Today marks the start of Vancouver Fashion Week – “the West Coast’s most prestigious industry event,” which takes place twice a year.
VFW was proclaimed as Vancouver’s official fashion week by Mayor Robertson in April 2011.
However, a press release listing confirmed designers reveals few Vancouver-based talents showing collections this season.
The event which claims to be “a platform for new and established designers from around the world,” has been criticized for its supposed lack of organization and for not paying its interns.
A group of former interns started the blog Vancouver Fashion Weak in September asking for the event’s producer to be removed from the event.
An anonymous post on the site states their motives are “not intended to hurt the Vancouver fashion industry in any way but to stop the producer of VFW from exploiting students and recent graduates for their well meaning free labour, as well as exploiting emerging and established designers with sub par production.”
Vancouver Fashion Week features global not local designer
The event features designers from London, Paris, Mexico city, Seoul, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, and Los Angeles. But many local designers choose not to participate in the event.
Glencora Twigg, a local designer and co-owner of twigg&hottie on Main Street, is one of them.
“We have chosen not to participate on any level with Vancouver Fashion Week for many years,” she said in a telephone interview, but would not comment in further detail.
Other industry events focus on local talent
Twigg said there are many great events in Vancouver that help to promote local fashion, such as Eco Fashion Week and the newly introduced Men’s Fashion Week, which both took place in early October.
“There’s lots and lots and lots going on here,” she said, “It’s just a matter of getting recognized for what we’re doing.”
Twigg established her boutique, twigg&hottie, along with her design classmate Christine Hotton in 2003. Jessica Vaira, also a classmate from fashion school, joined the business in 2006. All three run and oversee the operations of the store as well as design for their in-house brands. They also started designing collectively in 2007 under the brand We3.
“We were just basically trying to create a space where we could have our goods on sale and promote some of our other designers that we were coming out of school with,” Twigg said, “We have maintained and stayed true to those values.”
Vancouver just needs one good fashion industry event
Brenda Li, owner of Shop Cocoon on Cambie Street and a former fashion designer, said she has never attended events such as VWF and believes they leave very little to be desired.
“There are too many bad events out there,” Li said in an email, “Vancouver just needs one good one.”
“There are great products out there waiting to be discovered. All [designers] need is the opportunity to showcase it to the public,” she said.
Local store offers starting place for emerging designers
Li developed Shop Cocoon in 2005 as a starting platform where new designers could showcase their work. As part of their rent payment, designers also work in the store. Eighty per cent of the store’s merchandise comes from local designers.
“The Shop Cocoon business model was conceived after visiting a designer co-op of sorts in NYC,” Li said.
She then modified the plan so it could be “more conducive to the busy lifestyle of a budding designer.”
“I love the idea of a boutique that’s open year-round and where customers can meet the faces behind the products on any given day,” she said, “In turn, designers have the opportunity to launch their lines and get direct feedback from customers.”
Finances prove to be biggest barrier for local brands
As a local designer, Twigg said her biggest challenge has to do with finances.
“All of our money seems to go back into building the brand more, in terms of the products that we carry. So we don’t really have an opportunity to pay for advertising or signage… or any of those sort of extra things,” she said.
Local talent must first experience international success
According to Twigg, what seems to drive clout for local brands is if they have first been internationally recognized, for example in the U.S. or Europe.
“The Canadian truth is that we accept our successes from Canada after they’ve been identified internationally in success, and then we’ll take them on as success here,” she explained.
“It’s not only a Canadian phenomenon. It seems like many nations need to see innovators successful outside of their home country before they are allowed to be seen as successful at home.”
Re-evaluation of values needed in society
Twigg believes that what’s needed in society is a return to grassroots values.
“What’s needed is a re-education or a re-stimulation of values amongst the population to return to supporting quality goods, as well as things that are made locally in order to maintain a diversified economy and to maintain our communities which are very much our high streets,” she said.
Twigg mentioned the areas where people tend to gather on weekends are also Vancouver’s most popular shopping districts:
Small businesses depend on community support
Local businesses are important in providing a sense of community but “unfortunately mass production really undercuts the ability for small businesses to stay in business,” she said.
“The way we are handling it in store is we’ve sort of renamed ourselves,” Twigg said. “Instead of being sales associates we’ve dubbed ourselves [as] educators.”
She said a big part of what they do in the store is to help educate customers about their business and the benefits of supporting local companies.
Brittany Amanda Lee 
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