Mayor passes taxes; dyes hair.That's the headline that Mayor David Miller joked would be written if he had taken up an offer to dye his hair purple at the L'Oréal Fashion Week tent.
Instead, early on Tuesday evening at the Cadbury Thins No Regrets Beauty Bar, the mayor opted for a temporary butterfly tattoo on his upper left arm. That's just one of the many sponsored activities, along with runway fashion shows, taking place through Friday in the 30,000-square-foot tent just outside Miller's office.
"I watched this tent go up and now, walking in here, it's magic," Miller said. "There's an energy and passion in here. We have extraordinary designers in Toronto, and like so many things, we don't trumpet ourselves enough."
Maybe Toronto can learn a lesson from India, whose fashion design industry has exploded in the last decade.
"When I started nine years ago, it was like My Big Fat Indian Wedding," said designer Ranna Gill, whose mosaic print dresses with gem-studded necklines were presented by Indiva, a Bloor St. W. boutique stocking contemporary Indian design.
But with the coming of fashion week in India, everything changed, she said. Older customers started trying younger silhouettes and younger customers had a fashion awakening.
"A lot of people think of Indian fashion as ethnic and old, but this sensibility has changed completely," agreed designer Narendra Kumar, who showed raffia-look floral dresses and gold linens with yellow beading.
Kumar is credited with helping to pioneer fashion in India, by bringing the country its first fashion magazine as the founding fashion editor of Elle India in 1996. Prior to that he had launched a collection inspired by '80s icons Azzedine Alaia, Claude Montana and Thierry Mugler, "but it was too ahead of the market." He relaunched his label in 2002, and two weeks ago showed in Paris with Montana watching from the front row.
"I have seen the evolution of fashion in India and they have come to the point where they can compete on the world stage," says Liloo Alim, concierge of Toronto's Four Seasons Hotel and a native of India.
"They realized `Why are we looking to the West when we have all the talent and craftsmanship here?' Now Indian designers are huge in London, Dubai, France and Italy. These people are the Guccis of India," she said, referring to Gill, Kumar, and the others featured in the Indiva show.
"We'll never let go of our sari," said Gill, who looked red-carpet ready in raspberry chiffon with gold sequins.
"It's like our comfort blanket. If you can't find anything else, you go back to the sari. But we are 100 per cent flirting with a Western silhouette, and that's the new India."
