Silk had it all sewn up on the first night of Montreal Fashion Week; its elegance and fluidity were highlighted in many of the spring-summer collections shown at the new Arsenal centre Tuesday night.
In fact, this ancient, refined fabric is practically a substitute for cotton and jersey in 2013. Designer Anastasia Lomonova's long dresses were draped in luxurious silk, often printed with coloured lines. Designers Danielle Martin et Pao Lim gave the fabric their trademark minimalist treatment, opting for single hues like bright blue or tangerine orange.
But where silk served to cover and drape at Martin Lim, it was used to reveal and tease at Mélissa Nepton, where glimpses of shoulders, backs and leg could be seen beneath the fabric of the dresses. Long dresses dominated most of the collections Tuesday, with slender silhouettes enhanced by flowing silks at the hips and at the ankles.
Colours and patterns are wide-ranging for next spring, with black and white at Marie Saint-Pierre and Mélissa Nepton and a bit of floral at Martin Lim. The one common hue? Pink was a key colour across the collections, with hues ranging from tea rose to raspberry pink.
Check out the Day 1 collections for Montreal Fashion Week, and let us know what you think in the comments below:
