Mass Exodus
About three decades ago, fashion professor Peter Duck had a men’s and women’s accessory store in Yorkville, and would run small fashion shows all over the city.
The chair of Ryerson’s fashion department was a regular customer at his store. After seeing one of his shows, she asked him if he would write and teach a course on “how to run a fashion show on a budget.”
“It was like ‘come write this course’,” Duck said. “She said ‘you wrote it, now you might as well teach it’.”
Now, after a more than 30 years of teaching at Ryerson, Duck is working on the upcoming Mass Exodus show, Platform. It will be his 28th, and last, Ryerson fashion show.
Mass Exodus, the final project for fourth-year fashion design students and third-year fashion communication students is “more of an event than just a fashion show,” Duck said.
He said what’s changed the most since he started working on the shows 29 years ago is the use of technology. Things like tickets and graphics are now done with “high-tech computer programs.” Because of the consistent increase in the size of the show, however, new technology hasn’t meant faster work.
“It takes longer now,” Duck said. “It [Mass Exodus] has become a monster. It’s huge.”
He said that the move to the Ryerson theatre has helped the show grow. The space gives the students more freedom than they did in the hotels, where the spring fashion shows used to take place. But he credits the students for the show’s explosion in size and popularity, saying they always strive to "make it bigger and better than last year.'" Apparently he’s right.
“There’s a level of quality that has to be exceeded,” said third-year fashion communication student Stephanie Craig. “It’s real-life experience. Real-life pressure to outdo last year,” she said while sitting in the Ryerson theatre, watching performance production students build the set.
On stage, students were harnessing up, climbing ladders to paint and “spinning the banana” – theatre lingo for setting up a light bulb. Sawdust and cables covered the floor where models will soon send clothes flying in quick-change booths.
Platform, this year’s theme, aims to recreate the atmosphere of an old Hollywood/Film Noir train station, and recapture the romance of traveling. As anyone who has ever watched Shining Time Station knows, no train station is complete without its conductor. Second-year acting student, Danny MacDonald, fills this role as Mass Exodus’ first-ever silent narrator. He said, based on comments from previous years, there wasn’t enough consistency throughout the show. “I provide a story line beneath it all,” he said.
Students in fashion design, fashion communication and performance production have been working on Mass Exodus since September. Third-year fashion communication student and Mass Exodus art director, Amanda Rotstein, said that she’s spent a few nights sleeping on the bench in the Mass Exodus office. But they like how the class works. “It’s nice to have a class where all your work, you can see it,” said Lindsay McInnis, a third-year fashion communication student in charge of public relations. “You care about it much more than an exam,” added Rotstein.
Mass Exodus: Platform, runs April 11 and 12. Once the school year and his last show are over, Duck will be moving to an old farmhouse he bought in the country. He said he’ll still be volunteering in Toronto’s fashion industry and will try to keep in touch with his students at Ryerson. “I just love the kids,” he said. “Working with fashion students is always entertaining.”
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