“Thanks for calling Monier.”
The words echo through the darkness. The audience watches, rapt, as a woman rings the hotline over and over again. “Sorry,” she says. “I know I just called… but I need your help.”
And so starts Monier’s anticipated Fall/Winter 2022 show. The collection—a stunning blend of menswear, monochrome, and lightly exaggerated silhouettes—is titled ‘COLORBLIND’. Drawing upon his personal experiences, the creative director, Sam Davies, uses the collection to comment on the ways in which differing perspectives could cause divisions between people and groups.
“We all don’t see from the same perspective… but we have no understanding for that,” he mentioned in an interview with the StyleCircle team. And that’s how colour comes in. Colours can be representations of moods or ideas; it’s a medium the world considers universal. Yet, it isn’t completely so. Many people across the world can’t perceive colour the same way as others. Monier uses this as the very basis of their collection, presented with a shaky, close-up shot of a paranoid black-and-white eye as the backdrop.
The collection featured collared jackets, techwear-inspired pieces, lace, splashes of colour, exaggerated silhouettes, raw hemlines, and more. A few standouts included:
A collared zip-up with an asymmetrical, pointed hem, extensions attached over the sleeves and pants, and a functional, streetwear-inspired vest. Another stunning piece was a white zip-up shirt dress with a pointed hem. While the dress itself followed a classic womenswear style and silhouette, the sleeves and belt details juxtaposed against it, giving the piece a refined sense of cool. A charcoal coat wore its belt loops around the shoulders. A hooded gray zip-up featured functional pockets by the thighs. A gray-green and white collared set had mini-pockets attached to the jacket itself; it was the only coloured piece in the collection. And finally, a zip-up with raw-hemmed, exaggerated sleeves featured pockets that created a grid-like system across the entire front.
“It’s not the clothes that wear the person, it’s the person who wears the clothes,” says Davies. “I want people to be comfortable in their clothes.”
Monier’s pieces aren’t meant for delicate wearing; they’re designed for longevity, sustainability, and for ‘living in.’ They’re meant to turn into vintage pieces, to accompany the wearer throughout their life.
Davies’ vision is clear. Monier’s pieces are stylish yet timeless, they’re guided by function, and use long-lasting fabrics. They’re designed for living in. But the brand doesn’t brush away their cool-factor.
Monier is redefining Toronto menswear for Millennial and Gen-Z audiences.
Drawing from emerging fashion silhouettes, menswear is going from classic pieces like shirts, blazers, and sweaters, to sophisticated, experimental, and streetwear-inspired. Powered by a new generation of designers like Peter Do, as well as online creators, the new wave of menswear has made its way across the globe. Monier is a brand designing for Toronto’s future in the fashion industry. What sets it apart from other Toronto brands is its consistent focus on comfort and functionality as a design aesthetic.
This very ideology is what guides Monier’s designs. When asked what menswear and male-centered design mean to Monier, Davies responded: “Men shouldn’t get… all the masculinity and fierceness and confidence. In fact, women embody [those qualities] more.” Monier approaches masculinity differently as compared to the current Toronto industry. It sets out to highlight and play with the silhouettes, form, comfort, and functionality of menswear, and doesn’t set out to inculcate ideas of fierceness or masculinity in their audience.
Haunting, beautiful, and stylish at the same time, Monier’s pieces are gradually changing the Toronto menswear landscape. At its core, the COLORBLIND collection is about different perspectives. On menswear, on colour, on design.
“I just wish we paused, took a step back, had a better understanding of each other,” says the woman on the other end of the Monier hotline. The eye looks around, still paranoid, still desaturated. “Call me when you can,” she says. “Bye.”
