Today marks Day three of Montreal fashion week's 25th season. As a crowd of bloggers, newspaper and magazine reporters and photographers huddle inside the massive Arsenal gallery in Griffintown, a cloud of uncertainty hangs over the future of this bi-annual event. Will this be the end of Semaine de la Mode?
A press release was sent to media yesterday that today at 4 p.m. "Groupe Sensation Mode [the organization that produces Semaine de la mode] will make a major announcement regarding the future of its events, the Fashion & Design Festival and MFW."
This past Tuesday, I had chatted briefly with Chantal Durivage, Co-president of Groupe Sensation Mode, about an article in La Presse the Saturday before that discussed the possibility of merging MFW with the Fashion & Design Festival, the latter being a public outdoor event that showcases, besides local designers, the city's retailers and their current collections already selling in stores. While Durivage didn't comment explicitly on the news she is about to reveal today, the forecast looks grim.
At the onset of all this, the debut of "In the Design Bubble" -- my mini-trio of designer profiles -- is awkwardly apropos, yet, strangely, right on time.
Today, I'm pleased to share with the public the first of three six-minute videos, each one focusing on a different designer -- José Manuel St-Jacques and Simon Bélanger of UNTTLD, Anastasia Lomonova and Jocelyn Picard. The goal of this personal project was to explore and touch upon the challenges and misconceptions of working in the fashion industry. I believe that I've captured three very honest portraits of Montreal designers today.
As for the future of Montreal fashion week, I'm eager -- yet not eager -- to hear the news today at 4 p.m.