PHOTO GALLERY: the best and worst of fashion week fall/winter 2011

We’ve seen a lot of fashion in the past two weeks thanks to LG Fashion Week and Rogue Fashion Week, and what we’ve noticed is this: Toronto’s fashion community (media, designers, PR, bloggers, stylists, photographers) is growing wildly, making the festival a viable stomping ground for famous expats like Mark Fast and Mikhael Kale, and a great place to launch a career for young designers like Amanda Lew Kee. See our choices for the best and worst of the past two weeks in a gallery below.

Who would have thought that Toronto had the pull to encourage Elle.com, Harper’s Bazaar and the New York Times to attend our on-the-rise fashion festival? Well, Pink Tartan and Joe Fresh made it happen, but Kim and Joe Mimran’s collections didn’t impress nearly as much as relative newcomers Chloé Comme Parris, Project Runway winner Sunny Fong and a back-from-bankruptcy Arthur Mendonça. It just goes to show you, that even if you aren’t swimming in grocery store money, you can still be the toast of Toronto’s fashion week(s).