{"id":37,"date":"2022-04-18T15:45:05","date_gmt":"2022-04-18T15:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/owenkroppsblog\/?p=37"},"modified":"2022-08-29T17:16:20","modified_gmt":"2022-08-29T17:16:20","slug":"student-founded-coterie-to-be-featured-in-toronto-fashion-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/owenkroppsblog\/2022\/04\/18\/student-founded-coterie-to-be-featured-in-toronto-fashion-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Student-founded ‘Coterie’ to be featured in Toronto Fashion Week"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Coterie, a lifestyle blog on social media, was founded by two University of Guelph-Humber students<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Coterie was founded by Vinnick Clerf Leudjeu and Alexandra Ellison late last year and currently has over 10, 000 followers and over 150, 000 likes on Tik Tok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want Coterie to be what you need to know about Toronto,\u201d said Clerf Leudjeu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event takes place on May 6-8, 2022, and is the first in-person fashion week in Toronto since COVID-19 safety measures have been lifted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will feature over 40 Canadian designers, fashion-inspired art installations and a live runway experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They conducted their first two interviews with the lead designers of local brands Desmascare and Drakes for the event on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are in charge of several interviews, taking over the official fashion week Tik Tok account as well as general coverage of the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coterie\u2019s partnership with Fashion Art Toronto (FAT) came about like most of their partnerships: simply reaching out and asking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"4
Ellison and Clerf Leudjeu (left) finish their interview with Shaun Mascarenhas(middle right), the lead designer of Demascare. A model sits wearing his work (far right). (OWEN KROPP per XSJ)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

They quickly gained popularity on Tik Tok<\/a> from their \u201cWhat are you wearing?\u201d street interviews as well as their local small business profiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The word itself is defined as \u201can intimate and often exclusive group of persons with a unifying common interest or purpose,\u201d per Merriam-Webster<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the future, Ellison said they hope to expand their content from primarily just fashion and food to things like music, art, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite neither being from Toronto originally, both said they have a strong connection to this city and are passionate about what they do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clerf Leudjeu is originally from France but grew up in Mississauga and Milton, ON. Ellison grew up in Victoria, B.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both said that while they knew there was a niche for their content, they did not expect it to progress so quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re almost overwhelmed with the number of opportunities,\u201d said Ellison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clerf Leudjeu said the most difficult part of running something like Coterie is the \u201celitism in Toronto.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ellison added that when they first began asking around, some places would turn them down simply because of their lack of followers at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow that we\u2019ve built a name for ourselves and made some big connections we\u2019ve gotten ourselves into the space we want to be in,\u201d said Clerf Leudjeu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy favorite part is the fact that I’m able to do something that I love and see a future for myself,\u201d said Ellison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coterie, a lifestyle blog on social media, was founded by two University of Guelph-Humber students Coterie was founded by Vinnick […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":551,"featured_media":43,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/owenkroppsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/owenkroppsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/owenkroppsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/owenkroppsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/551"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/owenkroppsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/owenkroppsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/owenkroppsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/owenkroppsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/owenkroppsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/owenkroppsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}