Her guests included The Toronto Star’s David Livingstone, Holt Renfrew’s John Gerhardt, The Globe and Mail’s Amy Verner, Flare’s Lisa Tant, and Fashion Television’s Jeanne Beker.

Slightly offended that I was not invited to participate (even though I attended most shows this week and other panelists admitted to missing most), the panel did offer intelligent insights on Fashion Week. I agreed with Ms. Verner that retailers should not be invited to participate and when she stated the Globe and Mail’s civilized policy of only covering in-season fashion, I realized that perhaps I should work for that publication. I work so hard during Fashion Week, I could certainly use a six month break between viewing and reporting.  That must be how Miss Verner manages to look so fresh among a room full of exhausted people.

I was surprised at the mention of Joe Fresh as a favourite show of the week. Of course it was clean and elegant, but as a retail show it lacked a certain artistic sensibility. An outstanding runway show is about creativity, craftmanship, innovation, and design.

To my relief, those elements were covered at the Holt Renfrew celebration of Canadian Fashion. By pairing dress designers with jewelry designers (Greta Constantine and Dandi Maestre, Jeremy Laing and Dean Davidson, and Mikhael Kale and Jaleh Farhadpour), it was a thoughtful contrast to the media-heavy panel at the Drake. Host Adrian Mainella invited each pair on a small stage to offer commentary while models flaunted clothing and jewellery designs.

Greta Constantine showed an intricate, twisted detail dress followed by a very short skater dress (with a built-in-panty, apparently, which is exceptional design for the sophisticated lady who likes to go short, but who does not like to reveal anything). Dandi’s incredible, huge bone and coconut bracelets caught my attention. They make a great statement and being natural is the most in-trend statement to be made this year.

Jeremy asked the model to demonstrate how his collapsed geometry technique worked, which was thrilling to see. The conversation turned to sales markets and Laing, who just returned from a San Francisco red-eye flight, mentioned how he should spend just as much time selling in California as in Canada since the one state has almost the same population as Canada.  Dean’s jewelry featured a signature brushed finish and he likes to mix gold and silver together. Very modern and minimal, which complimented Laing’s designs.

Mikhail showed three dresses with incredibly narrow pencil skirts. In fact, they were so narrow, the models could not step up on the the raised blocks to show the designs off to the crowd. He claimed they were “for a woman who likes to challenge herself,” but it was obvious he was challenging himself as well. The designs were not nearly as well-finished and effortless as his signature leather jackets, but they did look fabulous when paired with Jaleh’s black and white Canadian diamond and amethyst jewels.

Thinking that my secret admirer might give me gifts from the afternoon’s presentation, I received a chill instead. Returning to my condo, I opened the expertly wrapped box to find a gold-plated, diamond encrusted Gucci revolver.