By Karen Welcome

Last weekend Magnet Creative wrapped up fashion week at The Drake with a discussion panel featuring: LOVAS designer Wesley Bandanjak, National Post style editor Nathalie Atkinson, I Want I Got writer Anita Clarke, and Magnolia boutique owner Juan Carlos Goana, with The F-List’s Leesa Butler moderating.

The discussion panel took an interesting turn when the question of  “relevance” (surrounding Toronto Fashion Week) was raised. Nathalie Atkinson felt that Fashion Week in Toronto is more like a “fashion festival” and Wesley Bandanjak agreed stating that it “seems more like a girls night out”.

Traditionally, fashion weeks serve as a platform for designers to showcase their collections to buyers and members of the media. Bandanjak noted that while LG Fashion Week sells a healthy portion of tickets to the general public, most fashion weeks do not. In the end, he implied that Toronto Fashion Week “wasn’t much help to him” as he had already presented his pieces to buyers earlier in the season.

The panelists all agreed that Toronto’s fashion week does not need to be on an international scale, but it should be promoted as an industry-based event that attracts American as well as other international buyers.

While the panelists raised some excellent points on the importance of buyers and media presence at fashion week, I feel that presenting to the consumer is just as important. Events like LG Fashion Week help Canadian designers who are sometimes unheard of get their names into the minds of consumers who wouldn’t have known about them otherwise. Designers showcasing on-site and off-site during fashion week affect consumers who may come to realize that a David Dixon dress is as good a choice as the Calvin Klein one right next to it.

While I understand that designers may be concerned about making an investment in fashion week presentations only to have little to no return, Toronto Fashion week can be a chance to attract a broader audience. This audience may have an influence on buyers looking to keep a peaked interest within their consumer base. The commercialism, and dare I say, inclusiveness of LG Fashion Week may not be as much of a deterrent to Canadian design houses as the event becomes more established within the upcoming years.