The Style Box just put up a great post about Fashion Week etiquette.
Great little blog posting.  For those who are trying to navigate this wonderful world of the Style Industry (of which the Fashion Industry is a part of) should definitely give it a gander.  

A couple of points in the posting I want to illustrate and fully agree with : 

I feel (Toronto Fashion Week) should be strictly a trade event – especially when most people are there to work.. 
 

The majority of public attending the shows respect that, but some public don’t take that into consideration: they steal seats, fill up space in the already crammed tents, complain about the shows being “so short”, and generally just get in the way.

She also posts these great ‘Ten Fashion Commandents”
My favourite :  ’Thou shall dress to impress.’

These commandments are great as they also illustrate the strictness of the Fashion Industry. They have a very specific set of rules and way of doing things that they feel must be adhered to.   The fact is that these rules makes sense in New York or Paris or Milan.  

In Toronto, it’s a bit different.

Most of the afternoon shows are generally empty.  The overcrowding and craziness tend to happen (and rightfully so) in the later evening shows with some of the more established designers (David Dixon, bustle, etc) and these shows tend to be big PR initiatives as opposed to sales exercises as there aren’t any big buyers at the event throughout the week as most budgets are already accounted for and sales are already made from the bigger more relevant Fashion Weeks.

I have walked into the tents (and Liberty Grand) every year without any real trouble and stayed throughout the whole evening catching six maybe seven shows. I can tell you, etiquette is not the issue, relevance is.  

What designers need is a viable sales channel, not a hoped-for one.  I have mentioned this many times before, Canada has one big retailer and a great network of small retailers as well as a few traditional media.  Nothing like the major Fashion Weeks in the world.  What we do have is 2 million of the smartest and most well-informed consumer base in North America, one of the first great network of non-traditional media made up of bloggers and (now) twitterers.

Until the Toronto Week of Style was created, they weren’t being tapped into. Why is that?  

Leadership.

The Toronto Week of Style has been successful on many levels (of which I will post about another day), one of the main points of success is that consumers are now being looked at across this country and slowly in various points across the world.

By relaxing the rules a little bit and looking at things differently, there might just be a way of achieving what we are all looking to do – provide Canadian Designers of the Style Industry their place at the global table.

That’s what we have done at the Toronto Week of Style.

That’s why we don’t need Commandents.

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Was reading my papers online today and came across this..
It seems the little engine that is the Toronto Week of Style is having an effect. 
First Toronto Fashion Week, now Montreal.

That’s great news for designer, great news for consumers.
The more power that Torontonians and in this case, Montrealers give to consumers,
the better the odds for a designer to succeedin the global marketplace, whether you’re Canadian or not….

I think designer Judith Desjardins summed it up best at the end

“It’s another way to get people involved with local creation,” she said.
“We do all these shows and the actual client isn’t able to see it, so it’s
a good opportunity to reach the final customer.”

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Glad to see that TFW website now has links to the designers online presences and photos/mini video clips of the shows that they did right at the designers names.

That’s great for them. They’re finally learning how to use the world wide interweb.

I like our execution a little better though.

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Oh look….Toronto Fashion Week has embraced bloggers as an ‘important’ media outlet.
Geez..why didn’t I think of that?  Oh wait, I did!

Too bad they screwed themselves and only gave them Industry Passes when New York Fashion Week is giving full accreditation.

That’s the problem when you are not creating and just following.  You never do it right.

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just wanted to big up Adrian….
he has put together a blog that truly exemplifies what blogs should be…with a little dash of that Toronto swagger that puts us head and shoulders above the rest….

I just read that Chanel wined and dined him in the same vein as ‘higher more reputable journalists’….
(that’s right people..you heard me…freakin Chanel)
read about it here…
http://www.fashionverbatim.net/this-is-how-buzz-advertising-works/

this is great…
huge for bloggers..
huge for the TFB (Toronto Fashion Bloggers)
huge for Toronto

I’m not going to go on about how we were the first major initiative (through our agency) to understand and respect the power and the importance of bloggers..

I’m also not going to go into how I believe that the Toronto Fashion Bloggers Group that I have been so fortunate to meet over the last year are probably the smartest and most astute group of media minds I’ve had to go up against in a long while…(trust me..they let me rightfully have it on some things that we didn’t deliver on during the first year…)

I’m also not going to go on about how some sponsors really nailed on me for even considering let alone executing a blogger-heavy marketing strategy…(except Jim at Philips and Dan and Jordan at Exquisite…man those guys got it…especialy Jim….)…yeah I am talking to you Davis Factor…charge a hundred bucks a person he said…geez…(that my friends is another post…hehe)

what I will say is that I am both ecstatic and proud of Adrian, even though I have never actually met him..(we talked on the phone a few times..teehee)…he was the first (but not the only) out of the TFB to be open and support the TWOS when even the more traditional media wouldn’t even take my calls…(respect to Nathalie Atkinson who I know has shown love to the TFB by attending their brunches)

it’s a matter of time folks…
Toronto is finally getting to be known for the being one of the smartest and most influential cities in the world…
well done…

and once again..
congrats Adrian…

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so our first post is official.

It is October 2007.  Last May, we launched to the world the inaugural Toronto Week of Style.  It was a huge success.  A lot of great things happened.  Some not so great. But that’s how it goes when you launch these things… 

The key was, that despite all of the haterade that people were drinking, we did it.  And not only did we do it, we did it well…so well, that other events have been using some of things we did themselves…while others have just outright ripped us off.  For the first time in its 20 year history, the Toronto Film Festival had an official cocktail…similar to our official cocktail of style…(now the disclaimer is that everyone I have talked to and all the research that i have done has backed this up…and trust me, I talked to a lot of people.  So if you have proof to the contrary…please let me know and I will take that claim back).  Toronto Fashion Week has an eco-strategy all of a sudden..oh and btw…for the first time in its history, Fashion Week is open to the people, the regular folk…you, and me…(well maybe not me, cause when I met Robin Kay a few years back, it did not go well…but that’s another post).

I will be using this blog to discuss certain issues pertaining to fashion, music and other aspects of the style industry. I cannot guarantee that you will like what I say sometimes.  I will say good things, I will say bad things.  But one thing I can promise, is that I will always tell the truth and if I have pissed anyone off, I am open to frank, sane dialogue discussing the issue.  Ask those around me, I am always looking to be proven wrong.  However, if you want to come after me for anything said in this blog, or in the press, then it better not be an immature rant, but a point of view that is supported by logic and real information, as that is what I will be putting out there.

We have a lot of hurdles against us. The traditional media ignores us. The municipal government is constantly dissing us.  Tourism Toronto invests in every other fashion event except ours (even one that promotes Montreal more than Toronto)..but do I care?

Notsomuch. 

Sure, some of the money that the city pumps into Toronto Fashion Week would help…and we could use some support when marketing the event globally…but the the people love us. The urban community is championing us..  the corporate community has seen the opportunity we provide and is supporting us..and most importantly, the industry that we have been created to promote has embraced us. 

That is my yardstick…

So that is good enough for me….

peace out homey

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