Last weekend Andrew and I headed over to Vancouver to stay at the Fairmont Waterfront and attended the International Sustainable fashion event Eco Fashion Week. This year marked its 12th edition at the Fairmont Waterfront and the Museum of Vancouver. EFQ celebrated leading sustainable designers by letting go of the traditional runway and embraced a fresh new format with models walking out on to podiums for an extended display. This new format enabled an organic flow of guests mingling with the designs, allowing everyone the opportunity to explore the clothes up close and giving them the chance to interact with the product. I loved this format because I was able to get close to all of the designs and have an opportunity to observe all of the intricate details of the garments. EFW featured five leading designers as well as 15 exhibitors in the showroom.
Itinerary:
Friday, March 31
We arrived at leisure and checked into the Fairmont Gold at Fairmont Waterfront. Fairmont Gold is a hotel within a hotel with private check-in, private lounge with complimentary breakfast, afternoon tea, and evening canapés.
5:00 pm
Tour and Overview of Fairmont Waterfront’s zero waste program
The Fairmont Waterfront is currently ranked as a ‘5 Green Key‘ Hotel and a ‘4 Green Key Meetings‘ Hotel by Green Key Global.
The Fairmont Waterfront is proud to embrace sustainability. Vancouver is a beautiful and dynamic metropolis and is poised to become the greenest city in the world by 2020.
In 1995 the Fairmont Waterfront became one of the first green rooftops in downtown Vancouver. It is home to a 2,100 square foot garden that produces over twenty varieties of herbs, vegetables, fruits and edible blossoms. Everything produced from the rooftop garden and apiary is used by Chef Suri in his culinary masterpieces.
Featured above is the pollinator hotel
We had a tour of the third-floor terrace which is home to four beehives and over 250,000 honeybees. During the summer guests can go on daily apiary tours with their very own Bee Butler Michael King.
The Fairmont Waterfront has upgraded their mason bee house to a pollinator hotel on the rooftop garden. The pollinator hotel ‘Bee and Bee’ provides a habitat for hundreds of species of solitary bees native to Britsh Columbia.
5:45 pm
Cocktails at Arc Bar
Before the fashion show, we had Chic Sheet themed cocktails at Arc Bar. This cocktail was so good featuring raspberries, rooftop rosemary and bee pollen.
The Arc Bar and Restaurant is a uniquely curved space featuring local craft beers, world-class wines, and cocktails.
Yummy canapés at the Arc Bar
7:00 pm
Fairmont Waterfront Chic Sheets Presentation in the Waterfront Ballroom
Eight students from Lasalle College were given four recycled sheets and three weeks to transform a simple sheet into a runway ready design. This year the theme was “Was Does Canada Mean to You?” in honor of Canada’s 150th Anniversary.
The sheets used for the Chic Sheet competition were donated by the Fairmont Waterfront for an inspiring example of upcycling. Every year the Fairmont Waterfront ‘discards’ about 1,500 sheets a year to the local shelters and non-profit organizations throughout the city.
For the Chic Sheets competition, each student was provided with two flat sheets and Tintex dyes to create their gowns. Judges were asked to select a winner during the show, and the public voting for the best look is on now. The winner will win a luxury stay at the Fairmont Waterfront. You can now view the gowns displayed at the hotel along the escalator foyer.
8:00 pm
Sanskar by Sonam Dubal, Presentation in Waterfront Ballroom
Sonam Dubal works with traditional South Asian weavers and is inspired by Dubal’s Buddhist practice. The showroom is now on Bowen Island but based out of New Dehli.
You can read more about Sanskar eco fashion philosophy here.
8:45 pm
Welcome dinner featuring the Pollinator Menu
After the fashion show, we headed over to the Arc Restaurant for a three-course Bee Sustainable menu that paid homage to the hotel’s Bee Program which was created to raise awareness for colony disorder collapse and showcases over a dozen foods that rely on bees for pollination.