Toronto fashion followers can send their best blacks to the drycleaners as L’Oreal Fashion Week, the first of three beauty-sponsored fashion weeks across Canada, is over.

This year’s “World Piece” edition, which ran March 12-17 at the lavish Liberty Grand, marked the Fashion Design Council of Canada and head horn-blower Robin Kay’s lucky 13th year orchestrating the event to offer Canadian designers a chance to put their best high-heeled pump forward.

As early spring still teases us, fall ’07 fashions have already done their turn on the catwalk. On opening night, the first wave of warm weather had audience members peeling off the layers as models literally sweated it down the runway; but by closing night, after 25 official shows, exhausted fashion enthusiasts waited to hail cabs in a flustering snowstorm.
All in all, it was worth the claustrophobic seating and crowded corridors to see Toronto designers put on a performance. Bustle employed prop shotguns to wake up the masses and David Dixon moved the show outside through intermittent rain showers, keeping onlookers warm with a bonfire, Hudson Bay blankets and a cappella vocalists singing “Kumbaya.”

Although veteran designers presented the strongest collections, from Comrags’ proletarian panache to Arthur Mendonca’s glitter-chic, some young up-and-comers sparked interest with their potential, like Jason Meyers.

The hallways were humming with talk of Canada’s originality and international presence. We’re not convinced that the sequins, draping fabrics, flashes of fur and splashes of colour that we saw in the variety of collections will be what ensures Canada’s place on the global fashion map. Still, these styles will no doubt please the crowds of Toronto shoppers when fall shopping rolls around.

If you managed to miss the tornado of designers, camera flashes, snide reporters and provincial celebrities, you can look forward to Rudsak’s tailored, fur-and-leather trimmed jackets and the addition of primary yellow statements among Lucian Matis’ signature Victorian femininity.

Hanes paired what looked like breastfeeding bras with business suits during their underwear show, conjuring images of mom-inspired Reitmans commercials, and playing “I’m Every Woman” after the plus-sized model made her final trip down the runway was pure Oprah. And yet, you can’t blame a company for knowing its market.

Queen West store Boutique Le Trou enjoyed its first trip down the docket this year. The store, currently owned by Marlene Shiff, presented Philip Sparks’ buzzed-about premiere as well as its Canadian in-store designers. Although more editing would have given the show greater impact, the work earned a positive response.