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Toronto-born Tanya Taylor debuts at NYFW with a sense of whimsy and some killer prints

Tanya Taylor fall/winter 2012 (Images: Billy Farrell Agency)

While New York Fashion Week officially kicked off today, the week’s jam-packed schedule means shows have been running since yesterday morning. Among those early birds was Toronto-born Tanya Taylor, who debuted her eponymous fall/winter 2012 collection with a tea room–themed presentation at an art gallery in Midtown West. Taylor spent two years as a designer for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s Elizabeth and James brand before launching her own label, and we could see the influence of that line’s relaxed fits and eclectic outlook in her 17 looks. Covetable items? A short grey wool dress paired with a slim medallion-printed sweater, and all of Taylor’s chic tapered pants. Check out all of Taylor’s debut looks in our gallery after the jump.

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The Goods

Business of Fashion

February 9, 2012 | 4:06 pm

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Like Joe Fresh? Like Hunger Games? Now you can have both (no murder involved)

Joe Fresh has announced that, much like every young adult (and old adult reading young adult fiction on the TTC), it’s a fan of The Hunger Games: the company recently partnered with the popular franchise. Hungry Hungarians who want to see the Toronto premiere of the film are in luck, because Joe Freezy wants to set one person up with a flight (if required), a hotel, two tickets to the red carpet premiere and a $500 gift card for Joe Fresh (perhaps to buy the skirt Coco Rocha wore on the cover of Flare magazine, or maybe the Finnish flag dress Andrej Pejic sported for Fashion?). While it would be more appropriate to have a Battle Royale–style brawl for the tickets, it appears all you have to do is enter online.

(Images: Hunger Games, screengrab; Joe Fresh, Jenna Marie Wakani)

The Goods

The Style File

February 8, 2012 | 11:09 am

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POLL: White carpet style, Rachel McAdams edition

Rachel McAdams at the L.A. premiere of The Vow (Image: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images Entertainment)

Remember when we told you about The Vow? You know, that movie where Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams play a married couple who get into a car accident, then suffer through a painstaking adjustment period where the wife has amnesia and the husband can’t handle it? It premiered in L.A. this week, and we noticed McAdams on the red white carpet sporting new bangs—we think she’s looking fairly elegant, with the exception of her somewhat caked-on makeup (surely her Pomellato and Philip Press jewellery would have been enough of a contrast to her demure Vivienne Westwood dress). How did McAdams fare sartorially at The Vow’s L.A. premiere? Have your say in our poll after the jump.

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The Goods

The Find

February 6, 2012 | 12:02 pm

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The Find: smelly jeans (seriously, they smell, and you’ll like it)

Valentine’s Day is coming, which means hands will graze denim—we’re certain of it (perhaps in a movie theatre, or at home). These 12.5-ounce Naked and Famous jeans at Over the Rainbow are perfect for these moments, because they’re scratch and sniff and smell like raspberry candy—a gimmick, to be sure, but it beats smelling like a cat or smelling really bad (if you’re on a date, you should smell nice). Mandy Moore would presumably want you to have these. $150.

Over the Rainbow, 101 Yorkville Ave., 416-967-7448, rainbowjeans.com

The Goods

Cuckoo for Coco

February 6, 2012 | 11:40 am

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Coco Rocha doesn’t advocate airbrushing (okay, she does, but only sometimes)

Everyone wants to look good, right? What “good” means depends on the person, but for Coco Rocha, it means not having pimples or dark under-eye circles in photographs. An advocate for young models, an endorser of Photoshop-free campaigns and a Diet Coke enthusiast, the Toronto-born supermodel is this month’s Flare cover girl, and she wants us to know she’s proud to be Canadian: “Canada has been a huge support for me in my career, so I definitely like to come back and support our industry here. I think it is really important to let people know about the support.” She also wants us to know that her online presence is a way for her to point out inaccuracies and express her opinions (for some reason, she leaves out her interest in commenting on torontolife.com), and that people should take her as she is—unless, of course, she has dark circles or pimples. This is, of course, our roundabout way of saying she looks great in that Joe Fresh skirt and Ashley Rowe top.

The Goods

Reel Fashion

February 3, 2012 | 5:04 pm

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Watch Hannah Sider and Gabriel Graham channel Air’s “Kelly Watch the Stars” in an Amanda Lew Kee fashion film

Model Nadine McAdam thinking about how to avoid sweating through Amanda Lew Kee’s clothes (Image: Schaumann)

The Fashion magazine film series continued this week with Hannah Sider and Gabriel Graham’s take on Amanda Lew Kee’s spring/summer 2012 collection. The video features model Nadine McAdam rotating through various Lew Kee ensembles while playing a solo game of racquetball. We think had they paired McAdam with another model, they could have really nailed this Air reference—now it just looks like a really nice video about a pretty girl in nice clothes who needs practice holding her racquet. Check out the video on Fashion’s website to see a girl whack a ball around in some cool kaleidoscopic outfits.

The Goods

Business of Fashion

February 3, 2012 | 3:34 pm

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When fashion and sports collide: George Laraque calls out the Leafs for endorsing Canada Goose

Retired NHL player George Laraque isn’t happy with the Toronto Maple Leafs. No, he isn’t some curmudgeon complaining from a rocking chair because he’s no longer fit for the ice; he doesn’t like that the Leafs are endorsing a fox fur–trimmed Canada Goose jacket, because he believes it’s cruel to animals. According to the Toronto Star, Laraque wrote a letter to Leafs GM Brian Burke saying the team should make the “compassionate decision never to promote the cruel fur trade again.” His anger stems from PETA’s claims that coyotes and other animals trapped for their fur often suffer for days before dying of exposure, frostbite, shock or infection, details that he also included in his letter. Burke says the Leafs will not change their minds. Maybe Burke just wants to be affiliated with a winning product? Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »

The Goods

From the Print Edition

January 31, 2012 | 10:30 am

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The Thing: a crunch-free way to look good at the gym (i.e. a new, splashy, luxe bag)

The Thing: Workout Partner New Year’s resolutionists are, right now, laying down several months’ salary on a gym membership they already know they won’t use. Despite the year’s caloric transgressions, a hefty investment often isn’t enough to get one’s oversized ass out of bed and on the treadmill. But splashing out on a new, luxe bag might be better motivation—because unlike the post-holidays figure carrying it, a nice duffle begs to be shown off. This one, a limited edition in cobalt-blue leather, is big enough to hold workout necessities without crowding the locker. And if the whole gym thing doesn’t work out after all, it’ll also make a great overnight bag. $480. M0851, 38 Avenue Rd., 416-920-4001.

(Image: Liam Mogan)

The Goods

Reel Fashion

January 27, 2012 | 12:12 pm

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Calla Haynes meets Melancholia in a freshly launched fashion film series

Happy apocalypse (Image: Lewis Mirrett)

Canadian expat Calla Haynes has become quite the presence in Paris, but she’s in and out of Canada often enough that we get to see some glimpses of what she’s been up to abroad. Last fashion week, she previewed her spring/summer 2012 collection at The Shows at the Ritz Carlton, but now the collection has become the inspiration for Fashion magazine’s first video in a brand new series and we get to see it in a whole new light. Set in a north Toronto mansion that has giant marble walls, an animal rug and, presumably, an endless supply of fruits and vegetables (you’ll see), Eva Michon’s video clearly takes its cue from Melancholia. Check out the haunting video over at Fashion magazine »

The Goods

Sweet Charity

January 26, 2012 | 5:20 pm

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Linda Lundström and other Toronto entrepreneurs will bring art supplies (and a yurt!) to Attawapiskat

Toronto fashion designer Linda Lundström (famous for her LaParka coats in the late ’80s) has been gathering sewing machines, fabric and other supplies to send to artists and designers in troubled northern Ontario reserve Attawapiskat. It’s all part of an effort by a group of entrepreneurs, labour leaders and aboriginal leaders to improve the reserve’s living conditions through community-based projects. The end products will be sold at Toronto’s Design Exchange, and the group (which calls itself Design Points North) is also seeking out additional outlets—word is that Roots has expressed interest in the finished goods. Best of all, the Attawapiskat artists will get to work inside a bit of Toronto history— the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which provided the stylin’ yurts to the Occupy Toronto movement, has donated one of the structures to serve as an art centre, now that the city’s tent camp is but a fond memory. (Well, mostly.) Read the entire story [CBC] »

The Goods

Business of Fashion

January 26, 2012 | 1:52 pm

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Sunny Fong launches Vawkkin (like, akin to Vawk—get it?)

Vawkkin sketches (Image: Sunny Fong)

Sunny Fong, Project Runway Canada alum and designer of Vawk, is expanding his clothing line with a diffusion label called Vawkkin, proving it has been a big year for the Toronto designer: he just dressed Elisha Cuthbert, star of Happy Endings (though we prefer to remember her as the girl from Popular Mechanics for Kids), for the People’s Choice Awards, on top of showing another successful season at Toronto Fashion Week. Vawkkin will be a cheaper collection than Vawk, geared toward the “young professional fashion-forward female” in a palette of blacks and neutrals. It’s exciting to see a young Canadian designer with so much demand that he has to start a more affordable line, so we look forward to see what Vawkkin will look like. A preview of the fall/winter collection will happen sometime this spring. We’re just going to start an unsubstantiated rumour that Cuthbert will be walking in the show right now (we can’t promise anything).

The Goods

Business of Fashion

January 26, 2012 | 10:41 am

4 Comments

The FDCC announces that its fashion week will have a new ridiculous name (that we won’t use)

The Fashion Design Council of Canada convened Toronto’s media folk and fashion personalities at the Telus Centre for the Performing Arts for a “big announcement” last night. No, Robin Kay isn’t stepping down as president or anything that monumental—the FDCC has simply found a new partner in MasterCard. Toronto Fashion Week will now be presented by MasterCard, instead of previous sponsor LG, which worked with the FDCC for three years, spanning six seasons. Those hoping for a less convoluted title than LG Fashion Week, Beauty by L’Oreal Paris will be pleased to find that fashion week’s new official moniker, World MasterCard Fashion Week by the FDCC, just rolls off the tongue, to say nothing of its new Twitter handle (@WMCFashionWeek) and its not-at-all ridiculous hashtag #WMCFW (so much simpler than, say, #TFW).

Of course, this will be the last time we make any mention of the title sponsor, since The Goods makes a point of only referring to the event as Toronto Fashion Week. Why? Because that is actually what it is. World MasterCard Fashion Week also had some fun with the logo, omitting all vowels so it reads FSHN WK. In today’s fast-paced world, people don’t have time for luxuries like spelling, grammar or stinking vowels. Still, this is big news for the FDCC who, on a shoestring budget, puts on a bigger fashion week with every passing season. And, hey, if MasterCard wanted to hand out pre-paid credit cards as swag, we certainly wouldn’t object.

UPDATE: Torontolife.com originally ran an image with the MasterCard logo removed from the Toronto Fashion Week design treatment. We have updated the post to reflect the proper treatment. We regret the error. (January 27, 2012 at 4:47 p.m.)

The Goods

The Find

January 23, 2012 | 2:20 pm

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The Find: socks (even Justin Bieber is wearing them!)

It’s a morning ritual: two socks on, then shoes. Ladies know it, men know it and Justin Bieber knows it. Over the past couple of years, there’s been a big boom in loud socks offsetting a solid shoe, and there doesn’t appear to be an end in sight. Spring and summer are always opportune seasons to throw on a bright pair—like these Paul Smiths we found at Holt Renfrew—and call it a day, but judging by the fall/winter 2012-13 shows from Dolce and Gabbana, Missoni, Dries Van Noten and Kenzo, there’s really no reason to tuck them away, um, ever. They’d go perfectly with the laces we talked about last week, and for those people who don’t feel this look is dramatic enough, we suggest pairing it with a colourful suit. $35 to $40.

Holt Renfrew, 50 Bloor St. W., 416-922-2333, holtrenfrew.com.

The Goods

Best Dressed

January 20, 2012 | 10:44 am

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Meet Logan, the most adorable fashion pup from Toronto (add to Google Reader now)

Logan does not wear Canada Goose (Image: Julianna Le)

If there’s one thing we can say with certainty, it’s that dogs (and cats on Roombas and hand-holding otters) on the Internet are very popular. Toronto resident Julianna Le is one of those dog-loving, dog-owning sorts who likes to prepare cute outfits for her little toy poodle pup, Logan—and now she’s sharing those outfits online with the world, making him destined, we think, for greatness in the dog modelling industry (and, bigger still, we figure Logan could be the next Boo). This dog is so adorable, we imagine he turns his nose up at doggy fashion shows. Check out some of Logan’s choicest outfits in a gallery after the jump.

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The Goods

Business of Fashion

January 19, 2012 | 4:35 pm

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Brandon Dwyer is out and Wesley Badanjak is in at Basch

Basch, the clothing line from Eleventh Floor Apparel (with a sort-of eponymous store in Yorkville called Eleven selling all Canadian-made merchandise), has announced that Wesley Badanjak will take over the helm. Badanjak is known for his line Lovas, which he will continue to run concurrently. Fashion lovers will remember Basch used to be called Basch by Brandon when Project Runway alum Brandon Dwyer ran the collection, but those itching for flame-out gossip will be disappointed—Dwyer has just moved to Revive magazine. The fewer Galliano-sized blow-ups the Canadian fashion industry has, the better (although it does make us seem a little boring).

(Images: Brandon Dwyer, Keshia Chante; Wesley Badanjak, Wesley Badanjak)

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