Vancouver B.C. | For a city that’s usually not known for its sense of fashion, South Asian Fashion Week is here to save our fashion impaired city.

Once again, co-founders Cindy Khella and Farah Hassan have come together to host an event that celebrates and recognizes South Asian designers success locally and internationally.

Compared to last year’s event, this year’s show included a larger range of diverse contributors including, designers, stylists, models, artists, photographers and filmmakers.

The show was filled with collaborations from all artistic walks of life.

This year’s designers included Falguni Shane Peacock who A-list celebrities such as Beyoncé, Lady Gaga and Priyanka Chopra Jonas have worn designs custom made to them. By popular demand, Falguni Shane Peacock was asked to walk two out of the three nights for their jaw-dropping designs.

Baynes and Baker, a dominantly male fashion line, used the SAFW runway to showcase their new women’s line. Many guests were in “awe” and excited for the numerous pieces they could wear day to day to work. Guests took to Instagram to say how much they loved and needed to own pieces of this new collection.

Show stoppers, Masters in Leasure by Dontdoze took the stage to uniquely display a fusion of paintings, sculptures and clothing. The stage was used to display the artist’s fashion and costume design project. Their designs symbolized and connected to the works of artists such as Banksy who had painted, “Love is in the Bin.”

Dontdoze has also produced and curated an art showcase that was displayed outside of the runway where guests had the opportunity to take look at Dontdoze’s and local artists work. The artists curated in the showcase included work from Sandeep Johal, Ricky and Rajan, Sunroop Kaur and Paint to Paper Studios.

Local Surrey designers took the stage as well, just as much displaying their collections besides international and national designers.

SAFW included many other surprises including Canadian influencers that sat within the audience. Influencers included MangHoe Lassi a Canadian-Pakistani drag queen, Pooja Patel a social media influencer, and Wanting Qu Chinese singer-songwriter.

Pictured Above: Surrey604 Host, Natasha Raey with members of Youth For A Change.

The group accepts everyone for who they are, and act as each other’s support. They are family.

Written By Reba Broadhurst

Youth for A Change was founded in March 2012 by Sylvie Traphan and Jen Marchbank along with ten very keen youth. They are educators, activists and advocates on many youth issues but especially issues facing lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, two-spirit, and queer youth and allies. Members range in age from 13+, many identify as LGBTQ+, others as allies, ALL participate in planning and decision-making about the group’s activities. They educate themselves and others in a variety of ways.

Surrey Youth For a Change members, Candy and Andrew.

For example, they offer workshops to schools, learning centres and other youth groups on topics such as: Homophobia and Transphobia; Gender Identities; Youth Homelessness and Healthy Teen Relationships. Several of their members have experienced social adversity in different ways. For some it has been long periods of homelessness in their teens due to parental and personal differences. For others they have youth who are operating daily by managing their mental health issues, one of which is currently not in regular school due to issues. They accept everyone for who they are, and act as each other’s support, they are family.

A Youth For a Change gathering on Transgender Day of Remembrance

Each year on Transgender Day of Remembrance, Youth for a Change gets involved with surrounding events to celebrate those who they have lost. This past year on November 20th, 2017 Youth for a Change held their own event and invited several people to come and join in the remembering. During this event they had spoken word performances, the pieces were written by trans youth or youth who identified as trans at the time of the piece being written. You can view their performances in the video below.

One of the youth agreed to have an interview with Surrey604’s Natasha Raey to speak about their difficulties growing up as an LGBTQ+ youth. This youth is very well known by the name Candy, she shares her story of being homeless at a young age and how she has progressed as the years have gone on. One thing Candy does share is how she was uneducated when she was younger and didn’t know what being transgender was and thought that she would be crazy to be such a thing. However, this points out a huge issue in society and how there is little to no education at an early age of LGBTQ+ peoples and their history. Watch Candy’s interview with Natasha below.

One of the group’s facilitators/co-founder, Jen Marchbank also agreed to be interviewed by Natasha. Jen and Sylvie created this group almost six years ago to teach youth how to network, how to advocate and educate etc. Jen speaks about the youth group and some of the places the youth have been invited to perform over the years. Watch Jen’s interview below.

Outside of the youth group, Jen Marchbank is a professor of Gender Studies and Women Studies at SFU. Jen Marchbank and two other lovely individuals Claire Robson and Kelsey Blair are the editors of “Basically Queer” which is a collaboration of pieces from the youth with Youth for a Change and the elders from the Quirk-e which is a senior’s GLBT group. This book is “An Intergenerational Introduction to LGBTQA2S+ Lives.”

The launch for this book will be at SFU this coming Monday, February 26th from 7pm-9pm where there will be more spoken word performances of pieces from the book. All details can be found in the Facebook event titled “Basically Queer Book Launch.”

Written By Reba Broadhurst. Photography by Daman Beatty

This project was made possible thanks to the generous support of EPAMA who has been at the forefront of GLBT representation in Surrey since 2000.

In recent times, Whalley has been going through a full scale revitalization including many high rise condominiums, office buildings and new civic facilities. The Build Surrey program was launched in 2008 and has overhauled the once-foundering city centre.

Mayor Dianne Watts oversaw mass investment in shimmering civic, commercial, residential and health-care facilities —over $2.2 billion to date, spent on public and private sectors. The community has a new $63-million library, a new city hall and with a new performing arts centre set to be ready in the next few years.

Whalley also hosts the area’s largest hospital, the revamped and renovated Surrey Memorial. $512-million has been spent on expanding Surrey Memorial Hospital with the second largest ER in Canada. The hospital is the centre piece of Innovation Boulevard, which is an assembly of health care technology facilities built to interest health-related businesses and institutions.

Living in Whalley means embracing a new and modern community in the presence of its beautiful heritage. The close proximity to Guildford Town Centre, a 7 minute walk to the Gateway Skytrain station, a one-minute skytrain ride to Surrey’s City Centre and only 30 minute ride to downtown Vancouver makes Whalley an ideal location for any group of people. With all the existing and planned transformations, Whalley could soon become one of the region’s biggest city centres.

WATCH: Whalley History

Travel farther back in time to follow Whalley’s backstory from its namesake, bootlegger Arthur Whalley’s service station to present day in this video below.

For more information visit:

Venue Presentation Centre
Open Daily 12-5 PM Located at 114 – 10768 Whalley Boulevard or Call 604.581.8000

All homes under $300,000 starting from the mid $100,000’s.

Explore www.venuelife.ca to learn more!

Do you have a favourite local eatery in Surrey? Have you visited the legendary Rickshaw Chinese, Round Up Cafe, Taste Of Africa, or Afghan Bakery? Watch the video to get to know the people behind these local hot spots.

Pick up your own FREE coupon book for local Restaurants, Amenities & Attractions in Whalley!

Get an insiders look at Port Metro Vancouver operations and infrastructure as Sukh Johal and Daman Beatty take you aboard the Native, a Paddlewheeler river boat. They join members of Metro Vancouver’s Business community from Boards of Trade and Chambers of Commerce for a tour industry along the Fraser River from New Westminister Quay.

Sukh and Daman get exclusive interviews on the river with the Surrey Board of Trade’s CEO and President, Anita Huberman, BC’s Official Opposition International Trade Spokesman, MLA Bruce Ralston, Fraser Surrey Dock’s CEO Jeff Scott, Port Metro Vancouver’s Vice President of Infrastructure, Cliff Stewart and many more.

Check out their journey as you get insight into what makes Canada and British Columbia a hub for international trade and a superpower in the future of commerce connecting North America to Asia. With the right infrastructure, political will and vision, the Fraser River has played a central role in providing the movement of commodities. The historic Fraser River which stretches along many BC municipalities is what will truly help make Surrey and the Metro Vancouver area into what soon will become the heart of the Asia Pacific Gateway.

Learn about jobs, transportation, port infrastructure, the future and much more in this educational yet entertaining journey along beautiful British Columbia’s mighty Fraser River.

As Canada’s largest port, Port Metro Vancouver enables the trade of nearly 20% of Canada’s total trade of goods by value. Come and Join Metro Vancouver chamber members for a tour of the mighty Fraser River aboard an authentic paddlewheeler to learn more about the operations of Port Metro Vancouver to ensure safe and efficient trade of Canada’s import and export goods.

Sukh Johal salutes Native paddlewheeler river boat at New Westminister Quay.

Below the Alex Fraser Bridge.

Anna Teglasi and guest

Daman Beatty with Surrey Board of Trade’s Anne Peterson aboard the Paddlewheeler.

Fraser River barges.

Native Paddlewheeler industry tour.

Port shipping vessel.

Sukh Johal with Surrey Board of Trade CEO, Anita Huberman

Sukh Johal with Bruce Ralston and Anne Peterson

Sukh Johal and Indra Bahn.

Sukh Johal and others enjoying the view.

Sukh Johal with Jeff Scott, CEO Fraser Surrey Docks

Fraser River tugboat.

Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics automobile terminal.

Tri Cities Chamber of Commerce members.

View more pictures on the Surrey604 Facebook page…

Throughout the tour, guests had an up-close view of Port Metro Vancouver’s major marine terminals operating in Fraser River, including the multi-purpose facility, Fraser Surrey Docks and Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics automobile terminal. Narration was provided about the port’s business sectors and key infrastructure and landmarks along the way. You will hear about the port’s air, land, and water protection initiatives and how they plan to continue to work as leaders in port sustainability.

Fraser River Tour Participants:
Burnaby Board of Trade
Delta Chamber of Commerce
Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce
New Westminster Chamber of Commerce
North Vancouver Chamber of Commerce
Richmond Chamber of Commerce
Surrey Board of Trade
Tri-Cities Chamber of Commerce

RELATED POSTS

• Discover the Fraser River River: Paddlewheeler Riverboat Tours