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Fashion & Style

Robin Kay Gets Spanked

Posted by Tim / October 24, 2008

Robin KayThe prospect of Robin Kay being removed as President of the Fashion Design Council of Canada is nothing new. It seems like every Fashion Week there's a Fire Robin email campaign waged by her detractors. But the shitstorm she's created this year in the wake of her much publicized drunken speeches seems to be giving renewed hope to some that her days as the face of Canada's fashion industry are numbered.

In an email widely circulated yesterday by someone referring to themselves as thesmokingstiletto@gmail.com, Ms. Kay is accused of being drunk, incomprehensible and a public embarrassment to the fashion community not only nationally but also internationally.

Included was a link to a petition that calls for her termination as well as reform to the FDCC.

One bystander at the Media Cocktail earlier this week told me:

The first time I'd seen her was during the Media Cocktail when she got up and gave a rambling, slightly drunken-sounding speech, and she kept going on about f-words. At the end, she held up that guy's (Tyler Brule) publication and couldn't pronounce "Monocle" and said something non-sensible about, "Well you know what it is" and waved the copy of the mag around. It was pretty embarrassing.

Here's a copy of the full email:

Robin Kay's tenure as President of the Fashion Design Council of Canada is over !

Miss Kay was drunk while making her incomprehensible speech for the 9:00pm Mango show a team which traveled from Spain and sponsored and showcased at L'Oreal Fashion Week. She has become a public embarrassment to the fashion community not only nationally but now international. Her unacceptable behavior has been a continuous distraction at fashion week and taken valuable attention away from the designers.

Enough is enough it is time for Robin Kay to be terminated as president of the FDCC.

Please take a moment to sign the ongoing petition and provide your comments

We the undersigned call for a reform of the Fashion Design Council of Canada.

For the FDCC to meet the needs of Canadian Designers it requires new leadership, the fashion industry desperately needs a leader that will genuinely earn the respect of the community, one who has ability to bring together members of the fashion community instead of alienating many who have contributed to the industry.

1. The termination of Ms. Robin Kay as president of the FDCC
2..Voting rights for fashion designers be reinstated for all workings of the FDCC.
3. Audited financial statements be published and provided to members for the past 5 years
4 .Notices for meetings and AGM be communicated publicly on the FDCC website.
5. An Ombudsperson be set up to investigate any complaints against Robin Kay and the FDCC.

6. Board members and the president of the FDCC be elected by its members - the fashion community

Fashion designers need to take back control of L'Oreal Fashion Week and the Fashion Design Council of Canada.

Photos by JaMmCat on Flickr

Discussion

20 Comments

Ratpick / October 24, 2008 at 01:52 pm
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Boy, I'd love to see a video of that drunken "shpeech".
fdr / October 24, 2008 at 02:34 pm
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I could care less one way or the other about who heads up FDCC, but if you're going to wage an email campaign against someone on the basis that they an incomprehensible embarrassment shouldn't you make sure your email isn't riddled with grammatical problems? It reads a little too amateurish.
fdr / October 24, 2008 at 02:35 pm
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...of course, so does my own for missing the word "are"!
WORD / October 24, 2008 at 02:46 pm
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i agree with fdr
tripper / October 24, 2008 at 05:22 pm
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I had no idea Toronto's fashion community was so prim and proper and so all-about-the-rules that it can't handle the odd drunken speech or two. Perhaps that explains its total irrelevance in the greater fashion world.

Personally, I think Toronto needs MORE drunken speeches, not fewer.

Long live Robin Kay! Long live drunken speeches.
acer / October 25, 2008 at 01:28 am
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Drunken speeches are fine at weddings or maybe an internal industry event. She was representing Canada and her sponsors so she should have had her shit together. Besides, she sounds like a tyrant, if people want to use this to bring her down then all the best to them.
Joe Clark / October 25, 2008 at 08:33 am
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Is somebody ever going to bother to report her exact mispronunciation of the word "monocle"?
Tim / October 25, 2008 at 01:47 pm
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The Globe has a video of the speech on their site:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081024.wvrobinkayspeech1024/VideoStory/VideoLineup/News
W4W Toronto / October 26, 2008 at 03:02 pm
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I bet if Robin Kay were a gorgeous, drunken man with a sophisticated English accent, this would all be funny and even cute. Stop drinking the Hateraid people and just watch the video at the Globe & Mail. Robin Kay is obviously passionate about her baby (LFW). She is responsible for her own behavior, but for God-sake's does she not have a friend in "tent" to tell her that she was drunk BEFORE she started her speech?! W4W Toronto - www.w4wtoronto.wordpress.com
diana moth / October 26, 2008 at 06:13 pm
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Robin Kay shows all the signs of a woman with a serious drinking problem. More appropriately chronic alcoholism which would explain her actions. It's a disease much like any other but it manifests itself in rages and public humiliation and no fruit basket from the office while in recovery. She is not immoral or weak, just sick. It's sad.
Mazda / October 27, 2008 at 07:30 pm
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I have worked directly with her. She is a rude person, ignorant and probably does more harm then good. The right person in the driver seat could probably grow this industry faster and larger then she has tried. We pulled our sponsorship and would love an investigation into how funds are spent. It is sad
bork / October 29, 2008 at 11:34 pm
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I also have worked with her during fashion week, and must agree that she is an absolute public humiliation and is rude and ignorant, and treats the crew of Fashion week with no respect. Where are the funds going? Water isn't even provided backstage for the models, some of whom are there ALL day!
chris / November 11, 2008 at 09:52 am
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hi,
For the record I was there. I was in the media pit and Robin's speech, was boring, long winded, and total not a good idea. I think the point people are forgetting is that with her position you can't act like that. If anyone here owned the FDCC then they would have fired Robin that night for her actions. And if any of her employees acted like that she would have fired them too. I have meet Robin and she is a take-no-crap woman, so she herself should have known better then to act like that.
ROBINKAYHATER / November 16, 2008 at 05:24 pm
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Women are annoying enough when they're sober. Put a few drinks in any skank like Robin Kay and OF COURSE they end up looking ridiculous. Fashion is for the upper class elite snobs of the world. Kay is one of them. A drug/alcohol addicted money whore, who profits on the backs of the slave labor that designs these flashy clothes that 99.9 percent of the planet doesn't wear.
unfortunate / December 17, 2008 at 08:59 am
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worked with robin in past few years off and on. she really is on her own with this thing, and she has built fashion week single handed with limited funding. yes she can be very abrubt and direct, but i work with many high 'c' level executives and they are the same when facing deadlines and expectations to be met. it is further unfortunate that she is taking the high road and not defending herself. she was diagnosed with bi-lateral pnemounia the week prior to this show and on meds, so even a sip of booze would have put her off. She was bed ridden 3 weeks following. i was also around in the days prior to robin, and for people to say the industry was better then, are simply robin haters, not industry fans, cause its an absolute lie. thanks to robin for building fashion in canada, and robin - dont drink during fashion week next time !
Janice King / January 13, 2009 at 12:40 am
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Robin Kay plays by her own rules and expects everyone to abide and tolerate them. Whether its dealing drugs, turning an industry association into a family and friends business, manipulating the press, removing voting rights for designers, not publishing financials to members(which is against the law). Good for the smoking stiletto for standing up for the rights of designers
OMG / February 19, 2009 at 07:57 am
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That speech is not anything but horrible....when she is only slightly loaded she is rude and full of herself at best. This speech is all about her great contribution yet you see so many people workng at Fashion Week and RK walking around around being rude to everyone. Tme for change.
I think fashion week will survive without Robyn pulling young designers back into her motorhome offering them drugs and promising to make them millions.
yah thats right unfortunatly
FDR / January 23, 2010 at 05:05 pm
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ROBIN KAY NEEDS TO BE FIRED!!!!!!!! BUT WHO WILL DO IT SINCE SHE SEEMS TO OWN THE BOARD?
Michelle / May 22, 2011 at 04:50 pm
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When one creates something as big as LGFW, they can do whatever they want! Every big star, talent, singer, actor have and need an outlet from the stress & chaos! That's how they are able to offer us the playground to play in! In fair market you can step up and do a AAFW! ;-)
Tanya / July 30, 2011 at 07:31 pm
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Robin Kay is a complete disaster. She is a known alcoholic and drug addict. For some sick reason, (likely money on the take) she controls fashion week and Lorne Gertner and Joe Mimran let her. Joe should be ashamed to be part of 'non profit' organization that has no members and doesn't publish financial statements. She is using the design community for her personal gain.

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