Exit 29. A Carefully Curated Designer Consignment Experience. (Or: What I've Been Living and Breathing for the Last Few Months)

I haven't been to one fashion show, this year, and I'm beyond okay with that. I do miss it from time to time but my pieces on those aren't what seem to interest to you and that's probably because, after attending more than twenty shows last year, I lost interest in it, too. A few have stood out and I will be returning to those this year but, aside from the shows that are part of a philanthropic endeavor, most of the memories they have created now blend into one big, redundant recollection. We're always at least two seasons behind and, keeping abreast on what's happening outside of the Montreal bubble tends to leave me hungry for more, here. The 2014 shows that now stand out in my my mind are Astri Prugger, Melissa Nepton, Ogilvy's fundraiser show for l'Hopital Sainte-Justine, the Montreal SPCA's benefit show and, of course, Le Défilé Logis Rose-Virginie which, in addition to having been executed perfectly, made my heart swell and my eyes tear up and triggered within me an idea on how I could give back.

In the fall of 2013, I decided that Canada needed an online designer consignment shop that accepts sellers from the around the world. Many brick-and-mortar shops have their own sites and a few local e-stores have popped up over the last few years but I felt it was time someone upped the ante, in Canada. Around this time, FASHION Magazine wrote an article about how you could turn your closet into cash and, in that piece, informed readers about a series of online designer consignment stores... None of whom accept Canadian sellers. I wrote to them and my letter was published but they helped fuel the fire.

My first steps were shaky ones and I ended up putting the project on the back burner ( from where it kept nagging at me) for several months. Life was happening, as it tends to. I moved out of my sub-standard apartment into one with a basement and a studio; I went to Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, NYC and Cape Cod; and then, last October, the catalyst I had evidently required kicked me in the ass. After pushing to go from being a temporary employee to a full-time one so that I could enjoy the same benefits as my colleagues, the position was opened to the outside and my company hired somebody else. I was angry and hurt but it wasn't long before those morphed into motivation and I decided that I would never waste another year of my life minutes sitting behind a desk, in a glass tower downtown, working for a company who couldn't care less about me. Everybody has bills to pay but that's not a life. The fire was back.

I reached out to a darling friend of mine, Annie Stephens, who is an amazing photographer and knows her way around web graphics and we started talking about how we could approach the project. At point, remembering that I work better under pressure, I pulled dates out of my sleeve. "Annie, what would you say to us going live in March and launching in June?" We both, quite nervously, decided to plunge.

So, it's the end of March and we've been online since the 1st. We launch in a month. And here we are. 

The last few months have been a whirlwind but we're on schedule and very excited about our launch!

Behind the scenes, at our first editorial shoot, in Old Montreal, this month. Ava is modelling and that is Annie Stephens, behind the lens. Styling was done by me.

It's at the aforementioned Défilé Logis Rose Virginie that I decided that I could use my business to raise money and give back. We've now reached out to more than 25 charities and several have decided to partner up with us. You can see them here and you can donate to them simply by listing with us and letting us know how much you'd like to give and to whom. 

We've thrown in a bunch of really great bonuses for the first people who list with us and you can see it all on the site and on our social media pages: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

This endeavor has obviously been very time-consuming, but I am writing a little bit each day. Sometimes I journal, sometimes I work on short stories. I am feeling the pull to return to blogging but I need to figure out how I want to go about it. My opinion pieces and style guides have been the most enjoyable to write and have been the most well-received by you so maybe that's what I'll move forward with. In the meantime, I just had to share this with you!

Read more »

Beasts of Fashion Gala. November 6th, 2014.

On November 6th, I made my way to the Corona Theatre for the first ever Beasts of Fashion Gala, where over $100 000 was raised for the Montreal SPCA.

It was a pleasant event, with snappily-dressed people enjoying tiny morsels and free-flowing wine. I watched from the balcony as the show started and, within ten minutes, was crying openly, as we were told the story of a dog who had been badly beaten by her owner. After being shown images of the poor dog, our tears turned to those of joy as a now healed and joyous pup strutted across the stage to hearty applause and whoops of joy.

In addition to the silent auction being held, a live auction raised over three thousand dollars for a week-end getaway and a jersey signed by the entire Canadiens team. After the auction, the fashion show kept us all on the edges of our seats and awwing loudly. Several of the models walked out with a rescued dog, melting my heart each and every time a new one came out. I, of all people, had a hard time focusing on the clothing and I now barely remember any of the pieces but, dog-lover that I am, I'm one-hundred percent okay with that.

I never usually use pictures by taken someone else but my old phone simply could not handle the lighting for this event and so I've borrowed images from www.montrealrampage.com. They were taken by Magali Crevier. Please visit the site for more!

Read more »

11th Annual Défilé Logis Rose-Virginie

When you attend as many as four fashion events in a week and no fewer than three in a month, over the course of at least one year, a lot of them tend to blend together in your mind. We have a surprising amount of fashion designers in Montreal, especially given the textile industry's decline here but, with that many fashion shows staged on a regular basis, you start to see the same designers, and sometimes the same pieces, over and over again.

Once in a while, you attend a show and you are highly entertained and left craving more. It could be the production level, the presentation of the garments, the designs themselves, the way guests and media are treated or, when you're really lucky, you're wowed with a lovely mixture of each of these elements. In the last year, I'd say that the Astri Prugger show, last winter, and the Melissa Nepton show SS15 show were the ones that really blew my mind.

All of this, coupled with the horrible cold I had been battling for a week, was probably why, although I was quite happy to cover this event (for not one, but two blogs), I wasn't expecting it to be the life-altering experience that it was.

On November 5th the Logis Rose-Virginie hosted their 11th annual fashion fundraiser at the Windsor Ballrooms, on Peel Street. If you haven't already heard of this organization, I beseech you to click on the link. In all honesty, I had never heard of them before this year...

I was a street kid when I was seventeen, going from sleeping outside, by the Ottawa River and squatting in abandoned homes to living in a condemned building. I ate, showered and did my laundry thanks to a youth drop-in center and I experienced and witnessed things that, when recalled, leave me with the exhilarating feeling of feeling so grateful to be alive. For a year, I found a home, some stability and some peace. I moved to Toronto with a boyfriend, got a job and went to college. Then I got pregnant with my daughter and moved to Montreal. I was twenty years old, on welfare and five months pregnant. I let a string of negative people into my life, had my son less than two years later and found myself, at twenty-three, on welfare with a baby and a toddler, unable to afford my rent and bills. Knowing that I was about to lose my home, I placed my children with an aunt and uncle. Someone called child services on me, even though I had done right by my children, while I stayed with a friend and tried to find work and an apartment. I found a terrible flat, in Rosemont, and brought my lease and keys to child services just six hours before they were to revoke custody of my two children from me, despite the fact that I had always made sure they were clothed, fed, loved, happy and safe. I had never done drugs and I had never hurt my children but my pink hair and the fact that I wanted to be a fashion designer really irked my worker. The file stayed open for a year, while I constantly proved to these strangers that I could care for my children without looking like everybody else and aspiring to be an accountant or a nurse. I battled depression during this time and life had become my own hell.

Years later, when I had gone back to school, gotten a handful of great jobs and started to finally live with enough ease to ward off the blues and anxiety, I vowed that I would one day do something to help other single mothers. I thought it would be fantastic if I could get enough grants to fix up an old building so that I could provide mothers with a home and have 24/7 counselling available on site. I wanted to put a daycare on the ground floor so that nobody would have to run through snow banks to make it to class on time because their daycare, located three miles from their school, opened late or have to beg their teachers and/or employers to let them leave early so that they could spend food money on a cab to get their children before the daycare closes. I vowed that I would find a way to help and that if I could make sure that even one mom was spared the insanity that I had to live as I struggled to make it as a functional adult in what society now is, it would somehow make the memory of those times a good one.

...And so, I left my two-storey apartment, where I was working on my clothing collection and on my memoir, strong, confidant and at least one world away from the one I just described, finger curls in my hair and stiletto oxfords on my feet...

What a beautiful event this was! The open bar served up wine and cocktails and Le Pois Penché had prepared a delicious assortment of miniature foods, from crispy, baked shells laden with salmon tartare to a variety of maki to prosciutto and melon on batons. The air was festive as people bid on multiple items at the silent auction, had their fill of wine and mingled with new and old friends alike.

At eight o'clock, we took our seats and waited for the show to begin. As Caroline Codsi and Melanie Joly each took some time at the podium to inform people a bit more about who exactly they were helping out, I was floored. Logis Rose-Virginie houses women in crisis for up to three years, providing them with 24/7 counselling and setting them up with the tools they require to get through detox, keep mental illness under control, get custody of their children back, go back to school, find work, etc.

It had always been this idea I'd had for "one day, when my business is successful enough" or "when I've built enough that I can prove to people who give out grants that I can undertake this sort of project" and, as I went about improving my own life, it somehow never occurred to me that I could do something to help an organization that already does this. Le Chainon has been on my list for a long time but, as previously mentioned, I had yet to hear about Le Logis. And so, the very first thing I can do to help is to tell you about them.

Up next, two women who currently live at Rose-Virginie shared their testimonials. They were tales of mental illness, addiction, dropping out, loss of child custody and more. There was barely a dry eye in the room and, when the last woman to speak told us that, after five years of spending Christmas away from her three children, she would get to spend the holidays with them, this year, unsupervised, thanks to the year-and-a-half of hard work she's put in while with the organization, I had to stifle a sob. Both women got standing ovations and the whoops of encouragement from the crowd encouraged more calls of "Bravo!" and everyone was smiling and applauding loudly.

There was a fashion show. Iris Setlakwe opened by showing some of her existing designs, which were modeled by local businesswomen. Afterward, some gentlemen came out to model clothing sold by Europa, this season. They had everyone whistling and clapping as they danced, pointed, occasionally shook their bottoms and strutted up and down the catwalk. The show ended with bang as Iris Setlakwe gave us a look at her SS15 collection. If you want to know more about the fashion show itself and see a few photos from that part of the event, I welcome you to check out the piece I wrote for The Models' Coach. As much as I enjoyed the show, my heart was still swollen from what had come before and what I would like to do, and that's what remains at the forefront of my mind. You'll be reading more about Iris Setlakwe in just a bit, though, as I had the pleasure of hearing her speak, two days later.

You'll also be hearing more about Le Logis Rose-Virginie if I have anything to say about it. In a few months, I'll be launching a business that, among other things, will provide people with a fun way to donate to charity and, thanks to what I heard and saw on November 5th, I am putting Le Logis on the list of charities I will be helping out. You often hear of campaigns proclaiming that "fashion cares" and, once in a while, it really truly does! I urge you to buy a ticket to next year's event, as the 12th Défilé will be in celebration of Le Logis' 25th anniversary and don't worry about forgetting about it-- I'll remind you!

Read more »