National Post
May 6, 2008
By Nathalie Atkinson
Step back and strip it down. This was the advice offered up by the always enthusiastic Barb Atkin, vice-president of fashion directrion at Holt Renfrew, at this year's instalment of the Toronto Fashion Incubator's New Labels competition. "Often young designers over-detail," Atkin explains, "and I thought these four reallly understood the idea of stepping back and stripping it down." The gifted quartet consisted of Lara Presber, Eugenia Designs, Miss Rowe and Butikofer, and they were judged by retail consultant Mary Jo Looby, designer David Dixon, Elle Canada editor Rita Silvan, manufacturing expert Kathy Cheng of Wing Son Garments and yours truly. The competition culminated in a runway show staged for the fashion elite (buyers, stylists and editors) at the inaugural ELLE Show last month in Toronto, and in the end Leavitt's laboriously crafted rosettes won her the $25,000 prize.
Lara Presber, a Calgarian and former architect, was first on the runway with teal and bronze vests inspired by Tamara de Lempicka and Joan of Arc. The medieval look was contrasted by a black flapper dress and soft silk featherprint bias dresses, all styled with Amelia Earhear flight hats and chunky cuffs. "I really kind of sat up straight and looked at her collection when it came out," Atkin says. "I saw her artistry and her mix of the seasonal and seasonless fabrics, an interesting mix of texture and fabrication. There was this beautiful architectural folding."
Next, Adrienne Butikofer of Toronto, who was inspired by a 1917 book about the land girls of the First World War. She channelled the retro-military feeling into sleek but casual city girl style, with perfectly cut skinny jersey pants in navy, vintage striped blouses and a cocoon-shaped strapless dress fastened around the bust paper-bag-style with a masculine leather belt.
Third was Eugenia Leavitt from Montreal with tailored, understated dresses and trousers in cream and black, with hits of purple. Her collection used glossy organic silk and hemp blends and matte organize bamboos and cottons. Many pieces were embellished with free-form rosettes, each one handmade, blooming on slouch rib-knit toques, hems, collars and shrugs and in Leavitt's finale look as a floor-grazing black peek-a-boo rosette ball skirt. "It was clean and I liked the fact that it was seasonless and that she did an excellent job in construction," Atkin notes. "I liked the feeling of the
rosettes, and it wasn't girly girly."
The final collection was Ashley Rowe of Toronto's clean, stark, black-on-black Miss Rowe collection, inspired by her mother's monochromatic style. It featured extra-long leather pants wrapping under heels like cloven feet, oversized lapel maxi-vests and hand-kint loopy coats, all accessorized with fingerless gloves and modular pendants. "Ashley Rowe's black statement was very, very stront," Atkin says. "She is not afraid to say, 'This is who I am.' I loved the oversized silhouette with the very lean and I think it's speaking to modern androgeny."
