Nada Shepherd to present Canada’s first 3-D fashion show

Nada Shepherd to present Canada’s first 3-D fashion show

From Nada's spring 2010 show (Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)

Like several other designers, Nada Shepherd is skipping Toronto’s official fashion week in order to do something more creative. This Wednesday, Shepherd will present her fall-winter collection with a 3-D film at the Scotiabank Theatre.

“I’m making a statement here. So much of fashion has become about celebrity, about being in the front row and getting there first,” she says. “We’ve lost the meaning behind shows, and we’re ignoring the clothing.” While this might be the case in New York, Toronto’s fashion week is hardly overrun with A-listers. Blame it on Avatar, then. Shepherd pitched the concept, a Canadian first—though Burberry did the same in London, streaming the video on-line—to the FDCC, which was excited about the idea but then decided to take her show out of the regular fashion week lineup. She didn’t want to have attendees crowding to see it.

When Shepherd saw a 3-D test run of a fur piece she had created, its depth and texture virtually heightened, the hairs casting a mystic and furry aura that floated around the model with each detail crystallized, she immediately put pen to paper with cinematographer Tim Dashwood.

Shepherd says the medium is a way of taking fashion shows down to scale, giving spectators a more intimate interaction with the product. “Fashion is a very peculiar creature: one part spectacle, another part creative—then there’s the whole business aspect of it,” she says. “To me, it’s really all about intuition and a deep understanding of shapes and colours—and a ton of research.”

We’ll be at the show on Wednesday, so check back for full coverage on Thursday morning.

Philip Sparks show begins rogue fashion week [Toronto Life]
Indie goes 3D [Globe and Mail]
Samsung to start selling 3D TVs in Canada later this month [Globe and Mail]