fashion -

Mercy, Mercy Me

The fashion gods muttered “skinny,” you tossed your boot-cuts. They whispered “volume,” you bought a bajillion baby doll tops. Now you routinely lose circulation in your feet. And people keep asking if you’re preggers.

Enough already. Time to cry “Mercy.” Or at least buy it — by taking home a piece or two from the spring collection of Toronto-based label Mercy.

Dreamed up by a pair of textile-mad Canucks (who still do all of their production in-house), the company starts with luxurious, high-quality European and Japanese fabrics, then creates its own fanciful silkscreen images and prints.

Tops, dresses, skirts, and coats are garment-dyed to look as if they’ve mellowed with age (like a great vintage score). So whether you choose a sweet cotton voile tee or witty Liberty print skirt, you can rest assured you’re wearing something unique.

And next time you hear a ridiculous pronouncement from on high, you can just smile and say “Hell, no.”

Those gods must be crazy.


Available at La Rousse, 430 Virginia Street, between Fourth and Fifth Avenues (206-448-1515); Promesse, 128 Central Way, Kirkland (425-828-4259).