New Season Vancouver Men's Fashion Week Is Approaching
(Photos source: Vancouver Men's Fashion Week)
I will be traveling to the west coast
next week for the Men’s Fashion Week in Vancouver. It’s my first men’s fashion focused show in Canada,
and perhaps the only one in the nation. It definitely got me curious when I
first received an invite since I had no prior knowledge that Men’s Fashion Week even existed in Canada.
After speaking with Jun Ramos, the founder
and creative director of Vancouver Men’s
Fashion Week this season marked its 3rd year anniversary. “I was
very surprised that there was no fashion week in Canada when I came here
12 years ago”, said Ramos. “I found
that there was no balance in the representation of men’s wear designs, so few
years back I had an idea to start our own men’s fashion week”.
Like everything else in the Canadian
fashion industry, the major obstacle is funding. Certainly this was the same
challenge for Vancouver Men’s Fashion
Week. However, Ramos was able to recruit corporate sponsors including ING-direct, his
own company Ramos & Fortier Ltd,
and other small businesses to build this event. “Vancouver’s Men’s Fashion Week is one of the first MFW's, even before
London’s Men’s Fashion Week. Our goal here is to give our Canadian fashion
designers the appropriate platform to showcase their talents, but also provide
them the needed mentorship to bring their designs into the fashion market”, Ramos added.
In addition to Canadian fashion
designers, Vancouver Men’s Fashion Week
welcomes the participation of other international talents. With the experience
from the past men’s fashion weeks, the subsequent seasons will only get better.
Ramos believes that in order for Vancouver
or even Canadian fashion programs to succeed, government involvement to provide
funding to fashion graduates would benefit greatly. The public sector should
also work together to build a relationship between buyers and fashion
designers. After all, local fashion industry will never survive without the
monetary contribution from merchants and retail businesses. Ramos said hosting the men’s fashion week
during the first week of August was intended to accommodate potential buyers
who would come to north of Vancouver for merchandizing in the 2nd
week of August.
Not knowing what to expect with my
first men’s fashion week experience in Vancouver, I am thrilled to see what our
Canadian designers have to offer to the men’s focused fashion. I guess I will
have to find out on August 10th
at the W Building Vancouver.
One thing for sure though, the Canadian fashion scene is expanding – Ramos will be hosting Men’s Fashion Week media event in London,
UK in early 2014 (more info on that will be coming soon). Stay tuned for
more of Binzento’s coverage of Vancouver Men’s Fashion Week, and also
two of the featured Canadian fashion designers that will be showcasing their
collections at the shows.
For more information about Vancouver’s Men’s Fashion Week, please
visit: http://mensfashionweek.ca/
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