All week long, we’ve asked designer Katrina Tuttle to blog for us as she prepared her debut Toronto Fashion Week collection. Now that the show’s over, Tuttle tells us how it all went down:

Show day was a whirlwind of last minute things to be done. We madly loaded 20 garment bags, 30 boxes of shoes, and loads of jewellery into the back of the trunk. We all piled into our rental car, heading for the LG Fashion Week tents with the spring 2010 line. Once we arrived at our staging area, we pressed and steamed all of the line, organized the jewelry and patiently waited to be moved to backstage.

Before I knew it, the show was done and I breathed a huge sigh of relief! The models looked fantastic, the clothes looked great and it went off pretty well backstage. The whirlwind of body tape and yelling for models combined with the six months of prep work to get it here was all worth it! Most gratifying was walking out at the end and seeing a room full of people who came to see my show!

Through the chaos of the 10-minute dash backstage to get all the looks down the runway and the interviews following my debut, I can?’t say I remember a whole lot, as I was totally in the moment. I had a ton of great response after the show and tons of emails asking where the line will be carried – no worries, I am on it! I also had a couple of showings after my show that went very well.

The last couple days in Toronto before heading back to Halifax with my four huge bags of luggage were a mixture of exhaustion and excitement. Packing the line was a task in itself and I kept wondering how we ever got it here. Perhaps one of the most exciting elements of my trip to Toronto is that I left with a ton of new fabrics for the fall 2010 line! The concept? Well… you will have to wait and see! ?There has to be some suspense right?

- Katrina

(Photos by George Pimental)

Halifax-based designer Katrina Tuttle is getting set to make her Toronto Fashion Week debut and we’ve asked her to blog for us to give us a glimpse into the preparation and behind-the-scenes drama involved as she readies her collection for the runway. Here’s our latest entry:

Today I leave for Toronto. I’ve made the lists and checked them twice. Actually, who am I kidding? I’ve checked them many more times than that. It was so exciting to see the garments on the rack, ready for the catwalk. I’ve been studying them, imagining which of the models I think they will look best on, and revisiting the progression of the line – colours, styles, shoes and accessories.

I’m very particular about attention to details and seeing the finished product from a designer’s, photographer’s, consumer’s and stylist’s view point is very important to me! I can’t wait for the Canadian fashion community to have their first look at my spring line.

It’s been a chaotic week, but today frenzy struck. It definitely took some time to get everything packed. Then I packed me and now I’m on the way to the airport… LG Fashion Week… here I come!

- Katrina

(above looks from Tuttle’s new collection to be unveiled next week at Toronto Fashion Week)

Toronto Fashion Week is just around the corner and this year, there are plenty of shows to be excited about. Among them is the debut collection from Halifax designer Katrina Tuttle, who is taking her clothes onto the fashion week runway for the very first time. The 21-year-old self-taught designer picked up her first “how-to” book when she was just six, and has been making her own patterns and designs ever since. Now she’s ready to take her eponymous line to the next level in Toronto.

With just days to go before her fashion week debut, we’ve asked Tuttle to blog for us this week to give us a glimpse into the preparation and behind-the-scenes drama involved as she readies her new collection for the runway. Today, she writes about last-minute tasks in Halifax before leaving for Toronto this weekend…

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My day today? Total chaos with moments of total exhilaration! Today I checked everything twice, every garment and every accessory. Since I leave for Toronto on Friday and have photo commitments today, I had to make sure everything was totally together. There was so much to be sure of before I left – Toronto isn’t next door for me!

The studio? I’m sure it’s here, buried under mounds of fabric. The light at the end of the rainbow: my racks are filled with bright yellow, blue, pink and black garments. Somehow the collision of classic silhouettes and whimsical details resulted in my collection for LG Fashion Week. Still, my day today didn’t end with everybody else’s… it ran into the next day… Wish me luck!

…Katrina

(above: a preview of Tuttle’s new designs)