Vancouver’s 18th Fashion Week kicked off in the third week of September with a showcase of both established and up-and-coming designers in a diverse atmosphere. Vancouver Fashion Week (VFW) claims to be the second largest fashion week in North America.
Meghan Buckley, whose brand is called MGHN, was the opening designer at VFW on September 19. Buckley received her Bachelor of Arts with a major in Psychology at UBC in 2013, before attending design school at Vancouver Community College.
“... The idea of working hard and being able to solve problems and find answers was the biggest thing that helped me shape what designing would be,” she said, explaining how “the critical thinking aspect” of her experience at UBC helped lead to her designs.
Although Buckley was planning on pursuing a career in psychology, she eventually came to the realization that she was not enjoying her studies anymore. She has been sewing since she was young and kept coming back to it as something she enjoyed. When she realized she could begin a career in fashion, she strove to make it happen.
“I realized while I was really stressed out and working all the time trying to get to this end goal,” she said. “I would have these ideas that I’d want to make.”
Buckley’s VFW line this year is called Whoopsie Daisy, and her runway looks included vibrant pink, yellow and green, as well as flowers and bows. Buckley was inspired by scribbles of flowers she had sketched on the side of her notebook, and said that the lineup is all about remembering and feeling childhood emotions. Buckley described her design process as fluid, and said that what she finds inspiring “isn’t always straight forward.”
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The event was well attended, and many individuals could not find seating. The crowd was diverse, with bloggers, socialites, fashionistas, the media, curious members of the public, friends and family of models and designers and people of all ages in attendance.
Other notable designers whose fashion was present on the Wednesday night runway were W/S, Devotion Designs and Jacqueline Au.
An Simon Fraser University student who attended the event, Husna Hassan, particularly liked a brand titled KSLAM.
“… I loved that the designer purposely put all models of colour … and [the clothing] was very colourful, to create a point that beauty is colourful and beauty is inclusive,” Hassan said.
“And I think that's very important in a place like Vancouver, because most of the time ... black people in general, we’re not really represented that much and we're seen as very monolithic. So it’s really great that there was very amazing representation.”
Kevin Sung, a buyer for a local menswear retailer, enjoyed the “nice central venue” as well as seeing “a mix between local and international designers.”
Buckley also enjoys the diversity of local Vancouver talent and hopes that people stick around to see what she’ll be working on next.
“I think a lot of talent gets pushed out,” she said. “But what has remained is actually quite strong — there’s so many neat designers here, and I’m just so happy to be counted among one of them right now, which is awesome.”