Fashion and Sustainability: Fashion Revolution Week

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April 2018 marks the 5th year of the deadly collapse of Rana Plaza. A massive garment factory in Bangladesh that shocked the world over with its appalling working conditions. Fashion Revolution is a global movement rooted in demanding transparency for the garment industry around labour conditions, fair wages and environmental impact. Kelly Drenann, founder of Fashion Takes Action, and its creative director and longest collaborator, Sarah Jay, discuss the broad strokes of fashion and sustainability.

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Gersha Phillips from Star Trek LIVE at Toronto Fashion Week

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Fashion and Designing for the Future with Gersha Phillips, Costume Designer Star Trek Discovery - from pop culture and historical references to existing Star Fleet heritage to technological advances what does fashion look like in star date 2250.

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Jordan McKay of Hendrixroe

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It was a chance encounter with a complete stranger that inspired Jordan Erin McKay to leave law school and follow her dreams to become a fashion designer.   Inspired by the vintage rock & roll and old Hollywood glamour icons, Jimi Hendrix and Marilyn Monroe, HENDRIXROE embodies the epitome of “glamorous rocker couture” with close attention to construction, fabric and fine lines, combining an innovative and unique perspective on the affluent ...

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Nikki Yassemi of Narces

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Designer Spotlight episodes are the origin stories of fashion designers.  What kind of kid were they growing up? What did they submit to design school? When did clothing and fashion start to be an important force in their life? Donna Bishop asks about them, not their collections. Nikki Yassemi is a Canadian, Austrian born, raised in Iran designer with a long family history of couture, dress making and visual arts. Her label Narces, which she runs with her husband Stefan.

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The Arc of Luxury

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There are a number of iconic luxury brands that have stood the test of time: Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Gucci to name a few. What do they have in common? What inventions influenced the growth and erosion of luxury fashion? Who has been bitten in the arse of expanding too fast? Nathalie Atkinson and Nicholas Mellamphy dissect the current arc of luxury fashion brands.

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Counterfeit, Piracy and Knock-offs

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The fashion industry is fraught with copy cats and big business legal battles. While the notion of IP (intellectual property) protection within fashion is a relatively modern notion, fashion and branding lawyer Ashlee Froese discusses why it is a critical issue to designers and consumers alike.

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The Evolution of Online Luxury Shopping

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In a relatively short time period, consumers have gone from having to visit a store to touch and feel an item in order to purchase it, to purchasing off a website, to purchasing pre-production through sites like Kickstarter. Christine Carlton, founder and CEO of The September, discusses the evolution of the luxury consumer.

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Evan Biddell

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Designer Spotlight episodes are the origin stories of fashion designers. What kind of kid were they growing up? What did they submit to design school? When did clothing and fashion start to be an important force in their life? We talk about them, not their collections.

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Fashion and Status

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With a Masters from Polimoda, one of the top 10 fashion institutes in the world, Trend Forecaster Emily Miller Palmquist discusses the evolution of fashion as status and how what we wear holds more meaning than taste.

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Carly Stojsic: Who Makes the Trends?

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Carly Stojsic, former Market Editor at Worth Global Style Network and internationally sought after Trend Forecaster, shares insights into how items become the “it thing” for a season and what exactly is a “trend” anyway. Carly is is known as being one of Canada’s...

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