LFW Fall 2008: Rudsak

As we were herded in to take our seats for the second-last show of the week, my friend from Hugo Boss lamented the fact that his company didn't have a presence at LFW. I pointed out that it's hardly a Canadian brand but I wondered where Toronto's fashion week is going. How do we possibly compete with the global powerhouse fashion cities? Are we Torontonians just deluding ourselves?

The show opened with an amusingly slurred introduction from Robin Kay and as the music starts and the lights dim, I became cautiously optimistic as I braced myself for the parade of leather. A puffy jacket with a cinched waist, leather belt tie, and hood with fur trim was stylishly grabbing my eye. The men's wool coat with tan trims and elbow pads both made of leather brought men's outerwear up a notch. Interestingly restrained touches of subtlety accentuated, rather than distracted from the outerwear and united the innovative collection as a whole. Attractive hourglass shapes from the tighter tailoring and cinched waists signaled the departure from the loose drape-like forms of last season.

There was a curious undercurrent of Canadian pride flowing from the attending celebrities backstage after the show. Tara Spencer-Nairn of Corner Gas was gushing, "Oh my god! I'm so proud to be Canadian... Wow." Eva Avila, the winner of the fourth Canadian Idol clearly agreed, decked out in a splendid Rudsak coat and bag. When asked on Toronto's progression in the realm of fashion she confidently thought "We're really making our way up there..."

Finally I was able to jockey a minute alone with Evik Assarion, President of Rudsak who started seeming a little understandably weary during our interview, on this last day of fashion week. Yet I noticed an energetic glint in his eye when I ask him whether Toronto will eventually be seen as a global fashion destination: "I don't see it. It is... People in Toronto love to wear with confidence...We are unique."