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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.
Coco Rocha for Greta Constantine S/S 2011 (Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)
Going rogue seems to be a designer’s raison d’être when the ad-clad walls of LG Fashion Week seem a bit too restrictive. Showing off-site may be more expensive for designers (well, there isn’t a premium on water), but Toronto’s fashion-inclined flock to these out-of-the-way warehouses and brickworks because the CNE can be depressing and equally out of the way. There’s usually free-flowing bubbly to be consumed at the off-site shows as well, which beats a marked-up beer and gratis sampling of watery espresso. Enter 2011’s class of rogue designers—check out the list below.
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Coco modelling for Greta Constantine last year (Image: Keshia Chante)
Remember when Linda Evangelista joked that models don’t wake up for less than $10,000 a day? Well, 20-some-odd years later, models are doing a lot more than appearing in George Michael videos and throwing cellphones at harried assistants. Coco Rocha, the Canadian model who has walked the runways for Stella McCartney, Louis Vuitton and Christian Lacroix, is giving back by visiting Haiti, one year after the earthquake. She will be delivering letters as part of the Letters to Haiti campaign, which is a sort of pen-pal program through which people can offer support to those in Haiti beyond the usual faceless donations. If you want Coco to find out or do anything specific while she’s there, you can let her know in the comment section of her blog.
• Countdown to Haiti [Oh So Coco!]
• Letters To Haiti Provide A Different Kind Of Help [NPR]
BEAN SPROUT
All winter clothing and outerwear is 30 per cent off at this kids’ clothing shop. 565 Mount Pleasant Rd., 416-932-3727, beansprout.ca.
CABARET
The vintage shop is offering 50 per cent off dresses, men’s suits and jewellery. 672 Queen St. W., 416-504-7126.
DANDI MAESTRE Read the rest of this entry »
Accessory designer Dandi Maestre has a knack for bold, statement-making jewellery (antler necklace, anyone?). While she sells on-line, we’re heading to this pre-holiday pop-up shop to ogle the goods in person. From $40. Until Dec. 22. 386 Huron St., dandimaestre.com.
(Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)
A Greta Constantine show is always a spectacle; last season, design duo Kirk Pickersgill and Stephen Wong showed the collection at a sprawling Audi dealership on the Bayview Extension. It’s the most anticipated event in the run-up to LG fashion week, so it’s no surprise that the atmosphere at the spring 2011 show echoed that of a nearby Richmond Street nightclub—lineups, broken glassware and surly bouncers included. The venue: 161 Spadina Avenue (the same space used for TIFF’s splashy Soho House parties and Colin Firth’s 50th). Guests waited an hour after the scheduled start time for the show to begin, tweeting their dismay but sated by an open bar and charcuterie table prepared by Parts and Labour.
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(Image: Louis Vuitton)
A-list models are usually the calling card of the Joe Fresh Style show (see: Crystal Renn, Irina Lazareanu), but at tonight’s Greta Constantine presentation, Coco Rocha will strut her stuff. Rocha—who’s also appeared in the Joe show and on runways for Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Marc Jacobs—is a long-time friend of GC designers Kirk Pickersgill and Stephen Wong and approached the duo about appearing in their show. She’ll also host a party in celebration of Canadian fashion on Monday at the Roosevelt Room. Look for photos of the show and Rocha here on Monday.
(Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)
Last night, Evan Biddell launched two weeks of fashion shows and industry events in Toronto with a show held at a factory on Wilson Avenue (check out the photos in our slide show below). The clothes, which played with proportion (armour was an inspiration), will be on display during LG fashion week, which begins on Monday.
Also showing this week, ahead of the official schedule, are Philip Sparks (he’ll be debuting his women’s line tonight), Nada, Dimitrichris, Joeffer Caoc, Ashley Rowe and Greta Constantine.
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Three of the city’s most stylish personalities reveal what they’re buying this fall, plus six of our favourite autumn looks after the jump.
NICHOLAS MELLAMPHY
Creative director of The Room
Black Brown 1826’s cashmere jacket
$399, The Bay
“This cashmere jacket from Black Brown 1826 is going to be the centrepiece of my fall wardrobe—I live in denim and jackets. I’m getting it in both black and charcoal. I love the luxurious texture of the fabric and the super-slim cut.”
JULES POWER
Womenswear designer
18 Waits’ Johnny hat
$225, 18waits.com
“I’m completely in love with 18 Waits’ Johnny hat for fall. It was designed in collaboration with Biltmore, Canada’s oldest hat maker, and made in Guelph. It’s an amazing smoky grey colour and totally in keeping with the earthy gypsy style that’s inspiring me this season.”
COCO ROCHA
Model
Greta Constantine’s Doris dress Read the rest of this entry »
$1,595, gretaconstantine.com
“I love the draping on Greta Constantine’s new Doris dress, a midnight blue gown that recalls Old Hollywood. It’s perfect for a red carpet event anywhere.”
It doesn't get more Canadian than this: Ron MacLean, everybody (Image: Karon Liu)
Remember the Canadian content of the opening ceremony of the Vancouver Olympics? That was nothing compared to the scene at the Liberty Grand last night as a who’s who of this country’s power Gentiles (it was Rosh Hashanah) met to rub elbows and try to come up with something nice to say about Score: A Hockey Musical.
Think of a Canadian television show and, chances are, the cast was there. Come to think of it, the whole shebang was like a CBC cocktail party: Erin Karpluk and Adam Fergus from Being Erica, contestants from the upcoming season of Battle of the Blades, Ron MacLean from Hockey Night in Canada, the fire-breathing entrepreneurs from Dragons’ Den, and Strombo. Supermodel Monica Schnarre, as Citytv’s TIFF correspondent, distracted many people from those actually walking the red carpet, including, we hear, David Schwimmer, Morgan Spurlock and Emily Haines.
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Flip open the September issue of Nylon and you’ll find four Canadian labels featured inside: Evan Biddell, Greta Constantine, Marika Brose and newcomer to watch Amanda Lew Kee. All of them are making their mark in Toronto. The two-page shout-out, titled “Oh, Canada,” naturally, is thanks to Toronto’s 90210 starlet Shenae Grimes, who picked her favourite homegrown designers.
The roof pool at the Thompson Hotel (Image: George Pimentel)
By 10 p.m. last night, the wait for the elevator was an hour long, and the rooftop patio was at capacity. We shouldn’t have been surprised that the place was packed. Yes, yes, everyone was there. To drop some boldfaces, Kelly Rowan, Trevor Born, Jeanne Beker, the boys of Greta Constantine, Jeremy Laing (who designed the fabulous dresses the servers wore), Stacey Kimel, Ben Mulroney, Galen Weston Jr., teen blogging sensation Tavi Gevinson, Society gals Ashleigh Dempster and Amanda Blakley, Jian Ghomeshi, DJ Tony (from Ellen), et al.
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HOW DID WE DO IT? While the Great Recession battered other cities, Toronto has emerged triumphant—Bay Street is bullish, our real estate market is hot, and the streets are sparkling for this month’s G20. Yes, our success has a lot to do with our stingy financial system, but it’s also because smart, interesting people move here every day, attracted to a city that’s challenging and gritty and exciting and indulgent (we have a restaurant dedicated entirely to grilled cheese sandwiches, Reason No. 2). If Torontonians have one shared flaw, it’s that we’re pathologically reluctant to acknowledge our greatness. Now, more than ever, we have reasons to brag
One of the looks Greta Constantine showed at Holt Renfrew (Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)
Yesterday morning, Holt Renfrew invited the media to attend an intimate showcase of five Canadian lines it will be carrying at the store. Considered some of the best in the country, each of the designers—Denis Gagnon, Jeremy Laing, Mikhael Kale, Greta Constantine‘s Kirk Pickersgill and Stephen Wong, and Lida Baday (who was not in attendance)—showed a few pieces from their fall collections. Also present were fashion week queen bee Robin Kay and Vogue writer Mark Holgate. The problem? None of the designers are showing during LG Fashion Week, which runs until Thursday in the massive Allstream Centre that’s been pimped out in all the razzle-dazzle of a King West club. And Holgate, who came to Toronto as a guest of Holts, won’t be attending any of its shows. Kay was clearly stung by yesterday’s event, despite rumours that Holts may bring the designers to fashion week in future seasons. Kay told the Star that the designers “will not get the coverage that a brand needs in that [Holts'] environment because there isn’t a large number of shooters and tweeters, or live-streaming.” She also described the event as “quiet” (and it was—delightfully so) and chastised the store. “Holt Renfrew is a sponsor. With their largesse, they should have made a point of bringing that gentleman to the site to see that we are a fashion week and to see designers he may not have heard of. That’s a sponsor’s duty and responsibility.”
* UPDATE: Despite what was reported previously, Holt Renfrew tells us that they did take Holgate to the Izma show, which opened fashion week on Sunday evening. The writer was only in town for 24 hours, however, and therefore not able to make it to other presentations.
(Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)
It seems that fur has become no big deal in Canadian fashion this season, with Jeremy Laing, Greta Constantine and Izma all using it fearlessly. Yesterday, Sunny Fong (who’ll be forever referred to as the Project Runway Canada season two winner) made full use of the North American Fur Association by adorning outfits with fur lapels, collars, cuffs and hems for his Vawk line. Though Fong’s inspiration for his Collision Fungi collection, “the beauty of decay and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow,” reminded us more of an OCAD artist statement, the designer took a big step from last season. We particularly liked the leather skirts and luxe coats trimmed with fur; the slim-fitting trousers with an extra flap of fabric to resemble riding pants; and leather skirts with padding at the hips. Both looks echo a spring trend of playing with hip proportions. Look for such fellow PRC alums as Evan Biddell and Lucian Matis later in the week.
See the full Vawk collection in the slide show below >>
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The latest subject of BlogTO’s “Toronto through the eyes of” series is, appropriately, the Fashion Design Council of Canada’s much-gossiped-about president, Robin Kay. Kay, who’s responsible for organizing fashion week, which began with the Izma show last night, gives away some non-surprising tidbits (she likes vintage shops on Queen, loves The Room at The Bay, wants more people to wear Canadian designers) and said that it’s possible the white tents will return to Nathan Phillips Square in future seasons. We also learned that Kay is a master of the indirect answer, a must for anyone who’s had to fight off critics as much as she has.
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