DESIGNER = Ruark
Roswell Smith, who

Vancouver,
some of his

push AS RCE SPS RRR STIPE SSE ONE RS :

WV designer

13- Sunday, June 30, 1985 - North Shore News

Lea,

enjoys life of
glamor, glitter

AT EIGHT years old, Ruark Roswell Smith could
never have fathomed that his interest in fashion
would lead him to be a successful designer.

Today the 24-year-old
West Vancouver man has
been contracted by the
House of Craven as one of
six top Canadian designers
to tour the country, showing
fashions at about 400 shows
during 1985.

Smith is replacing Wayne
Clark in the evening wear
line, and for his fall/ winter
collection Smith will be
showing 18 glamor and glit-
ter outfits, totalling about 85
individual pieces,

“I’m so proud to be a part
of it,’ Smith says of his
one-year contract with
Craven. ‘I've only been in
the business for 16 months
— it's like a dream come
true to come this far, It's
happening so fast. I have to
pinch myself to make sure
it’s really happening.’

Smith specializes in silk
and sparkle. His favorite
fabrics to work with are silk
charmeuses, silk jaquards
and silk satins. He

garoaise

By BARRETT R

embellishes his evening wear
with sequins, beading and
jewels to achieve a rich and
alluring mood in his evening
fantasies.

A body-conscious look is
the style Smith is trying to
achieve in his gowns this
year, emphasizing the bod-
ice, waist and hip with strap-
less and form-fitting dresses.

Smith's scintillating
designs are created in
fuschia, turquoise, electric
blue, fire engine red and
black, he says.

‘I feel people can wear
dramatic colors easier than
pastels,’’ Smith says.
“At feast one color will suit
everyone, and if it looks
good, people enjoy wearing
it.”

Smith has a staff of six
who make patterns and sew
the designs he creates, but
the couturier still keeps a

hand in every aspect of his
business.

“T do the illustrating and
some of the pattern work,
and | select the material,"* he
says. ‘And | even do some
of the sewing, but there just
aren't enough hours in a
day."'

As 2 teenager, Smith fig-
ure skated for Hollyburn
Country Club in West Van-
couver, and naturally his
first fashion designs were
figure skating outfits.

The ornate costumes were
the seed for Smith's in-
novative evening wear,
which has since bloomed to
a full collection of evening
and dressy day wear.

At this stage in his career,

Smith says the money isn’t .

the big thing, at least not yet.

Prices for his high-fashion
dresses can run to around
$1,000, and a blouse may
cost about $200.

But he plans to licence out
his name and design a less
pricey ready-to-wear line for
department stores.

See Skating
Page 14

sik sr MRS ear

designs, right, and il-
lustrates the  tech-
niques in designing a
garment on paper —
back at the drawing
board — in his Van-
couver studio. Smith
has been sponsored
by the House of
Craven A to be one
of six Canadian de-
signers to show his
wares at nation-wide
fashion shows
throughout 1985.