Photo by George Pimentel/Getty Images for IMG
The fashion week bug has landed, and is using it’s hungry proboscis to infect citizens left and right. This bug is spreading around the general population of Toronto, and even if people they have no idea what’s going on, they’re still excited. One of my oblivious male coworkers showed a particular interest in what goes down inside the tents at David Pecault Square. “Who’s showing this year?” he asked. “The woman on Ossington who makes the scarves? What about those coats with the ‘M’ on them that everyone wears in Montreal?”
Well, yes actually. Those ubiquitous ‘M’ coats are Mackage, who showed a knockout collection of coats at the tents Wednesday night. The Montreal-based outerwear brand, designed a veritable bouquet of coat styles for both trendsetters and people just generally looking to stay warm during the fall and winter season.
Mackage gave us a Céline for the Canadian winter: clean, structured boiled wool jackets with leather sleeves and fitted leather bombers amongst Joan of the Arctic parkas. The cropped motorcycle jackets came in a medley of unexpected fabrics: virginal white tweed boucle, grungy buffalo plaid, and wine-coloured ombre fur.
The clean lines and elegant tailoring evoked both 90s minimalism and grungy schoolgirls who like to skip their private school classes. Clean-cut bombers and straightlaced button down shirts were styled impeccably with leather pants and buffalo plaid. The collection was on-trend, yet managed to deliver clothing I am actually excited to wear. The fashion crowd seems to have an insatiable desire for coats with different coloured sleeves, and Mackage did not disappoint. In contrast to the more style-conscious designs, plenty of thickly-insulated, fur-trimmed parkas, the kind of jackets that sell themselves during a Canadian winter.
The standing ovation coat of the show was a men’s red ombre peacoat, with a fade so delicate it could’ve been a Georges Seurat painting.
The structured satchel backpacks and purses were also noteworthy in their utmost elegance. It turns out the coats with an ‘M’ that everyone wears in Montreal are dapper as hell.
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Isabel Slone is a Toronto-based fashion blogger and writer. Follow her on Twitter at @isabelslone.
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