Stop and Smell the Talent.

by Chelsea Haeber
Edmonton has a reputation—it’s a city that knows how to shop, but only few locals really know how to do it right. Edmonton is home to the largest mall in North America. The West Edmonton Mall brings shoppers and retailers together in a convenient way. A convenience that not only keeps shoppers from becoming familiar with young local designers but also keeps young talent from getting recognized. And, yes, Edmonton does have local designers, in case you haven’t heard.
The local fashion industry in Edmonton, including designers, actors, and models, can all agree on one thing—competition is tough. Up until five years ago, many people believed Edmonton’s fashion scene was dead. Designers, especially, struggled to get their clothes noticed and found themselves sidelined as mass marketed clothing companies, like The Bay, H&M, and Zara, kept growing. Today, as the ninth season of Edmonton Fashion Week comes to a close, local designers and art enthusiasts agree there is one woman to thank—Sandra Sing Fernandes.
The first time I met Sandra was late March 2009. I visited her Planet Zee studio near Whyte Avenue to ask about writing for the new magazine she helped create called Edmonton Fashion Week. The woman I met was stunningly attractive with bleach blonde hair, a friendly smile, 5-inch heels, and a put-together attitude. Her friend, Ernest DeJesus, a photographer was there at the time, suggested I walk in a few fashion shows during the spring fashion week. Sandra agreed and got me up on the sturdy, wooden plank (also known as a catwalk); something that came in handy while she taught models about posture and how to walk. I half-heartedly gave it my all, thinking how silly I must look walking for my very first time on such a stage. After some encouragement, Sandra got on the catwalk and showed me where I was going wrong. Her long legs swept down the long piece of timber and her heels made rhythmic stomping sounds. I knew right away she knew a thing or two about the fashion industry.
Sandra left New York and returned home to Edmonton after the events of 9/11. She returned to a city that had been quickly growing—commercially—since the time she left in 1985. Sandra, who had been sewing her own clothes and making her own jewelry by age eight, couldn’t believe the lack of young designers beginning careers in Edmonton. “It’s nothing against malls, or anything, but we had so much shopping in shopping malls and there wasn’t really a designer industry. There were no factories. It was crazy.” Sandra felt the need to give back, so she took Edmonton’s fashion industry to new heights. “I came to Edmonton and felt something was really missing, and there was something I could do that was positive. And that really appealed to me.”
Sandra built Edmonton Fashion Week. Each season the growth has created a spotlight on Edmonton’s young talent. Derek Jagodzinsky is a student at the University of Alberta. He is studying Bachelor of Design and showed his first collection at Edmonton Fashion Week last Wednesday called Urban Luxury. He said that not only is Sandra creating a platform to show what people do, but she also helped him promote his clothes.
I met up with Sandra at the fall fashion week in hopes to achieve a rare opportunity—a one on one interview during a chaotically busy week. I caught her hours before the Tuesday night show. Like previously, she wore a wide smile and sky-high heels. She greeted me with a warm welcome and an invite to the nights show, adding that she had no time to talk as she delicately scurried to run last minute errands.
Sandra faced many challenges in her mission to build Edmonton Fashion Week. In the beginning retailers wanted to take over. “We are not about the retailers. We are about the art form of fashion.” She went searching for young, local talent that she could show to local businesses in hope they would sell their designs in stores. “We’re designers, so we had to create designers, and find designers and build designers and support designers. It’s a whole support system.”
That Tuesday as Sandra stepped on stage wearing over-the-knee black boots, a chic newsboy hat, a smoky-eye, and of course her wide smile. I wondered if there was anything this woman hasn’t done in her lifetime. She designed jewelry, used to model and dance, worked abroad, opened a design business, teaches modeling class, is a fashion show producer, is director of Edmonton Fashion Week, and is the creative director and editor-in-chief at EFW magazine to list a few. During a twenty-minute intermission I sat down with Sandra and had the opportunity to catch her in action. She gracefully answered my questions and kept her eyes on me, even as the DJ tapped her on the shoulder and said “four minutes till show time.” In the future, Sandra hopes to get back to her passion—design, something, she said, she really misses.
The talented lady can only be described as artsy and driven said DeJesus. “The size and level of creativity has changed over the past five years,” he said. Sandra is a well-known hard worker. She is happiest when young talent becomes recognized, much like Canada’s Next Top Model runner-up Linsay Willier, who worked with Sandra while finishing her studies at Grant MacEwan College. Because Sandra has worked and traveled internationally, she brings an understated know-how to the fashion scene. “I learn so much from her because she has world knowledge about this industry, and it’s not everyday you need somebody here who has that,” makeup artist and volunteer coordinator at Edmonton Fashion Week, Tonia Riviere said. “If Sandra wasn’t in Edmonton we’d still be wearing baseball caps and hockey jerseys” she added with a smile but in a serious tone.
As I waited for the crowds of fashionistas and trendy locals to leave the fashion show, I also found myself waiting for the crowds surrounding Sandra to die off too. To my surprise, she left the crowd and sat down with me in the back row of black seats facing the long, sleek, yet skidded runway to finish the interview. Sandra explained how much competition young Edmonton faced. “People in Edmonton have shopping centers at their fingertips. And how can young designers compete? We have more shopping per capita then anyone in Canada.” She said that if designers can make it in Edmonton, they can make it anywhere—a statement I’ve deemed to be true based solely on the fact that she said it. As I brought my interview to a close, a young, pretty girl taped Sandra on the shoulder and asked for her autograph. As Sandra handed the young girl her magazine, which was signed to her and three of her friends, she smiled in admiration and walked away in her mother’s hand.