Portobello West Market, Remnants of Memory Costume Exhibit and more

I have acheived, finally, what I have set out to acheive.. After a few panic attacks and countless doubtful thoughts, I finally made it to three (four for me) fashion events, I had conversations with interesting people and gathered lots of valuable information from each event. In particular at the Portobello West Market. I met a handful of up and coming amazing designers, and I had great conversations with three, Pilar Rodriguez and Kim Barr and Alex Smolen of the local and eco/social concious label Fair JAKE. The label has quirky,eclectic and beautiful accessories ranging from Lily Nicholls head bands with unique touches like vintage buttons (each one is one of a kind and handcrafted) , Beau Tie bow ties, which are created from remnant scraps and eco-friendly fabrics, and Ln handbags. They were very friendly and very helpful. They had graduated not too long ago from Ryerson in Toronto so they said they understood how networking and attending fashion events for the first time can be very nerve wracking. They told me that doubt is so normal when one is studying and working in fashion but that it is important to push past it and just get what I need to get done done. They told me to never sell myself short and be assertive but polite and that I should get out there on the scene and ask questions while I am a student because when I am working no one will want to help me because I will be competition. They were very friendly and I got a good picture of them.

I also talked to a headdress and accessories designer named Pilar Rodriguez of Pilar Rodriguez Designs. She was absolutely wonderful and she was very kind to me and gave me so much good advice that I would be writing for a very long time if I wrote it all down here ( have it in my notes). She gave me tons of advice but she told me to enjoy what I do because it's hard, time consuming work and that I should go to as many events as I can. She told me that while she enjoys working in North America, the fashion is quite a bit behind countries such as London and Milan. She told me to start reading European and UK fashion magazines to stay current( or ahead. Depends on how you look at it). She then showed me a couple of her head bands that she said were becoming very popular in London and she said that the trend most likely wouldn't reach Vancouver until around December. We talked about my trip to Paris a year and a half ago and she said travel is so useful when it comes to working in the fashion industry ( in order to know what's going on beyond the bubble of one's own country). She also works as an airplane stewardess so she has a lot of experience with travel. She mentioned a couple of times her love for London, New York and Milan ( because of italians precision and attention to detail with clothes).

The london trend she showed me.

Remnants of Memory: Costume Installation Exhibit

Not too much to say here. The designs were excellent and I met a girl a little older than me and we talked about school, I told her about the Ivan Sayers event and she rccommended to me a great vintage store.

I also found out that one of the dancers for Remnants of Memory is the daughter of my grandparents' friend so I got her phone number. Here's a few costumes..

"Imagine you are a grape and your lover is picking you from the vine". That is the kind of stuff that was playing on the podcast while you walked through the exhibit. A very artsy event.

Only few of the many costumes..

I'll do a seperate post about the Drift Harvest Festival because it was awesome too. I got quite a few photos at that one too. It was more music and art than fashion but if you looked hard enough there was fashion. Besides, fashion, music and art are all related anyway.