one must admit their own stupidity to themselves, and I happened to find myself plunged into one of these moments while in my seat at the Alternative Fashion Week. Shockingly, it was not because I was sharing the pain of the model on the runway whose neck flesh was being pulled by two hooks through her piercing, attached by two strings to the lingerie-bearing models in front of  her like an S&M Snow Queen. My pain was of a more shameful kind: how could I have been so naive as to assume that the “Alternative” in  “Alternative Fashion Week,” meant, necessarily, second-rate. It was as if I was attending the diet version of LG Fashion Week. True to Toronto’s religion of everything being independent, the FAT runway birthed exit after exit of beauty—albeit often of the raunchy kind—and was wholly more entertaining, timely, and stimulating than the events at LGFW. FAT is like all the places you’ll go for the rated-R fashionista, marrying entertainment and showmanship with a sense of journey.

Jasper Garvida

Garvida started the week off with a very strong collection and an aristocratic esthetic. The thirties have been done to death, but Garvida’s collection managed to conserve a modern feel fused with  old Hollywood glamour. His success came partly from his layering of different fabrics, which gave the garments an effervescent collision of textures. They were cut on jagged edges and layered one upon the other in geometrical shapes, often triangular. While crowd whispers said “Art Deco,” I

Jasper Garvida

could not help being reminded of  ethnic artisanry, which gave a new feel to the classic source of inspiration. There were paillettes galore, fur collars, and a particular re-occurrence of a lovely deep bottle green, which  paired with tan and black leather, gave the garments an earthy  feel, bringing the palette to the natural landscape of a lush  forest. Jasper Garvida is also extremely wearable, I particularly recall the printed pencil skirt being a piece that translates easily from office to nightwear, for example. The little black dress and the white blouse were also wardrobe staples, disguised as glamorous underneath the showy masterpiece coats. My only objection is to the glitter make-up, which unjustly cheapened an otherwise refined look.

Artifice

Artifice is the kind of show one goes to FAT for: sex, fantasy and performance. Latex was the mot du jour on the second day of the festival, and the Artifice garments did not disappoint. It was a nerd’s wet dream come true, combining fetishist symbols like thigh-high blood red latex toe-shoes with futuristic costume-wear  such as retractable metal wings and robot arms. The designer opted for deep, sinful reds and glossy blacks, that with the sheen of the latex squeezing the shapely models made for a photogenic show. The styling of the show was particularly well thought-out, the designer  having understood that the statement lied in the clothing and there  was no need to go over the top with outrageous hair and make-up. The tailoring was, in a word, masterful: the difficulty of working with latex seemed unknown to her, as the beautifully embellished  and perfectly fit garments slinked (and in one case lumbered, as  the toe-shoe model needed crutches to make her way down the  catwalk) by. While one can’t go on without mentioning a garment that seemed fabricated for attached Siamese twins, the red latex  dress with a corset top and mermaid-like flaps at the hips was a  star-piece, and would have Dita Von Teese salivating.

Romandin

Romandin

The perplexing Romandin show, on the other side of the spectrum, had a natural feel, similar to the wardrobe of the modern air-goddess. The designer, Cristina Sabaiduc, used textures and especially weights of her materials to create a collection that is both wearable and ethereal. One most noteable piece was a dress in a blue and green pastel  watercolour print that gathers a different way every time one wears  it—thanks to magnets or some unseen mechanism in the dress’ lining.  Thus, you can gather it asymmetrically on one side, or wear it full-length as a gown, or bunch it all at the skirt; the wearer has endless options. There is a poetry in this concept: that a garment is different every time that you wear it, and a comment, perhaps, on the disposability of consumer fashion. The rest of the  collection was simpler, but no less beautiful. The soft palette was a relief in light of some of the more aggressive collections. A dress made of overlapping stiff squares of white mesh made a statement without committing to a harsh look. The collection was subtly peppered with more practical pieces, such as a  champagne-toned silk skirt and a textured white coat.