Dare to Wear Love - Opening Night at the Textile Museum of Canada

Welcome to the third floor Galley at the Textile Museum of Canada where last night Valentine Day an exhibition and silent auction began. Dare to Wear Love is a leap of faith on the part of the Canadian fashion design Jim Searle and Chris Tyrell, of Hoax Couture.  Searle and Tyrell  with a desire to do more, to participate directly in the world fight against HIV and AIDS created the event Dare to Wear Love in 2009 to raise funds and awareness for the Stephen Lewis Foundation in its support of grass roots organizations fighting the HIV AIDS pandemic in Sub Saharan Africa.

Health and Education: Family Planing, East African, late 20th Century, cotton plain woven and roller printed, Textile Museum of Canada Collection: gift of Brain Chaeles T02.7.6

 Family planning is a social issue of global concern, this kanga is the means by which information can be broadly shared by way of the images and symbols. This cloth was distribute as part of a health education campaign Kenya, Three birth control devices are shown -  HUDs, condoms and the Pill. Bees flanking a flower represent fertility, and in the corners of the cloth are moons which represent a woman's menstrual cycle. Against a sperm-and-egg background, a house-shaped frame encloses a family of five, wearing shoes and carrying schoolbooks.

TMC Didactic

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Searle and Tyrell asked 24 of Canada’s top fashion designers to create an outfit using 6 yards of African cloth, which were then showcased on the runway at LG Fashion Week in Toronto in October 2009. It was a hit with the designer and the fashion aware and added a second high profile opportunity for a community that like most creative communities around the world has felt the effects of over 30 years of this "Dis-ease"   While Fashion Cares with a twenty year attendance of over 49,000 guests and volunteers and net profits of over $10,000,000, Wear to Dare love is just in its infancy. With this 3rd edition they have up the ante so to speak. the presentation of this exhibition and silent auction at the TMC is representative of the museums ongoing focus on interdisciplinary and cross-cultural initiative.s as well as a contribution of time to enable those of us who did not attend the previous runway shows to see the garments that where designed for them up close. Being that this exhibition and silent auction it is also an opportunity to contribute to the charity.

Dress by Wayne Clarckson

"I wanted to make something that was pretty."  Wayne Clark the maker of this dress is a native of Calgary and has been a force in the Canadian fashion industry for almost 30 years. He studied at Sheridan School of Fashion which no longer exists. He like Linda Lundström studied knitwear design with Regine Faust who has been feature in fibreQUARTERLY. Together they represent a bridge between Pat McDonagh who has roots in the swinging sixties and was the subject of a  retrospective video, directed by Billie Mintz  which was presented at Fashion Art Toronto last spring and today's young designers. Ware to Dare showcases almost 40 years of Canadian fashion history and the work of these three is contemporary fresh while classical in their cut and construction.  

Linda Lundström

"As a fashion designer,  Linda Lundström is devoted to creating fashions for authentic woman with real lives and real bodies to make those woman feel beautiful. As a humanitarian Lundström her public profile to contribute to many social initiatives. Founder of the Kiishik Fund, Lundström advocates for First Nations."

TMC Didactic

Pat McDonagh

" Initially I became involved with Dare To Wear Love after reading about the grandmother's struggle to raise children orphaned by AIDS in Africa"  Pat McDonagh co-founder of the Fashion Design Council of Canada

Daily Life; Ears of Corn, west Africa, late 20th century, Cotton, plain woven, roller printed and metal foil. 

gift of John and Dorothy  Macaulay textile museum Collection T90.02 88

Like other Kangas in this exhibition, this yardage was produced for use as clothing and decoration. In this case ears of corn ( a highly valued and essential food staple) are diagonally off set in a diamond -shaped lattice. the geometric patterns are outlined with thin strips of gold and silver coloured metallic foil have been meticulously hand sewn to the  cloth.

TMC Didactic

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these are dresses by LOVAS Wesley Badanjak 2010 flanked by Jason Meyers right (2010) left (2009) they are two of the newest designers in the show. Meyers who graduated from the International Academy of Design and Technology in 2003 presented his first collection Fall/ Winter 2006. Badanjak hit the run ways in 2008, he is a Honours Bachelors of Design from Fashion Design Ryerson University 

The designers  Judy Cornish and Joyce Gunhouse are Comrags they met at Ryerson in the Fashion Arts Programme at the start of the 1980s and have been a dynamic due ever since. To use  a very over used phraze they are a Laura Ashley Vienna Westwood Mash Up that gave new life to what those who wore them (with their doc Martins of course) called a house dress, that causal dress up feeling of wearing your grandmothers dress has been a mainstay of their line throught out their careers. These two dresses done for the 2010 edition of Ware to Ware Love are a very sexy grandmothers answer to casual dress up if your grandmas are Jackie O and her sister Lee.

Yes there is menswear in this exhibition, not much and for me nothing as appealing as this classic short sleeve shirt from Hoax. Searle and Tyrell moved from Ottawa (where i first met them in a vintage store in a Byward Market walk up) to Toronto where Hoax Couture was founded in 1985 by Chris Tyrell who was a lawyer and  Jim Searle an architect. Without formal fashion training, the Hoax duo began by selling T-shirts on the streets of Toronto and haven't looked back. But actually they have looked back on their success and have found a way to use it to give back. Dare to Ware love is both a good cause and a good time. if you can drop by the Textile Museum to see this enticing collection do so.

These are the gentleman of Hoax Couture

The Dare to Wear Love 3 will take place under the tents at Toronto Fashion Week on March 16th, 2012 as the Closing Night Gala of Fashion Week. Once again we will showcase the talents of Canada’s top fashion designers, with amazing dancers, musicians and celebrity models.

This is a party that is not to be missed! The funds raised at this event help to turn the tide against HIV and AIDS in Africa through the support of the Stephen Lewis Foundation.

for more information visit the website  http://www.daretowearlove.com/
Like them on facebook http://www.facebook.com/DaretoWearLove
follow them on twitter https://twitter.com/#!/daretowearlove

The textile Museum of Canada http://www.textilemuseum.ca/

the Stephen Lewis Foundation

Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign

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I live with many different clothes from Africa and the poeple who wear them. I see variety daily in the elevators of my 26 story apartment building. Since my interest in textiles is know many interesting conversations take place. do you know the difference between printed Adinkra cloth from the Ashanti kingdom in Ghana. and Adire: the celebrated indigo resist-dyed cloths of the Yoruba from Nigeria here is a quick course http://www.adireafricantextiles.com/res03.htm

Do you know the work of Yinka Shonibare  I saw his 2005 film ODILE AND ODETTE at the · Kaunas Biennale 11 this past fall. to see his 818th century "Colonial" era garments made of  the brightly coloured 'African' fabrics (Dutch wax-printed cotton)You can see some photographs on fQ's facebook page from his SIX Yards show in Museum MMK Arnhem Holland