ushing buttons, developing characters, and generating excitement. That was part of the vision at the L'Oreal Fashion Week, day two. While previous Fashion Weeks have been showcasing designers shuttling out apparel for well-to-do nuclear families, the 15th edition of Fashion Week features budding Canadian designers that could burst international at any moment. International designers are present too, showcasing their presentations of Fall 2008 collections.

Fashion critics, whom one would imagine would know better, have apparently lost their minds over this Fashion Week at the moment. Or at least hastily set aside any sense of professionalism and even moral decency, as domestic media, buyers, industry watchers and fashion fans line up at must-attend shows in droves, with lines snaking around the tent, to partake with great gusto and enthusiasm, in the ambulance-chasing style pleasures of observing the highs and lows of new designer gear for four days straight.

Oh, the sweet ambulance-chasing style pleasures of observing the highs and lows of new designer gear for four days straight.

"Wear in the World!" is the theme for this Fashion Week in Toronto, with Saskatoon native Evan Biddell, winner of "Project Runway Canada," kicking off the week with a collection billed as a blend of sexiness and sustainability. The Vancouver-based designer Mellinda-Mae Harlingten was among the must-watch Canadian talent along with veteran designers Denis Gagnon and Joseph Mimran.

One of the fashion jokes of the Mellinda-Mae Harlingten show was that the models are such fresh-faced Aryan preppies they act as if it's they were all channeling Sienna Miller from "Factory Girl." And, as it turns out, they were; The London-trained designer had used Andy Warhol prodigy Edie Sedgwick for inspiration on her fall collection.

Day two featured shows by Lewd, Evan & Dean, Bustle, and ending the day with Philip Sparks.

The two dynamic Bustle designers - Shawn Hewson and Ruth Promislow – who never lose their soft-spoken cool, even when shoving slick models out onto the runway – managed to usher out a high-energy show. With a baccarat theme – with a table manned by Stacey McKenzie no less – models showcased a curiously shiny menswear line, with the model of cool Bustle style, sending out shirts printed with glossy back and brown hues, echoing a new look - which some in the audience called Bustle's "new power".

Philip Sparks went for a refined, sophisticated, even austere look with his 10:30pm show, which was full of classic grey flannel, but given a modern twist. With the show, the idea was to liberate men from dress code strictures, replacing, for example, a tie with a silk scarf. Sparks received plaudits for his choice of materials, especially crepe wool and supple linen combined with classic tweeds, flannel and cashmere. Fashion Week continues in runway tents at Nathan Phillips Square, is attracting media and buyers from France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.K. for the event.

A certain amount of single show tickets are available to the public on site. - DE