I was asked by Shehab, owner of 401 clothing to do a collaborative collection for FashionweekTo. The first FashionweekTo show was held on November 4th, 2023 at the lovely Grand Bizarre building in Toronto. I have created a few of the female pieces for the collection that were featured. The brand draws inspiration from Ancient Egypt and initially Shehab asked me to help create a black dress with gold embroidery, in the end I made more than just the one look! I used jersey material as well as stretch mesh and some chiffon. I wanted the pieces to be comfortable and stretch to fit the curves. The collection was black and gold. I had a lot of fun and very little sleep for a couple weeks but it was certainly worth seeing my visions come to life. The show featured amazing dancing and beautiful music, overall a wonderful experience that reminded me why I love what I do and fashion in particular! I hope you enjoy these photos from the show and my little insights that go with them!

The Mummy Dress:

The dress below was brought to life the night before the fitting. At about 10:30 at night I realized I had about 1-1.5 meters of the mesh fabric left and knew I had to use it. Shehab provided me with the beautiful embroidery accent you see on the back. The vision came about with no plan except for, ‘use all fabric remaining’! This dress made me think of the Ancient Egyptian’s fascination with the after life. The front pieces are that of the bandages of a mummy who was once a beautiful queen and who is now berried in her luxurious tomb. The dress was meant to be the embodiment of what I would picture a mummy’s transition to the after life would look like, that moment of transformation from the mummy who’s bandages are about to fall off and be replaced by a gold being that transcends into the next realm, hence the embroidery igniting at the back. This dress was meant to look as though it is about to fall to pieces, to be and feel as light as a feather!

Egyptian Eye Dress:

This one was a simple design but turned out to be one of my favorites, I felt inspired by the Egyptian eye motifs you often see in Egyptian art. I wanted to recreate the eye as it is a symbol of protection, restoration, and healing. I used gold thick thread to create the eyes with, they took approximately two hours to attach by hand. Model Sharon Kiyimba seamlessly brought the look to life and I couldn’t be happier!

Collab Printed Two Piece:

This was a simple gold accented set that came to life with Shehab’s prints of hieroglyphs. Worn by singer Raquel Khan.

Simple Look:

Here is the simple look that came to me first, once I saw the embellishments in store I knew these would be perfect for the look that came to my mind, inspired by the costumes of belly dancers, I was looking for a way to make it wearable and it came together!

Hope you like and enjoy the collection!

Models:

@raquelllkhan

@sharonkiyimba

@erica.thos

@_lucaleb_

Brand: @401_clothing

Photo credits to original photographer at FashionweekTO