Toronto for a week : Fashion & such

 While I await finished runway photos and videos, let's do a recap of my time in the city!

DAY ONE:

What an adventure the morning of my flight was. The luggage scanning machine was down at the airport, so they had to unpack the

entire collection out of my suitcase, a nightmare really, haha. Anyway, it was smooth sailing after that, thankfully. After check in and a bite to eat at Beer Bistro, I had several model fittings, and then headed to the Rogers Centre to watch the Jays!

DAY TWO:

My second day started out early. I had fittings in the morning and then rushed to get gowns packed up for a photoshoot with Emma Arsenault. I found her on TikTok and when I realized she was

Jess HAIR: Jennafer & models; Syd, Claire, and Lucy.  LOCATION: Preto Loft

Just watching this team work was amazing - I'm super excited to see the results of the shoot!

After this shoot was over, I headed back to my hotel for a few more fittings and then I called it a night!

DAY 3

Another early morning for more fittings - at this point I was realizing I was going to have to do more alterations than I hadn't anticipated so I called on a friend to bring me her sewing machine. After my morning fittings, I met with Alicia - a stylist for Canada's Got Talent - for a lunch date! It was great to finally meet, even though we have been chatting and working together for a couple of years now, it felt more like catching up than meeting. After lunch, I had a bit of down time to start doing a little bit of alterations - hemming here and there and minor

I had a photoshoot planned for 5pm with Manav - a photographer I met through instagram and model Tiana. The plan was to shoot around the financial district where I was staying and it went SO well! We did three looks and I am stoked to see what Manav shot - just from the sneak peeks I had from the camera were impeccable! Fun fact: Manav told me that in Indian my name is something people chant while they drink "Shava! Shava!" and it means "Yeehaw!" haha.

Earrings in this shoot were provided by Rebekah of Cinnamon Fern.

DAY FOUR

Day four was my only "day off". Although it was a day off, I still had lots on my plate - I had to find shoes for my show

LENA. After finding shoes and having lunch, I had another fitting. This was a last minute model fill - in, and I was so happy it worked out so well. I had Soli Models help me fill a spot, and I was so lucky to have met Chancey, who ended up being opening my show on Sunday. 

 DAY FIVE

This is a biggie - I wasn't prepared for how tiring this day would be, but so worth it! 

I had a photoshoot scheduled with Jen Epstein - I worked with her last time I was in Toronto (see those photos here). 

This time, she had 4 new models lined up : Chanel, Alyssa,  Anja, and Anita and of

Preeti.

I wasn't able to tag along for these photos because of the timing I was getting models changed as she was shooting around downtown, but I have already gotten a few sneak peeks and they are gorgeous!! For this shoot, we used a mixture of earrings from HeyHoney! and Cinnamon Fern. Both paired with the gowns beautifully!

Because of timing, I had to leave while this shoot was still happening to move on to my next meeting which was with HERspective hosts Lauren & Jess. We met for drinks and dinner at CRAFT Toronto - after a lot of laughs, we headed over to LOVT studio to record a podcast episode and we even had a video recording happening! It was so much fun! I was 100% nervous going into this but they are both so chill and easy to talk to that it was way easier than I was expecting.

After the podcast wrapped up, I had to scoot back to the hotel to finish more alterations because show day was THE NEXT DAY! A few college friends also arrived that night so we all met in my room, and they cheered me on as I finished up the last few alterations and then called it a night. 

SHOW DAY!

I packed up and headed over to the Design Exchange at 8:30 to drop off my collection and check in with the tech team. I got a little peek at the venue and then headed back to the hotel for a teensy nap before getting myself ready and packed up for the show. Call time was 2pm, so I headed over with my collection and my backstage crew to get set up. The next few hours are a mess of quick fittings, hair and makeup fixes, waiting in line for the bathroom (yes this gets a spot on my list because the lineup was insane lol). In the final hour there was mixes up with dresses and models missing, the stress was real - but it really just makes the final show worth all of it. They all took the runway and killed it! I don't even know how to sum up all of the feelings. My kiddos were watching the livestream at home and my sister recorded their reactions, so so cute. 

It was an overwhelming feeling of joy and relief. I'm happy it's done but also sad that after months of work, it's over. I got to celebrate with my fashion school college friends after, and I have to say, they really make me feel loved and supported. 

Thanks to everyone who supported to get me here, including Women in Business NB, all of my Kickstarter followers, and friends and family. I DID IT!!