By Elli Stuhler

Fashion week ’09 kicked off with Toronto fashion darling Sunny Fong proving that tropical inspired style can have absolutely nothing to do with your dad’s embarrassing vacation shirt.

Instead, Fong’s beachy-but-elegant pieces inspired by the 1935 film Mutiny in the Bounty were showcased at the newly-renovated AGO, where the Frank Gehry designed glass curvature let the sunshine appropriately drench his Tatto Hibiscus collection.

The city’s sparkliest fashion authorities occupied the front rows, complete with fur hats and square-shoulder blazers on the ladies and pointy shoes with chunky plastic glasses on the gents. Nervous volunteers with hours of make up led the likes of Shinan Govani and David Livingstone to their seats where, with a furrowed brow, they prepared to judge the hell out of what was about to happen. Disappointingly enough, the rumoured Iman appearance was a no-go.

Spectators tip toeing in the aisles could have stayed home and had a better view on their computers as the show was streamed live on the designer’s website à la Alexander McQueen.

All this movie inspiration and streaming video makes sense: Sunny Fong is a Ryerson film grad. He also happens to be the winner of season 2 of Project Runway Canada.

His French Polynesia inspired collection features rich ivories with gold accents and the occasional fuchsia shocker. Models fluttered down the catwalk in flowing silks, creamy tailored jackets and high wasted sailor pants lined with gold buttons. Fong takes the much-abused tropical flower and reduces it to a solid tan leather cutout, which vined up the chest and around the shoulder of a sheer chiffon creation. After all, what would fashion week be without the near nip slip?

But it wasn’t until the final look that the audience dignified the designer with a reaction. The glitterati let out a collective “ooh” when a stunning gold silk gown with fuchsia and red layers of fabric under the knee sauntered the pseudo-runway.

The designer himself beamed as he walked out in a black blazer, lace up boots and his signature pony mane Mohawk. Welcome to Fashion Week.