A [FAT]ulous Time With A Nina Arsenol Exclusive!

Creativity and artistry, beautifully intertwined, making love to one another with the pulse of the crowd’s “Oh’s and awh’s” cheers and applause, that was the synergy at Toronto Alternative Fashion Week.

I had the opportunity to mix with the visionaries of tomorrow, work backstage with a costume genius, and I got face to face with Toronto’s Nina Arsenault.

“Sexy KKK”, Christabel Couture

The Distillery District has never felt this cool, it was the “It”, and Toronto’s art scene was unleashed. All the elements that collaborated to make it FAT, stimulated all the senses, it was sexy, avant-garde, with a bit of naughty and nice.

This year Vanja Vasic, Creative Director, decided to divvy up the event, “The focus this time is on a sense of space and surrounding. It is about awareness with a sense of being from all over the world.”

DJ Femme Normale kicked then night off with narly beats over tight verses, a perfect canvas for Day 1: Home, where the audience was fed a taste of vintage inspired collection and the exploration of feminine wiles in a more domesticated setting. Diepo’s lingerie screamed, “Take me right, here right now, but you better bring the champagne, ‘cause, diamonds are a girl’s best friend.” If it were financially possible, I could see Eartha Kitt singing C’est Si Bon!

Day 2, paid homage to Earth Day with Planet, where the theme was sustainable fashion and style. The evening was spearheaded by DJ Daniel Wilson, as ready to wear collections were showcased by Anika and the Paper People Clothing. It was all about the positive direction that fashion is going and the choices that we could make to save the planet, one responsibly dyed bamboo tee at a time.

Gutter came with absolute precision. Arline Malakian’s Black on Black was film noir for the 21^st Century as it made your imagination run. This evening showcased the rawness of street fashion, mixed with hot and a touch of alternative with Und and further talents like Youth in Asia and Kristy McKenzie. Beats provided by DJ Daniel Wilson and added musical stylings by Curtis Santiago and former eTalk host Anna Cyzon.

Backstage with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum

By the final night, the word was out there for sure. The Distillery District hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in three days. By the first fashion show case, the place was jiving to a different groove. The energy seemed heightened and people were moving faster.

Yes, this is a man in frilly panties and me painting him red!

I was back stage playing right hand woman to Chris Cunningham of Christabel Couture. Looking at his rack of costumes, it still seemed like there was still so much that had to get done. 17 models to dress, 2 models to be covered in body paint from head to toe, one topless model whose nipples had to be diamond cutters when she hit the runway, and the fact that we were crazy enough to put model Biko on a dolly wearing a mermaid outfit, absolutely fucking priceless!

Chris Cunningham and I

Cunningham, was the last designer to show, but it still did not seem like enough time, maybe if I choose to use less body paint to smear across my models hairy tummy, I would have got to blowing up balloons much faster for Cunningham’s bubble skirts. But all the models were dressed, the nipple bra was dawned on male model number 3, and the stiletto boots were already broken in by male model number 4.

La piece de resistance was Nina Arsenault. Enter stage left and speechless was the crowd, as perfect as one can get after a $150 thousand dollar extreme sex change, inside and out, swapping out the motor investment. Dressed as the hottest marionette that I have ever seen, in a one piecer that did not leave much to the imagination; except for probably the most obvious, paired with a hoop skirt, literally. She had straight men yelling her name, confirming Arsenault’s comment in a previous interview that all the men that she was with did not know that she was once a man.

Grand Finale, Nina Arsenault

I asked Arsenault post all the adoration from fans, what she thought of her outfit, she said, “I love what I wearing.” Clearly Arsenault could have been anyone’s tada finale, but Arsenault trusts Cunningham, “I believe in him as an artist…Chris has a very particular vision that has motifs that run through his work, like the morphing of the body and highly structural things…hard forms and soft. And a lot of surrealism.”

Having just participated in Toronto LG Fashion Week, Arsenault compares the experience and says, “LG Fashion Week is so glamourous because Canadian celebrities show up and it is such a produced event, but the I also love Toronto Alternative Fashion Week because the clothes are a lot edgier…they do not have to have the same mass marketing.”

With regards to Toronto Alternative Fashion Week, Arsenault believes in what the event is achieving and what is will do for Canadian fashion, “FAT’s new, people are just checking it out and the media is just trying to grasp on it…when people see what’s coming down the runway it will be taken more and more seriously. I think it’s going to be an event like Fashion Cares where over ten years it just grew so much until it was a cultural phenomenon.”

From the collagen injected mouth of the Nina Arsenault, “If you didn’t attend FAT you missed out on really edgy fashion.”