For the inaugural Paws for the Cause fund-raiser—a benefit for the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals—the event team, led by founder Laura Serra, called on 10 designer labels to dress 10 local personalities and 10 dogs for a runway show attended by 250 people at Red Bull 381 Projects on Thursday.
"As the social page editor for The Globe and Mail, I’ve experienced the power and energy a good fund-raiser can bring and I thought it my time to act," Serra wrote in a blog post announcing the benefit. In an interview, Serra explained that she wanted to combine her knowledge of events with her love of animals (she has a Chihuahua named Chloe) and her love of fashion. "I came up with an idea to incorporate these three areas," she said. "I thought it would be a smart way to give back."
Serra compiled a volunteer committee and gathered a group of 10 Canadian fashion designers— including labels like Beckerman, Ashley Rowe, Philip Sparks, and Joeffer Caoc— to dress 10 local personalities (actress Kristin Booth and singer Keshia Chante among them), and 10 dogs for the runway portion of the cocktail party.
To market the benefit, the event committee created the Petorialist Campaign (inspired by Scott Schuman's street style blog, the Sartorialist). The nine-image photo series, shot by Ryan Enn Huges and Ian Worang, and presented by event sponsor Olympus, featured stylish Torontonians with their pets. The images were posted on Facebook and Twitter and reproduced on canvases, which organizers displayed as art at the event.
The Paws team also invited Torontonians to submit photos of themselves with their pets for a chance to win an Olympus PEN E-PL1 camera as part of the Petorialist photo contest. Images from the top three photo finalists, selected by the Paws team, were posted on Facebook for a public vote. In addition, the team shot a promotional video, which received about 2,000 hits on YouTube, Serra said.
Sponsors included The Globe and Mail, Olympus, Pet Valu, Jameson, Epson, Svedka Vodka, Black Tower, and Peroni Italy.
