60 students from across The Creative School collaborate to produce Mass Exodus 2021

The annual Mass Exodus (external link, opens in new window)  fashion show is completely retooled for 2021. For the first time, the event will be produced and managed by students enrolled in the newly-created Live Event Supercourse (opens in new window) , a collaborative two-semester course open to students from all nine schools within The Creative School that launched in September 2020.

More than 60 students from seven schools within the Creative School enrolled in the course and have been working hard to develop and bring to life the new virtual format of Mass Exodus, with this year’s theme, ‘Recalibrated’, in mind. For 2021, students picked their projects, slotted into teams, and assisted with different projects and teams as needed.

Reshaping fashion and live-events

For more than 30 years, the highly-anticipated fashion event has showcased the work of graduating Fashion Communication and Design students to public audiences and industry professionals. Typically, the event is produced by industry partners, with assistance from students in the School of Fashion and a handful of other Creative School programs. 

This year, celebrity guest Priyanka (external link, opens in new window) , winner of Canada’s Drag Race, will host the high-profile fashion show when it airs live on Thursday, June 10 at 7pm. Guests can register now (external link, opens in new window)  for the event.

This year, the ‘Recalibrated’ theme looks to “explore the ambiguous concept of utopia” as it relates to the current climate of “extreme uncertainty and transformation”. The theme also represents the shifting nature of the show, such as the challenges the team faced in rapidly accommodating pandemic restrictions. 

Stepping up to the challenge of an online event, the team recalibrated their creative process to reimagine the future of fashion by taking a more intimate look at the production, process, and final project of each individual contributor. 

Fashion Design student Prudence Mekongue Ekwele said working on her collection during the pandemic provided her the chance to further examine the element of human interaction. 

“My creative process evolved in that unlike before, I was able to actually think about the impact I want to have as a person and as a designer in the world,” said Ekwele. “Given we could not have a live event, I think the Mass Ex team had great ideas on how they could showcase our collections.”

This new transdisciplinary process allows students from different programs to be fully engaged earlier in the process, says School of Fashion and Creative Industries contract lecturer Daniel Drak, who has been the executive producer of the event for the past five years. This year he was joined by co-instructor and executive producer Brittany Paty (opens in new window) .

“We’re trying to really embed students, staff, and faculty from other schools across The Creative School in the ideation, planning and conceptualization of Mass Exodus,” said Drak. “This way they can contribute from the beginning and be a part of the event’s evolution. We’re excited to grow this potential in the years ahead.”

Expanding the format

In the past, Mass Exodus centred around a series of live fashion shows, with day events intended for Ryerson audiences and night shows intended for industry guests. Catwalk models typically spent about 60 seconds on stage, which means the garments that students spent countless hours creating received only a brief glimpse in the spotlight.

Drak says the Live Supercourse class focused on the ways Mass Exodus 2021 could increase the focus on each artist and their designer collections and capstone projects in a virtual format that is engaging. Apart from pivoting the runway show and art exhibition to an online format, the team decided to further expand the creative element of the show by adding a third component to the event in the form of a docuseries. 

The new docuseries intends to extend the 60-second interaction between garment and guest in the previous live runway shows. It’s meant to provide a behind-the-scenes look at the designers’ processes and provide an opportunity to share the inspiration and journey behind the work of each contributor. Two episodes are available to stream, with five planned in total. 

The virtual art exhibition (external link, opens in new window)  also looks to provide more in-depth details about the artist and their work. Similar to the live exhibition, the digital exhibition allows Creative School graduates to display their capstones and design projects in new interactive ways. It also connects observer and creator through the use of artist headshots, a description of the work, the art or project itself, and an artist statement. Some also include a short video of the artist related to their work.

All of these creative new ways to engage are available to explore on the event website (external link, opens in new window) .

Fourth year fashion student Jonathan Lee said working on his project during the pandemic provided the chance to refocus on his cultural roots. “As a Hong Kong-Canadian, I had struggled with my identity,” he said. The project provided a chance to “embrace my originality, and that made me grow into the passion for promoting Hong Kong culture in my creation. In a nutshell, that is also what my graduation collection is about.”

Fashion Design student Roy Luo noted how new challenges create new possibilities. “I feel Mass Ex this year is really a reflection of student resilience and how responsive the School of Fashion has been to the current climate of the fashion industry,“ he said. 

Mass Exodus 2021: Recalibrated is an entirely new take on the typical end-of-year fashion show. It offers a look behind the curtain and, despite restrictions on live entertainment, looks to bring the audience and artist closer than ever before.

The Creative School at Ryerson University

Entering its eighth decade, The Creative School is a global centre of media and creative invention. As a disrupter in innovative education, The Creative School is dedicated to developing creators with authentic voices who engage directly with creative industries around the world.

With 23 undergraduate and graduate programs that are shaping the future of their fields and tight-knit partnerships around the world, The Creative School offers more opportunities to educate the next generation of creative leaders than anywhere else.

An earlier version of this article was published prior to the faculty's rebrand and was edited to change all occurences of "FCAD" to be "The Creative School".