Have you ever wanted a dress named after a familiar street? If you live in Toronto, you got it. Address Apparel, which had its fall preview recently, is a Toronto-based dress line that really shows the love for our city (get it? A DRESS APPAREL and ADDRESS APPAREL??). Each dress style is named after a street, so far, all in the 416 area code. For the upcoming Fall/Winter 2013 season, dresses include Cumberland, Victoria (I assume they mean Victoria Street, not Victoria Park) as well as styles named after streets in trendy neighbourhoods such as River and Hanna.
L-R: Victoria, Ossington and Bellvue
Adelaide and Keele
The dresses are affordable, at under $200, and have, for the most part, classic styles or are reflective of the street they’re named after. For example, Bellair, which is named after a street in ritzy Yorkville, is a little black dress, either lace or black leopard on black while Bellevue (near Kensington Market) is a shorter dress – more like a long sweater – with a turtle neck and poofy in the lower hip area (not sure how well this would work on petites – would it overwhelm?). The former is something one might wear to dinner, at say, La Société or Sassafraz while the latter looks great with peggings or leggings and tall boots at an indie cafe. Other favourites in the fall collection include Victoria (wool wrap dress, available in three colours) and Adelaide, which has a built-in scarf. Dresses come in three or more colours or patterns and would flatter most figures. This is something that Address Apparel does right – too many designers only know how to flatter very tall, slim bodies, ignoring the fact that we come in many different shapes. And of those who understand shape variance, they don’t seem to get HEIGHT issues (I don’t think it’s something they teach at any fashion program! They definitely don’t preach it in body image school, either).
Bellair
Can’t wait for the fall collection? Why not check out the current Spring/Summer pieces, available at these stores. This season’s styles are bright, colourful and more weekend/dinner out-appropriate compared to the Fall/Winter collection, which has more office-focused looks. Address Apparel’s sizing ranges from 4-12 for numeric sizing (Address Apparel does not “vanity size” so size 4 is roughly like a size 0 or small 2 with other brands) or XS to 3XL in alpha.
Cynthia Cheng Mintz in Union (from the Spring/Summer 2013 collection)
What are your thoughts on Address Apparel? Is there a street you’d like to see in a future collection, either in Toronto or elsewhere? As a BSS Old Girl, I wouldn’t mind seeing a burgundy and grey dress called Lonsdale!
