Toronto Fashion Week: Luxe Leather at Rudsak SS'14

When you think of Canadian brands that work in leather, only a few spring to mind, and one of them is likely Rudsak. Innovating since 1993, Rudsak has long been a staple at Toronto Fashion Week, and a main contender in Canada's outerwear market. This season, designer Evik Asatoorian challenged himself to present a full ready-to-wear spring collection, and goodness—did Rudsak ever deliver.

For spring 2014 Asatoorian re-imagined leather as he never had before, introducing reversible envelope clutches, python vests and the most alluring silver overalls, which closed the show at World MasterCard Fashion Week last Thursday. Opening that show was Canada's runway darling—and the star of our FLARE Essentials app for iPhone/iPad!—Dauphine McKee, in leather separates under a mustard coloured jacket. 

We had the pleasure of viewing the collection before it hit the runway, when we attended the model fitting days before the show (see the video here), and immediately fell in love with the footwear. Between the two-toned flatforms (flat sandals with a platform!) and mirrored wedges, we were swooning over the shoes just as much as we were the clothing.

"Ive been in this business for 20 years and I still feel that same passion and excitement as I did when I launched the brand [in '93]," said the designer. "For spring, I drew inspiration from our classics but refined the tailoring to appeal to our modern customer." Asatoorian knows his customer well, and is unafraid to try something new, or to revitalize something they enjoyed. This season, our favourites included the sheer blouses with leather accents, python shorts, coloured and texturized leather, the overalls and (of course!) the handbags.