Unbound

What a great name for a fashion show! ”Unbound”  

Last Thursday,  the graduating class from the Fashion Design Program at our local college – Fanshawe College in London, Ont- held their end of year fashion show. It was a chance for them to show off the skills they had honed after 3 years of schooling.   My daughter and I attended a couple of years ago, and enjoyed it so  much that we wanted to go again, and make it a “Couturesmith and the “FiveBlondes” evening out.  Alas, I discovered that the tickets were $60 each (!) so I invited a well heeled friend instead!  Sorry girls!

We had a hoot.  The gala was held at Museum London, and almost everyone in attendance, about 300 of us, were dressed to kill.  With complimentary cocktails in hand,  my friend- who knows everybody- kept telling people “this is my friend Connie.  She loves fashion and look – she even sewed her own handbag“.  By the end of the night I had a job offer at the College, and had been told by one of the judges that I (and every other talented person out there) needed to share our talent with the masses.

In the lobby there were 4 body painted models posed wearing skin and very little else…..not sure what they were doing there, but that part was um – interesting!  We were also able to peruse the creations of the students who did not make the cut from the afternoon show with 30 participants, to the evening show, which had only 18 students showing. 

Filing into the gallery where the runway show was to be held, we were thrilled to see that it looked just like a fashion show in Paris or NYC would look….and then not so thrilled to find out that we didn’t rate those coveted seats, but were relegated to the “peanut gallery”.  My friend says that next year we are going to say “We’re with Couturesmith” and score ringside seating complete with gift bags!  By the way, the programs we recieved were almost worth the price of admission themselves, chock full of wonderful photographs of  each students designs.

18 of the designers were chosen to present in the evening gala, with 5 of those being chosen to show at l”Oreal Fashion Week in Toronto next month.  Fanshawe College is the only school in Canada that shows at Fashion Week, so being chosen to participate is a huge honour and opportunity for them.  The young man sitting next to us looked so uncomfortable and out of place that Norma had to ask what brought him to the show.  It turned out his girlfriend was one of the designers.  He told us about how hard she had worked.  We adored her designs and were glad that she was one of the 5 students whose designs were chosen.  From the ovation she recieved when her name was called, I think she was indeed a popular choice.

 The collections ranged from what I call “Flashback to Flashdance” complete with neon tights and layers of lycra, to safari wear, to Japanese influenced babydoll wear, to corsetry.  Why is there alway someone who has  a corset fetish at these events?   Let me tell you there were some talented young people out there, including a few students from India who completed 1 1/2 years of their training at the college. 

I was silly enough to bring along my small camera instead of my digital SLR, so the photos are less than stellar.  The credit for the following photo’s goes to Morris Lamont of the London Free Press.