The general flavour is hip, modern and daring—bringing a positive outlook on the future of Canadian fashion.

Title sponsor L’Oréal Professionnel is on a good thing: L’Oréal Paris’s sponsorship of New Zealand Fashion Week in Auckland last October proved to be a success, raising the company’s profile dramatically. The French cosmetics’ company’s Canadian outpost should net substantial exposure from the week’s events. Photographs: L’Oréal

Samantha J. Potes takes a preview into Toronto Fashion Week as Lucire gears up for its first-time coverage of the premier Canadian event

OOL FASHION from a cold country’ is the theme of the highly anticipated Toronto Fashion Week, "the Canadian Collections", being held in Toronto March 18–26. Following New York and Milano, Toronto Fashion Week, the first of two this year, aims to ‘elevate Canadian fashion to the international stage,’ as announced by Jim Searle, chairman of the Fashion Design Council of Canada (FDCC). It will strive to showcase uniquely Canadian fall and winter collections, considered by many as an untapped fashion resource.
   Searle, half of the duo behind Hoax Couture (which will kick off Fashion Week's festivities as the first show on site) along with Robin Kay, president of the FDCC, are touting this as the most promising and ambitious Toronto Fashion Week to date. The most notable aspect of the event's planning is their partnership with L'Oréal Professionnel, the event's title sponsor.
   The week's events will be held at the magnificent Liberty Grand, Toronto's upscale entertainment complex on the grounds of the fabled Canadian National Exhibition, located on the city's waterfront. It will house three days and five nights of Canada's top designers' work in the form of runway shows, presentations, galas, exhibitions and of course, parties. Starting with the City of Toronto Awards for Excellence in Fashion, the festivities will then proceed with media-friendly attractions, highlighting collections from Crystal Siemens, David Dixon, Ula Zukowska and Marilyn Brooks, to name a few.
   There will be a contrasting mix of formal evening and urbanwear as well as fresh new labels. Even the enterprising American rapper Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs will have a runway showing at the Urban Wear Show & Tell, a mélange of Toronto, Montréal and New York urban designers. The general flavour is hip, modern and daring—bringing a positive outlook on the future of Canadian fashion.
   A closing party hosted by L'Oréal Paris, themed ‘Fashion Rocks the Runway’, will be, for the first time, accessible to the public. However, the pièce de résistance will be the Salute to Québec Designers, dedicating the Friday to the French–Canadian flair for design with such labels as Papillon Blanc and Joeffer Caoc for Misura. There will also be a very special farewell reception to international fashion's beloved Yves St Laurent, which is sure to be well attended. The following Monday will wrap up with a ‘Gemini Gala’, showcasing designer gowns worn by upcoming and prominent Canadian actors, also open to the public.
   With L'Oréal as the title sponsor, the FDCC has confidence that it will not only attract local fashion media, but international media and the public as well. Canadian fashionistas will be familiar with many of the designers, but for most, Canadians and non-Canadians alike, many will likely be new and the FDCC hopes that it will catch the eye and respect of many. Credibility and awareness are what the FDCC is seeking and the potential for success appears to be unlimited. Samantha J. Potes

With files from the Canadian Press and Canada News Wire
Samantha J. Potes is Toronto correspondent for Lucire.

Toronto Fashion Week official site
L’Oréal Professionnel

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