Fashion POP & Purity Ring Show

Sunday, I had two events scheduled, the Fashion POP Show at a church out in the Mile End, and later that night, the Purity Ring show at Cabaret Tulipe on Papineau. Presented by Little Burgundy, the Fashion POP show was entirely what I expected and to be honest, not in the best way: featuring amateur designers from around Montreal, the “runway” presentation was probably the least exceptional part of the festival in its entirety. Like much of the rest of the festival, the venue was small and dark, which, while great for a concert, wasn’t the best setting for a fashion show. Six amateur designers were to show between five and six looks each and the strongest mini-collection would win a spread in Worn Fashion Journal, a gift card from Le Chateau and a temporary exhibition of their work at Espace POP. The judges (one of whom was a no-show) were Le Chateau executives, last year’s Fashion POP winner Isabelle Campeau and Worn’s EIC Serah-Marie MacMahon. Duc C. Nguyen opened with show with a Lady Gaga-esque collection inspired by mixture of architecture, industrial design and fashion – an incredibly literal and entirely red collection that desperately needed some steaming, his models were, for some reason, all carrying stuffed animals. Despite what I thought was an interesting concept, it didn’t develop and every piece looked almost identical to the one before it.

Photo courtesy of: Pop Montreal

Another interesting concept that failed to develop properly was Danica Olders’ Matryoshka Doll theme that moved from wearable pieces to a very literal translation of the nesting doll as a model hobbled out in a hooded, sheath-like costume in the same colorways as her collection. A huge step away from the very wearable pieces in her collection, it didn’t entirely make sense to me despite the collection’s obvious nesting doll-like progression from sleek bodysuit, to separates, to a floor length dress, etc.

Marie Darsigny’s first look was incredibly intriguing but the collection’s concept of good girls that want to have fun in a bad way (or something else vague and non-descript) went one too far. An ambiguous, all-black collection, Darsigny’s looks, although provocative, seemed much more like a manifestation of every trend in the book: fringe, pleather, peplum waists, sheer panelling, velvet, knee patches, sunglasses, gloves and cat ear headbands distracted from what were actually exciting silhouettes.

Vicky Dubois showed a wearable collection of easy separates and despite a few rather strange looks, her presentation showed a lot of promise in its simplicity. What really failed for me was Camille Focherio’s 60’s Miami gangsters/butterflies-inspired capsule collection of swimwear – not only were the pieces not wearable at all (not even in an haute couture way), the theme was translated so literally, it was painful. 60’s cut bikinis and one-piece suits were sported with aviator or round sunglasses but the worst part was that each look was bedecked with dozens of organza butterflies. Very strange.