Late afternoon light stripes the concrete at Lignes De Fuite studios on a rather hot late September afternoon. Pattern paper curls on a cutting table; a hem is pinned and unpinned; someone laughs because the zipper refuses to obey. Biba Esaad, model, creative director and fine artist slips between looks and roles: muse, co-director, co-conspirator, while the camera stays restless, catching the in-between of a day of dress up in the Atelier.
This is Lignes de Fuite on home turf: Montréal’s incubator-merchant hybrid where runway, retail, and making share the same blood supply. It’s a place that mentors and platforms independent designers, then actually moves garments into the world, through studio production, small-batch capabilities, pop-ups, and the ON SHOW series that keeps the city’s fashion pulse audible.
You feel that continuum in the clothes cycling through the rack; names that have been sharpened by LDF’s runway lab and, more recently, staged at Atelier Textile in an immersive FW25 installment backed by 1664 for Semaine de la Mode Montreal. Narrow corridors became a catwalk; audiences sat shoulder-to-shoulder; our team gathers at the studio the following day to experiment with the archives.
The channel doesn’t stop at the river. In November, LDF carries its studio ethos to Fashion Art Toronto at T3 Bayside, presenting a Montréal slate, Fausse Maison, Leidy Beibi, ONCOMMON, Denora, as a single, focused transmission into Toronto’s week. Same grammar of proximity, experimentalism and singularity of vision, new city.
Our approach mirrors theirs, and the room becomes a confluence of the creative energy of Canada’s cultural capitals. We stage inside the working studio, captured through a mixture of editorial photography and video, then skimmed stills from the footage, keeping threads, tape, and time visible. Montréal’s fashion economy is often described in terms of resourcefulness and pure creative ambition; LDF answers with infrastructure: mentorship, fabrication, a market that believes in small runs and durable ideas.
In this space, garments and ideas circulate in fluid motion: from a designer’s sketchbook to a pinned prototype, from runway to rack to model. Each passes through hands, lenses, and contexts, accruing meaning as it moves. With LDF’s arrival at Fashion Art Toronto this month where they will not only stage a runway show but an immersive pop-up as well, that current extends beyond Montréal, a flow between cities where process becomes product, and product becomes process again.
TEAM CREDITS
Photographer — Zach Phan
Creative Directors — Cody Rooney // Matt Oster // Biba Esaad
Stylist — Tishanna Carnevale
Hair Stylists — MJ Déziel // Indigo Viani
Makeup Artist — Jess Cohen
Producer — Lignes de Fuite
Studio Assistants — Ninar Mourei // Daniel Colmenares
BTS Photographer — Sahara Baldwin
Set Assistant — Milena Pappalardo
Model — Biba Esaad
Designers Featured — OFFTN Studios // Leidy Beibi // Canne de Bines // St-Isidore // Atelier Denora // Biaggio & Co. // Maxim Nicolle // Xtinel
Location — Lignes de Fuite Studio // Atelier Textile Montréal
STYLING CREDITS
LOOK 1
Upcycled Polo — Canne de Bines
Stockings — Atelier Denora
Fur Bag — St-Isidore
Shoes — Stylist’s Own
LOOK 2
Bomber — St-Isidore
Shorts — Leidy Beibi
Socks — Wolford
Shoes — Fidan Novruzova
LOOK 3
Dress — OFFTN Studios
Hat — Xtinel
Scarf — Canne de Bines
Bracelet — Biaggio & Co.
Shoes — Marc Jacobs
LOOK 4
Top — Maxim Nicolle
Skirt — OFFTN Studios
Bangles — Vintage Chanel
Ring — Biaggio & Co.
Shoes — Stylist’s Own
LOOK 5
Corset — Leidy Beibi
Capris — Canne de Bines
Shoes — Canne de Bines
LOOK 6
Silver Pasties — Biaggio & Co.
Ring — Biaggio & Co.
Skirt — Leidy Beibi
Shoes — Model’s Own
Cody Rooney is the Editor in Chief and senior contributor at liminul.
He is a PhD candidate, digital content specialist, writer, editor, multi-media artist, and photographer.