Fashion & Design Festival unveils its 2015 Design segment

The Fashion & Design Festival (FMD), a true powerhouse of creativity and a presentation platform, unveiled its Design segment. For its 15th anniversary and the third year in a row, the Festival, which will be held from August 17 to 22 at the Quartier des spectacles, has strengthened its partnership with the Québec Forest Industry Council (QFIC). This special relationship makes wood the official material of the Design segment and is embodied in a "lifestyle" competition launched in early 2015 and organized jointly with the UQAM School of Design and CECOBOIS.

"Wood is to Quebec what wine is to Bordeaux," said Jean-François Daviau, Co-President of the Fashion & Design Festival. "It is an iconic material, deeply rooted in our history and cultural identity. That's why we attach so much importance to it as a design material and why we put so much effort into engaging key stakeholders in the industry. We are also very proud to welcome multidisciplinary designer Jean-Claude Poitras as the Commissioner of this year's FMD Design segment. He shares our vision and would like to give the event a dimension all its own."

Jean-Claude Poitras is honoured to be chosen as Commissioner. "My mission for many years, has been to make beauty more accessible to a wide audience, build bridges and break down barriers between design disciplines to better integrate them at a time when we must build on co-creation and collective design," he said.

As Commissioner, Poitras will be responsible for targeting and bringing together partners and creators for the event's Design segment. He will define and maintain the segment's overall consistency and stage the event at the Quartier des spectacles venue.

Wood... material made for urban design

The Fashion & Design Festival, QFIC and CECOBOIS have given second-year students in Environmental Design from UQAM's School of Design a challenge to create, from any Quebec tree family, a "parklet," a removable wooden structure that can be integrated into the city environment. This urban furniture piece, which first became popular in cities like San Francisco and Vancouver, comes with a relaxation and meeting area open to the general public and is built on a road or in a parking lot.

Out of the 40 projects presented by students, two were selected by the jury: La Maille, designed by Camille Chabat and Charles-Édouard Dorion, and L'Écrin, designed by Carl Boucher, Lorène Copninet and Sophie Kroetsch. The projects will be launched in the coming months in collaboration with QFIC and CECOBOIS member companies, which will provide the necessary expertise and materials to build them. The general public will be invited to vote for their favourite project. Voting will begin online at carbonepropre.com on August 12 and onsite at FMD beginning August 19. Both concepts will be integrated into the Festival's Place des Festivals space from August 19 to 22.

The members of the jury behind the two choices are Dany Girard for the Fashion & Design Festival, Jennifer Tardif, an architect with CECOBOIS, Philippe Lupien, an architect and professor at the UQAM School of Design, Pierre-Luc Filion, an architect and ADUQ representative, and Judith Portier of Design par Judith Portier.

The alliance of the Fashion & Design Festival and Quebec Forest Industry Council, formed in 2013, has already led to some truly remarkable installations at Place des Festivals: stages for shows, terraces, VIP areas and facilities that encourage festival-goers to discover wood's multisensory beauty. All have helped promote wood as design material, its new applications and its many properties, particularly when it comes to sustainable development, to a young, urban and trendy audience.

The installations at Place des Festivals for the 2014 Festival won the Grand Prix du Design (for the Festival's large terrace) and a Mention Écoresponsable from Montreal's Grands Prix du Tourisme Québécois, along with appearances in many international magazines. The Fashion & Design Festival sincerely hopes that this initiative will foster the emergence and recognition of talent. The installations are designed to be integrated into the urban environment, become a source of inspiration for the general public and raise awareness about the importance of cultivating our neighbourhood's beauty.

A rich design segment for 2015
The program, which will honour wood among other materials, promises to unearth extraordinary discoveries for guests that attend the festival. These include:

• Coop Établi will present its outdoor furniture on the FMD site. This group of 20 Quebec designers and manufacturers offer residential furniture accessible to a wide range of customers and original products, coupled with a local shopping experience, in many Quebec regions.

• Designers devoted to Quebec design will also be on hand in the Festival's POP-UP shop area to offer their exclusive products.

• Commerce Design Montreal: These Montreal awards, whose success can be heard in many European, Canadian and U.S. cities, are celebrating their 20th anniversary. Stéphane Rasselet of _naturehumaine architecture & design, Gilles Saucier of Saucier + Perrotte Architectes, and Alexander Blazys and Benoit Gérard of blazysgérard, winners of the 2015 awards, are participating in a roundtable discussion on Montreal's creativity and fashion boutique design, along with JeanPierre Généreux, Vice President, Brand and Concept Development, ALDO.

• Conference by Prix Habitat Design 2015, presented by FORMES magazine, partner of the awards, which celebrate the marketing disciplines behind new residential projects in the Greater Montreal Area.

• New ways to produce, consume, work and communicate...behind the current socio-economic and ecological situation is a more conscious society, more sensitive to the origin of products, more sustainable and above all...more humane! Through four major trends, Promostyl will decrypt, as part of a conference, today's new creative initiatives that will build the world of tomorrow, and will help promote wood products and the rise of a sector steadfastly committed to sustainable development.

• In collaboration with the Conseil des métiers d’art du Quebec (CMAQ), Jean-Claude Poitras will present some of his favourite pieces in design and fine craft: discover original and innovative contemporary creations from crafts professionals and designers.

"I would like the festival to become an unmissable annual showcase for discovering and promoting the best in creativity from designers of all generations," says Poitras. "This prestigious, galvanizing event is a new wave and outside-the-box platform with Montreal's very own unmistakable signature."

Other events will be announced in the coming weeks. For more information, visit
www.festivalmodedesign.com.