Ottawa Fashion Week: Fall/Winter 2012 bodes well for the city’s fashionistas

Post by Stephanie Naday

Seeking a bit of aesthetic inspiration? Feeling a little stylistically uninspired in Ottawa? This past weekend saw the seventh edition of Ottawa Fashion Week which delivered fall/winter 2012 collections fit to satisfy any fashion enthusiast’s cravings. Held at the Westin Hotel downtown, the weekend featured a diverse group of designers hailing from across Canada. Apartment613 was at the event on Friday night, and was thoroughly impressed with the collections being shown.

The night started off with Elena’s Creations, a local designer who has run her own upscale boutique at 55 Murray St in the Byward Market since 2001. Her collection was beautiful and geared towards an older, haute couture-loving crowd. It featured cocktail dresses, evening-wear and polished clothing that would be fantastic for any night out. One of Elena’s distinguishing characteristics, in my opinion, is her ability to custom-tailor her clothing to fit each of her customer’s body shapes and flatter them as much as possible. While the pieces she presented looked great on the models walking OFW’s runway, I could equally see them looking fantastic on a curvier body.

Next up was Amanda Emmanuel, my favorite of the night. Initially launched as House of Eenah in July of 2011, the label has since split into two separate names. Amanda Emmanuel features higher end, luxury apparel while House of Eenah will be focusing on clothing with a lower price point. Amanda Emmanuel’s creations have been featured on Breakfast Television in Toronto and have been worn by Cameron Diaz, who perfectly embodies the fun-loving spirit of the clothing. It was bright, colorful and focused on graphic prints, which was a nice change to see in a sea of dark, brooding fall clothing. I identified with Emmanuel’s collection because it was the type of clothes you could dress down with a pair of leggings and boots for daytime, or dress way up with a pair of heels and nylons for night-time. The colors were bold yet the cuts and prints were classic, and I could imagine myself wearing her pieces for several years without having them go out of style.

An hour-long break followed, which enabled us to refill our Bloody Caesars and Vodka-Sodas and meet up with some friends. I met one of the coordinators of the weekend, Michael Berger, who filled me in on the production process and the event’s move from Ottawa’s new convention center last season to the Westin. If anybody has been on the hotel’s upper floor, they’ll have noticed the bold, graphic-print carpet which is filled with bright greens and orange colors. Berger’s main concern was making the carpet look fit for a fashion event, and with the numerous pop-up stalls advertising BMW, facials, beauty products and more he certainly succeeded. I also met the bookings and public relations agents for Ottawa’s own Modeling International Management Agency, who were proud of the many local female (and male) models that were walking in the evening’s shows. I thought it was great that Ottawa relied heavily on its own models, versus bringing in bigger names from Montreal and Toronto.

My two favorite shows in the latter part of the evening were Frash and !Nu.I by Vickie Joseph. Frash, headed by a local Ottawa designer named Isobel Walker, brought a fresh spin to the evening by showcasing her jewelry collection on ethereal-looking models whose chests and necks were covered solely by white feathers, providing an interesting take on jewelry presentation. She closed her show with a regal, Cleopatraesque spiked headpiece: a direct stab (no pun intended) at anyone who might say Ottawa is bland. !Nu.I by Vickie Joseph presented young, urban clothing that would be fit for any hip city-dweller. Like Amanda Emmanuel’s collection, it was vibrant and showcased several interesting prints while remaining timeless, feminine and classic.

As a native Montrealer, it made me happy to see contemporary collections being presented in Ottawa that could rival the ones being shown in our neighboring Montreal and Toronto. While our city’s Fashion Week may have a ways to go before it reaches national attention, I think the designers, collections and production of the weekend are commendable given that it’s only in its seventh season. I’m looking forward to seeing Ottawa Fashion Week grow; it can only get better from here.