4 Fashion Weeks. 4 Months.

From Toronto to Paris, this Autumn-Winter season has been a whirlwind.

How does one even begin to explain the series of events that led us here? Perhaps it starts in August, when we discovered a fledgling Fashion week. TOFW, the creation of Rchive, an innovative fashion space in the heart of Toronto's downtown.

It had been over a decade since we'd shown in a fashion week, and this innovative, newer event intrigued us. After careful consideration, we applied and began work on our first seasonal collection in years.

Of course, it wasn't without its hitches. Personal issues and client work piled up, but regardless, we pushed through, finally finishing the first iteration of our AW 26/27 collection just before the show's date.

Sixteen looks, men and women, dedicated to the lifeblood of who we are: artists, creatives, and music lovers. Echo Chamber was an ode to our roots, mixing gothic romance with the under-the-wire cool of the 1970s. Velvet, leather, and shearling. Flares, fringes, and antique tapestry. All shown against the backdrop of Toronto's abandoned Lower Bay subway station to the DJ stylings of our talented friend Kardinal Offishall.

The show was everything we hoped it would be. Surrounded by our friends, our artists, and our family, we felt something we hadn't in a while: excitement. 

Perhaps this is where we could have stopped, but fortune was our friend. Within weeks of the show, we were informed we had been accepted to showcase our work on the international stage: at Copenhagen Fashion week.

With our suitcases packed to the brim with our collection, we travelled overseas to Denmark to participate in northern Europe's largest fashion fair, CIFF. Over the course of three gruelling (yet informative) days in a small booth styled like a mini boutique, we met with stylists, artists, and fashion lovers from all over northern Europe. Near the end, we were spent, though invigorated.

Weeks after our return, our passports newly stamped, we were offered yet another opportunity: this one the biggest yet.

Paris Fashion Week.

Yes, that fashion week. The one most designers only aspire to show at.

Within a month of our return to Toronto, we were back onboard an airplane, headed to the fashion capital of the world with our newly refined collection we had re-dubbed Afterparty. 

This collection built upon the original line, fine tuning the collection in the image of the coolest backstage cast. The rockers, the creators, the innovators of music history.

The stage? A vaulted hall in Paris, La Maison des Métallos.

This show was like no other we'd done before. Produced by Global Fashion Collective, an event organizer with ties to Vancouver Fashion Week, the event was sleek, organized, and flawless. Nestled in-between heavy-hitter design houses, we had our debut in Paris and quickly saw the fruits of our labour. ELLE, Marie Claire, Harper's Baazar, and more. 

We were floored.

Surely this was the extent of our adventures? And yet, it wasn't.

Upon the completion of our show, Vancouver Fashion Week gave us an offer: come to Vancouver and we will show your collection.

Within a month of our return to Toronto, we were back in the air, heading to our final fashion tour destination.

That night we showed the room was electric. The models, the hair and makeup, the music. Everything screamed the vision we'd conjured all those months ago when we'd first clicked APPLY.

Every city, every conversation, every version of the collection lived inside that final show. 

This process reminded us that nothing we make is static. It evolves with every space it enters and every person who experiences it.

And honestly, we are just getting started.

This project has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada.
Ce projet a été rendu possible en partie grâce au gouvernement du Canada.