CASHMERE - Fashion with Compassion

The White Cashmere Collection 2009
Fashion with Compassion
DESIGNING A FUTURE WITHOUT BREAST CANCER

Having the opportunity to attend the Sixth Annual White Cashmere Collection 2009: Fashion with Compassion further elevated an appreciation for the talent of our Canadian Designers! A fund- and awareness-raiser for the Canadian Breast Cancer foundation, the ambitious and stunning collection provided a one-of-a-kind opportunity for 15 top fashion designers from across Canada to flaunt their creativity in support of a future without breast cancer.

Beverly Thomson, Honorary Chair and spokesperson for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and Co-Host, CTV’s Canada AM welcomed everyone by sharing her success story of being a survivor. This set the stage perfectly for what was about to come. The collection showcased day and evening wear, lingerie, hats, handbags and jewelry – all crafted in 100 percent pure, soft and luxurious white and limited-edition Pink Cashmere Bathroom Tissue. The first colored bathroom tissue in a decade, Pink Cashmere is specifically designed to support the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, with twenty-five cents from the sale of every package sold going to the Foundation.

The White Cashmere collection 2009 will be displayed throughout October in The Bay’s Toronto and Montreal flagship store windows on Yonge Street and Rue Ste. Catherine respectively, in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I highly recommend to everyone that you take the opportunity to check out the display for yourself ….it is absolutely impressive!

Writer: Melissa Ferguson

Cashmere BT Couture photo credits:
Photographer Koby Inc.; Stylist Peter Papapetrou; Make-up MAC Cosmetics; Hair Marc Anthony
Thanks to: Strategic Objectives, Beverly Thomson, Nancy Marcus, and Peter Papapetrou.
The White Cashmere Collection is documented online at Cashmere.ca and on Facebook

Romance meets modernism in Montrealer Anastasia Lomonova’s sexy little café-society creation in 100 per cent pure Cashmere Bathroom Tissue. Taking sweet inspiration from the Sixties masters of style, its Paco Rabanne-esque bustier of linked white square disks bursts into a Pierre Cardin-like bubble skirt blanketed in hundreds of hand-crafted, three-dimensional pink-and-white roses.
Anything but a mad hatter, Toronto milliner David Dunkley created a pert pink platter hat anchored with outsized pink “ribbon” curls to accessorize Montrealer, Anastasia Lomonova’s rose-strewn dress in pure Cashmere BT.

Seductive little dresses are her thing, so it’s not surprising that Vancouver’s Carlie Wong has come up with a decidedly flirtatious frock for the 2009 White Cashmere Collection. Its deep décolletage, traced in bold, pink-lined stand-up ruffles, and the fluid layers of the short, tiered skirt just beg to be taken dancing.

Toronto jewelry designer, Dandi Maestre, throws subtly textured spheres created from pure white Cashmere Bathroom Tissue into orbit around the neck of a model wearing Vancouver designer, Patricia Fieldwalker’s beautiful pink Cashmere corset-and-skirt ensemble.

Pink Cashmere Bathroom Tissue becomes a head-turning spray of leaves, petals and tendrils in the hands of Toronto hat maven David Dunkley. Jane Ip, Toronto’s ultimate bag lady, contributes a Jeanne Lottie Cashmere BT papier maché clutch studded with ‘notice- me’ pink-cabbage roses.

Montreal’s Dinh Bà explores notions of innocence and purity in his dress designed for the White Cashmere Collection 2009. Drawing on the beauty and simplicity of nature, delicate appliqués of flowers and leaves float over the torso-skimming white bodice to the narrowly channeled A-line skirt and its pretty pink hem.

Pink Cashmere Bathroom Tissue becomes a head-turning spray of leaves, petals and tendrils in the hands of Toronto hat maven David Dunkley. Jane Ip, Toronto’s ultimate bag lady, contributes a Jeanne Lottie Cashmere BT papier maché clutch studded with ‘notice- me’ pink-cabbage roses.

The classic slim-skirted, peplum-ed suit takes on a sophisticated sci-fi superhero vibe in the creative minds of Richmond B.C.’s Raymond Boutet and Lyle Reimer, the designers behind Evan & Dean. Architectural elements such as soaring epaulettes and cantilevered skirt panels suggest a wearable Frank Gehry creation, while the pink buttons and pleated trim insist on its ultimate femininity.

Hours and hours of painstaking labour went into the explosion of ruffles, pleats and lace that is Toronto designer Farley Chatto’s Marie Antoinette-inspired ‘Let Them Eat Cake’ court gown for the White Cashmere Collection 2009. Divinely detailed, the tailored, cropped jacket gets BT “embroidery” and a glittering belt buckle while the daring, leg-baring skirt dazzles with cascades of white froth outside, and delicious peekaboo pink ruching and bows inside.

Toronto’s Kirk Pickersgill and Stephen Wong of Greta Constantine unleash a futuristic warrior goddess wrapped in strips of pure White Cashmere BT lined with Pink Cashmere. Their ‘come-away-with-me’ space suit features a tight torso with extended bands orbiting the hips and a dramatic ‘open observatory’ collar.

Toronto’s Nada Shepherd of the NADA label sculpts a material-defying and dramatic structural masterpiece for the White Cashmere Collection 2009. Her futuristic sheath boasts an undulating collar decorated with pink pixels that snake onto the tight bodice. Its undulations are echoed at the knee, where the narrow torso explodes into a swirling shaped hem and train.

Quebec City’s Patrice Soku evokes the exposed framework of a Structural Expressionist building with his ensemble for the White Cashmere Collection 2009, conveying feminine strength by using Pink Cashmere ‘fabric’ to trace the bodice’s seams, segmenting it into a trellis of bold geometric shapes. Rigid horizontal pleating carries the architectural theme through the straight skirt, while hyper-feminine puff sleeves beautifully soften the strict and signature look.

Some six hundred flirty florets and dozens of draped pockets punctuated with Swarovski crystals give Vancouver designer Patricia Fieldwalker’s lingerie undeniable glamour for the White Cashmere Collection 2009. With its shoulder-baring, corset-like bodice and panty-revealing skirt, this boudoir beauty is pretty, and pretty sexy, in all pink!

Toronto jewelry designer, Dandi Maestre, throws subtly textured spheres created from pure white Cashmere Bathroom Tissue into orbit around the neck of a model wearing Vancouver designer, Patricia Fieldwalker’s beautiful pink Cashmere corset-and-skirt ensemble.

There’s movement, music even, implicit in the ruffle-edged, bustled bolero jacket, lyrical flowing blouse and flagged flamenco pants Calgary’s Paul Hardy contributes to the White Cashmere Collection 2009. The dramatic play of textures and fusion of different forms almost vibrates with excitement and rhythm.

Project Runway Canada winner, Sunny Fong, conjures a contemporary seductress with all the allure of an emerging butterfly. The bodice of the Toronto designer’s strapless sheath features symmetrical scrolled patterns carefully carved out of pink Cashmere Bathroom Tissue over a solid shell of white. Its long, centre-split skirt suggests a pair of fragile wings being unveiled after a magical metamorphosis.

It’s a wrap for Montreal designers Payam Tavãn and Mike Mitto of Tavãn & Mitto. Their design for the White Cashmere Collection 2009 calls on the Arctic muse and yields a lush, full-collared snowy white kimono-wrap coat that’s been channeled and crinkled to suggest the ne plus ultra in warmth and comfort.