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NEWS
RELEASES - 2006 | 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE WINNING BC DESIGNER, THIRD FLOOR, TO GET
LAUNCH OF A LIFETIME AT WHISTLER’S FASHION EXPOSED APRIL
20 2007
2249 votes logged for TELUS World Ski & Snowboard
Festival’s Designer Search and EXPOSE contest
WHISTLER, BC , 2 April 2007 –
British Columbian fashion offers a uniquely West Coast take on
style. In a landscape where the mountains melt into the sea,
it’s apt that BC style
would seamlessly merge function and fashion, sass and sustainability. This
fusion of attitude and performance was in evidence at the first Designer Search
and EXPOSE contest hosted by the TELUS World Ski and Snowboard Festival’s
Fashion Exposed.
The four finalists, chosen by a contest Review Panel made up of industry
players, Volcom
designer Carolyn Simmons ; Lululemon designer Andrea Murray; Whistler
Blackcomb softgoods buyer Deanne Gale ; Abercrombie and Fitch buyer Mark
Little ; and Managing Partner for Hill’s of Kerrisdale, Ross
Hill were in the running to win a Wild Card spot to own the runway at
the April 20 Fashion Exposed showcase, plus travel and accommodation to the
Festival.
Featuring contest finalists Togs Design (togsdesign.com), MegFa (megfa.com), Twice
Shy (twice-shy.com) and Third Floor (thirdfloordesign.com),
the Designer Search and Expose contest garnered over 2200 votes, with winning
label Third Floor taking the prize.
Third Floor is a boutique lingerie design company, creating
lingerie that allows women to express themselves, from the inside out, since
2003. Intentionally blurring the lines between underwear and outerwear, Third
Floor is entirely Vancouver-based, and headquartered on West Hastings. Founders
Brenda Li and Tiffany Ho have combined Li’s design chops (studies in
Clothing and Textiles at UBC and design at New York’s Parsons School
of Design) with Ho’s buying savvy to find their own niche. They
were recently featured on CBC Venture’s Dreamers and Schemers and have
twice been nominated for the Fashion Export Awards. Reviewer D Gale praised
their use of colour and textures, and Andrea Murray commented on their professional
execution – “sellable and sexy.”
The pair, who have been friends for eight years, started Third Floor at the
end of 2003. “We felt something was missing in lingerie. Everything was
either black, white or beige, or if it was bright fun stuff, it wasn’t
very well made.”
Ascribing to a philosophy that embraces the “frivolous necessity”,
Third Floor designs underwear that is no longer a wardrobe afterthought, but
the corporate executive’s sassy secret, the soccer mom’s yumminess,
the undergrad’s touch of class, and the big mountain ullr-girl’s
feminine side.
After being ‘outed’ on CBC’s Venture’s Dreamers and
Schemers in the fall of 2006 – (Ho had quit a secure government position
to devote herself full-time to the label, but hadn’t yet confessed this
to her parents) – the pair decided to dive in and devote themselves wholeheartedly
to the label.
Ho sat her parents down the day before their piece aired on CBC. “We’d
tried to keep it under wraps. But when I sat them down, they were totally cool.
They said,
‘We kind of knew, Tiff.’”
Most buyers of the line are women aged 22-35. But Ho’s mum has plenty
of Third Floor pieces in her delicates drawer. “She’s our biggest
fan,” said Ho.
Last year, Ho and Li started Shop Cocoon on Cambie, a collective space for
emerging designers to present their collections to the public, fuelled by a
spirit of authenticity, experimentalism and independence.
Third Floor will present 8 outfits from their spring and summer 2007 collection
at Fashion Exposed on April 20. Their choices will highlight the meshes, fruity
colours and sherberts of the range, with Ho acknowledging that “Everybody
likes hot girls in small things!”
Third Floor will join 18 leading lifestyle brands, including Burton, Helly
Hansen, Roxy, Quiksilver, Bonfire, 686, DC, Peak Performance, Rossignol, Oakley,
Lifetime Collective, Sessions, TNA, and Zimtstern, at Fashion Exposed, a tightly
choreographed sensory assault that provides the ultimate ground-truthing of
next year’s lines. Before a fashion-forward crowd, including journalists,
industry buyers and a national television audience, the heat turns up as the
spotlight shines down on the newest in action sport and urban chic clothing.
“There’s an assumption that fashion isn’t relevant on the slopes,
but it’s not true…” says Lilli Clark, Production Coordinator
for the TELUS World Ski & Snowboard Festival. “Fashion is a way
for people to express themselves. And the Festival is a huge celebration of all
the forms of self-expression that are part of snowsports and mountain culture.”
Tickets can be purchased in advance for $15 at www.whistler2007.com/2007/estore < http://www.whistler2007.com/2007/estore > or
at the Whistler Activity Centre (next to the TELUS Whistler Conference Centre.)
The TELUS World Ski & Snowboard Festival is produced by Watermark
Communications, a Whistler sports & entertainment marketing company, and
presented in partnership with Tourism Whistler and Whistler Blackcomb. Founded
by W1’s Doug Perry twelve years ago, it is now the largest annual winter
sports and music festival in North America. The TELUS World Ski & Snowboard
Festival is a high-octane 10 day and night showcase of the best of snowsports,
music, arts and mountain life. Featuring major professional ski and snowboarding
competitions, the largest free outdoor concert series in Canada, the legendary
Pro Photographer and Filmmaker Showdowns, and many more unique art and cultural
showcases, the Festival is the ultimate wrap party for the ultimate winter. For
information on the 2007 TELUS World Ski and Snowboard Festival , this
year from April 13-22, visit whistler2007.com < http://www.whistler2006.com/ >
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For Third Floor hi-resolution photographs, go to http://www.thirdfloordesign.com/media_pics.zip < http://www.thirdfloordesign.com/media_pics.zip >
Lisa Richardson
Communications Manager
Tel: 604 938 3399 x21
Email: lrichardson@watermarkinc.ca
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