Last October, I began a new career journey in public relations at Strategic Objectives, an award-winning agency in Toronto, Canada. I was thrilled to learn, on day one of my new job, that I would be working on the Cashmere Collection event – a fund and awareness-raising fashion event for breast cancer for which Canadian fashion designers create couture garments made of Cashmere bathroom tissue. I wanted to share what our team and the selected designers have been working so hard on these last months by posting the designer announcement to my blog. Read on for all the exciting details of the 19th annual Cashmere Collection.
Announcing the All Star Cast for the Cashmere Collection 2022, Themed Celestial Awakening: A Celebration of Strength, Hope and Compassion
Since the beginning of time, humanity has turned to the sun, moon, and stars as our guiding light. Our age-old, eternal quest to connect with the universe forms the theme of this year’s 19th Annual Cashmere Collection 2022, Celestial Awakening: A Celebration of Strength, Hope and Compassion. Curated by TV personality and fashion expert, Jay Manuel, and starring 12 leading-edge Canadian designers, the collection supports a vision of a future without breast cancer.
More than 230 top Canadian designers have created breathtaking, original couture for the Cashmere Collection since 2004, all entirely crafted in luxurious sheets of Cashmere Bathroom Tissue, Canada’s best-selling brand. This year’s stellar cast of 12 designers will show their fashion with compassion in new and improved Cashmere Ultraluxe Bathroom Tissue, the brand’s softest most luxurious product ever. The collection serves as an annual fund-and-awareness raiser in support of breast cancer awareness, prevention, and treatment programs through partnerships with the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) and Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation (QBCF).
The annual kickoff to October’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Cashmere Collection Celestial Awakening: A Celebration of Strength, Hope and Compassion will be revealed on the runway before a VIP audience at an exclusive, live show on September 22 in Toronto.
“We as a society are embarking on an exciting new adventure in a post-pandemic world requiring strength, hope and compassion. This year’s Cashmere Collection celebrates resilience, generosity, and kindness as we align with the stars to create a better, softer, more comfortable world free of breast cancer,” says Susan Irving, CMO Kruger Products, maker of Cashmere.
Never Before Seen Curator and Cast
The Cashmere Collection Celestial Awakening is curated by famed Canadian TV personality and fashion guru, Jay Manuel — best recognized for his roles on America’s Next Top Model, Canada’s Next Top Model and E! Network.
“I’ve followed the collection for years and am proud to curate this 2022 cast of 12 top Canadian designers,” says Jay Manuel. “Each design beautifully represents diversity from across the country and will inspire Canadians with their stunning, innovative Cashmere UltraLuxe Bathroom Tissue couture, bringing our Celestial Awakening to life with original visions of the sun, moon, and stars.”
The designers of the Cashmere Collection: Celestial Awakening include:
Kelsey Erin – Upper Tantallon, Nova Scotia
Born and raised in Moncton, KELSEY MACDONALD moved to Halifax in 2010 to attend Dalhousie University and completed a degree in Costume Studies there. She stayed in Halifax to launch her own Kelsey Erin line at Atlantic Fashion Week in 2016. A stickler for quality craftsmanship, Kelsey produces her softly tailored, contemporary classic womenswear ensembles and separates in limited editions, bringing a high attention to detail to this year’s Cashmere Collection.
Cheliel – Montreal, Quebec
The Cheliel brand arrived in Montreal in 2015 with ANGÉLIQUE MARGUERITE BERTHE DIÈNE who co-founded it three years earlier, with her brother STEFDEKARDA in Senegal. Both natives of this West African country, they are “co-conspirators” in this fashion design company/ecological and pro-diversity gift ideas/home accessories endeavor whose essence is offering authentic African fabrics and printing techniques that are ethical and environmentally friendly. In Cheliel’s fashion world—which Angelique and Stefdekarda hope to bring to the Cashmere Collection—captivating, colorful prints in bogolan, kente, batik and faso danfani become dresses for women, caftans and vests for men, and even cushion covers.
Tristan Réhel – Montreal, Quebec
Experimental. Theatrical. Playful. These are the words that best capture the output of Montréal’s TRISTAN RÉHEL. This design degree-holder from UQAM, through his eponymous fashion collections, has established himself as protean design provocateur whose extraordinary imagination yields indescribably delicious wearable art—and his design for this year’s Cashmere Collection is no exception. No wonder Tristan’s fashion creations have been embraced by performing artists such as Annie Villeneuve, Klo Pelga and singer Laurence-Anne.
Kaela Kay – Brampton, Ontario
The ultimate “quick study”, CATHERINE ADDAI-BOADU debuted her first Kaela Kay fashion collection in 2013, a year after receiving the gift of a sewing machine from her mother. Produced in Toronto by local seamstresses, this Ghana-born stylist’s line offers womenswear that center-stages unique, eye-catching prints in vivid colours and its inclusive, all-body-types sizing. “I want to make women happy, especially in these challenging times,” she says, leaping into the opportunity to design for the Cashmere Collection 2022.
Demascare – Toronto, Ontario
Bangalore-born SHAUN MASCARENHAS, who now makes his home in Toronto brings a wealth of education and experience to his Demascare line of mesmerizing women’s/gender-neutral demi-couture and to this year’s 19th Annual Cashmere Collection. His BFA from Savannah College of Art and Design plus Fashion Merchandising degree from FIT NY give Shaun the strong foundation and combination of knowledge and expertise. Boosted with stints at J. Mendel, Oscar de la Renta, and Romona Keveza, he honed his skills, giving him the confidence to produce his unquestionably glamorous, stunningly draped, and impeccably curated couture creations.
Kyle Gervacy – Toronto, Ontario
Parallel passions for dance and fashion have propelled KADEEM FAUSTIN to the forefront of Canada’s Afrocentric style scene. Since launching his Kyle Gervacy collection in 2015, this self-taught, St. Lucia-born, Toronto-based designer has produced irrepressibly bold, dramatic clothes for both men and women. Bringing his talents to this year’s Cashmere Collection, Kadeem’s wholistic creative perspective extends to his originating the music and choreography, as well as the fashions, for his runway shows.
L’Uomo Strano – Toronto, Ontario
MIC. CARTER takes a no-boundaries approach to the wearable art he creates primarily for special-occasion rentals, photo shoots and now for the Cashmere Collection 2022. With a U of T degree in astrophysics, he segued into fashion with follow-up studies at Central Saint Martins in London and at George Brown. Today he designs vivacious, fearlessly gender-fluid, elegantly afro-futurist ensembles under the L’Uomo Strano label. His “side hustle”? Teaching grades 5 & 6 in Toronto’s Little Portugal.
Mimiela – Toronto, Ontario
Born and raised in Mexico, RUBY DENIS earned fashion and business administration degrees in Mérida and was well- established as a designer and abstract artist there, until marriage brought her to Toronto, Ontario. Exquisitely made, intricately embellished, unabashedly romantic evening and cocktail dresses are the specialty of her Mimiela collection. Expect to be awed by her Cashmere Collection creation. Interestingly, the brand name Mimiela is inspired both by a great aunt Mimi who was an accomplished seamstress and by Naomi Campbell’s middle name, Elaine. Over the last year, the Mimiela brand has gone international, having participated in New York Fashion Week, Paris Fashion Week and Miami Swim Week shows.
Doch – Ajax, Ontario
The strikingly beautiful characteristics of traditional Balochistan hand-embroidery from Pakistan is the hallmark of HUMAIMA BALOCH’s Doch collection of womenswear, anticipated to be reflected in her Cashmere Collection design. Humaima, a Toronto Film School grad, applies these intricate embellishments to shimmery or sparkling fabrics to produce incontrovertibly modern, utterly alluring feminine silhouettes.
Madaleine Nelson – Gores Landing, Ontario
A fascination with the UK is what led Cobourg, Ontario’s MADALEINE NELSON to pursue her BA in fashion at Solent University in Southampton, England and thus achieve her childhood dream of becoming a fashion designer. Her eponymous collection, launched in 2020, is specifically designed for “humans”—i.e., women of all shapes and sizes—and features a bright, brighter, brightest colour palette in sensuous, fluid fabrics. Swapping bright palettes for a garment designed entirely in soft, white sheets of Cashmere Ultraluxe Bathroom Tissue is a challenge Madaleine takes on with excitement.
Afflatus Hijab – Edmonton, Alberta
Despite her sobriquet as ‘the Muslim fashionista,’ designer WEDAD AMIRI was prompted by her own frustration in seeking contemporary clothes for women who prefer to dress modestly. Wedad’s Edmonton-based collection of casual and evening wear, Afflatus Hijab, debuted in 2014. Though her degree is a BA in Sociology and Political Science, she’s found success with a fashion brand offering thoroughly modern iterations of full-length skirts and long-sleeved dresses, reflected in her approach to designing for the Cashmere Collection 2022.
Sam Stringer – Osoyoos, British Columbia
“Art is very important to me,” says Vancouver’s SAM STRINGER. This talented 2016 Kwantlen Polytechnic University design grad and polymath (Fashion and Photography) has brought an artist’s appreciation for colour and texture—think gowns in a subtle, sophisticated palette with fluid drapery, precision pleating, embellished with sequins or embroidery—to her self-named couture collection. Her elegant, artful designs offer an ethereal take on this year’s Cashmere Collection Celestial Awakening, and have graced the pages of British VOGUE and British VANITY FAIR.
The Cashmere Collection 2022 production crew includes, Artistic Director, Erika Larva, who has been with the collection since its beginnings in 2004; Stylist, Lisa Williams; Illustrator, Monica Smiley; and Photographer, Justin Wu.
Wish I could attend the fashion show!