Joe Fresh is making the move to New York this fall, but some skeptics suggest that the Mimran dynasty may have to pull back to Canada sooner than anticipated. Analysts seem mixed on the potential success of yet another fast fashion retailer. The Financial Post notes that companies who moved south of the border (among the fallen are Danier, Harry Rosen, Tristan, La Senza and Brown’s Shoes) haven’t always been welcome, while the New York Times highlights a boom in tourist traffic around Joe’s chosen 5th Avenue and 43rd Street location.
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Joe Fresh’s anticipated New York opening excites tourists, not analysts
Megan Follows dressed by David Dixon? See it at the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s feel-good fashion show
A celebrity models a red dress (Image: teadrinker)
Fashion month spawns a series of spectacles, but nothing is as ego-free as the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s “Heart Truth“ runway show (March 24th, The Carlu). The formula: Canadian designers send local notables and celebrities down a runway wearing variations of a red dress in support of heart and stroke awareness. See the full list of celebrity-designer pairings after the jump.
Q&A with Vikram Vij: the celebrated Vancouver chef on his successes and why he won’t open a restaurant in Toronto
Vikram Vij at All the Best Fine Foods
Vikram Vij, chef and owner of Vancoucer haute Indian restaurants Vij’s and Rangoli, was in town this week for the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association show and a series of meet and greets around the city. His namesake restaurant is well known for its no-reservation policy, long lineups and devoted fans, including New York Times columnist Mark Bittman, who once hailed it as “among the finest Indian restaurants in the world.” Recently, we sat down with the chef, restaurateur and cookbook author to talk about the reasons behind his success and why he won’t expand to Toronto.
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Failure to launch: Topshop forgets Jonathan and Olivia
After The Bay announced that they’d be welcoming “the first” Topshop in Canada yesterday, Jackie O’Brien was understandably irritated. The co-owner of Jonathan and Olivia was understanding of the need for franchising, but perturbed by The Bay’s dissociating her from Toronto’s Topshop introduction. Today, O’Brien indirectly responds to her critics in a press release, stating, “Topshop approached us over 18 months ago to test the Canadian market, as they considered us to be the leading independent retailer.”
Parlez-moi de l’antisémitisme: John Galliano’s perfume pulled from Canadian shelves
Canadian model Jessica Stam is offering support to former Dior designer John Galliano, but Canadian department stores, not so much. Late last week, The Bay announced that it was pulling Galliano’s fragrance, Parlez-moi d’Amour, from its shelves, and now Holt Renfrew reports that “the fragrance has minimal presence on the floors and there are no plans to market … going forward.”
The Canadian retailers are late to the party, considering the instant backlash to a video capturing Galliano’s now infamous anti-Semitic tirade, but we’re just glad action is being taken. It beats the recent run of industry defenders and social media campaigning that proves to have little effect when retailers can’t commit.
Just last month, Parlez-moi d’Amour was positioned as an ideal Valentine’s Day gift—a sweet-smelling perfume from a renowned designer with a romantic streak. Today, Galliano’s product doesn’t speak to anybody of love. It stinks of hate.
• John Galliano’s perfume removed from some shelves [Globe and Mail]
The one thing you should see this week: an intimate film about a powerful painter
Wanda Koop’s paintings are composed of as many as 20 fine washes of paint (Image: Katherine Knight)
This week’s pick: Koop at the Reel Artists Film Festival
Wanda Koop’s mother always told her that she didn’t need to be like anyone else. She took the advice to heart and built a 35-year painting career on the strength of her arresting large-scale canvases. A new documentary by Katherine Knight, simply titled Koop, follows the artist as she prepares for retrospectives at the National Gallery of Canada and the Winnipeg Art Gallery.
Media outlets just can’t seem to agree on how to spell “Gadhafi” (“Gaddafi”? “Gaddafi”? “Qadhafi”?)
The man in question a on poster in Tripoli (Image: Gary Denham)
This is surely the least important aspect of what is happening in Libya, but every time there’s an Arabic name in the news, we’re amazed at how little agreement there is between English transliterations on the spelling. For the record—well, according to Wikipedia—the current leader of Libya’s name is معمر القذافي. It’s when that name gets turned in to something printable with the Roman alphabet that things get messy. A quick scan of local media gets us the following:
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Owners of Queen West’s Delight Chocolate open new cheese store in the basement
Highland Blue, Grey Owl and Cape Vessey cheeses from Le Caveau (Image: Signe Langford)
Building on their success with chocolate and cheese lovers in the Junction, Jeff Brown and Jennifer Rashleigh, co-owners of Delight Chocolate and Junction Fromagerie, have taken their show on the road to Queen West. The husband and wife team opened up a second location of Delight last March in the two-story space that once housed the Spice Trader and the Olive Pit. Last Saturday, they opened the door to a second cheese shop, Le Caveau—only this time, it’s in the chocolate shop’s basement.
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Our four favourite Canadian moments from the Grammys last night
Arcade Fire win the award of the night as a baffled Barbara Streisand tries to learn the difference between "band" and "album" (Image: Kevin Winter/Getty Images Entertainment)
Last night’s Grammy Awards were both a triumph and kick in the cojones for Canadian music. The Arcade Fire shocked just about everyone by beating out Lady Gaga for the Album of the Year, but Drake and Justin Bieber (who scored six nominations between them) were shut out of all the trophy action. Oh well, at least the Biebs made a (questionable) splash in his white-on-white tuxedo.
Here, our favourite Canadian Grammy moments.
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Just Desserts: sophisticated sweet wines worth the splurge
(Illustration: Jack Dylan)
Sweet wines generally get a bad rap. Even avid wine lovers tend to dismiss them as overly expensive, cloying or lacking in refinement. Yet the only wine I ever awarded a perfect 100-point score was a sweet Château d’Yquem 2001 Sauternes from Bordeaux. It was profound, powerful and exquisite. At a tasting of sweet wines—from Mediterranean muscats to Canadian icewines to Australian “stickies”—the quality of almost everything I tried was astounding. Most types are made from grapes that have lingered on the vine until they’re slightly raisiny, resulting in high sugar content, concentrated flavours and low juice volume (the same goes for frozen grapes pressed for icewines). In some cases, the wines are then aged in barrels for anywhere from three months to 40 years. The labour-intensive process accounts for the famously high price of sweet wine. But they aren’t always expensive, and the value is generally excellent, with each bottle presenting a range of flavours as complex as any pastry chef can conjure up. They make a terrific dinner party gift, paired with rich cheeses (port and blue is a no‑brainer), or sipped solo instead of dessert. Here, 10 great sweeties at the LCBO. Read the rest of this entry »
The Weekender: Heart, Nature Unleashed and six other can’t-miss events
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1. HEART
Remember when rock star sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson sent John McCain’s campaign a cease-and-desist letter after he used their hit song “Barracuda” to introduce then-running-mate Sarah Palin? That’s just one of the many reasons this stalwart band is awesome. Their Friday concert, part of the sisters’ 35th anniversary cross-country tour, will almost certainly include a 2011 take on “Barracuda,” as well as all the other hard-rock anthems and power ballads the Wilsons are known for. February 11. $65–$115. Massey Hall, 178 Victoria St., 416-872-4255, masseyhall.com.
A Fine Bromance: Michael Ondaatje returns to the stage after more than 20 years, in a collaboration with an untested star
Adapting any novel for the stage is a tricky thing, a task the British writer Sebastian Faulks recently likened to “trying to turn a painting into a sculpture.” Stories that unfold over hundreds of pages must be recreated in just a slim script; whole worlds must be confined to a patch of boards. Adapting the 2007 Governor General’s Award winner Divisadero—a meandering book that abruptly leaves main characters midway through their narratives and appears unconcerned with dramatic thrust—would seem a maddening, impossible job, but it’s what Michael Ondaatje has chosen to do with his first theatre project in more than two decades. Divisadero: A Performance is produced by the ambitious company Necessary Angel, directed by Daniel Brooks, and stars film actor Liane Balaban and the excellent Tom McCamus and Maggie Huculak. The piece’s success, however, hangs on the chemistry between Ondaatje and Justin Rutledge, the young singer-songwriter who will be making his theatrical debut when the play opens this month.
The five best Canadian Grammy performances
With a bumper crop of Canadian artists set to perform at next week’s Grammy Awards—the Arcade Fire, Justin Bieber and Drake—we thought this was a fitting moment to reflect on memorable Canuck Grammy performances of yesteryear. Given our country’s track record at producing international divas, it should come as no surprise that the list is heavy on acts known principally by their first name. Here, five performers who prove that Canada’s got talent, and that Canadians probably give their costume designers too much creative freedom.
CBC’s new five-year plan promises all things for all people, as long as you’re Canadian
The CBC is making good on recent promises to increase Canadian programming with their newly-announced five-year plan with the rather ambitious name 2015: Everyone, Every Way. The $33-million blueprint emphasizes local and regional coverage while improving digital programming and increasing Canadian content.
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CRTC vs. CBSC: regulator battles standards council over Dire Straits “Money For Nothing”
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Remember the kerfuffle from a couple weeks ago over the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council‘s decision to issue a ban on radio play of the classic 1985 Dire Straits song “Money for Nothing” for its controversial use of the word “faggot?” Now the CRTC has asked the CBSC to reconsider its decision after the federal broadcast regulator received more than 250 letters about the banned song, the majority of which questioned the CBSC’s decision to issue the ban in the first place.
