Tissue Fashion Shows: Part II (INTERVIEW)

In part II of Trend Hunter's video coverage of the tenth annual White Cashmere Collection, Tana Makmanee speaks with Farley Chatto, one of the head toilet paper fashion designers and curator of the event. Chatto is a world-renowned fashion designer who was given the honor of being named one of the top eight designers in Canada. The toilet paper fashion designer does more than make dresses out of bathroom tissue, but the idea of designing unique fashion in support of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation was too tempting to resist.

Trend Hunter: What is your role with the White Cashmere collection?

Farley Chatto: My role with the collection is two-fold. I am the curator for this year's collection, and I'm a returning designer.

TH: What are some of the major challenges in working with bathroom tissue?

Chatto: Over the years it's understanding the product, understanding how it works, and incorporating our ideas and getting it into reality. It's R & D. It's playing with fusings, different backings, different thickness and types of needle. It's a lot of playing.

TH: How many hours went into the making of each dress?

Chatto: Some of them, months. Some of them were a minimum of 20-plus hours. A lot of time, actually.

TH: Working with such a fine material, what was your inspiration behind these dresses?

Chatto: As the curator, my inspiration is that we're celebrating our tenth anniversary. It's our tenth year of supporting the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. Since it's an anniversary, let's throw a party! Let's celebrate ten years of giving and loving. My mandate for the designers was big dresses, pretty dresses, we want them to celebrate life, and loving and even loss too.

TH: How do you reset to be creative?

Chatto: I hate to say this, we were just talking about this at lunch. I'm still a very big kid at heart. I still love my LEGO. I look at my LEGO sets and play a lot of that. I'm also an online gamer. It's a way for me to get out of that mindset and it rejuvenates my inspiration.

TH: How would you define cool?

Chatto: Cool comes in many ways. Cool for me is confidence. You could be wearing the worst outfit, but if you feel good and cool in it, you will be cool. I'm confident!