TexStyle: Androgyny

Thursday June 4, 2009  8PM

Textile Museum of Canada

55 Centre Ave

Toronto ON M5G 2H5

416-599-5321

www.textilemuseum.ca

rsvp@textilemuseum.ca

 As trendsetters, the fashion industry has played an influential role in advancing and challenging perspectives on human sexuality. Coco Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Giorgio Armani have made headlines and captured the world’s imagination with their unisex clothes that play with the lines of sexual ambiguity. Today more than ever glamorous male and female models sporting androgynous garments have often been found strutting down catwalks and posing for the covers of fashion magazines.

THE EVENT
The Textile Museum of Canada (TMC) and the Style Advisory Council (SAC) present Texstyle, an event series that brings together surprising elements from the Museum’s permanent collection and pairs them with hot off the runway fashions. The first of many lively affairs celebrates the concept of androgyny by looking at gender roles in fashion from around the world and through history. Texstyle: Androgyny invites guests to play, connect, and learn with a fresh take on fashion in their best androgynous style.   
This engaging evening will feature:
• A lively cocktail party with industry elites, curators and special guests in their finest androgynous fashions
• A panel discussion with leading industry insight into Androgyny and Gender Roles in Fashion and Textiles
• Personal tours of The Cutting Edge exhibition featuring works by Issey Miyake, Yumi Eto and Rashmi Varma as well     as a behind-the-scenes look into the Museum’s private collections storage vault
• A tantalizing gift bag and party perks 

A panel discussion featuring fashion journalist David Livingstone and fashion designer Mikhael Kale with TMC Education Curator and curator of The Cutting Edge Patricia Bentley as moderator, will explore the theme of: “Androgyny and Gender Roles in Fashion and Textiles.” The discussion will focus on the evolution of androgyny in both fashion and textiles – looking at contemporary fashion designers as well as the historical approach of addressing gender in dress and costume. 

The capacity for the evening is being capped at 75 to ensure an intimate affair for an exclusive, one-of-kind
experience. This event will offer a memorable introduction to one of Toronto’s true cultural treasures, home to Canada’s most significant collection of textiles, and a venue of current and contemporary fashion forward thinking.