Apr 23-30, Churchill Square

The queue runs from the middle of Churchill Square to the corner of 100 Street and 102 Avenue. Faux Burberry purses hang at the side of Baby Phat jeans. Khakis and baseball hats and hoodies are smattered throughout the crowd. Mothers with strollers stand alongside a group of boys who seem to be channeling my junior prom date, complete with frosted tips and fake tan. And all are waiting for the same show to start.

Welcome to Edmonton Fashion Week, everybody.

The brainchild of Sandra Sing Fernandes (a former model and experienced New Yorker), EFW is now in its sixth season. But this year, it had a bit of a rough start. Last week’s unexpected snowstorm cost them 30 per cent extra in labour and significantly reduced the opening-night crowd.

“We had about 160 people for our first night,” says Fernandes, “But from there, the numbers have just been increasing.”

Fernandes, who modeled EFW after New York’s Fashion Week, has high expectations for Edmonton, a city that doesn’t exactly exude fashion confidence. “We are really trying to aspire to a New York level,” she says. 

But in high-fashion meccas like New York, runway events are star-studded, couture-courting affairs designed to impress media and industry buyers. In Edmonton, that’s just not a realistic goal. So Fernandes and EFW have had to make some pragmatic choices to cultivate the city’s fashion industry.

Kim Rosadiuk is the creator of Morse Code Dezynz, a Whyte Avenue boutique that sells Rosadiuk’s original pieces along with other Canadian-made creations. She works at her drafting table in the back of the store, putting the finishing touches on items for her show at Night of Artists, the annual event organized by local art promoter Phil Alain. According to both Fernandes and Rosadiuk, this sort of cross-promotion between Edmonton’s fashion and visual arts scenes will be necessary to keep the event going.

“It’s not just about showing fashion,” she says. “We’re joining it all together. It’s entertainment.” Her logic makes sense. Edmonton boasts one of the most festival-saturated summers of any city in North America, not to mention one of the best Fringe Fests in the world (or it used to be, at least). So it seems only appropriate to tap into the same sensibility for EFW. The focus of the event, then, has been placed on emerging, local talent, no matter what form it takes. Performers, artists, beauticians, fashion designers, and even aspiring models can all find a platform at EFW.

Still, making it so accessible to Edmonton’s public also means catering to a mostly as-yet-uneducated audience, adding sample sales and tweaking industry norms. While international fashion weeks are already showing their autumn ’08 lines, Rosadiuk had to show her spring/summer ’08 designs at her own EFW runway show. 

“People want to see what they can buy now,” Fernandes explains. “The public may not understand why they were watching fall stuff go by when it’s spring.” This type of in-season show “sort of sucks” for Rosadiuk, but she understands that’s the nature of our nascent fashion industry. And as with any newborn, Edmonton’s style community is prone to tantrums and infighting. Rosadiuk believes inexperience with professional runway shows may lie at the root of the problem. 

“I think some people expected to just hand over their clothes to Sandra and for her to basically plan their whole show,” she says, “but it’s up to you to build your own collection and put your own show on.”

Fernandes feels that the “internal crap” is a process which will work itself out—much like a nervous, picked-off-the-street model gaining confidence and hitting her stride as she struts farther down the runway. “In some ways, because the industry’s a baby, we’re dealing with babies in their attitudes,” she says.

That goes for the public as well. “It’s been difficult to get people to come out because they don’t believe there’s anything good about Edmonton,” Fernandes sighs. And maybe a certain disdain for our fashion potential may be justified, given the ubiquity of un-ironic mullets and velour tracksuits visible on city streets.

Still, a growing number of people are putting their faith in EFW’s ability to act as an incubator for local design talent. “We have great limitations,” Fernandes says. “Edmonton doesn’t believe in itself. But we’re definitely developing. It would be wonderful to get the industry to grow.” 

The EFW sample sale, featuring local designs by Rosadiuk and
other EFW participants, will be
held at Planet Ze Design Center
this Saturday and Sunday.