Buonanotte, the night club at 19 Mercer St in downtown Toronto is where fashion meets, and When Fashion Meets is a monthly free networking meetup that’s filled with some of the brightest local lights in fashion, beauty and bling.

This meetup happens here and on some level it probably does help the fashion industry, but I think its done more to help the club.  Buonanotte lives on borrowed time.   The boxy three story building that contains this lounge business and the one beside it, and another on the same street will all be demolished later this spring to make way for more tall residential condo towers.  So in many respects, the When Fashion Meets event is just a moment in time…. look around people this space won’t exist in a few months.Hello from the organizer.  This author has forgotten your name.  Its the opposite of what’s supposed to happen at this event.  People come here to get and record phone numbers and work out creative ways to help each other.   This meet and greet is for monthly networking & brand building and socializing.

This platform gives creative people in commercial art, fashion, and beauty industries an opportunity to network with each other and promote their existing products or launch new goods and services.  The free networking event is open to all fashion industry entrepreneurs & professionals such as models, clothing designers, clothing or personal stylists, hair stylists, make-up artists, fashion bloggers, all manner of photographers, beauty brands, buyers, casting agents, fashion and beauty retailers, and of course media-makers and fashion lovers of all stripes.

Below is Jessica who runs a modeling agency talking to Jim who is a dry cleaning magnet.  Jim was dressed business casual, and Jessica was dressed fashionably unique and that was indeed the dress code request in the meetup description.

The free event begins at five pm and goes till nine.   There are few rules.  You can’t be camera shy and you really should bring business cards.  This author has more or less abandon the idea of business cards as being ‘old fashion’, but they are necessary or you end up explaining why you don’t have one all night.  When you first walk in the dance club, the lady at the door asks you to put a business card in the bowl. It is from this vessel that a special guest or VIP speaker will pull your business card at the end of the event. If your card is pulled then you will be declared a winner, and will take home a prize. Jim the dry cleaning magnet won the prize.

The meetup is perfect for new product launches, and indeed each month a new product or brand is selected (from all that apply) to launch and promote their wares; they can speak and be amplified, or even put on a slide show.  At this event young designers and fashion industry entrepreneurs of all stripes can introduce their work to what is becoming a large receptive live audience and active following.

Toronto Fashion Industry Meet Up Group: Toronto Fashion Industry Meetup.  Don’t go if you’re camera shy as there are plenty of people (including this author)  taking photos & videos during the event.  Photos are published on their social media pages -follow on Instagram, @torontofashionindustry

When Fashion Meets – The Banker’s Vest

Now let me tell you a story.  The young man you see here on the right wearing a brown fedora is a Bay St banker.  He came to the event originally wearing all black. I came to the conclusion early in the evening that he was kinda boring; his account manager job and TD bank lifestyle is not interesting, and consequently he’s rather dull himself. So the story begins with this boring guy on his way out the door.  He had accompanied another chum to this meetup, and that guy had gone off somewhere, and now he found himself alone and was leaving.  But on his way out, wearing all black, he was literally in the right place at the right time. 

The incredible red & white & black vest, a garment hand-knit by a lady you will see later in this photo series, was at that moment just being raised up into the air to be photographed by a group of admirers.  And its heavy you understand, and the senior-citizen creator couldn’t hold it up long enough to be photographed. And there he was just walking by, exiting the club because he was so boring just as she was holding it up.  She needed a mannequin, and here he was wearing all black – it just happened.  He put it on and wore it around all night. That’s right – he stayed at the party for another hour or more because now you see suddenly he was fashionable, and original, and cool.

The piece is unfinished, in case you’re wondering.  The lady who knit the work, Aneth, hopes to attach sleeves and giant black buttons that are cross ties? and not round buttons at any rate.  Below when you see the lady who knit the garment (not Lily, but Aneth below) you get the idea that anyone, at any age and from any walk of life can participate in a fashion movement and ‘move the needle’ in terms of human perception to redefine what is attractive? and what is ‘chic’?

Below is the knitwear vested banker with Lily Liao the founder and matron of Street Chic.
Now the sharp and confident banker in his knit vest is trying to make stitches with another sweet lady at the party, a young fashion designer at Ryerson.  Can you guess how that worked out?  You’ll have to, as this author doesn’t know. I left before he asked for her number, but to make my story more profound I’m going to choose to believe that he did ask and he did get her number, and the only reason she said ‘yes’ was because of his colourful apparel.

This is the lady who knit the vest.  Aneth. She is amazing.  This lady is hard to understand due to her accent (Eastern European? but where exactly ?) and its doubly hard to make out her words in a loud echoey dance club.  Regardless she’s an incredible talent and her work is high quality because she’s very passionate.

Aneth Plesea ? Is that her name? Its a cryptic brand.

Matty makes lip balm.  He is always so happy.  He is so sickeningly pleasant this author just wanted to punch him, and give him a fat lip.  He was okay with that.


That was last month’s When Fashion Meets.