{"id":1610859,"date":"2022-10-13T21:06:21","date_gmt":"2022-10-14T01:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/divine.ca\/?p=1610859"},"modified":"2022-10-26T22:18:00","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T02:18:00","slug":"jay-manuel-on-this-years-cashmere-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/divine.ca\/en\/jay-manuel-on-this-years-cashmere-collection\/","title":{"rendered":"Jay Manuel on the 19th Annual Cashmere Collection, Breast Cancer Awareness and More"},"content":{"rendered":"

What you see isn\u2019t necessarily what you get with Jay Manuel. People of course know and love him from stints on America\u2019s Next Top Model and Canada\u2019s Next Top Model, but you have to expect the unexpected from him. He is intelligent and well-spoken which if you have watched him on TV makes sense, but he also has a warmth that belies his time in the fashion industry. He is a true Renaissance man \u2013 he is a host, a creative director, experienced executive producer, author and as you will find out, so much more.<\/p>\n

The US born, Canadian bred personality knows the ins and outs of the fashion world and was the ideal choice to curate this year\u2019s Cashmere Collection<\/a>. The theme of the popular fashion show was Celestial Awakenings: A Celebration of Strength, Hope, and Compassion. The collection featured unique, beautiful designs crafted entirely from the new and improved Cashmere UltraLuxe Bathroom Tissue.<\/p>\n

\"Jay
Photo Courtesy of Cashmere<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We recently sat down with Jay Manuel to learn more about the event, the impact that breast cancer has on his life and what he\u2019s learned about himself through his numerous creative endeavours.<\/p>\n

You just curated the 19th annual Cashmere Collection. What was your role as Curator and how did the partnership come about?<\/h2>\n

I started working with the team earlier this year as the Curator. The theme this year was Celestial Awakenings which is why we have the twelve designers and the 12 houses. It was all about working with the team, honing in on that theme and then as everyone narrowed down the designers, it was coming together and being here as a support for them and their vision in executing their designs.<\/p>\n

The partnership started with a phone call. Years ago, when I was hosting \u201cCanada\u2019s Next Top Model\u201d, there was an integration with Cashmere. We brought the collection on the show. That was my first time seeing these designs up close and I thought what an amazing opportunity to bring awareness to breast cancer. I became an instant fan.<\/p>\n

When they called and asked if I would be the Curator this year, I didn\u2019t even need to think about it. I\u2019ve been a fan for many years, and I was just honoured that they asked me to be a part of it.<\/p>\n

Canadian fashion has never been more exciting.<\/h2>\n

There\u2019s such a wealth of amazing talent here. What I love about this year\u2019s collection and the diverse group of designers, is that they really have stuck to their own voices within the garment designs. During the presentation where you had the videos, you got to see a bit of their process. You could see everyone\u2019s individuality in their approach and their final designs which speaks to this broad base of talent that we have here.<\/p>\n

The designs this year are so intricate. How can the designers use a fragile material like Cashmere UltraLuxe Bathroom Tissue and still have it hold up?<\/h2>\n
\"Jay
Photo Courtesy of Cashmere<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The designers aren\u2019t given rolls of toilet paper. I think that\u2019s the biggest misconception. They are given large bolts of the raw material. This year, it was Cashmere UltraLuxe<\/a>. It\u2019s the softest bathroom tissue that they\u2019ve ever produced, but at the same time, everyone realized that it was the biggest challenge because it was the most fragile product that they have ever had to work with. It did cause a few problems in coming up with the final execution for a couple of designers, but they worked through it. They used different techniques, and it was great to see how they approached it.<\/p>\n

What up and coming Canadian designer should we be on the lookout for?<\/h2>\n

It is so hard to pick! I love seeing Greta Constantine grow, especially now on the international stage. I love that people are talking about Canadian designers on an international level.<\/p>\n

So many people have been impacted by breast cancer. How has it touched your life?\u00a0<\/h2>\n

I have several stories and they are really hard to talk about. I have friends that were recently diagnosed with breast cancer and also one of the closest people to me and my family is undergoing treatment and will have surgery. It\u2019s just being that support for people going through chemotherapy. People don\u2019t realize how important it is to have that caregiver present. I\u2019m an optimist. I look at where you are around diagnosis and how you will move forward even though that sounds clich\u00e9.<\/p>\n

One of the reasons why I love the Cashmere Collection event so much is because of the breast cancer awareness component. I think that so many people think that they can get screened another time or skip a mammogram, but early detection is a life saving technique and we are seeing advances in research. I have family members currently undergoing chemotherapy and even looking at the last 5-10 years, so much has changed. Early detection and getting into treatment as soon as possible are the messages I want out there because there are people with the opportunity of finding something small, having it removed and not having to go through aggressive treatments, but that only comes from early detection.<\/p>\n

\"Jay
Photo Courtesy of Cashmere<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We\u2019ve heard a very emotional story during the event. Susan Irving, [the CMO of Kruger Products, the parent company of Cashmere] spoke about how one of her closest friends was complaining about back pain and she was told to go to the chiropractor. That can be an indication of cancer that is metastasizing<\/a>, and it turned out that\u2019s exactly what it was. You want to do is get ahead of that metastasis. That\u2019s where again, the messaging around early detection is so important.<\/p>\n

You literally have done it all from being a creative director in the fashion world to designing fashion collections to reality TV star and host to writing a book. What was the process of writing \u201cThe Wig, The Bitch and The Meltdown\u201d like for you?<\/h2>\n

I didn\u2019t have a ghost writer for the book. I think if you\u2019re a writer, you have to be honest. A lot of people look at the protagonist as being inspired by me. Part of Pablo (the protagonist) is inspired by me but part of him was not. I think if you\u2019re really honest about writing your book yourself, every character is really a piece of you, even the characters that we don\u2019t like. It has to come from somewhere and you have to dig deep and find these areas of yourself to explore.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s funny, my whole career has been collaborative in nature. When you write a book, it is very isolating. I found it an interesting, eye-opening journey to self, and I enjoyed the process of it, especially, when I was working on those final drafts getting ready to turn in the manuscript. In the last few months, I went so hardcore and just shut myself off. I enjoyed that kind of isolation and working with myself.<\/p>\n

Is there going to be a sequel?<\/h2>\n

A lot of people including my publisher would love that. The ending of the book is left open ended. I did create an outline of what the continuation of \u201cThe Wig, The Bitch and The Meltdown\u201d will look like. But I also wrote a whole other treatment that I became very inspired by. It is a completely different book that has nothing to do with these characters.<\/p>\n

I know my book made a lot of noise. I was very lucky during the pandemic that I got a lot of press and TV coverage around the book. It is a piece of satire. It is meant to be a little salacious with people questioning what was fact and what was fiction. If I release a second part to it, I don\u2019t want people to think that that\u2019s all that I can write because it\u2019s so inspired by my life.<\/p>\n

Currently, I\u2019m a co-writer on a screenplay, which we just shot a proof of concept for and I\u2019m very excited by it. I got to do a lot of interesting psychological work around very complex characters that aren\u2019t inspired by my life in any way. It\u2019s more important for me to focus on something that shows that I can write away from what I know. They say writers should write what they know and that\u2019s why I went that route first, but I want to release something that will surprise people.<\/p>\n

What did you learn about yourself through the writing process?<\/h2>\n

I\u2019ve never really spoken about my own adoption story. I felt it was really important to add that into Pablo\u2019s character because it helped me share something and add a vulnerability to that character. It opened up to what he was going through and what he had to process, which was a little bit of my process early on in life.<\/p>\n

There were some really interesting scenes that I had so much fun writing, where you\u2019re dealing with a battle of emotions between characters, egos, and wills. When you\u2019re actually writing, it\u2019s your internal dialogue as your own internal struggle hits the page. When you get to the end of the book, you realize that Pablo has been struggling with himself, his own sense of worth and where that value comes from. He\u2019s always been looking outside of himself for it when it needs to come from within.<\/p>\n

I thought about my own struggles while writing this book. Viola Davis has always talked about having imposter syndrome. I love how honest she is around her own emotional process. I have had the opportunity to be in incredible places including the Oscars and work with huge creative visionaries my entire career like Richard Avedon and Annie Leibovitz. I\u2019ve been in all these places that most people only dream of, and you find yourself in that space. You ask yourself why am I here? How do I fit in? Then you stand back and look at life and say, what is real? I think that\u2019s the journey that we all go through. In order to find our true of level of comfort is to realize that everyone is asking themselves the very same questions.<\/p>\n

I think people looked at the title of my book and the surface content and thought it was going to be a fluffy satirical piece. But there was really a gravitas to it that was meant to make people think and look at themselves and that\u2019s why in the third act of the piece, I wanted to have this beneficial moment and break the fourth wall in a way that\u2019s very unconventional in the literary world.<\/p>\n

Very early on, I had a publisher who loved the book and the characters. They loved how honest I was being but for them, there were rules around fiction where you don\u2019t expose it in a metafictional way the way that I did. They found that very jolting and wanted me to remove it or change it. When I wrote the book my agent and I had great conversations and she felt that I always kept the reader in the know in a world that might be foreign to them. I couldn\u2019t take that out because of conventions in the literary world where you don\u2019t bust open the fourth wall. I kept it in and another publisher loved that part of my book.<\/p>\n

What is your favorite platform to work on and why?<\/h2>\n

I don\u2019t look at anything as a favourite. I look at everything as a journey. I feel honoured and blessed to have had a chance to work in so many different mediums both in front of and behind the camera. Some people think that being in front of the camera is the best part. I actually love creation \u2013 the creative work and the production work that I\u2019ve done. I produced on America\u2019s Next Top Model and Canada\u2019s Next Top Model. I wasn\u2019t just on camera. I genuinely executive produced. It wasn\u2019t a vanity title.<\/p>\n

I love putting things together, working with others to come together with a vision and working with budgets that seem impossible. That\u2019s the challenge \u2013 how are we going to make it work? I look at whatever I\u2019m working on at the time as the most important, versus whether I prefer this platform or that platform.<\/p>\n

How did taking a social media break this year help you?<\/h2>\n

When people announce \u201cI\u2019m taking a break. I\u2019m leaving social media\u201d all of the press report that Channing Tatum is taking a break, he\u2019s working on other things. That in itself becomes such an egoic moment around feeding oneself and so I just recognized before the real break started that I wasn\u2019t really using social media as much. I was working on these other projects that are more behind the scenes and really dedicating a lot of time to them. The break just started when I was very busy. My focus was elsewhere, and also my family really needed me as well.<\/p>\n

My home life and my career take up so much of my time. I really felt as I approached 50 that I needed to place my energy and be somewhere 100%. I just took this break, and it was incredible. I didn\u2019t think about social media. I didn\u2019t have this sense of FOMO. I didn\u2019t delete the apps. I just never opened them, and I was able to find such a great sense of joy and presence in everything I was doing. It actually felt like it used to before social media took over our lives. Everyone says that social media is here to stay, but I think people are learning new relationships with it. I was able to really focus on what was important.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s funny is I shot so much content around everything that I was doing, but it was really just for me. I\u2019ve always been someone who even before iPhones always shot everything on cameras. I have videos on everything that I wanted to capture and all of this behind-the-scenes content that\u2019s just for me. Maybe one day I\u2019ll release it or maybe I won\u2019t, but I wasn\u2019t trying to shoot for the \u2018gram or Facebook or another platform. It was fun just being in life.<\/p>\n

One of the things you just touched on was turning 50. How do you think the recent conversations about ageism will impact the fashion and beauty industries?<\/h2>\n

I got into the beauty and fashion business because I have always been about the empowerment of women. Even the people that I have worked with in my own beauty and fashion lines have been women in positions of power.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

For instance, I know Paulina Porizkova has been writing several essays around this topic. I\u2019m a friend of hers and know her very well. I champion her and I support everything that she has written. She\u2019s had people attack her for the way she\u2019s representing herself. So yet again, you\u2019re seeing people attack women who are trying to highlight this issue and tell her to sit aside which is ridiculous.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m using her as an example, but Paulina loves to represent that women can be desirable at any age. She is not trying to turn back the clock in any way artificially. She celebrates her body the way it is right now. She\u2019s a stunning woman and always has been. But for some reason, when we want to look at images, we want to look at twenty-somethings. I do feel that that is going a little out of vogue so to speak and I\u2019m really happy to see that just recently at New York Fashion Week, the Vogue World Show was truly inclusive with people of every size, ethnicity, and age group. It felt authentic, not forced and I think that\u2019s where we\u2019re moving right now \u2013 around the acceptance of everyone.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next for you?<\/h2>\n

I\u2019m working on a screenplay. In addition to that, I\u2019ve always had a passion for interior design and architecture. I redeveloped two thirds of my property, but I\u2019ve been very private about my home space. I didn\u2019t work with a design company \u2013 I did all of the design work myself for the outdoor project. I created all of the renderings, the CAD renderings, all the specs and did a lot of the work myself.<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t going to share any of it. I shot videos and photos every day for six months, but I just recently gave a glimpse of it in a video<\/a> that I created. It really was a labour of love. There is interest for me to move into that space. That\u2019s what I want to explore and maybe on television.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll be tuning in for that. Follow Jay Manuel<\/a> on Instagram or visit jaymanuel.com<\/a> to learn more.<\/p>\n

\"Jay
Photo Courtesy of Cashmere<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Visit cashmerevotecouture.com<\/a> to see the Celestial Awakening Collection and cast your vote for your favourite design.\u00a0 With every vote, Cashmere will donate $1 to to the Canadian Cancer Society and the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation, up to a maximum of $15,000.\u00a0 You can also win $1,500 CAD or a year supply of Cashmere UltraLuxe bathroom tissue just by participating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What you see isn\u2019t necessarily what you get with Jay Manuel. People of course know and love him from stints on America\u2019s Next Top Model and Canada\u2019s Next Top Model,…<\/div>\n
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