Montreal Fashion Week

The guide to Montreal Fashion Week — the event created to promote Quebec designers, with its designer records and edition history.

The mission of Montreal Fashion Week is to promote Quebec designers to the fashion industry, buyers and journalists. Created in September 2001 by Liaison Mode Montreal, the event grew from its first edition into a fixture of the Canadian fashion calendar, holding its 9th edition within its first years and reaching its 21st edition by September 2011.

This page is the hub of the Montreal record in the Apparel Search fashion week directory. The edition announcements are kept complete below, and the designer records are linked above: the 2005 designer list with its seventeen designer pages, and the March 2006 designer list, whose pages present the labels that showed that season — including Dinh Ba Design, Envers par Yves Jean Lacasse, Mackage, Muse par Christian Chenail, RUDSAK and Soia & Kyo.

Montreal Fashion Week — fashion week runway illustration

Illustrative image created for this guide — an artistic impression, not photographs from these shows.

Search Apparel Search

Montreal Fashion Week Designer Records

An Event Built for Quebec Designers

Montreal Fashion Week was founded with a trade purpose, not a social one. Liaison Mode Montreal created it in September 2001 so that Quebec designers could be discovered by the two audiences a label cannot reach alone: the fashion press and retail buyers. From its first launch, the event let journalists and buyers see emerging labels on a professional runway, in one city, in one week — the standard fashion week bargain, applied to a province with a deep garment-industry history and a design culture of its own.

The editions kept below show the event maturing. The October 2007 edition launched the 2008 spring-summer collections at the Imperial Theatre. The October 2009 edition ran from October 13 to 15, bringing master hairdressers, make-up artists, stylists and models together with the city's artistic community. By March 2010 the event was presenting Canada's designers and international guests from March 1 to 4, and the September editions of 2010 and 2011 — the 19th and 21st editions — presented the following spring-summer collections at the Bonsecours Market, from September 27 to 30, 2010 and September 6 to 9, 2011.

Reading the Montreal Record

The designer pages are the heart of this record. The 2005 list documents a full season of Montreal design — seventeen labels, each with its runway photographs — and the March 2006 list continues the story with thirteen more designer pages built in this directory, five of them labels returning from 2005. Read in sequence, the two lists show a city's industry at work: outerwear specialists such as Mackage and RUDSAK, established names such as Simon Chang, and younger labels taking their first runway in front of the trade.

From Montreal, the Canadian guide leads west: Toronto Fashion Week, Vancouver Fashion Week and Western Canada Fashion Week are all linked from this page, completing the national picture that the Montreal record anchors in the east.

Why the Record Matters

A fashion week's archive is worth keeping because a fashion week is, by design, ephemeral: collections walk for minutes, buyers move on, and within a year the industry is arguing about a different season. What remains — the designer lists, the edition announcements, the runway photographs — is the only evidence of what a city's industry actually looked like at a given moment. The Montreal record kept here spans that arc in miniature: a founding mission in 2001, designer lists in 2005 and 2006 that name the labels one by one, and edition announcements running to the 21st edition in 2011, when the spring-summer 2012 collections were presented at the Bonsecours Market to journalists, fashion professionals and the public.

For a designer, inclusion in that record is a credential that outlives the show. For a buyer or a journalist, it is a way to trace a label's development across seasons — the five labels that returned from 2005 to March 2006 can be followed page by page. And for Montreal itself, the record documents a decade in which the city deliberately built, edition by edition, the promotional instrument its designers needed. That is the work this hub page exists to make findable.

The Record

Montreal Fashion Week Montreal Fashion Week The mission of Montreal Fashion Week is to promote Quebec designers to the fashion industry, buyers and journalists. Created in September 2001 by Liaison Mode Montreal, Montreal Fashion Week is set to hold its 9th edition. From the time it was first launched, this event has allowed the fashion press and buyers to discover emerging labels. Liaison Mode Montreal The instigator of Montreal Fashion Week, Liaison Mode Montreal is a group of associations dedicated to raising national and international awareness of the fashion and clothing industry, apositioning Montreal as one of North America's major creative and production centres.

September 2011 : Presentation of the 2012 Spring/summer Collections The 21th edition of MFW, already taking top billing as the cool season's most influential fashion event in Canada, will unfold at the Bonsecours Market from September 6th to 9th, 2011. With the magnificent sping/summer 2012 collections of participating designers and designer-manufacturers presented to journalists, fashion professionals and potential buyers. MFW 21 highlights its unique status with a deluge of fashion shows and not-to-be-missed events that continue to reflect the event's true identity: an icon of leading design. Also Le Showroom is back and stronger than ever.

September 2010 : Presentation of the 2011 Spring/summer Collections The 19th edition of MFW, already taking top billing as the cool season's most influential fashion event in Canada, will unfold at the Bonsecours Market from September 27th to 30th, 2010. With the magnificent sping/summer 2011 collections of participating designers and designer-manufacturers presented to journalists, fashion professionals and potential buyers. MFW 19 highlights its unique status with a deluge of fashion shows and not-to-be-missed events that continue to reflect the event's true identity: an icon of leading design. At the Bonsecours Market, located at the heart of Old Montreal

From March 2010 : The excitement of Montreal flair is in the air once again as the world's fashion-savvy spring ahead and tick off March 1 to 4, 2010 - when Canada's most influential designers and international leading design participants will set up shop at the Bonsecours Market in Old Montreal to flaunt their finest for the 18th edition of Montreal Fashion Week (MFW18) in collaboration with P&G Beauty. Fashion Week is proud to turn the spotlight on Canada's fashion capital and the creativity of the designers who call it Apparel Search, positioning the city as a major contributor and host to the fashion world. Building on the unprecedented success of MFW 17, this 18th edition promises to be more exhilarating than ever. Based on the many foreign partnerships developed with Paris, Berlin, Milan and Tokyo, now more than ever we can consider Montreal the fashion capital.

From October 13 to 15, 2009 all of Montreal will thrill to the click clack of high heels as master hairdressers, make-up artists, stylists, models, and the entire artistic community come together at the magnificent Bonsecours Market for three days of unmitigated creativity! It's the 17 th edition of Montreal Fashion Week (MFW), with more than 20 great local, national and international designers introducing their Spring-Summer collections for 2010. Acclaimed by the critics and back for a fourth edition, Le Showroom, presented within the framework of MFW, will also introduce you to the collections of designers from some of the world's great fashion cities (Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Paris, Tokyo and Saint-Petersburg) reflecting the unique and highly creative niches valued by local and international buyers. A must for conducting buying activities in an inviting environment conducive to good business! At the legendary Imperial Theatre located at 1430 Bleury Street , Montreal.

From October 2007 MONTREAL FASHION WEEK Launch of the 200 7 spring-summer collections! From October 10 to 13, the most glamorous fall event in Montreal will unfold at the legendary Imperial Theatre located at 1430 Bleury Street. With the magnificent collections of participating designers and designer-manufacturers presented to journalists, fashion professionals and potential buyers within its walls, the Imperial becomes the platform for the dissemination of the newest fashion trends reflected in the 2007 spring and summer collections.

Photos

Andy The Anh 5
Andy The Anh 5

Common Questions

What is Montreal Fashion Week?

Montreal Fashion Week is a fashion industry event created in September 2001 by Liaison Mode Montreal to promote Quebec designers to the fashion industry, buyers and journalists.

Where were the 2010 and 2011 editions held?

The September 2010 edition (the 19th) and the September 2011 edition (the 21st) both unfolded at the Bonsecours Market in Montreal, presenting the following spring-summer collections.

Which designer records does this guide keep for Montreal?

The 2005 designer list with seventeen designer pages, and the March 2006 designer list with pages for the labels that showed that season, including Dinh Ba Design, Mackage, RUDSAK and Soia & Kyo.

More to Explore

References & Further Reading

More from Apparel Search: Clothes Guide  |  Clothing Shopping Directory  |  Fashion Blog
You are here: Apparel Search » Fashion » Fashion Week » Canada Fashion Weeks » Montreal Fashion Week