VFW: a view form the front row
As the cool air of autumn settles on the West Coast each year, a host of designers and their latest work flood Vancouver to grace the city with their sartorial creativity and influence. This year, Trinity Western University’s own Rebecca Selvig was one of the fortunate few who were invited to attend Vancouver Fashion Week over November 2-7. Working as an intern for VFW, Selvig spent her days sitting in on the many shows, taking pictures, and posting write-ups and photos of the collections
on VFW’s blog.
With shows running every half hour, Selvig attended days two through five, and managed to snatch up front row seats each time. “I luckily got a front row seat every show – I sort of nagged them a bit because I wanted to do the best for the blog, get the best pictures, ect.” says Selvig of her best seats in the house amongst representatives for media icons such as Flare.
To summarize a few of the highlights of VFW, Selvig notes that there were three standout collections. The first was the product of designer Laura Siegel, who won an award in the category of up-and-comers this year. Being a sure eye-catcher according to Sevig, Siegel’s line featured innovative takes on knitwear; often appearing deconstructed or intentionally slashed in all the right places. Another notable collection that also integrated knitwear came from Ha Sang Beg. Described as “poppy” by Selvig, Ha Sang Beg made bight colours the focal point, conjuring an air of the experimental while still holding much practicality. A third line, by Carolyn Massey of the United Kingdom, incorporated English roots into the menswear that filed down the Vancouver runway; nautical-inspired pieces were grounded with loafers and quirky, undeniably European leather bags.
Despite her entire week being consumed by flitting from show to show, Selvig said that “[VFW] was such a great experience for me, seeing as it is what I want to do.” Being a Communications major in the professional writing stream, Selvig aspires to get into fashion journalism, and eventually hold an editorial position at a magazine.
A large drive for this dream is the chord that the fashion industry strikes in Selvig: “it can be shallow… promoting an unhealthy body image, and I think it’s caused a lot of women in society to have eating disorders and unhealthy body images.” In hopes of combating this standard, Selvig wishes to start up her own magazine which would stray away from showcasing atypical ideals as the models for clothing; aiming to “make the magazine more about real people with a focal point in fashion… and I wouldn’t want to use Photoshop either” say Selvig.
If opportunities like involvement with VFW continue to find Selvig, her high hopes may very soon become weighty reality.
To check out this year’s Vancouver Fashion Week highlights, as well as Rebecca Selvig’s contributions, go to www.vanfashionweek.blogspot.com.
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