Rage against the fashion machine: FAT day III

If androgyny is in, Christabel turned the trend up two notches last night with a full circle dragging show. The performer appeared on the FAT runway first in a mister-man costume suit, then took a hammer to masculinity and birthed a set of streamers out his paper-mache stomach.

Next he pulled on a wig and pair of red-rouge lips, making the transformation complete. Out came a feather boa and a set of garden clippers, time to snip off the dick. The strap-on big black dildo was tossed into the crowd, a signal for the fashion to start.

First up was Hedylidae’s creamy commercial collection, followed by Aimee Tobolka’s indulgence in sheer, lace, and netted love. After that were Heidi Ackerman’s deconstructed dolls, covered in slate-silver headgear and strapped on football shoulders.

Between shows Magneta Lane played its girlish indie rock and set the stage for Romandin, an elaboration on Cristina Sabaiduc’s Mass Exodus collection. Sabaiduc, who has worked under both Carolina Herrera and Jeremy Laing, showed looks built with chicken wire and filled with fabric strips alongside minis covered in the texture of abstract paint.

After Asphyxia sent out an angsty collection and a final model spouting blood, more of the Rye-high fashion kids. Last a lengthy performance piece, In Bitu by Karey Shinn. It started with hip-hop dancers, then more gowns letting go of balloons.

A pink haired Davy Crockett followed, hunting two doe models, complete with antlers on top their heads. Sparkling purple, blue, and silver mermaids swam out after, then a seaweed covered dancer, more balloons, and a stormy masked goddess who was the last sight of the night.

Earlier as the crowd spilled in and squished itself up against the walls the whisper went through the photo pit: when will FAT explode and LGFW crumble? The answer? Not yet, not now, probably not ever. The two occupy opposing fashion spaces—FAT’s for art’s sake, LG a retail PR push.

Still, it was not so long ago LG—then Loreal—was an underdog itself, so the established fest may want to watch its back.

Heidi Ackerman haute headwear

Sans Soucie's big beauty

Romandin's instantly edit-able dress

Sarah Magwood outside with her sister

Christabel, pre transformation

One of Aimee Tobolka's Wang-ish looks

The best of Rye-high third-years

The misses of Magneta

Nadja looking out for outfits to wear on Artstars

The hunter

The hunted

Dez, another Rye-higher who is about to be featured in Flare

Asphyxia look, post Carrie

Lusting for FAT models: day II

At FAT the models move. There are no stiff shoulders, straight leg steps, or dead eye-stares. Instead they cartwheel down the catwalk, blow kisses at the cameras, crawl on all-fours, leap frog over each other, swing tennis rackets, and drag the next girl forward with hooks piercing the skin.

Fitting then, that the second night began with a dance by Lauren Weisz. In Sunday’s best black ties and simple sauntering dresses, the models lined up two-by-two. Women behind the men, they kicked their legs up over suited shoulders and spun in circles, losing dresses as swirled, revealing black lingerie underneath.

Opera boomed out of well worked vocal chords as a busty brunette led a procession of tightened bodices by Starkers Corsetry. Bombshells in sheer black skivvies followed, including a hot-and-heeled miss Carli Rothman, who I found backstage after the show with a slice of pizza in hand, undies and all.

Self proclaimed jetsetter and socialite Jet Phynx filled the gap between shows with his brand of fame and fashion induced pop. Later Phynx, who self designs his highly stylized stage looks, tells me he’s been hanging with Gaga and Kanye and is en route to Europe and Japan to continue his global takeover.

Evan Biddell, who must have spent many sleepless nights to pull off opening his first boutique and creating collections for both LGFW and FAT in a single season, opened the second set of shows. Biddell enlisted Magnet Creative’s Gail McInnes, former Phantom Pastel Supernova, and your favourite fashion writer Sarah Nicole Prickett, to walk in the show.

Then there were the style sluts, all wrapped up in latex, courtesy of Pippa and Fashion Whore. There was the terminarix with her tech-armour arm, Alice out of Wonderland, and a rubber red wonder-girl walking in heels so stiff she needed arm supports just to wobble. And finally a set of wedding-white balloons released at the runway’s end before the top was dropped for the fondling of a honeymoon hooker.

It ended with a not-so-subtle nod to Mr. McQueen as punks in plaid kilts were paraded to live bagpipes. The presentations blended into performances with one last towering black beautiful monster standing a story tall and followed by a crawling mini monster, all teethy with face paint, whispering to the model inside the way.

Then the lights went black and before the announcer could finish closing remarks I was out the door to find a beer and a boy for a birthday, and finally a bed.

Master of the reveal, miss SNP

As his bio says: Jet holds a drink in one hand and a crowd in the other

Backstage beauties

Feed the models

One of these things, not like the other ones

Nolan Bryant with that Yuppie Activist

The lovely Lauren Weisz does it all

Suffer for fashion

Wobble on

Trapped as a twosome

A nice day for a white wedding

The offspring of the McQueen generation

Crawl towards the closer

Polar Bears will guide you home.

[Fat] Part II:

Someone call PETA, the fur is about to fly.

One of Fat's greatest triumphs is the seamless transition from fashion to art. It is Wednesday night at Toronto Alternative Fashion Week, and the show is closing with a polarizing performance art piece. Polar-bear-izing, that is.

Too Hot Too Wet Too Dangerous, is a performance piece conceptualized by Karey Shinn, another former Winnipeger-turned-Toronto-based artist, who is merging together her art work and environmental activism. To cap off Fat's "Planet" themed evening, (the other nights themes are as follows: Home, Gutter, Beyond) Shinn sends out a sultry blond dressed in a teeny-weeny-bullet-proof bikini.

It seems Shinn thinks that if we're going to make it through global warming, we're going to need to be well equipped. Well equipped, and stylish. On top of the yellow bikini is an aqua blue buoyancy bustler (read: life vest) extending up towards the model's platinum, then floating down, just north of her lady-bits, Gaga style.

Here come the polar bears. And, of course, Fat's bears can dance, bringing both hip-hop and modern dance down the runway. Combining art, dance, performance and fashion, the piece pulls together all of Fat's objectives. It also follows cues from earlier in the evening: the performance is theatrics over fashion, and form over function.

Wide eyed and mesmerized, the crowd seems to wonder if they've been slipped acid and are being treated to an impromptu Flaming Lips show. "Where am I?!" comes a shriek from across the runway. But the bizarreness the reactions die down. Fat crowds can only appear shocked for so long. Just before the piece looses its appeal the show stops and the dancers take their final bow.

Exhilarated and confused, the crowd takes the absurd, curious, and creative work it has seen in stride, leaving the fermenting cellar glowing red and empty, ready whatever the next evening has in store.

The hipsters and hanger-on-ers clear out to join their fashionable friends at an Earth day celebration, held at the Mill Street brewery, directly following the show. The drinks are cheap or free, depending on who is handing out the beer chips, and Vaneska keeps us dancing later than we had expected to be out on Wednesday evening. When the night finally ends, we're groggy, exhausted, and impressed.

Until the next Fat, or the environmental end, stay sartorial prepared.

All models should be FAT

[Fat] Part I:

In between shows, the runway edges are littered with extended feet, half-full glasses of wine and over-sized purses. Models, designers, photographers and well dressed plus-ones glide across the runway, moving backstage, drinks in hand, without so much as the flash off a media pass.

On the opposite end of the room, a rock band is playing covers in front of a small crowd of enthusiastic dancers; and when the shows start, models transcend the audience barrier, handing shots of booze to the front row.

This isn't you're average fashion week. Decidedly different, Toronto Alternative Arts and Fashion Week [FAT] is Toronto's direct alternative to the higher-minded, slightly snootier, and admittedly glitzier LG Fashion Week. In the face of LG's corporate culture and conservative fashion, [FAT] has become a stage for designers without the cash flow to pay the high price tag of showing at LG. It's also been celebrated by by advocates of grassroots and artisan design, who push for fashion to break outside of retail and couture boundaries.

But mostly, it's a party. In fact, half of the room's space is saved for socializing. The crowd is more dreadlocked than double-kissing, but that's not to say the glitterati aren't present. The usual fashion suspects are here: actors, djs, promoters and the occasional Project Runway castaway or winner. Its the type of crowd where you recognize faces, but can't place them.

It's not the A-list, but FAT wants to write its own list, anyway. With tickets at only $55 for the four-day event, FAT has succeeded in making Toronto's fashion scene accessible. LG Fashion Week does have tickets for sale, but buyers are usually directed to the standing room only section, right behind the attendees who are pretty, special or savvy enough to be handed a pass.

This is the second evening and the first shows are less alternative than I had been expecting, but dull streetwear gives way to showmanship and theatrics as the night progresses. Re-construction seems to be the unannounced theme: clothing is made of records, cell phones, teddy bears and plastic bags. Models look like, and in most cases actually are, "real" people. Some are short, others fat, all pretty. Tattoos are not covered up and there is no debate about black models, all races are represented.

The whole thing would actually be a too little PC, if it weren't for the spirit of the event. The crowd cheers for its friends and favourites, and loud, rude remarks are met with almost unacceptable amounts of laughter. I realize my standardized under-the-breath commentary is entirely unnecessary when I hear "Awful!" and "Disaster!" bellowing across the catwalk. I can't help but laugh, a little too loud, and the accuser hears me. Pointing at an adjacent model he mouths "They can't hear me," and laughs even harder. "Write that down!" he shouts at me, his finger drawing a line towards my notebook.

Much of what's shown on stage is a disaster. Some collections are too much, others not enough. Some designers need to edit their work, others need to run a lint brush over it. But every show entertains. The theatrics are fascinating when beautiful and embarrassing when brutal.

And the crowd, critics included, is into it. They are laughing, smiling and eyeing the looks with awe. A Beth Ditto-sized model elicits the night's loudest cheers, proving that even alts enjoy the perfect trend. And our cute and cacophonous commentator does have some encouraging words. "Work it bitch!" he shouts, just a little too loud, causing the modeling agent beside me to turn beat red with laughter.

She leans over to me and says, "This is why I come to FAT. Because it's fun."

The fun isn't over, yet, but this blog post is. The evening ends with a performance piece and an earth day after-party. Expect to see polar bears and the fashion forward life vests we'll be needing to stay stylish straight through global warming, in part II.

Until then, enjoy your weekend.