As three aspiring fashionistas, the Cashmere event could not have been a better introduction to the world of fashion. Not only did we get to meet inspirational designers, amazing PR Professionals, television personalities and artists but we were there celebrating a great cause. The White Cashmere show was created 8 years ago to raise awareness and funds in a modern and chic way for breast cancer research. The Cashmere brand bathroom tissue, created by Kruger, is the product used by the designers. 15 of Canada’s top designers are chosen to use the tissue as their fabric and create masterpieces. The designs created are then placed in a runway fashion show.
Curator Farley Chatto hired 15 of Canada’s top designers to create the masterpieces and FW got to briefly chat with the mastermind.

What was the inspiration of the show’s design?

I was completely inspired by a particular Givenchy runway show, and it caused me to change the entire initial vision for the Cashmere Fashion show! I wanted to have the show look retro rococo, and broken down baroque. I worked with Strategy PR a fabulous company to bring the concept and everything to life.
What part did you play in putting the show together as the curator?
Everything! From coming up with the concept, to bringing that concept for approval to the strategy team, to collecting and monitoring the progress of the designers, picking the venue and creating the set. I literally had a hand in every aspect of putting this show together, but it was a bit easier because I knew a lot of the designers and am a designer myself. It was fun to see the amazing things that they were able to put together!
What was your favourite piece of this years collection?
Although I absolutely loved all of the pieces that were shown today, one piece that really stuck out to me was a designer named Luco who created a chainmail dress out of the tissue paper. He actually went above and beyond the call of duty buying a machine specifically to make the dress, and used some 3000 buttons and 4000 rings all strung together by hand. The effect was beautiful.
Different this year was the menswear inclusion. We are also able to speak to Brian Maristela who gave us the inside look at what is was like to be the inaugural men’s wear designer in the show.
How does it feel to be the first Menswear showcased in the Cashmere Fashion Show, 2011?
It’s really exciting to be a part of this, but it’s also so scary! We were agonizing the whole time, would we be able to pull this off? We spent so much time trying to answer that very question! Since we were the first we had to come up with something amazing you know?
What is your designing background?
I went to a three year program in design with Fanshawe, and that was a great experience. In the last year of the program I was lucky enough to have my collection showcased in Fashion Week which was a great start in fort of launching my career.
Was the garment done in true couture style, or were you able to use a machine on the delicate fabric?
Although I did some of the sewing by hand I was able to use a domestic sewing machine. Of course it’s very delicate fabric and of course mistakes were made in the process but it almost became part of the design of the garment. For example the back with the gathers, which were I guess accentuated by the nature of the fabric.
And How Hard was it to sew the fabric?
It was definitely a challenge, very difficult at times. It was about three weeks of sewing straight 8 hours a day which was difficult, and figuring out what would work in terms of how to sew and how to iron was a process as well.
Lisa: We were so scared to iron the garments, we had to be so careful!
We understand that you use a lot fabrics from the Philippines in your designs, did you incorporate this countries influence in the design of your menswear garment?
I didn’t for the Cashmere Fashion show because of constrained limitation of materials but being Filipino I do source a lot of my fabrics from the Philippines.
Will you be showing LG Fashion Week 2011?
Not this season we’re just launching our business, and we understand that some business’ show each and every reason, it’s too much work and stress and first and foremost too much money to be spending. We showed the first collection in LG last year and it was really successful but we’re opting to wait until out business has had time to grow.

And what does your current business venture entail?
Well, we’re currently selling strictly online. We plan to start off small and work our way up to deserve that prestige of LG fashion week.
The show was a great success! FW spoke to the host of the show and host of Canada A.M who also raved about the amazing pieces. As a breast cancer survivor she is apart of the show and is grateful for all of these designers who put time and effort in for such a great cause. As future fashionistas and women we were proud to be in attendance to such an amazing and heartfelt event in the name of women and fashion!