Garden of Roses

saturday was the second last day of Luminato, and as i mentioned in a previous post, i really wanted to check out Denis Gagnon's piece, sponsored by Lancôme. the dressed weighs about 25 lbs and much of the material was sourced in Paris. beginning his career in costume design, Gagnon has been in the industry for over a decade and his signature style is unmatched. this is a breathtaking piece, that to me, is so stunning would almost be a mortal sin to put it on! this is a piece of art that is for display only.

last year i had been blown away by his spring/summer 2011 show at LGFW when i saw it for an assignment. and last year he was the very first canadian designer featured at La Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal. Gagnon is famous for his use of leather, lace and chain. there is no doubt that this dress could have been an additional piece to the collection. he loves fringe and hardware and draping. every garment is consistent in theme but has it's own interpretation, it's own freshness and surprise. the photos from the show were taken by my friend Evania from ELV.

i follow both denis gagnon and jeanne beker (who wears his deisgns) on twitter, and i pretty much witnessed them making dinner plans together before the Luminato launch and i must say, having a personal friendship and the support/fandom of the famous FTV host kind of makes you legit. i really hope this inspires people to check out canadian fashion. canada is not just the dsquared2 jeans madonna wore in the don't tell me video. alot of our designers like Mark Fast, Erdem and Jeremy Laing have had great success internationally, so i hope we start getting recognized a little more for what we do. there's amazing talent in our own backyard!