Minimidimaxi Magazine

Juma carries out some pretty successful experiments in silhouette as well as in colour for their Toronto Fashion Week debut, steering clear from the beginner trap of pigeon-holing oneself into a fixed, typecast look.

The snow-white, cross-your-heart chiffon halter-top had eyebrows raised well into the back rows for its brazen revelations, as did the black sheer gauze number whose fastidious cuffs lined with dressmaker buttons made a ribald mockery of the nudity above it.

There were more than simply ‘emperor’s new clothes’. A wonderfully tailored blouse married brooding black silk with effervescent floral life, a garish union that so many other designers this season try with mediocre results. I have my reasons for believing that this is more than a case of beginner’s luck-Juma accomplishes this dangerous synthesis again with a cinched-hem black satin skirt with a Liberace-style glam belt by pairing it with a rust cowgirl jacket. The result is trendy-slacker. Go figure.

All in all there are enough diverse and wearable separates to give this collection legs, even if those legs are invariably wiggling in a pair of capri pants, a fixation we may have had enough of for another five years.

Daniel Cox, Fashion Editor
Marek Wlazlo, Photographer