Dean and Dan Caten with my friend Olympia Berman at one of Holt Renfrew's Film Festival parties. I remember she was their muse that night.
Veteran designer Dean and Dan Caten of DSqured2 are in the limelight for the launch of their new American show "Launch my line". Next year = Lots of Canada on the fashion map.
I was amused when watching a The Moment video in which you can see Aurel Schmidt's luggage displaying the Canadian Flag. She is from Vancouver but did you know many Americans use Canadian luggage tags as people are usually nicer to them? Art Basel Miami 2009 Aurel Schmidt video The Moment Blog
I have decided to start this blog as I feel there is something happening with young Canadian fashion designers working abroad: Jeremy Laing and Rad Hourani in New York; Todd Lynn, Erdem, and Mark Fast in London; and Calla Haynes and Nicolas Andreas Taralis in Paris.
I have been privy to a lot of these designer's careers from the early days, most of them are friends, and though there is no one thing in particular that screams "I am Canadian" or "Canadian design" it is the mere fact that they all came from the same country that allows me to group them.
Why a grouping? I am inspired by the the "Antwerp Six". I think there is a Canadian School of fashion going on right now. I would like to include Tommy Ton in this mix. True, he is not a designer per say but we are living in a digital era and he is influential in this realm.There is no particular teacher or fashion school in Canada that they owe their styles to, but they all come from Canada and never before has the country exported so much rising talent.