Now that the curtains are permanently drawn on Ottawa Fashion Week, a new style soiree is coming to the nation’s capital.
After 11 seasons as the fashion’s week creative director, Bruno Racine hopes his new charitable gala will become an annual must for former fashion week devotees.
This is the first year since 2003 that Ottawa will not be hosting its traditional fashion week. The semi-annual event collapsed primarily due to financial reasons, says Racine. He says the average cost of producing one season was between $90,000 and $100,000.
“We were relying on ticket sales a lot,” he says. “We are the only fashion week that didn’t get backed up by the city or the province. There are grants out there for events like ours. They were always saying we had to prove we were sustainable, but after 11 seasons we were still hearing the same story which was kind of discouraging.”
Racine hopes the new Loft Gala will be a welcome addition to the fashion community. Racine is the co-owner of the Loft Hair salons in Toronto and Ottawa. He recently merged the Ottawa salon with his Centretown day spa, Le Spa.
The gala will be hosted on May 9 at the Hilton Lac-Leamy Casino. The event is nearly sold out with 550 tickets sold out of a possible 750. All proceeds from the event will be going towards coaching services at the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation.
Racine was inspired to create the gala after adding a banquet dinner to the final season of fashion week.
“That was so much fun to produce,” he says. “I like the components of having not only fashion but arts and entertainment too. Instead of just producing a fashion show I’m creating a real production.”
Designer David McCaffrey will be presenting his collection at the gala. The McCaffrey Haute Couture boutique is located on Sussex drive. The Ottawa based wedding dress and evening gown designer participates annually in international fashion events including New York City Fashion Week.
“With this particular venue, and the type of event that it is, it’s really more of a performance than anything, it was appealing for me to participate in doing this and to be able to present this collection before I go to New York to everyone in our community,” says McCaffrey.
Despite a reasonable turnout from fashion followers and press, fashion week failed to become economically advantageous for designers, says McCaffrey.
“The reality is when you go to New York fashion week you have buyers and you have press and you have people from all over the world,” he says. “You can have lots of press but you need buyers to actually buy the product.”
Although fashion oriented, the gala will appeal to others, says Racine. Mezzo-Soprano Wallis Giunta will be performing at the gala. She is also the model for McCaffrey’s wedding dress collection. Canadian R&B artist Jully Black will be a guest speaker, and a performance by Montreal based Cirque Fantastique.
Creating more fashion-based events throughout Ottawa will help foster a market for fashion buyers and retailers, says McCaffrey. With large American retailers such as Nordstrom moving into Ottawa, building the market is essential, he says.
“All the redevelopment of our fashion industry in the city is actually making sense so there’s definitely opportunity for growth. I see good future moving ahead.”