10th Annual Fashion and Design Festival

The 10th annual Fashion and Design Festival kicks off today, Wednesday, August 4th to Saturday, August 7th from noon until midnight at Mcgill College Ave and the esplanade at Place Villa Marie in downtown Montreal. It's a great opportunity for Montreal fashionistas to experience some local fashion - all for free!

The celebration includes tons of local designers, Montreal Fashion Week highlights and major retailers like Forever XXI, Guess, StyleXchange and more!

Here's the schedule for all you fashion lovers that wish to attend!

Wednesday
12:15pm – Mode Sur L’Esplanade with Cuir Danier, Synamite and More. *
5pm – Nico Archambault kicks off Fahsion Musique
6pm – See highlights from Montreal Fashion Week, fall 2010 edition
8pm – Jacob hits the catwalk
8:30pm – Karv celebrates 1- years with a show and performance by the Pinup Saints.
9pm – Clin d’Oeil marks 30 years of style.
10pm – The big Montreal Loves Fashion event, with more than 60 local labels on the runway.

Thursday
12:15pm – Mode Sur L’Esplanade: Femme du Carriere, Laura, Cassis, Tristan. *
5pm-9pm – The shopping rally with Loulou magazine, in which retailers offer gift bags, cocktails, discounts and more.
5:30pm – Tights and leggings are on tap from Mondor.
From 6pm – Mall style from Place Montreal Trust, the Easton Centre and Complexe Les Ailes
8pm – Attik
10pm – TransCanada Runwau. Sophie Lanza styles 29 designers from across Canada.

Friday
12:15pm – Mode sure L’Esplanade: Reitmans, Le Chateau and more. *
7pm – The Bay struts its stuff.
8pm – Forever XXI takes to the catwalk for the first time in Montreal.
8:30pm – Foxy Jeans and Bauhaus.
9pm –Montreal Confidential, a show in which stylist Andrew McNally pays tribute to city club kids.
10pm – StyleXchange offer up Fashion Religion, for the converted and not.

Saturday
2pm – Academie des arts et du design. *
4pm – The stylings of students from Lasalle College. *
5pm – CEGEP Marie-Victorin design students on show. *
8pm – 69 Jeans
8:30pm – Le Chateau
9pm – Guess
9:30pm – Dom Rebel
10pm – I Love Sensation. The final blowout, orchestrated by Dick Walsh.

* Shows at Place Ville Marie plaza

Maybe we'll see you there!

For additional information check out http://www.festivalmodedesign.com/

Rockland Has an App for That!

Seems as though Rockland Shopping Centre is really keeping up with technology! And we are thankful for that. As of August 2nd, Rockland released a free application for the iPhone! This will make them the 1st ever shopping center in Quebec to have one. The new app will allow you, the shoppers, to find out about special and exclusive deals, stay on top of the latest Rockland-related news, receive updates on new collections and learn about their upcoming events, all with your phone! How fab is that? The new Rockland app will also allow you to search for certain brands, get info on store hours and even get directions to stores! Easy as pie.

So next time you want to hit up Rockland Shopping Centre, Montreal's leading fashion destination, make sure you have your app ready to go for convenient shopping and all your fashion needs!

Onze Boutique Spring Forward Contest Party

Wednesday April 14th we had the pleasure of attending a fun cocktail at Boutique Onze at their St. Denis location to celebrate the end of their Spring Forward with boutiqueonze.ca contest.

As we mentioned previously, the online contest was held from March 1st to April 2nd and on every Monday, a new question was posted on boutiqueonze.ca and participants had to correctly answer one of them to be eligible for the prize. They received over 4000 eligible ballots!!! Insane!

The event was very relaxed and welcoming. They had delicious cocktails, mini sandwiches and cute deserts. We mingled with the folks in attendance and checked out their ever so amazing collection of clothing, accessories and knick knacks.

We received a very delightful gift bag... which is always a great way to remember an event.

The lucky winner was Ms. Micheline Sicard, and the lucky gal walked away with the grand prize of $500. So amazing!! Boutique Onze even donated $200 from the evening’s sales to the Dans La Rue foundation. Fashion and a charitable event... how could you go wrong!

It was a pleasure and we will definitely be stopping by this summer for some flirty dresses that caught our eye ;)

As always, all the photos from the event are provided by our fab photographer Hugo Trottier. Thanks again!!!

Stuart Weitzman Invades Canada!

Montreal Fashion Minds attended the grand opening cocktail for the first Stuart Weitzman store in Canada, at Rockland Shopping Centre. A second boutique also opened in Carrefour Laval, and a third is planned to open in August, at the Eaton Centre in Toronto.

We were surprised that they would choose to open their first boutiques in Montreal, since most companies generally start in Toronto, but Montreal was chosen because of its dynamic presence of numerous designers who have made Montreal a fashion capital in Canada.

“Opening not one but two new retail stores in Montreal is a great international fashion statement and a logical step for the global evolution of the Stuart Weitzman brand.” - Stuart Weitzman

The 1300 Square foot boutique in Rockland Shopping Centre was designed by regular Stuart Weitzman collaborator, Italian architect, Fabio Novembre. The unique, modern design in a color palette of vanilla and grey with ribbon detailing has become a symbol of the international brand.

While we weren’t too impressed with the way we were greeted upon our arrival by GA Associates PR (last time we checked, PR stood for Public Relations), we did enjoy checking out the beautiful new boutique, and all the fabulous shoes and their complementary handbags.

Their Spring collection trends include ethnic tribal style with croc and python prints detailed with cord and metal, Greek and Roman sandals, moccasins, espadrilles and more.

Other trendy details include cut-outs, pearls, studs, sparkles and bright, energetic, 60s inspired colors.

We also can’t forget the 80s & 90s comebacks of Jelly sandals and platform clogs.

They also had a wonderful display of Stuart Weitzman’s famous one-of-a-kind shoes that the designer creates for one lucky star every year to wear to the Oscars.

The ‘Million Dollar Shoes’ which boats 464 diamonds were worn by Laura Elena Harring for the Oscar-nominated Mulholland Drive in 2002.

These beautiful ruby red shoes with 642 rubies unfortunately never made it to the red carpet in 2003.

In 2004, these Cinderella-inspired Shoes with 565 diamonds and a rare, colored diamond were worn by singer Alison Krauss who collaborated on the Oscar-nominated soundtrack for the film “Cold Mountain"

Shoes with Marilyn Monroe's opalescent Swarovski crystal earrings were worn by actress Regina King of the Oscar-nominated film “Ray” in 2005.

In 2006, Oscar-nominated singer/song-writer Kathleen Bird York for “In the Deep” - from Oscar winning film “Crash” wore these shoes, which donned Rita Hayworth's ruby, sapphire and diamond earrings.

Diamond Dream Shoes were created with 1,420 diamonds for actress Anika Noni Rose of the Oscar-nominated film “Dreamgirls” in 2007.

In 2008, Retro Rose Shoes with 1,800 diamonds shoes were created, but were unfortunately not worn on the red carpet.

In 2009, shoes were not created due to the sensitivity of the global economy.

While we enjoyed the boutique, the champagne and the shoes, we must admit, we have never been treated so poorly by a PR group ever before. We didn’t have a great impression of the event going in, or coming out, however we chose to not let that give us a poor impression of their client, Stuart Weitzman who did impress us with his fabulous new Canadian boutique.

All the photos from the event are provided by our fab photographer Hugo Trottier. Thanks Hugo!!