Although I didn’t attend Toronto Fashion Week this time around, I’m completely enamoured by quite a few collections, most of which I can’t fit into one post. The focus here is on strict geometries, shapes and blocks created by construction and material mixing. Canada is looking very sharp.

This opening look by Caitlin Power is smart, skillfully tailored (at least it appears so in the photograph), and hits just that right mark between sportswear and formalwear. This young Calgarian is only 23 years old, and judging by several strong looks in this collection, she’ll be on everyone’s “one to watch” list in no time. 

The fact that Rad Hourani showed at Toronto Fashion Week is huge for the establishment. Here is an established Canadian designer deciding to debut his Fall collection at home (although I’m sure he did the showroom circuit in New York and Paris) — if only they could all do the same, we’d be in good fashion books. As always, Hourani’s tailoring is impeccable, dramatized by that signature totalitarian aesthetic of his. 

Mélissa Nepton

Under any other circumstance, the silhouette of this dress would be too much, but maybe it’s Golnaz Ashtiani’s ability to balance out the geometry of the panels and the peplum-like hip detailing that makes it right. Some of the other sculpted looks did suffer from unnecessary busy-ness, but it’s ambitious nonetheless. 

Things are getting pretty buzzy for Chloe comme Parris, the sister design duo still in their early 20s. These young prodigies have an undeniable knack for the somewhat Gothic, old world aesthetic, but instead of treating this as an excuse to design costumes, the sisters manage to integrate the look into the contemporary realm. Take this sweater, for example, with its resemblance to warrior armour, with a smart, darker texture constructing the diamond shape and forming a cutout collar at the neck.

This is Canadian fashion. Do you love it or what?