Stylist Seeks the
Supremely Talented
A stylist gives
her opinions about finding Canadian designers.
What’s the secret behind the clothes adorning the good
looking hosts of Entertainment Tonight Canada? The “what” is actually a “who”
and her name is Alicia McNamara. Brilliant as she is, Alicia holds a bachelor’s
degree in education, a masters in teaching and has an established career in TV,
working as a costume designer/supervisor for the series Beauty & the Beast. For just over a year now, Alicia has taken
on the laborious task of dressing the hosts of ET Canada. Cheryl Hickey,
Sangita Patel, Rick Campanelli and four other members of the ET team, owe their
dazzling duds to the sharp style eye of Alicia. As someone who has interned
alongside her, I’ve done all I can to become a sponge and soak up her wisdom
when it comes to the Toronto fashion community and working in show business.
Her dedicated work ethic is unlike anything I’ve ever seen; putting in
incredible amounts of overtime, always finding solutions to the many obstacles
of styling and yet still managing to show up to the office every day looking
her very best.
As I talked with her on the phone about fashion life
within the 6ix, we began to discuss the scope of it, which she described as
“small but accessible”. Toronto-based designers may be challenging to seek out,
but the majority of them are more than happy to let stylists such as Alicia
borrow their garments, in exchange for some brand promotion. I asked her what
she thought about the discovery of Canadian labels and she explained,
“affordable fashion is so accessible that it’s hard to encourage people to seek
out the Canadian designers, learn about them, find out the stores that are
selling them, and that’s why it seems to be a small community of people who are
aware of and support these labels.” She went on to explain that one of the
great things about working for ET Canada, is that she can encourage the hosts
to wear Canadian designers and then promote them on social media. Cheryl Hickey
has over 36 thousand followers on Instagram, Sangita Patel has over 35 thousand
followers and the official ET Canada page has 33 thousand. Every OOTD - (outfit
of the day) worn by each of the hosts gets mentioned on ET’s page and then the
hosts themselves frequently post a thank you to whoever’s outfit they happen to
be wearing. In addition to the social media, the brands worn on the show are
also mentioned in the end credits. So through the show, Alicia is able to
showcase the talent of Canadian designers such as Alexa Pope, Eliza Faulkner
and Lucian Matis, (all worn this year).
“I
encourage people to attend the fashion shows, to come to fashion week… we need
more of a group effort in our community to get people interested. Past the
people who wear the fashion, past the people who study fashion… how can we get
every day Canadians interested in Canadian Fashion? By promoting them. It’s
great when labels such as Greta Constantine become such an international
sensation, showing at Paris fashion week and such, it does make the rest of the
world look at Canadian Fashion.” I asked her what she thought Canadian brands
should do in the future in terms of promotion. She said that the answer lay in
showrooms; making Canadian apparel more accessible to other parts of the world,
especially more in the US. Menswear line Indochino has opened a showroom in Los
Angeles to show off their Canadian style and it would be great if other brands
were able to leap over there as well, since LA is such a fashion leader.
Another avenue for promoting brands currently lies in Yorkdale with their
FashionCAN pop-up shop which features exclusively Canadian designers to
celebrate our great white north. Some designers you can expect to find in there
now include Bustle & Bustle, Sprouts, Christopher Bates, The Feral, Grayes,
Jennifer Torosian, Lamarque, Mikhael Kale, and Sosken Studios.
At
this point in our conversation, Alicia’s son walked in the room needing help
with something. He’s 4 years old and already he’s taking after his stylish
mother. He says when he’s older he wants to be a dress maker so he can make
pretty dresses for his mum and other people to wear. Many times in the past
Alicia would tell me about funny instances when he had pointed at women on the
streets and said, “Oh mummy, I don’t like her clothes.” She also told me that
he loves to pick out his own clothes in the morning; his favorite t-shirt being
one with a large graphic of a heart and the word “mom” inside it.
I
asked her, “Who would you consider to be one of your favourite designers here
in Canada?” Already having a guess of who she was going to name, she said,
“Stephan Caras”. Those who have had the privilege to view some of his gowns up
close know just how exquisite every detail is and how beautiful his garments
are. Alicia explained, “It’s a family run business and they’re all such
friendly people… they’re authentic, they have integrity and they hold the
highest quality of craftsmanship. They’re definitely a go-to, and probably the
best, in terms of high end couture in Canada. It’s all art.”
Fast
fashion is so accessible these days that I think a lot of young Canadian
designers are afraid to take the plunge into the saturated garment industry.
But Canadian fashion is dependent upon new faces emerging who are subsequently
more likely to become successful and represent Canada on a global scale. We
have talent and we deserve to be recognized. Alicia is one stylist who will
continue to promote Toronto-based artists and she hopes that more people will
do the same.
No comments:
Post a Comment