Fashion Art Toronto SS26 — Friday Night Runway Recap
We went to FAT Toronto's Spring Summer 26 Runway on Friday May 29th featuring multiple Canadian designers across the night.
The night featured mini collections from Lin, Denim, H U R T, ILL Davo, Maya Hann, and Havaran and full collections from Love Berlin, Liam Horbay, Lunara, Zoe Stone, and Grimey Inc.
For each full collection below we're sharing our own notes from the night alongside a second perspective from DolceJeanz on YouTube.
The Mini Collections
Before the main event the mini collections kicked things off. Lin, Denim, H U R T, ILL Davo, Maya Hann, and Havaran all showed. We didn't cover them in full detail here but they all had a variety of looks worth paying attention to.
Love Berlin
The collection from Love Berlin focused on 3 major tones with red, black, white being the main motifs. There was a variety of dresses all worn in different ways with multiple styles, some being more traditional like a seductive red dress, and others like white dresses with red on the bottom hem of the dress like if it soaked in blood displaying a watercoloured texture. The top half of those dresses is pleated in a different style while having an extended extravagant back that trails behind the model. A few dresses contained different materials like leather and fur adding some variety to the material language across the collection.
There was a modest amount of jewelry and makeup with strong red lipstick present on one of the models. Some looks like the fur dress were matched with a pearl neckpiece portraying a more luxury feel, while others kept the accessories minimal and let the dress carry the look. The models walked with a strong confident energy throughout, the red lipstick and the material choices working together to set the tone of the whole set.
DolceJeanz Notes
The full length collections kicked off with Love Berlin's "Affliction". The first model stumbled through the curtain before screaming and tearing her top while falling to her knees in dramatic fashion. This set the tone for the rest of the collection which explored themes of carnality, romance and at times religion through a white, red and black color palette. A billowing skirt attached to a large corseted bodice appeared in both white and black, depicting the models as deities. Look 10 (the black look) is actually officially named "Guardian Angel". The majority of the collection was more earthly though, with loosely cut dresses revealing much skin up the sides and beaded fringes hanging off the hems. Models walked with a sense of confidence and even fierceness, save for the opening look and look 12 labeled "Consumption" made up of second hand rabbit fur.
More religious themes were seen through look 4 "Subversion" which featured christian jewelry worn around the neck and thigh paired with a short fitted fringed dress, and look 11's "Spirit of Comfort". Looks "Ambition" and "Abdominis" offered more conventional options on the night, while "Hunger" and "Thin Pain", the latter crafted to resemble finger nails digging into the skin, speak more to the somewhat tormented messaging of the collection. Overall Love Berlin had one of the strongest showings on the night with a showing which surely resonated with every woman in the room, for whatever reason is up to them to figure out.
Liam Horbay
Liam Horbay had a completely different tone from the strong dress designs in Love Berlin. Liam displays a more dark oppressive feel with heavy tones in black, tan, white, grey. A majority of the pieces are in unconventional material with interesting leather cuts. Some pieces for example like the semi transparent jacket with long arms hiding the wearer's hands giving a loose almost unravelling look, or the look which had a model in a full set of a sweater and bottoms walked heel biting. The hoodie demands attention by being so large it covers the wearer's forehead and eyes, with arms also being long only allowing the model's fingers to be slightly seen.
The other outfits demonstrated his ability to put a full fit together with the footwear also displaying his signature style, a black material that moves and stretches almost organically, like living threads pulling in every direction. That same material runs through a lot of the dresses as well, used to play with the silhouette of the model and create a kind of wingspan effect with the reaching threads. In terms of jewelry or accessories there wasn't much present other than one of the looks having hand gloves and some occasional bangles and rings. Even the makeup for the models was very light making the main focus of the looks the clothing and the aesthetic.
DolceJeanz Notes
Liam Horbay's "WAITING ROOM" displayed "inner turmoil turned inside out". Hardcore music played in the background as the first model stepped out in what resembled molten tar, or the venom symbiote if you want to go there, fashioned into a brilliantly cut high neck dress exposing the middle of the chest and laced up at the side. The sharp fitted white dress with cuts along the arm and shoulder also had a devilish air to it. One model stumbled around the runway in a translucent worn out shirt with elongated cuffs while another wore a dress seemingly made of glossy shredded paper like material fused together.
The raw and somewhat industrial mood of this collection was undeniable at this point but the final four looks drove the point home with more sexy and crude molten dresses. The final piece, which seemed to give the model a hard time, looked like it was cracking by the second.
Liam's collection stood out for its distinct hardcore vision of raw materials repurposed into dresses cut with undeniable skill. This one's for all the girls who knew since the start it wasn't just a phase.
Lunara
Lunara's overall aesthetic felt business casual oriented with a presence of black and white, skirts paired with tops, expressive suit jackets. Majority of the looks were walked in high heels with a full female model cast. There was more of a focus on makeup in these looks with red lipstick and eyeshadow while also extending the eyeliner to create exaggerated eyelashes.
In terms of accessories there was a modest use of jewelry with the majority of the models, some unique eyewear was present, some unique headwear as well, and there were looks with gloves and a lot of looks with belts. A few looks towards the end transform more extravagant with pointed shoulders starting to show up, and the collection converts from business to more runway dresses with interesting silhouettes. There was one look with pointed shoulders and a black top where the middle section is a circular ring while the bottom is flowy with a white dress.
The last dress was the most avant garde of the set with a full white dress with ruffled arms covering the model's hands, an open center with a red accessory hanging from it, and the model's face painted with red makeup as well. It was a strong way to close out and reframed everything that came before it.
Zoe Stone — FAT Fashion Disrptr
Zoe Stone is a good friend of Veyra's that we've been covering for a while and even displayed clothing at our previous early access party event. So with no surprise Zoe stole the night as usual with her creative vision mixing clothing and theatrics. Each model wore a porcelain clay mask with unique designs, the looks all displayed a very strong focus on accessories, and there was even a lack of upper wear clothing on some looks letting the models' chests bare.
The clothing used a mixture of feathers and ruffled dresses giving each model a very unique silhouette. A lot of pieces had exaggerated circular structure at the hips and shoulders that jutted out wide with bunches of feathers attached to the ends. The masks all matched each outfit with the main colors and gradients leading from the mask directly onto the outfit making them feel like a major part of the design, adding more to the look than a normal accessory would.
One look was very unique with a bangle with 6 sharp cones pointing out resembling a star, while the outfit had no visible legs, just the lower half of the body encased in layered rings stacked on top of each other all the way down, like a collapsed spring or a series of open frames that kept going. Overall Zoe had a strong presence which made her Fashion Disrptr award and title from FAT all the more validated.
DolceJeanz Notes
Zoe Stone certainly stole the night with her tribal sculptures transforming models into goddesses lost to time. Masks, animal prints, feathers, stripes, ceramics and clay along with large sculptural shapes truly brought the mood of primitive gods being resurrected right then and there. The first model appeared in a large grey dress with masks on their head, down their bodies and on their arms, perhaps representing a deity with multiple heads. Roosted feathers recurred throughout the collection on the sleeves of the first look, making up the skirt of another, and appearing on most of the dresses throughout. The animalistic and primitive elements like the zebra print all over several looks, accessories made of stone and clay ceramics, and the spiking throughout transported the audience into a time long gone while abstract atmospheric music played in the background.
One look had a huge shoulder piece zipped up at the back on top of a hooded full body dress with a woven net covering it. The final look had similar gigantic rounded shoulders lined with roosted feathers creating quite the imposing figure. The rest of the collection was balanced between conventional pieces like hooded dresses and striped pants, and dresses with layered poufs and eccentric ceramic jewelry. Safe to say Zoe took it where no other designer could on the night, and her interpretation of old deities would certainly scare the life out of our ancestors if they traveled forward through time to catch the show.
Grimey Inc.
Grimey felt like a palette cleanser from the runway shows since it primarily focused on heavy graphics with a streetwear aesthetic. There was a heavy focus on makeup with most models having red lipstick with a pink blush on their cheeks and some having eyeblush too. For hair there was some very rockstar gel hair sticking out wildly, or short hair with pink hair dye. Grimey also had some models with bandaids on their face from the brand with "Grimey" printed on them.
In terms of jewelry there wasn't a lot present other than belts being showcased throughout. The footwear had a focus on boots and sneakers. Across the looks there was a variety of ripped jeans, printed graphics on jeans, graphic shorts, patches on jorts, pants chains, pins on shirts, bandanas, and patches on Harley jackets. Each look was pulling from a different corner of streetwear but it all read as one cohesive world.
Overall
Friday May 29th's FAT SS26 viewing had a lot of intriguing designs across the board with the major collections all having diverse stylings and each one feeling like a completely different world. While we didn't go deep into the mini collections here they also had a variety of looks worth paying attention to.
FAT continues to be one of the better places to see what independent Canadian fashion is actually doing. We'll be keeping eyes on these designers as things develop.
Credits
Additional fashion commentary by DolceJeanz, go check out their YouTube channel.
Event schedule via Fashion Art Toronto.
Follow @veyra.app for more Toronto fashion coverage.