The crazed ice queen, in the asylum after the war

By the final day of fashion week, we had all drifted firmly into insanity. Luckily, Mr. Lucian Matis was right there with us to open the door of the asylum.

As I wrote today on Canada.com, “The models looked like they had just escaped some magical, fashionable insane asylum. Strapped into studded headgear and dressed in flowing silver and gold gowns, the models in Lucian Matis’ fashion show on Friday looked like ice queens gone crazy.”

That the dresses didn’t necessarily flatter came secondary to the concept and construction. As I said in response to a reporter who complained that the dresses didn’t even look good on the models’ pin-thin bodies: fashion is not always about looking good.

Let that be the lesson from the week, if there is one at all. And for the record, Mr. Matis, I think your ice queens were gorgeous.

Haux headgear

Post-TV prodigy

Cut-eye from your favourites
*photo by theDavidPike
Miss Moshana Lundstrom as interviewed by yours truly
photo by theDavidPike
Bow-ties and four eyes, fashionably geeking out
Front row favourites
Degrassi darlings

Miss Biffi's dayglo set

Candy-coloured ice cream, from Pat NcDonagh

Let the last drip melt away

McStyle

*Photo: Getty Images [The Cut]

When it was announced that February's Fall/Winter fashion week in New York would be co-sponsored by McDonald's, a few well-shaped industry eyebrows were raised. The brand saw it as the perfect place to debut a new "collection" of their own: a new line of "higher-end" coffee-based beverages. But would Anna Wintour be caught dead with a cold hand wrapped around a cup decorated with a golden arch? Doubtful, or so we thought.

The sponsorship persisted, and well over 13,000 espressos and coffees were served to America's most fashionable high society types during the week. It seemed like the final nail in the coffin of luxury, a solidification of the new frugality we'd been hearing so much about. It seemed even the most fashionable have been forced into budget cuts by the over-looming recession. 

The sponsorship was to be for a single season, but according to Crain's, the McDonald's marketing team was pleased by the push they'd made into the world of fashion, and is considering continuing the partnership with IMG, who puts on fashion week. 

With vacation collections running down boardwalks on beaches overseas, and Men's week in Paris getting closer with every announced closure, we thought we'd heard the last of McFashion. Then it was announced that the company is making another move into the world of fashion, this time in Canada. 

While the heavyweights are busy showing collections in showrooms, rolling out spring diffusion lines, and laying low with hopes they can ride out the recession, up in Canada, it's a long time until the next Toronto Fashion Week. With this in mind, McDonald's decided to throw a show of its own. 

On June 23 the company will host a luncheon in Dundas Square, complete with a fashion show and a taste test of its new "line" of specialty salads. The brand enlisted a slew of Canadian fashion-types to act as brand ambassadors and spit out style advice to the customers lured into the square by the promise of free greens with dressing on the side. Project Runway castaway Lucian Matis, as well as CityLine style consultant Lisa Rogers and Kavi Kavi design trio Monika, Dipika, and Ravika Gupta will be showcasing their work for the McCrowd, as well as looks they pulled together with the less affluent McDonald's customer in mind. 

Whether this will work to draw in stroller-salad moms and their happy-meal-McChildren is yet to be proven. But then again, no one thought the fashion week sponsorship would be a hit, and McDonalds is taking a cut out of Starbucks upmarked coffee market share. So yes, I will take fries with my fashion.

*Full story in Marketing Magazine's Daily AM for today, June 11

Mr. Matis 

Photo by Arline Malakian. Courtesy of Lucian Matis. [Torontoist]

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