The Montreal Fashion & Design Festival (August 14-22) is a week of fashion, design, music, beauty, and shopping trends. In previous years the festival was in the heart of the Montreal shopping district and McGill College street was transformed into a huge catwalk to host all the fashion shows. This year they decided to split their location between Place des Festival at Place des Arts and the Montreal Casino. Of course being the fashion addict that I am, I had to check it out.
I'm not thrilled that there's two locations for this event, but I decided to check out the scene at Place des Arts. There were trucks and crates selling clothes and jewelry from local designers as well as a wooden catwalk for designers to showcase their work. I was able to catch the Tricia Crivellaro and MEWS show.
Tricia Crivellaro presented her aikido menswear collection consisting of white and grey Fall/Winter wear that encompassed a lot of layering. While some of the pieces (such as jackets, hoodies, and jeans) can be worn by the average guy, the layering of shirts (some the length of skirts) are left more to the fashion forward man. The long shirt theme could also be seen in the MEWS show.
MEWS was a collection for both men and women. Their interesting use of materials and textures gives an interesting look to their line. Whereas the women's clothes were more ordinary looking, the men's clothes definitely pushed the limits and I don't see most men wearing anything from this line.
While shopping around I was able to find new pieces of jewelry from My Addikt to add to my collection. They're beautiful gold and silver items at a very affordable price. The OldWIG fashion truck was there if you're into vintage wear and Schwiing had a couple crates of their clothing. During the same night that I checked out the MEWS fashion show, Dynamite and Vie en Rose also had their show at the Montreal Casino. It seems that the larger shows were kept for that location. This festival is definitely something every fashionista needs to check out.