Kanyo & Court || Alberta Fashion Week 10/11

Words by: Daniela Codreanu
Photography © Faby Martin 2010

The art of Shelly Kanyo and Andy Court aka Kanyo & Court keeps your eyes glued to their work. Well, not literally, but you cannot stop staring! They are a sister and brother duo creating fashions for both men and women. Men’s wear was not highly evident at Alberta Fashion Week, so it was nice to see designs for him. Much of their inspiration comes from travel and there is a bit of an East Indian feel.

Kanyo & Court did not shy away from using colour. In fact, they should be spokes people for the use of color as earthy tones were minimal. To open their segment, a female model wore short white shorts and a short royal blue satin night coat with three decorative buttons on the front. The satin flowed freely on the model capturing the essence of grace. Another show stopper was the golden bead work on the vibrant yellow dresses. When Kanyo was asked whether she did the beading for those outfits, her reply was, “Oh no, I wish! No, I bought a traditional Sari and then I cut that up…”

Men’s wear consisted of button-up shirts, suspenders (looks like they are making a come back) shorts and pants. The shorts were actually shorter than most of the designs made for men. They exposed the thighs in a complementary manner. To make things even more interesting, leather was used to make some of the shorts. Extremely creative!

Kanyo comments on the men’s line by saying, “Some might say ours is borderline a little too fruity.” Nah, it is just right. The European touch they add gives things some flavor.

Not surprising, Kanyo mentions it was, “Really hard” to design clothing for Albertans because of their conservative nature. Unfortunately, it will take us some getting used to this line as it is out of our comfort zone, but why not just welcome it with open arms. Change is not so bad is it?