One of the biggest challenges in putting on a fashion show is seating guests, so for this season's Greta Constantine show, held Friday at the Audi Downtown Toronto dealership, the emphasis was on organization and punctuality. “Instead of doing a pre-party like we did last season, we decided to seat guests right off the bat and then have the cocktail party afterward to really try and ensure order and start the show on time,” said Style for Style's Jen Foster, part of the team that planned the event.
Guests had to sign in as soon as they entered the venue and were handed a seating assignment—small etched Plexiglass plaques for the front row and logoed business cards for everyone else. The lower level of the dealership again served as the site for the show, where numbered sections from one to nine made it easy for guests find their seats and lighting cues helped push the presentation to start shortly after its scheduled 8:30 p.m. time slot.
“Everything ended up being super organized,” Foster said after the show. “For the first time, models were waiting for the guests to be seated because everything was ready backstage.”
As per seasons past, Stephen Wong and Kirk Pickersgill, the duo behind Greta Constantine and its sibling menswear label Ezra Constantine, aimed to do something different with their catwalk. Foster said the team wanted the set to feel like being on a dark city rooftop and employed set designer Humberto Garcia, who used a Gothic skyscraper backdrop and purple-lit triangular windows to set the mood. The backdrop also included ads for Audi, the presenting sponsor (for which the label also created a five-piece capsule collection), and the supporting sponsor, Stoli.
In another brand integration effort, Smartwater and Vitaminwater provided the preshow refreshments and created a backstage model lounge with healthy snacks. Post-show, the restaurant Ame set up a sushi buffet for party guests, and Strut Wines, Peroni, and Stoli took care of the drinks.
Wong and Pickersgill wrote in their National Post guest blog last week that they hoped to decrease the number of guests to their show this season but were “bombarded” with requests for invites, pushing the guest list to more than 600. The duo, whose faces were seen in billboard format in the Audi showroom and party space, also attempted to explain their non-involvement in LG Fashion Week, which starts March 28.
“We show off-site because it gives us the creative freedom on how to show the collection,” they wrote. “And considering we have only two fashion shows a year, showcasing six months of blood (you’d be surprised by the pricks you get from hand sewing), sweat, and tears, it ought to be exactly how you want it.”
