Scroll down for the full photo gallery from the second annual VON Exposure Fashion and Art Exhibition on Oct. 4.


Stephen Hargreaves
Managing Editor


‘F’ is for Fashion

Every year as the weather grows cold, Windsor rolls out the runways and fashion gets hot.

Last week’s Exposure Fashion and Art Exhibition show at the St. Clair Centre for the Arts ushered in the latest designs from Windsor couturiers.

Featuring a mix of local boutiques and designers including event co-orginizer Ana Stulic, the show acted as a fundraising initiative of the Windsor-Essex branch of Victorian Order of Nurses. Though, like any good fundraising event, there was a charge at the door.

Luckily for those of us who missed Exposure, due to empty pockets or scheduling conflicts, many of the same designers and a few new ones are pushing styles down the catwalk again this week, for free.

Dee-Dee Shkreli, creator of Dilly Daisy, has teamed up with Harvesting the FAM Festival for the seventh annual ‘F’ is for Fashion show, Thursday, Oct. 11 at The Room Nightclub.

“I’m debuting my new fall line on Thursday, ” said Shkreli, who resisted running her latest wares down last weeks runway in favour of a retrospective show.

“The fashion show is really one of the highlights of the festival,” said FAM Fest organizer Murad Erzinclioglu. “People love the fashion show.”

‘F’ is for Fashion will also feature new lines from Chatty Collection, Ana Stulic, The Gilded Lily, Kat Palmer Custom Cases, Never Hopeless, Rejected, Tainted Red, Denial and a selection of locally designed band tees.

DJs Tomas Gaspar, Martin Southall and Speekrcreep will keep the runway bumping from when the doors open at 8 p.m. until the on site afterparty winds down in the early hours.

Dilly Daisy

Dee-Dee Shkreli, who trained as an engineer, began designing her own line, Dilly Daisy, in 2005. Breaking at London Fashion Week in the UK in 2010, Shkreli’s work has appeared on Fashion TV and she was named top local designer in The Lance readers survey in September.

“I’ve always loved fashion and the thought of creating my own clothing line was much more exciting than engineering, so I started sewing and designing and I’ve been loving it ever since,” said Shkreli whose autumn/winter line, inspired by “sexy secretaries” debuts at ‘F’ is For Fashion, Harvesting the FAM Festival’s annual fashion show on Thursday, Oct. 11.

“It’s like sexy pin-ups from the 50s meets confident business women of today,” said the designer, who is also an advocate for supporting local beyond the cars and cab frac. “If Windsorites can choose to buy local when it comes to cars and wine, think local when it comes to fashion. There are great local designers here in Windsor and we would love to make Windsor a more fashionable city, one stylish outfit at a time.”

Find Dilly Daisy at the ‘F’ is For Fashion show at The Room Nightclub, 251 Ouellette Ave. at 8 p.m. Clothing can be purchased online, and locally at the Back Room Gallery, 4749 Wyandotte St. East, especially on Oct. 19 for the gallery’s Girls’ Night Out Sample Sale.

Chatty Collection

British born Elaine Chatwood’s Chatty Collection has become something of a Windsor institution.

“I started to design and sew my own clothing in high school,” said Chatwood, whose frequent trips to the UK kept her ahead of the trends from an early age.

Chatwood graduated from Sheridan College’s fashion design program and started her own business from a small Toronto apartment before moving to Windsor in 1995. She opened her own signature boutique in Walkerville, later moving to her current Ottawa Street location, where she lives and works.

For Chatty Collection’s new autumn/winter line, Chatwood hopes to evoke a winter’s journey.

“From rustic highlands to modern city chic,” said Chatwood. “Updated vintage inspired designs rekindle a passion for the past with a twist towards the future. Femininity and comfort is a style essential in each design.”

Chatwood’s designs are for modern interesting women. “I hope [my designs] empower women and give them confidence. I work with real women’s proportions and sizes and I show customers how to accentuate the positives and conceal the negatives; to love your body and work with it, don’t just hide it.”

“Being a woman, I appreciate how some previous designers like Paul Poiret and Coco Chanel changed fashion and history. Paul Poiret was best known for freeing women from corsets. His major contribution to fashion was the introduction of ‘draping.’ Chanel also liberated women literally from the tyranny of corsets and from the idea of being defined by who their husband was, who their father was … Independence was part of what Chanel stood for.”

Catch up with Chatty Collection at the ‘F’ is For Fashion show on Thursday, Oct. 11 at The Room Nightclub, 251 Ouellette Ave. at 8 p.m., and on sale at Chatty Collection at 2025 Ottawa St. and chattycollection.com. Chatty also carry exclusives from other designers including the recent additions of FEVER London from England and Rene Dehry, designed in Paris.

Ana Stulic

Ana Stulic, a graduate of the esteemed Istituto di Moda Burgo in Milan, Italy, is easily one of Windsor’s most progressive designers.

Starting by designing friend’s prom dresses in high school, Stulic immediately in pursuit of couture chic left for Milan. She soon after returned to Windsor, a city that style-wise she sees as “cautious and almost afraid to step out of societal norms. They often let the small size of the city confine them.” Stulic aims to change that.

Her recent designs, debuted at the VON Exposure runway last Thursday in Windsor, are inspired by 90s film. “Especially The Craft, Empire Records and GIA inspired me for this collection,” she said.

“The concept for this line was the simplicity of everyday wear with a splash of flair all while being affordable. The whole collection ranges from $20 to $100.”

Taking cues from Stolen Girlfriends Club, Chloe Sevigny for Opening Ceremony and Vivienne Westwood, Stulic plays lightheartedly with sex and death without coming across overly gothic.

Check out the recently debuted Ana Stulic by Ana Stulic autumn/winter line at the ‘F’ is For Fashion show on Thursday, Oct. 11 at The Room Nightclub, 251 Ouellette Ave. at 8 p.m., before she runs of on us again.

“I would like to move away again, the wanderlust has got me.” Rumor has it; she has her sights set on London, England.

Tainted Red Clothing

Jeanette Giroux, the name behind Tainted Red Clothing, launched her line last year in a haze of rock and roll.

“I started designing basically due to my love of music,” said Giroux. “I had a bunch of old band shirts laying around that I loved but were ripped or too big, so it started with altering bands shirts. Just a tweak here and there and it then basically snowballed from there.”

Giroux found that her manipulated merch became the topic of conversation at concerts and rock bars and began making altered band shirts for friends and fans.

“I love the edginess of it all,” she said about her love for rock wear. “I love leather and studs— rocker chicks are the most badass breed there is— but I wanted to mix it up. The rock uniform is usually jeans and a band shirt. I wanted to shake things up and yet keep to my rock and roll roots.”

Giroux’s desire is to let the wearer of her fashions to have “the most interesting outfit in the room and they know that everything is one-of-a-kind.”

“It’s any rocker-chicks wet dream,” said Giroux. “Style is about individuality and when you wear a one-of-a-kind dress made from an Iron Maiden flag or something, you’re sure to stand out and get a lot of compliments in that sea of jeans and black band t-shirts.”

Giroux is off to Quebec to see how the French-Canadians take to her creations, but she has set aside a few new pieces to send down the runway at the ‘F’ is For Fashion show on Thursday, Oct. 11 at The Room Nightclub, 251 Ouellette Ave. at 8 p.m.

photos • Joey Acott MULTIMEDIA EDITOR

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