Whether it’s the masses of printed fabric on the sideboard, the golden baubles hiding beneath them, or the pages and pages of band posters and drawings on the kitchen table, it’s clear this is as much a workshop as a beautifully appointed living space. Morales first left her mark on the Montreal fashion scene when she opened a storefront on Saint-Laurent in Mile End in the early 2000s.

Since then, she’s gone through various transformations, as an artist is wont to do, to finally end up with a select handful of regular clients and a devil-may-care approach to fashion. She doesn’t follow the constraints of fashion weeks, or the strict rules of fashion seasons – she makes beautiful things (dresses, mainly) when she feels like it, and launches exciting new collections when she is so inclined.

These days, the breadth of this dynamo’s talent will be displayed in an eight-day frenzy at the forward-thinking Phi Centre, mere steps away from Morales’s home. The 8-Day Week by Renata Morales is one of Phi’s five people invited over the year to curate the whole centre their way. “Given the dates that were offered to me – June 5 to 12 – and the excitement of summer, being outside, and the way the Phi Centre is made, for spaces to be transformed and used so many ways – it all inspired an eight-day party,” says the designer.

The café space, just as you enter, will be transformed into a pop-up shop open from noon to midnight every day and featuring designs by herself and other Montreal marvels, including Complex Geometries, Denis Gagnon, Andrew Floyd Jewelry and Of / Golf Wang. “I’m making a special line of prints and tops for the Phi Centre, and then there’ll be some of my dresses; I’m also bringing back some prints from the past that we’re reworking,” says Morales.

There will also be an exhibition by amazing faux-Flemish-historical painter Joe Becker, some film screenings, and more music than you can shake a stick at: Young Paris, The Salivation Army, Tenderness, Prison Garde, Tonstartssbandht and the list goes on.

“I like the celebratory part of summer – we made it through winter again! The Old Port comes alive. Every day you can come to the Phi to eat and shop; there’s a DJ all day and then in the evening you come to see cutting-edge musical acts. There’s a karaoke night too, for those who like that!” Clearly, Morales has thought of everything.

THE DETAILS

The 8-Day Week by Renata Morales, June 5-12, 2013

Phi Centre, 407 Saint-Pierre, (514) 225-0525

Photos by Coey Kerr

The post The World According to Renata Morales appeared first on Tourisme Montréal Blog.

(pop music city) Pop Montreal takes over many of the city’s music venues until the wee hours of Sunday night, with bands that both exemplify and defy the modern definition of pop. Among the many, many shows to see this weekend: on September 21, see David Byrne and St. Vincent, Tim Hecker, Yamantaka//Sonic Titan, free afternoon shows at Parc Petite-Italie and at Divan Orange; on September 22, hear the piano stylings of Chilly Gonzales, the hip hop of Big K.R.I.T. and Slim Thug, and more frees shows; and on September 23, check out Purity Ring, Grizzly Bear, Patrick Wolf and stay out late at the fest’s closing party with Nicky Da B. Plus, September 22-23, peruse the creative output of artsty-crafty Montrealers at the Puces Pop Craft Fair, at St-Michel Church.

(life on film) The 8th edition of the Montreal International Black Film Festival runs to September 30 on screens around town, featuring a program of documentaries, feature films and shorts from around the world, including an Homage to Harry Belafonte, winner of the festival’s Humanitarian Prize this year, a talk by Stedman Graham, screenings of new film Winnie, about the life of Winnie Mandela starring Jennifer Hudson, jazz-singer doc Girls in the Band, Luv starring Common, and much more. And dance enthusiasts can see performances and discussions on film at the first Cinédanse Montréal film festival, September 20-23.

(circus & burlesque) Creative Montreal-based circus Cirque Éloize blends circus arts with hip hop, breakdance and stories of identity in their new, all-ages show iD , featuring 14 high-energy performers,  at Montreal circus centre La Tohu, September 20-October 6. Acrobatics and music astound in Pfffffff, a show by French circus troupe Akoreacro, running September 25-October 6 at La Tohu. And on a smaller scale and more adult-oriented, on September 21, see the Candyass Club burlesque-meets-subversive-vaudevillian-cabaret show, downtown at Café Cléopatra (1230 St-Laurent, 2nd floor), 10 p.m.

(dance days) The dance season officially opens this week with Danse Danse celebrating the 40th anniversary of BJM – Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, a show featuring pieces by Cayetano Soto, Benjamin Millepied and Barak Marshall, September 27-29 at Place des Arts. The Quartiers Danses festival comes to a close September 22 with a performance by Manuel Roque at Tangente at 6:30 p.m. and with dance performances and a roster of great DJs at the Darling Foundry (745 Ottawa) in Old Montreal, starting at 8 p.m. Twenty-one dancers take the stage in Cas Public’s Duels September 20-22 at Agora de la Danse, and Danse-Cité presents Ta Douleur by choreographer Brigitte Haentjens at Théâtre La Chapelle.

(theatrical times) Verdi’s La Traviata opens the 33rd season of L’Opéra de Montréal, featuring Greek soprano Myrto Papatanasiu, Italian tenor Roberto De Biasio and baritone Luca Grassi, to September 22 at Place des Arts. Metachroma Theatre sticks to the classics while still taking chances with Shakespeare’s Richard III, at The Segal Centre, to September 30, and Theatre Teesri Duniya put on Governor General’s Award-winning playwright Kevin Loring’s Where the Blood Mixes, about the life-long effects of Aboriginal residential school experience – at Centre Culturel Calixa-Lavallée (3819 Calixa-Lavallée) in Parc Lafontaine to September 30.

(art of performance) Art, music and dance converge this weekend, partly due to Pop Montreal. On September 23, see a show by Los Angeles-based performance duo Lucky Dragons, who mix synthesizer sounds, video projections and movement, some of it involving the audience, at the PHI Centre in Old Montreal, 5 p.m. Also on September 23, see dance performance Where the River Gets the Water Remix, with live music by Katie Moore and Matthew Woodley, at the Ukrainian Federation (5213 Hutchison), 4 p.m.. And on September 27, get lost in audiovisual performances from German producer-artist Byetone, co-found of electronic music label Raster-Noton, and French producer and video artist Nohista at the PHI Centre, 9 p.m.

(fresh air) The weather is still warm enough to spend a few hours outside this weekend. Take a walk around the Botanical Gardens and stay until the sun goes down to see the amazing lanterns at the Chinese and Japanese gardens. On September 22, from 10 am to noon, explore one of Montreal’s neighbourhoods by foot at Heritage Montreal’s family workshop on Little Burgundy. Down at the Old Port, check out the Clock Tower Beach, complete with food and full bar, before it closes for the season on September 23. And over at Parc Jean-Drapeau on September 23, daytime dance party Piknic Electronik parties in Pop Montreal style with Pierre Babin, EZLV, J.A.S.S. , PillowTalk and Catz N’ Dogz.

The post THINGS TO DO IN MONTREAL: SEPTEMBER 21-27 appeared first on Tourisme Montréal Blog.