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Announcing the All Star Cast for the Cashmere Collection 2022

Announcing the All Star Cast for the Cashmere Collection 2022, Themed Celestial Awakening: A Celebration of Strength, Hope and Compassion

Illustration by: Monica Smiley

The idea might sound unusual: haute couture crafted entirely from bathroom tissue – yet for the 19th year in a row, the Cashmere Collection has shown it is possible.

This fall, the 2022 Cashmere Collection will feature 12 Canadian designers and their stunning garments, meticulously crafted in Cashmere UltraLuxe Bathroom Tissue and all in support of a vision of a future without breast cancer. The collection welcomes famed Canadian TV personality and fashion guru, Jay Manuel into the role of curator, who will unveil the remarkable at a full-scale runway event in Toronto.

This year’s theme, Celestial Awakening: A Celebration of Strength, Hope and Compassion is inspired by the connection we all have to the universe above us. The sun, moon and stars continue to amaze and guide humankind through eons in cultures across the globe.

“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 brilliant, innovative Cashmere UltraLuxe Bathroom Tissue couture, bringing our Celestial Awakening to life with original visions of the sun, moon, and stars.”

The collection’s all-star cast includes talents that represent Canada’s richness and multiculturalism from coast to coast The 12 designers, Kelsey Erin, Cheliel, Tristan Réhel, Kaela Kay, Demascare, L’Uomo Strano, Mimiela, Doch, Madelaine Nelson, Sam Stringer, Afflatus Hijab and Kyle Gervacy – each with their own unique style and vision – have created their latest design to raise critical awareness and funds for the breast cancer cause.

Join the conversation on social media using #Cashmere22 and in September, there will be an opportunity to vote for your favourite original couture.

Meet the Designers:

Kelsey Erin

From Upper Tantallon, Nova Scotia 

Born and raised in Moncton, Kelsey Macdonald moved to Halifax in 2010 where she completed a degree in Costume Studies. She stayed in Halifax to launch her own line at Atlantic Fashion Week in 2016. A stickler for quality craftsmanship, Kelsey creates contemporary classic womenswear ensembles and separates in limited editions, bringing a high attention to detail to this year’s Cashmere Collection. 

Cheliel

From 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.

Tristan Réhel

From Montreal, Quebec 

Experimental, ttheatrical and playful. These are the words that best capture the output of Montréal’s Tristan Réhel. Through his eponymous fashion collections, Tristan 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

From 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

From 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

From 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

From Toronto, Ontario

Mic. Carter takes a no-boundaries approach to the wearable art he creates. 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.

Mimiela

From Toronto, Ontario

Born and raised in Mexico, Ruby Denis was well- established as a designer and abstract artist in Mérisa 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. 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

From 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

From 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.

Afflatus Hijab

From 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

From 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.

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