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It was light and white for Paul Hardy yesterday at Day Three of LG Fashion Week.
Like a breeze of fresh air, the designer's collection of garments blew down the catwalk looking as if they were so soft that butterflies could have carried the garments away.
The items were aptly named: Parachute shirts, coconut skirts, cocoon dresses and feather vests and coat dresses flitted and floated down the catwalk.
The Winnipeg native but Calgary-based designer played with volume, often creating blouses that billowed or ruffled and pairing them with tight leggings and sheath skirts.
His palette -- white and ivory with accents of silver -- was one he called symbolic of his evolution as a designer with a social conscious.
"The white was a watershed, a clean slate and, to some degree for me personally, a fresh beginning of a new directional path for my profession," said Hardy, after the show.
After seven years in the business, he is speaking out about an "epiphany" he experienced during an eye-opening trip to Uganda earlier this year.
His spring-summer 2010 collection, named Patriarchal Femininity, was dedicated to women of East Africa who live in "unspeakable circumstances."
Hardy has vowed to return to the continent to help marginalized women start their own microbusinesses.
"I totally believe fashion can make an social impact in creating greater awareness," said Hardy.