Fashion from the Great White North

VANCOUVER — or Canada, in general — is not exactly well known for fashion, save perhaps for the fact that designer Jason Wu grew up there, but scratch the surface of the cooler land up north and one can discover the frothing sea of diversity and culture bubbling beneath the city’s polite, polished surface.
Vancouver Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2018 ran from March 19 to 25, and taking a look at the designers’ catalogs, one can see a gamut of backgrounds, from letters A through Z, with designers plucked from regions from all over the world — in fact, two Filipina designers, Tia Lacson of LuxeSaint, and Krizia Jimenez, displayed their clothes on the runway.
The cosmopolitan flavor of the city makes it a bit of a fashion mecca, with the world’s leading brands setting up shops there. Jamal Abdourahman, founder of Vancouver Fashion Week, says that they’ve launched big names in the 30 or so seasons that the shows have been running. He cites designers and brands Evan Clayton, Alex S. Yu, Profanity by Lillz Killz, and Kirsten Ley.
“Vancouver really is a global city; the population is so diverse here. At VFW we reflect this by celebrating diversity on the runway. We do show many local designers, but keep variety with international talent also,” said Mr. Abdourahman in an e-mail. “We approach them; we select the ones we feel show incredible talent. We also, of course, have repeat clientele and we sponsor emerging designers, so they have the opportunity to present their work on a runway platform.” — Joseph L. Garcia