A group of Canadian designers presented a handful of looks from their spring collections at last night's Holt Renfrew media cocktail party. Photography by Angela Y. Martin

Last night, Toronto’s fashion crowd gathered for the first official party of LG Fashion Week: the Holt Renfrew Media Cocktail. The bash is always a hot ticket, and in recent seasons, Holts has offered up a mini runway show to showcase the Canadian talent they’re featuring in their World Design Lab. This season, the group was, what the company’s VP of fashion direction, Barbara Atkin, referred to as “our own group of seven.” The presentation was a chance to take a peek at looks from designers who show in other cities, as with Jeremy Laing and Denis Gagnon, or who don’t do shows at all, as is the case with Mikhael Kale, Lida Baday and Smythe. Kale’s pieces were a space-age pastiche of skins, prints and fringe, while Baday showed a trio of simple, well-crafted pieces in black and white. And we never get tired of seeing what Denis Gagnon can do with leather. Also on the ticket were a handful of looks from Greta Constantine, who showed their full collection last week, and Pink Tartan, who’s up tomorrow night.

Check out the gallery of looks after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »