Pink Tartan packs the house with party-goers at LG Fashion Week

The Pink Tartan show is one of the week’s scene-iest, luring in crowds with the promise of seeing (and being seen with) Toronto notables. It often seems the clothes are an afterthought for these supporters of Canadian fashion, but who needs style when we’ve got Canadian celebrities? Last night didn’t disappoint—society mavens like Suzanne Boyd, Suzanne Cohon and The Bay bigwig Nicholas Mellamphy rubbed elbows with Shinan Govani, Adrian Mainella, Harper’s Bazaar editor at large Derek Blasberg and the New York Times’s Sandra Ballentine. See the complete collection, our review and yet another reason we saw front row (and photographer) scowls after the jump.

See Pink Tartan’s fall/winter 2011 collection »

Designer Kimberley Newport-Mimran is known for picking a theme and sticking with it (last season it was aviators). True to form, she did it again this season with a mainstream trend: military. We saw it everywhere, and we do mean everywhere, from the hats, military coats, double-breasted navy blazer, olive-green shirts and jumpsuits and knee-high boots. The fun didn’t stop there, as the boot camp trend trickled down to a full-skirted evening gown in a black, silver and gold camo print that was, as one front row seat holder noted, “1995.”

Some editors speculated that Mimran’s recent Women’s Wear Daily cover may have encouraged her to commercialize the collection, but with pieces already purchased from big brand buyers, we were hoping for some kind of show (after all, we did wait an additional hour and 20 minutes to get inside the runway room). Remember last season? There were pillars, which was something. That said, Mimran’s tireless staff created very commercial pieces that most women would want to wear, from impressively tailored jackets and shirts in fatigue green to a full tulle skirt that has “socialite princess” written all over it.

Living in the era of Internet 2.0, it seems everyone has a Twitter, WordPress, Tumblr or YouTube account where they can upload photos, and last night’s second-buzziest show (the number one spot belonging to Newport-Mimran’s husband, Joe) had the entire audience popping flashbulbs like crazy. Look for photos of our not-so-smiling faces in blog coverage this week.