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The Fame Monsters

Karl Lagerfeld opposes gay marriage, plus eight other things learned from his interview with Bruce LaBruce

Toronto filmmaker slash smarty-pants smut-monger Bruce LaBruce’s Q&A with designer Karl Lagerfeld in Vice has been circulating around the fashion media, even getting a mention in Shinan Govani’s column today. For the time crunched, nine highlights from the seven-page interview.

1. Lagerfeld opposes the idea of gay marriage: “I’m against it for a very simple reason: in the ’60s, they all said we had the right to the difference. And now, suddenly, they want a bourgeois life.” LaBruce agrees.

2. Lagerfeld doesn’t like to take off his glasses, which he calls “a burka for a man,” because he is nearsighted.

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| 3 Comments » March 17, 2010 | 11:25 am | Karon Liu

Gossipmonger

Miss J. finds Toronto’s next top runway model

Ciara Hunt's winning walk (Image: Karon Liu)

“Would our first model please come out?” cooed Miss J., the statuesque America’s Next Top Model runway coach, in the Bloor Street Holt Renfrew this weekend for a “celebrity walk-off” slash promotion for his new book, Follow the Model.

Breakfast Television’s Dina Pugliese was first up. “Girl, I think if the shoe fits, wear it,” critiques Miss J. “If the shoe is a little too small, sweetie, you have to make it work.” Pugliese took off her stilettos for her second attempt. “I’ll have to take off a point ’cause she took off her shoe,” he told the panel of judges: gossip king Shinan Govani, MTV sweetheart Jessi Cruickshank and Canada’s answer to Tim Gunn, model agent Elmer Olsen.

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| 1 Comment » March 15, 2010 | 4:08 pm | Karon Liu

Gossipmonger

Sarah Jessica Parker is coming to Toronto

SJP in Halston on the Sex and the City 2 poster

The Sex and the City star and newly minted president and chief creative officer of fashion label Halston is packing her bags for a trip to Toronto next month for a party at The Bay, so reports Shinan Govani. Sarah Jessica Parker will be acting as a Halston exec when she visits The Room, the new luxury section at the Yonge and Queen location.

Not surprisingly, Carrie Bradshaw’s alter ego is also front and centre in the classic American label’s new ads—timed to come out just in time for the release of the Sex and the City movie sequel—and she also sports some of the clothes in the movie itself. (A floaty white Halston dress, for instance, that’s featured prominently in the trailer.) Cross, meet promotion.
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| 6 Comments » February 11, 2010 | 2:32 pm | Carley Fortune

Restauran-TO

Is Cinq 01 the new Amber?

Cinq 01: Take the boy out of Yorkville, but not Yorkville out of the boy (Photo by Karon Liu)

After finding success among the socialites with Yorkville’s Amber, nightclub king Toufik Sarwa opened Cinq 01 to create a more grown-up venture—a place where the emphasis is on the food rather than the guest list. But no such luck. Since the spot opened last fall, it has been increasingly packed with the well heeled, making this the first time since the ’90s that the glitterati are partying on College Street (and this time, they’re not slumming it).

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| 1 Comment » February 11, 2010 | 2:10 pm | Karon Liu

Rumours & Rumblings

New York legend Scott Conant to open new restaurant in Toronto

Shinan Govani finally had some food gossip to dish up this past weekend. Rumour has it that renowned chef Scott Conant is coming to Toronto to set up a restaurant at the much-hyped Thompson Hotel on Wellington West—the hospitality chain’s first location on non-U.S. soil, due to open this spring. Conant is the man behind Manhattan’s celebrated Scarpetta and will be importing its high-end Italian ethos, trademark polenta and foodie cult appeal to his new Toronto digs. His local partner on the project, Tony Cohen, tells Govani that the hotel will also house a 24-hour diner, which should be “perfect for both night owls and Spoke Club members alike.”

Funny that, not long ago, this was the spot from which Thompson Hotel Group poached great Toronto chef Susur Lee. Perhaps the family-owned luxury hotel group is back to make amends.

• King West’s new kingpin? [National Post]

| 2 Comments » February 8, 2010 | 4:36 pm | Robert Furtado

Required Reading

Canadian designer Mark Fast declines to give clothes to Lady Gaga, gives them to Topshop instead

Mark Fast at Ame in December (Photo by Karon Liu)

Just before the holidays, we predicted that Canadian designer Mark Fast would be thrust into the spotlight in 2010. Three short weeks later, we were proven right. Back then, we wondered whether the designer’s attention-grabbing show during London fashion week (it included plus-sized models) was a fluke, but since his quick trip to Toronto in December, he’s been making headlines all over the world. It seems the humble Manitoban has a knack for handling the press. Last week, he refused to lend his clothes to armoured style icon Lady Gaga (even though he loves “Bad Romance”), saying his designs are not about “fast food fashion.” That’s a head scratcher of a statement, since he launched a lower-priced diffusion line called Faster the same week and since there is talk about him designing a line for the speediest of fashion retailers, Topshop (also rumoured to be opening in Toronto in the near future).

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| Leave a Comment » January 13, 2010 | 11:10 am | Carley Fortune

Shop Talk

Life in the Fast lane: Canadian designer Mark Fast returns home after turning heads in London

Mark Fast at Ame, flanked by two models in his designs (Photo by Karon Liu)

With such magazines as Rolling Stone, ID, In Style, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar and nine editions of Vogue (Korean, Japanese, Chinese, American, British, Italian, Russian, Greek and Spanish) featuring his designs, it’s odd that Manitoba-born knitwear designer Mark Fast doesn’t get more mainstream attention in his home and native land. But that could change shortly.

The 29-year-old was fêted at the Rubino brothers’ new restaurant, Ame, in Toronto on Friday night—a splashy homecoming party following recent successes overseas. Fast, who has lived in England for the past eight years, caused a stir during London fashion week when he chose three plus-size models to wear his form-fitting knit dresses; his stylist quit, saying that the models “didn’t have the walk down as well as the more experienced slimmer girls.” His clothes have recently been spotted on pretty young things, including Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester, and he won a coveted sponsorship from the British Fashion Council to show at London fashion week in February. “All of my ideas came from here, and I don’t want to be hidden away in London forever,” Fast told us on Friday. “Someday I’d like to get a place in Vancouver.”

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| Leave a Comment » December 21, 2009 | 2:52 pm | Karon Liu

Shop Talk

Just opened: Hugo Boss debuts Yorkville flagship

A look from the Boss Black fall collection

The Mink Mile’s newest resident is Hugo Boss. The office wear outfitter recently opened a store on Bloor Street, where Bemelmans bar once stood, and fêted it last week with an A-list party catered by North 44° and attended by the likes of Atom Egoyan, Suzanne Boyd and Shinan Govani.

The hoopla is over the company’s first Canadian flagship, which has been designed in a new Hugo Boss look to be adopted by all future flagships across the world. The space is awash in greys, creams and black, which makes for an impressive, if a bit sterile, first impression. Halfway through the shop is a grand circular staircase underneath a modernist chandelier of rectangular hanging lights.

The merchandise will appeal most to high-rolling businessmen with an affinity for golf. Downstairs, there are a rainbow of polos ($95) and a flashy golf bag ($550) and umbrella ($185); upstairs is the suiting boutique, which carries younger, slim silhouettes, as well as more traditional cuts. We spotted a gorgeous slim-cut blue wool blazer, in the vein of Etro and Paul Smith, with a light blue polka-dot lining ($695). Aspiring Gordon Gekkos can pick up the Boss brand humidor, loaded with three Cohibas and sporting a leather exterior ($2,895); it’s one of only two available in Canada.

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| Leave a Comment » December 16, 2009 | 12:43 pm | Fraser Abe

Toronto Fashion Week

Bustle puts on a hopping show with Rick Mercer, Shinan Govani and Stacy McKenzie

Rick Mercer on the catwalk for the Bustle show (Photo by Jenna Marie Wakani)

Who says Canadians don’t appreciate their own celebs? With cameos from Rick Mercer, gossip columnist Shinan Govani and model Stacey McKenzie, last night’s Bustle show was the highlight of the evening.

Set up on the Bustle runway was a large wicker lounge chair, a drink cart, bar and barbecues. Govani tended bar, with Mercer behind the barbecue. What fun, we thought, and then remembered that we were there to look at the clothes.

Though it was an Ontario lake scene projected onto the back wall, the Hamptons was the clear reference. We watched the male models strutting in preppy shorts and blazers but were distracted by a bikini-clad McKenzie wheeling the drink cart down the runway and handing caesars to front-row spectators. At one point, she licked a celery stalk and popped it into the mouth of an unsuspecting man. Funny, yes, but what about the clothes? There were polos and shorts, cardigans and plaid shirts, all in saturated hues of raspberry, purple, red and teal with pops of white. The blazers were oh-so Chuck Bass (in a good way), and the hoodies were very American Apparel (in a boring way).

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| 1 Comment » October 21, 2009 | 12:10 pm | Carley Fortune

Restauran-TO, Toronto International Film Festival 2009

On the festival’s penultimate night, Shinan Govani and Barry Avrich held a fête for Boldface Names

Book bash: Boldface Names, the new novel by Shinan Govani, was celebrated yet again

“Another book launch party?” we asked.
“This is number three—officially,” said the paperback writer in Prada.

Third time’s for the charmed circle, apparently. Gathered in Harbour Sixty’s glittering cellar were publishing magnates and paparazzi magnets, fashion editors and filmmakers, social queen bees and an MTV princess. Somehow, we were there, too, allured and bewildered, suddenly privy to the extraordinary problems of the ruling class.

“I walked in, and the first thing Shinan said to me was, ‘There won’t be enough red!’” said Mary Symons, effervescent patroness to social boozers—she’d donated caseloads from her winery, Thomas George Estates. “And I said, ‘Well, how many people are coming? You told me 40, and what now, 50?’” Her gemmy earrings shook helplessly. We vowed to drink only white. She laughed a generous laugh.

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| Leave a Comment » September 21, 2009 | 10:28 am | Sarah Nicole Prickett