The Toronto chapter of Fashion Group International hosted 100 fashion and beauty industry folks at the Fifth Social Club Tuesday to review the key looks for the upcoming season at the organization’s annual Spring Pret Event and Trend Report. “This particular event gives our members an update on what just hit the runway,” said Michelle Calvert, who serves as the organization’s regional co-chair along with Pheinixx Paul. “We also have trend forecasts happening tonight, which is really, really valuable to most of our members. They’ll get to see what’s hot a year in advance.”
Grace Lee of M.A.C. reviewed the beauty looks seen on the runways in Paris, Milan, London, and New York, and Lush Magazine fashion director Peter Papapetrou discussed the fashion trends for the fall 2009 season—illustrated by models wearing designs from Evan Biddell, Farley Chatto, David Dixon, and Linda Lundström.
WGSN—a global service that provides online research, trend analysis, and news to the fashion, design, and style industries—showcased its forecasts for spring 2010. “The designers in the audience, whether they’re jewelry designers or accessory designers, really get to see what’s going to happen a year in advance. They’re starting to think about their collections right now for spring/summer 2010,” Paul said.
A short panel discussion aimed at relating international trends to consumers followed the presentations. “It’s been an evolving event,” said Paul, who added that the panel discussion and question-and-answer session are new this year. “We want to bring [the presentations] into context and give people insight into how the other areas of this industry use this information.”
The event, held at the Fifth for the first time, saw models walking a runway under dozens of paper lights—permanent fixtures at the venue. “We have a new event chair, Michelle Planche, and she handles all of the logistics now for our events. It’s amazing having her because she runs Paradigm Events...she found this for us and the Fifth has been incredibly supportive,” Paul said. “As a nonprofit organization, we rely on a lot of in-kind as well as cash sponsorships. So for each event we really need venues to recognize that we’re bringing to them the decision-makers in the fashion and beauty industry. Our audience are the people who will have events here as well. Most venues recognize that and are very happy to open their doors to us.”
