Pinkarnavale Parade Honoring Jean Paul Gaultier

Yesterday evening, Montreal Fashion Moms headed downtown with our sons to check out the Pinkarnavale Parade. The Ready to Wear Carnival parade kicked off the street arts part of the famed Just for Laughs Festival and was inspired by the legendary French couturier Jean Paul Gaultier.

Sporting our stripes in honor of Gaultier

The fashion-forward parade that ran down St-Catherine Street to Place des Arts, had 8 groups of dancers, from 8 different boroughs of Montreal, that creatively showed 8 themes from Gaultier’s famed designs. DJ and model muse, Eve Salvail even spun some tracks for the final tableaux.

 

Themes ranged from Gaultier’s signature stripes to the iconic cone bra. Each group was full of colorful costumes, exaggerated hair and elaborate makeup. The dancers were also accompanied by huge inflatable marionettes, bright floats and lots of confetti.

Gaultier even returned to Montreal to participate in this over-the-top fashion parade. “The fact that Gaultier will be here again shows his commitment to Montreal,” said one of the designer’s model muses, Quebecer, Franciso Randez. “From his first collection in the late ’70s, Montreal has shown its support for Gaultier from the beginning. He’s not just a designer but an artist who is open to the crowd and close to the people. We want people to come out and party, and feel just how awesome it is to be in Montreal in the summer. Our goal is to make it warm, happy and fun.”

Photo: Lolitta Dandoy

Gaultier also agreed to dress the event mascot, Rose, the fiancée of the Just for Laughs green bonhomme. In true Gaultier and Just for Laughs style, Rose sported a cone bra..on her head!

Since his exhibition, The Fashion World of Jean-Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk opened at the MMFA, Gaultier has certainly taken over the city!

The fabulous parade produced by Danielle R O Y in collaboration with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts created a new definition of Pop Art with this event, using the POPulation and the ARTists of Montreal. All kinds of Montrealers, young and old, participated and came out to see this elaborate parade dressed in stripes, as the invite suggested, honoring the designer.

We had a great time at the parade and so did the boys! They really enjoyed all the action and bright lights. It was a beautiful night full of fun, friends, family and fashion!

Thanks again to our photographer Hugo Trottier for always showing up at fashion events and sharing his photos with Montreal Fashion Moms.

Fashion & Design Festival Schedule Announcement

Wednesday evening, Montreal Fashion Minds attended the exclusive BUBBLE cocktail party at Hotel Le Crystal, for the unveiling of this year’s Montreal Fashion & Design Festival (MFDF) schedule and programming.

Montreal Fashion Moms - Yussie & Joanna

The event hosted by Groupe Sensation Mode, founder and organizer of the MFDF, joined the media and a bunch of the festival’s artists, musicians, celebrities and designers to celebrate this special, 11th edition of the festival, held August 3th to 6th on McGill College Avenue in downtown Montreal.

The event spokesperson, Quebec famed model and television personality, Genevieve Borne spoke at the event, as well as Sensation Mode representative who announced the much anticipated schedule of events for MFDF.

Genevieve Borne

Some of the festival highlights that you won’t want to miss include..

An exclusive Jean Paul Gaultier runway fashion show, in collaboration with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts that will take place on Wednesday, August 3rd at 10 pm. The runway show will even feature JPG’s muse, Tanel Bedrossiantz, who will be flying in from France for this special event.

A Glamour Stiletto Run will also be held earlier that day @ 12:30 pm and 1:45 pm, where 75 teams of two will each make a $100 donation in support of the Canadian Cancer Society to run in a hilarious high heeled relay race down Montreal’s fashion avenue. A site I’m sure you won’t want to miss! (for full run details and registration click here)

Two fashion shows inspired by the Québec Charter for a Healthy and Diverse Body Image, will also be held at McGill College Avenue that day to remind people that real beauty means a healthy body image, whatever one’s shape or size. Who says fashion always promotes poor body image?

In addition, Bloggers In Style, a collective fashion show on Thursday, August 4th at 6:15pm, will have five of Montreal’s best-known fashion bloggers from Dentelle & fleurs, Fashionistas514, L’Aristocrate, Mode De Rue and ton P’tit look each show off their fave five looks for the season.

Model Casting for Blogger In Syle Fashion Show

Rallye Shopping will also take place Friday August 5th, where St Catherine Street will be closed to traffic and participating stores will be open late, until 10pm, for the ultimate Montreal shopping experience. Gift bags, music, cocktails, hors d'oeuvre and discounts are also some of the additional perks you will experience during the Rallye shopping event.

The MFDF is the only free outdoor event that brings the world of fashion to you! It is also one of the largest and most unique festivals of its kind in North America. These four fashion packed days of free events are perfect for the family and fashion lovers alike. Check out the Festival Mode Design website for full schedule of show.

Thanks to our photographer Hugo Trottier for all the fabulous photos from the Bubble Cocktail event and the Blogger's In Style model casting. :)

Milla Jovovitch & Daughter Attend Fashion Week

Looks like Fashion Week has no age limit!

Yesterday, at Paris fashion week, celebrity tot Ever Gabo had the amazing experience of attending the Jean Paul Gaultier Fall/Winter 2011 Couture runway show with her mom, model and actress, Milla Jovovitch and dad, film writer and director, Paul W. S. Anderson.

The 3 year old, not only attending the couture show, but had the privilege of sitting in the front row with her mom. Anyone who knows anything about fashion shows knows that those front row seats are the most coveted spots at fashion week. Only the richest, most famous and most powerful people in the fashion industry get the chance to sit in front row. What an experience it must have been for the little girl!

Huffpost style reported that “the toddler looked alternately like she was having the time of her life, frightened by the flashbulbs and annoyed at the wait time.” Sounds about right! I think everyone experiences that range of emotions at fashion week.

The Jean Paul Gaultier couture collection was fabulous, flamboyant and full of attitude. The designer who first proposed skirts for men in the 1980's was still visiting that androgynous theme in this show with women in suits and men in skirts and jeweled leggings.

    

         

Even more highlights from the collection include leathers, furs and feathers.

 

Gaultier ended the show with Mylene Farmer, the most successful French recording artist of all time, in an outfit inspired by Gaultier’s vision of the perfect bride. Gautier then came out dressed as a groom in tailcoats and offered his ‘bride’ a bouquet of flowers. Visit Style.com to see the full collection.

Looks like an amazing show! We’re sure Milla and her family had a wonderful time.

Milla Photos by Pascal Le Segretain - Getty Images Europe
JPG collection Photos via Style.com

Meet & Greet with Jeanne Beker

After about a year of being out of the fashion game, Montreal Fashion Moms finally got our groove back!
As we mentioned in a previous post, our plans for yesterday were to first meet legendary fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier at the Bay downtown as he launches his latest perfume, Le MALE Terrible, and then to see Canadian Fashion Icon, Jeanne Beker at Indigo for a book signing event for her latest book “Finding Myself in Fashion”.

Unfortunately, we were unable to make it to the Bay on time to meet JPG, as Kion decided to extend his usual 20 min nap to a 2hr nap, causing us to leave much later than expected, but hey, that’s life when you have kids! And of course, they will always be our first priority. We’ll just have to settle for the spirit of Gaultier when we go visit his exhibition, The World Of Jean Paul Gaultier: From Sidewalk to Catwalk at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, which opens to the public tomorrow.

Not only was this our first fashion event since having our sons, but it was the boys’ first fashion event ever, so of course we had to dress them up appropriately. Our up and coming fashion superstars were looking soooo cute in their shirts and shorts, ready to meet Ms. Jeanne Beker.

Kion in Walmart polo & Old Navy jean shorts

Jagger in Old Navy Shirt & Joe Fresh jean shorts

We made it downtown to the Indigo book store at Place Montreal Trust a little early, and were able to grab a seat next to the lovely Linsay from Souche Magazine. We had enough time to settle ourselves in and grab a copy of Jeanne’s book “Finding Myself in Fashion”, ready for signing.

Jeanne finally made her entrance and was looking fabulous as always in a black and white stripped dress, reminiscent of her book cover look, by the amazing, Montreal fashion designer, Denis Gagnon. She was also sporting some killer heels by Canadian shoe designer, John Fluvog.

Jeanne first sat down for an interview with Lolitta Dandoy, fashion editor at clindoeil.ca and blogger for modederue.ca. Jeanne answered questions, shared stories, and read a passage from her book about the late, great designer, Alexander McQueen. She spoke so eloquently, and kept us intrigued and inspired throughout the interview. Everything she said just made us look forward to reading her new book about her life on and off the runway.

Lolitta Dandoy & Jeanne Beker

At the end of the interview, they opened up the floor to questions, and we had the fortunate chance of asking Jeanne a question of our own. We asked a few things we thought all our Montreal Fashion Mom readers would want to know;  how she balances work and her family, if she has any tips for busy working moms, and if her daughters are also into fashion. Check out the following video to see how Jeanne responded. (Sorry if it’s a bit shaky, Yussie was holding Kion while she recorded)

After the question period, came the book signing. The nice Indigo manager allowed us to go first, seeing as we had the babies and clearly had a lot going on. It was such pleasure to meeting Jeanne. She was so sweet, she asked about our sons, posed for a group picture and signed our books with love - in no rush at all.

It was such a delight to meet Jeanne Beker; she is definitely an inspiring, hard working, fabulous fashion mom, and this experience just made us love her that much more. We are definitely looking forward to reading her new book, “Finding Myself in Fashion”.

So we survived our first fashion event back in the game, and with the babies! We have to admit, it went surprisingly well, and felt great! It was so nice to get back to the fashion world, see some of our fab fashion friends again, and prove that we can still balance our new families with our passion for fashion.