Being inside a five star hotel is like being in another world. A world where everything is clean and beautiful. Staff are there to help you. People are polite. Nothing is stressful. It’s heaven. So walking into the Shangri-La in Vancouver is always nice. It’s pretty small, given that its in the middle of the city, but there’s a feeling of calm, serenity and luxury the minute you walk through the door.
My reason for going to the Shangri-La on Wednesday was to attend Jason Matlo‘s bridal presentation. Jason is a very good friend of mine, and it always makes me nervous to review friend’s work, because if I don’t like it, I’ll say so. And sometimes that hurts. Thankfully this was not the case on Wednesday.
High Tea at the Shangri-La.
I really don’t like wedding dresses. I’m exhausted of meeting students who all want to be “wedding dress designers.” I am bored to death of brides wearing the same, strapless meringue dresses with their hair in an up-do. The concept of doing something unique and special for a wedding seems to be completely forgotten, because most wedding dresses these days look the same. They are so utterly boring.
But someone has to make wedding dresses, and Jason, being the darling of the Vancouver fashion industry, is the right guy to do it. He is obsessed with fabrics, cuts, and detail. He may not be designing ground-breaking collections, but he can be trusted for elegant, modern, desirable collections. Let’s just say he is more Narciso Rodriguez or Michael Kors than Alexander McQueen or John Galliano. So I’d trust him to put together a decent bridal collection.
Photographer: Greg Swales
Jason understands that many brides still want the strapless meringue dress, but his versions are as simple and elegant as possible. He cuts a beautiful jersey wedding dress. And he knows that a great wedding dress is all about an elegant shape and a few beautiful details.
Photographer: Greg Swales
It was a salon-style show, which took place as we feasted on the Shangri-La’s high tea. The food was amazing, the tea set was stunning, and the venue was class. The show was short and sweet, comprising of ten dresses. Yes, he had a few meringue pieces, strapless numbers with pouffy skirts, but this seems to be essential in any bridal collection. And they weren’t overdone, in fact most of them looked pretty ok.
The highlights were the A-line pieces, with simple detailing like a black belt, and the jersey pieces. I wore a knit dress to my wedding (red Valentino, to be exact) and it felt more fun than satin and boning and crinolines. The jersey pieces were almost Halston-esque, and looked more natural and effortless than the structured pieces. And speaking of effortless, some of the full skirts had pockets. I LOVE pockets in dresses! And how useful is that for a bride, when you don’t really carry a handbag? My only complaint was the lack of sleeves, not every bride wants bare arms (especially if they are getting married in a church), so it would have been nice to have seen a few pieces with some nicely cut short sleeves, or even a long-sleeved jersey dress.
The back of the dress is always important, that is what the guests see during the ceremony.
This one looks beautiful from the back.
And the execution of the show was perfect. My main worry was that we were going to see a bunch of tragic up-dos and models who…don’t look like models (which is pretty much the norm at Vancouver fashion shows.) But the casting was fantastic, all the girls were beautiful, and the up-dos were gently loosened and looked soft and natural. The Tiffany jewelry (Tiffany were also a sponsor) finished off the looks and made them look expensive. It’s so much better to present a wedding gown with ten grand’s worth of diamonds, rather than a faux diamante necklace from Claire’s.
Of course I’m not regretting the little red dress and the rock’n'roll Roger Vivier shoes I wore when I got married (I”m not going to even use the word wedding, cause it really wasn’t that, it was a giant party) and I am still scared of the word “bridal” and anything associated with that word. But if more designers followed Jason’s lead, maybe there’d be less brides in hideous meringues, and more of them in sculptural jersey dresses. With pockets.
The finale of the show.
The simple, natural hair and makeup worked beautifully.
She looks so pretty and happy.
I love the asymmetrically draped dress.
Thanks to Greg Swales for some of the photos! For details on Jason Matlo‘s bridal collection, visit the website.
