Young fashion designers trying to break into the industry were the focus of WMCFW Day 2 in Toronto. The best news was the announcement of Mercedes-Benz commitment to a continued 3 year support of the national Mercedes-Benz StartUp competition. This is Canada’s premiere program for finding and mentoring emerging fashion designers.

Day 1

Day 1 opened with a stunning Fall/Winter 2014 series of runways by Mikhael Kale, VAWK, Beaufille, Line Knitwear and Sid Neigum. The variety of looks and colours was incredible, everything from vibrant fuchsia knit pencil skirts to architectural white cloaks.

Mikhael Kale Fall 2014

Line Knitwear Fall 2014

Sid Neigum Fall 2014

Beaufille Fall 2014

VAWK Fall 2014

*all images courtesy of George Pimentel / Getty Images

Day 2

Day 2 included the industry sponsor DHL’s panel of fashion experts and a slate of evening runways which included Fall/Winter 2014 collections from this year’s Awarded Designers Malorie Urbanovitch and Cécile Raizonville of Matière Noire. Designers lighting up the runways on WMCFW Day 2 included HD Homme, Thomas Balint, Laura Siegel, Melissa Nepton and David Dixon.

David Dixon Fall 14

HD Homme Fall 2014

Laura Siegel Fall 2014

DHL Fashion Panel

DHL Fashion Panelists included:

Shawn Hewson, creative director, Bustle Clothing;

Susan Langdon, executive director, Toronto Fashion Incubator;

Marissa Freed, MBA – president & creative director, Freed & Freed International Ltd.;

Ashlee Froese, board member of Fashion Group International and owner/editor of CanadaFashionLaw.com, partner at Gilbert’s LLP

moderated by Greg Hewitt, president of DHL Express Canada.

Their advice to aspiring designers was:

1. Be passionate and in for the long run. To establish a presence in the industry will take 8 to 10 years.

2. Be creative and practical. Realize what you are not good at and bring in people who are. (marketing, finance and legals, import/export laws).

3. Do your research so you know your target customer. This gets better over time with feedback from your customers and retailers.

4. Pick a date to be in stores and move backwards to determine timelines then add a large margin for error.

5. Young designers should temper their inspirations and designs with what is commercially viable.

6. If you are a new designer hit up a lot of trade shows to meet a lot of buyers and media inexpensively. Eg. TFI (Toronto Fashion Incubator WMCFW Buyers Lunch)

7. Think about branding and pricing in terms of who you want to be next to on the clothing rack.

8. Got the product, need to market? Consider a partnership with an existing brand that already has these avenues well established.

9. A POP UP Shop can be invaluable for an emerging designer especially if there is a great location, opening party, partnerships with established brands and perfect timing of the event. You should have qualified staff, very knowledgeable about the products and designs who can help customers just like in a boutique or store.

10. Digital retail is an inexpensive way of testing the market and building a community.

For more on the DHL Panel see www.dhl.com/inmotion For more in-depth coverage of World MasterCard Fashion Week Fall 2014 see Unlabelled.co.

Melissa Nepton Fall 2014

Thomas Balint Fall 2014

*all images courtesy of George Pimentel / Getty Images

– Moira Romano