Arthur Mendonça is a staple at Toronto Fashion Week, known for his strong brand of wearable glamour, and his S/S 2013 collection was no exception. Mendonça designs clothes that are both sensible and fun, making his show the biggest crowd-pleaser so far this week. Almost every look he sent down the runway made me want to throw every single overused fashion word into a single, gushing, run-on sentence and call it a day on this review. Gorgeous! Chic! Fierce! Fab! Glam!

Mendonça designs clothing for the woman who goes to ‘werq.’ The collection featured plenty of office-appropriate garments, like pencil skirts, trouser suits and shift dresses, but with an undeniably glamorous twist. The focus on metallics speaks to the designer’s inspiration from wonderfully weird architect Frank Gehry, the guy who redesigned the AGO.

Mendonça used classic, wearable silhouettes as his canvas and used colour and texture to paint a masterpiece. Matching trouser suits came in wild shades of chartreuse and bubblegum pink, while simple trousers got a Ziggy Stardust make-over in shiny spaceship silver. Pencil skirts have long been the domain of library-chic…until they received a Mendonça makeover with panels of black leather and sequins.

Primarily, I was struck by how utterly fantastic the clothing made the models look. Naturally, models are flawless gorgeous creatures that could sell a dress made out of a cat food bag if they it gave the right amount of attitude, but even from the my seat in the fourth row, I could tell that Mendonça’s clothing was extra special. Every garment fit perfectly, not a thread was out of place, which is rare since so many collections use models as simple clothes hangers and don’t bother to make sure the clothes even fits (double nip-slip, anyone?). At Mendonça, the cropped jackets and belted dresses hit just the right spot on a woman’s body, making them look effortlessly good. (Effortless! Oops, I let another fashion word slip in there).

The strength of the collection was its versatility, with garments that could easily transition from daytime workwear to evening cocktail parties. Nor would the clothing look out of place at a Yorkville boutique or a hip independent retailer in Parkdale.

Mendonça told the Toronto Star his goal is to expand into more global markets. With ten solid years in the Canadian fashion world, Mendonça is well-primed to take on the world, making women look more fabulous and confident one dress at a time.

This post was sponsored by Stoneleigh wines. Please enjoy our products responsibly. 

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Isabel Slone is a Toronto-based fashion blogger and writer. Follow her on Twitter at @isabelslone.

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