Photography by Rebekah Reiko
Arthur Mendonça is Canada’s answer to beauty and elegance. From his fist look down the runway, a high-neck soft-beige tweed shift dress with brown leather trim and an exposed back zipper, I knew we were in for a treat. Mendonça does pretty like no other, but he also adds just the right amount of edge.
A striking silk magenta dress, with daring cutouts, had more than a few jaws dropping. This piece was a perfect example of Mendonça’s expert tailoring and painstaking attention to detail. SS12 was a bit of a departure from FW2011/12 in terms of wearability, while Mendonça is known for luxury, he pairs it down for summer with numerous daytime pieces.
“I find with spring/summer it’s a more casual glamour and fall is more romantic and lux,” says Mendonça. “You don’t want to be too fussy. It’s hot and it’s humid in summer, you want to go to a pool party, you want loose silk wrap dresses.”
Colour and cinched waists were big players as well, and Mendonça was also on trend with a few peplums in the collection, but he is quick to note they are removable.
His inspiration came from Elizabeth Taylor’s Cleopatra. Mendonca wanted to pay homage to a woman who is a strong leader and confident in her body. It’s nice thing when you hear a designer say he is designing for a voluptuous woman as well.
Worthy of note, in the middle of the show, the audience was treated to androgynous 20-year-old Serbian/Australian male model Andrej Pejic to walking Mendonça’s runway.
