Denis Gagnon is selected as this year’s Lancôme partner and fashion connection at Luminato 2011

Denis Gagnon is selected as this year’s Lancôme partner and fashion connection at Luminato 2011

A sketch that serves as inspiration for Denis Gagnon’s installation (Image: Luminato)

With Luminato 2011 fast approaching, we were particularly excited to learn that Lancôme has appointed Denis Gagnon as this year’s unofficial Canadian fashion connection at the annual arts festival. Enlisted to lend a creative hand, Gagnon will offer his interpretation of the title character of Alice in an exhibition inspired by Lewis Carroll’s classic hallucinogen-inspired novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (the installation is said to include a metallic fringe dress, in addition to a number of grand-scale surprises). Presented as “sophisticated and theatrical,” Gagnon is as qualified to represent the Canadian fashion scene as anyone: in 2010, he became the first Canadian fashion designer to have a retrospective exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (not quite Alexander McQueen at the Met, but we’ll take it).

If Gagnon’s creation is anything like Lancôme’s mind-altering installation created by Mark Fast for last year’s Luminato, we’ll gladly follow him down the rabbit hole.