Rad Hourani says, “is someone who does not follow a trend."

Fashion Week Toronto: After leaving Montreal for Paris six years years ago to launch his eponymous couture collection label, designer Rad Hourani is heading back to Canada on Friday to make his Canadian fashion week runway debut with his fifth collection of ready-to-wear line RAD at Toronto’s World MasterCard Fashion Week. As part of the runway presentation, Hourani will also debut his new short film Five Years of Rad Hourani as the show’s opener, documenting designer Rad Hourani inspirations as he celebrates his fifth year in the cutthroat industry. “I’m inspired by the idea of creating something that can’t be defined by a limited category and things that have no reference from the past,” says the Jordan-born Rad Hourani, who moved to Montreal at 16 before leaving for Paris in 2005. “I believe the only way you can attend to this kind of inspiration is by observing everything around you.” With a strong focus modernity, Designer Rad Hourani garments blur the line between both genders, creating a unisex collection of garments that challenge and de-classify social conventions through his unique use of androgynous silhouettes. “Even the most advanced societies are very limited in the way they define themselves. The way I do things without gender or season, it applies to everything in life,” says Houran at fashion weeki, who also sees his collection as a-seasonal, preferring to numerically name his collections; there is no fall or spring here. “It’s about defying those limitations that are so often self-imposed and it’s important for me to question things rather just fitting in. My objective is to create garments that can be worn by anyone at any time.” Designer Rad Hourani collection goes as far as creating a signature leather boots with a bold square toe and a chunky heel measuring a soaring 11 centimeters, defying all gender barriers and stemming from the designer’s own personal inclination for towering footwear. “I used to wear cowboy boots and I would custom make myself every year one pair of boots with heels. They weren’t from a brand,” says the 30-year-old, who is based in Paris and New York but visits Montreal twice a  year to check on the production of his clothes. “I just found a shop that custom made them and that’s where I used to go and I designed the heel boots as I needed it.” While Rad Hourani's heeled boots are a provocative play on gender that fit in well with the rest of his collection, it isn’t often you see a man strolling down the street in pair of heels higher than those of his gal pals. “My shoes are very well received by all genders and I’m always happy to see people wearing them on the street all around the world,” he says. Combining symmetrical lines and crisp cuts, Hourani’s collection maintains a sense of multi-functionality with a series of transformable  coats that can be interpreted and worn in different ways, with removable sleeves and re-adjustable lapels that create a drastically different look with a just a zip. “Fashion for me is about clothes transcending simple functionality and gaining symbolic, evocative power by engaging in a dialogue with their environment and their time,” he says. “It’s a tool for self-expression and self-invention. Therefore I’m not into trends, I’m into style in which I focus on my signature look.” And what is that look rooted in, exactly? For the most part, it’s stark monochromatic materials, although every so often Hourani will jump out of his comfort zone and experiment with particular coulour palettes. For his fifth collection, he has focused on shades of deep and olive greens. “It’s a question of a feeling. I like to study timeless colors and to use my favorite shades in them in my collections,” Hourani says. “It’s always about what i feel like wearing and having in my wardrobe.” And while most designers design their clothes with a man and woman in mind, Hourani opts to design with himself and the “not designer Rad Hourani person” in mind. “A Rad Hourani person is someone who does not follow a trend, people who do not define themselves as men or women, who feel ageless all the time, and looks comfortable when  they move, think, talk and dress,” he explains. “I guess, they are people that I see my reflection in. It’s all about the mirror when it comes to others.” - - Rad Hourani’s new collection debuts at Toronto Fashion Week on March 16 at 8 p.m. For more information, visit worldmastercardfashionweek.com.