Toronto fashion designers get creative to beat the recession
Last year British journalist Ian Johnston described an Yves St. Laurent fashion show where models marched up and down the runway wearing black lipstick to match their black clothes and “pudding-bowl wigs.” Fashion trends, he said, were beginning to mirror impending economic doom and gloom. “Black is everywhere and shapes are decidedly buttoned-up and puritanical.”
But while other cities stage runway shows as strange funeral processions where fashionistas mourn the death of extravagance, Toronto designers are trying on something different.
Consider Julia Grieve.
In the city’s Fashion District, Grieve walks into Preloved, her store on Queen West, and shivers as the door closes out a chilly day behind her. She takes off her long winter coat to reveal a short, umpire waisted, green-grey dress underneath. Dresses of the same design hang in an array of colours on a rack near the window and shed brightness into the grey of early spring outside.
Grieve, whose store sells refashioned vintage clothing, admits it’s true designers react to the economy, but says there are ways to make the clothes people want without being dull.
“Everyone gets really safe, there’s no doubt about that…It’s like back to the basics, solid, solid basics,” explains Grieve. “But I mean how long can we just wear a boring old skirt? It’s still fashion for gosh sakes, we need some excitement!”
In order to keep this excitement, Preloved’s head designer Peter Friesen is taking precautions of a different sort by making skirts, shirts and dresses with fewer seams to cut labour costs and sell more affordable clothing to their customers, who might now be strapped for cash.
Even as people cut back on frivolous spending, Preloved is making money and Grieve is confident it will stay that way.
“What we’ve always made has always been extremely creative and there’s always been people wanting to buy it,” she explains. “That hasn’t changed yet.”
Calling on creativity
Zoran Dobric, another local designer, sells clothing in Toronto, the U.S. and Hong Kong. His small apartment is littered with the trappings of fashion. Sitting on a white couch in his living room, he’s surrounded by one dress form half covered in a strip of cloth; racks of partially-made clothes in busy patterns and bright colours; and a pile of unsewn fabric spread across a wide table.
Dobric used to sell out of two high-end Toronto shops—Finishing Touches and Boutique Le Trou—but the latter went out of business last September.
The store's owner, Marlene Shiff “wasn’t making any money," says Dobric, "and a lot of Canadian designers were selling there.”
Even though he’s started to feel the economic crisis, Dobric isn’t going safe by pulling out rolls of black fabric for conservative buyers. He’s instead touting flamboyance and creativity as the path to success.
“The most creative companies are going to survive because the market is so saturated with everything that the customer doesn’t want to get anything else because they have everything they need,” he explains.
“So the only investment they would make is in something they really like and that is special enough that they really want it. Even if you’re doing furniture or clothes you’re not going to sell it unless it’s really interesting and creative so it creates a desire in you that you really need it.”
Tiny boxes
Back on the Queen West strip, Comrags owner and designer Joyce Gunhouse says she and her partner, Judy Cornish aren’t worried about their business. They’ve pulled it through tough times before and are convinced that quality will keep clients coming back no matter the economic situation.
Dressed in a practical black collared button-up shirt and jeans, Gunhouse explains that she and Cornish always keep their business hats on, though, and look for new ways satisfy customers.
“We’ve always been conscientious of the value of our garments and have always considered them an investment so it’s just a good time for us now,” Gunhouse says at her store, which is decorated with everything from faux-toy letter blocks to a naked baby doll in a tiny blue chair. A silver vintage toaster sits on the counter she stands behind, oversized business cards popping out of its bread slots.
“Most people think outside the box; Judy and I like to think in a really tiny box…so we’re always trying to streamline things and to make them run as smoothly as possible by controlling what we can control.”
For Grieve, taking control and making sure the fashion business survives this recession is important not only for designers but for Toronto. Her blue eyes light up and her words come faster as she explains that fashion and other creative industries set the city apart.
“I mean Toronto is just filled with so much amazing talent from all avenues from theatre to television to fashion,” she says. “Independent boutiques, independent designers, I mean, I think the city thrives on it and the city needs it.”
