The Archive
On Oct. 14, late in the afternoon, I arrived at the back door of David Lam Hall in Vancouver’s Chinatown. It was the opening night of Vancouver Fashion Week’s 25th season. For spring/summer 2027, 29 collections would take to the runway, and I headed backstage to begin my work over the next five nights. I […]
If the opening day of Global Fashion Collective’s NYFW takeover was a geographical mapping of cultural roots, Day 2 was an exploration of how those roots evolve. Across the runway, designers abandoned the idea of identity as a static monument. Instead, they presented the self as something in constant, thrilling flux, a state of transition, […]
For fashion lovers around the globe, there is something deeply revered about watching a designer step onto a major international stage. It has become a ritual to watch these global showcases unfold, waiting for those rare, transcendent moments when a designer refuses to simplify their heritage for Western eyes, offering instead a brilliant, uncompromising dialogue […]
There is a particular image that stays with you from the Soul of Vietnam Festival’s Runway on the Waterfront: Vietnamese áo dài against the backdrop of Victoria’s Inner Harbour, the mountains behind, the water in front, the crowd pressing close along the edges of the stage. It is not an image you would have predicted. […]
by Vand Magazine Editorial Team The Greek-American designer arrived at Vancouver Fashion Week FW26 with The Jungle Feveress, a collection that is messy, torn, stained, and unapologetically alive. Fresh from winning Best New Designer at Athens Fashion Week for The Reigning Balkan Princess, Chantal brought her signature “Balkan maximalism” across the Atlantic, proving that imperfection […]
by Vand Magazine Editorial Team There is a Japanese art form called Kintsugi, the practice of repairing shattered ceramics with gold lacquer, transforming fractures into luminous seams. The broken object does not pretend it was never damaged. Instead, it declares: I have been broken, and I am more beautiful for it. This is the philosophy […]
by Vand Magazine Editorial Team Vancouver Fashion Week FW26 begins not with spectacle, but with precision. Richard Wei, the Canadian designer chosen to set the tone for the season, arrives with City Lights—a collection that refuses the expected narrative of “Canadian fashion” and instead offers something far more complex: a study of duality, luminosity, and […]
