The Best Thing I Saw at Toronto Fashion Week: Day 1

Pink Tartan’s skirts

There were grumblings that Pink Tartan’s spring 2013 collection already felt a bit dated. Then there was the serious fit issues, from the gaping v-neck on a few flabby tops to the shapeless brocade shifts and ill-fitting pants. And don’t even mention the butterfly print that opened the show. But Kim Newport-Mimran still managed to do one thing right: skirts! Circle skirts in pink or gray, lamé minis, preppie white midi-skirts, high-waisted gray brocade numbers, jaunty tennis skirts, a black-and-gold zig-zagged bandage skirt, and black or gold silk pleated ballskirts (as worn in the closing look by model-of-the-moment Charlotte Free) were the kind of pretty, princess-appropriate, oft-poufy pieces our childhood fashion fantasies were made of, circa our Cinderella obsession. But not the butterflies—never the butterflies.