Vancouver Fashion Week has launched a new platform that will help boost emerging and established designers onto the international runway.

Dubbed the Global Fashion Collective, the initiative will make its debut at New York Fashion Week on Thursday (February 8), where a lineup of local and international talent will exhibit fall/winter 2018 collections during two shows.

Featured designers are Caroline Ann Designs, Fiction Tokyo, Melissa Yin, and WILDFRÄULEIN 71, who will present garments at a ready-to-wear show that, according to a media release, emphasizes “high-end takes on shape, fabric, and colour”. Meanwhile, Kim Tiziana Rottmüller, Kirsten Ley, and MRHUA MRSHUA will parade cutting-edge, experimental threads “with an haute couture feel” down the catwalk.

“GFC is an established global platform to showcase the brightest emerging talent the country has to offer and an extension of Vancouver Fashion Week’s unwavering support for local talent,” said Jamal Abdourahman, founder of VFW, in a media statement.

An expansion of VFW, GFC produces runway shows in different fashion capitals in an effort to “accelerate the designer’s global development, increase their international media visibility, and open new markets”. GFC’s NYFW shows come after a similar presentation of its kind saw success at Amazon Fashion Week Tokyo last fall, where Vancouver designers such as Alex S. Yu, Evan Clayton, and Lillea Goian presented collections.