It was announced today that Kirk Pickersgill and Stephen Wong of Greta Constantine will be designing the new staff uniform for the Thompson’s Lobby Bar. The design very much embraces the Greta look, with signature draping and form-flattering silhouettes, perfect for serving drinks to a wide array of young professionals, leather-clad club kids (who don’t have passcards and passwords for the rooftop bar) and other hotel patrons. The hotel chain’s Toronto outpost has already partnered with Bustle to design uniforms for its diner, and the ladies serving drinks upstairs on the rooftop wear custom dresses designed by Jeremy Laing. It seems that the Thompson will go to great lengths to ensure that none of its staff are caught wearing a mangled Chanel suit (and, of course, that they wear Canadian).
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The Thompson’s Lobby Bar taps Greta Constantine to design its wait staff’s uniforms
Camera: Toronto’s peerage class gets dolled up for a royal visit at the TIFF Lightbox
November 2, TIFF Lightbox. It’s not often that royalty comes to town (not that we’re bitter, Will and Kate). So when Prince Albert Grimaldi, ruler of Monaco, arrived with his new wife, the South African former Olympic swimmer Charlene Wittstock, Toronto’s peerage class got all dolled up. The couple was here for the launch of Grace Kelly: From Movie Star to Princess, a TIFF exhibit celebrating Prince Albert’s late mom. They toured the exhibit, then repaired to the VIP room, where the prince downed brewskis and the press-shy Wittstock, understated in Dior, chatted quietly with the much less understated Suzannes (Boyd and Rogers). Though the royals departed around 8:30, the rest of the party hit the dance floor to the grooves of a live Motown band, energized as they were by their brush with nobility—the champagne-soaked jelly desserts didn’t hurt, either.
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Denis Gagnon showed a long video, an exciting collection and a model wedding (we’re still not sure why) at Toronto Fashion Week
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As day five drew to a close and fatigue from a long week began to set in, Denis Gagnon presented his spring/summer 2012 collection, reminding us why we love fashion week. In a collection entitled “Denise in the Garden,” the Montreal veteran made a return to florals after season upon season of black, white, black and, well, black. The front row was packed with Gagnon fans, including Jeanne Beker (wearing a black-and-white striped blazer from the spring/summer 2011 collection), Zoomer’s Suzanne Boyd, Greta Constantine boys Kirk Pickersgill and Stephen Wong, Fashion magazine’s Bernadette Morra, hairstylist Tony Pham, the Star’s Derick Chetty and InFashion’s Glen Baxter. The show began with a somewhat drawn-out (though beautifully shot) video featuring Gagnon in a woodsy cottage sipping champagne (a sponsor) and looking out at models who cautiously wandered through a forest dressed in the collection. We can’t say we really understood it, but the ominous music kept us glued to the screen, wondering what would happen next. As the lights dimmed, the brash sound of an accordion broke the silence and playful French crooning filled the room as models skipped down the runway, twirling, winking, waving, blowing kisses and making cheeky faces at the audience before hamming it up for the cameras at the end of the runway (one person commented that the models looked as though they could have been on acid). Check out our review and the complete Denis Gagnon spring/summer 2012 gallery after the jump.
Greta Constantine draws a big crowd at Century Room (yes, that Century Room) for the kick-off to Rogue Fashion Week
Draped, as per usual (Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)
Read the rest of this entry »Rogue Fashion Week is upon us, and Greta Constantine kicked it off last night with a show and after-party at King West’s Century Room. Designers Kirk Pickersgill and Stephen Wong are known for their extravagant shows (held at car dealerships, Rosedale mansions and TIFF hot spots with celeb models), so it was no shock to see the bevy of gussied-up Torontonians at the typically bottle-service-heavy club (oft complete with heavy beats, and rowdy men and women) for Greta Constantine’s spring/summer 2012 show. This city always seems to show its love for the Greta boys, and last night was no exception, with the many guests including socialites Suzanne Rogers, Sylvia Mantella, Amoryn Engel, Jenna Naumovich, Alexandra Weston, Suzanne Cohon and Catherine Nugent, gossip columnist Shinan Govani, performer K-os, ET Canada’s Rosey Edeh and MuchMusic personality Sarah Taylor. We also spotted Global News anchorwoman Anne Mroczkowski smoking outside with FDCC chair Robin Kay (who carried out an entire conversation with someone across the runway during the show using only hand gestures) and club king Toufik Sarwa, but the most interesting gossip was about Vanessa Mulroney, who requested 10 front row seats for her gal pals, a collection of Maple Leaf hockey wives—no word of a lie. Sitting front row alongside socialite Mulroney were Emilie Witt, Brittany Perlman, Jessica Peczek, Katarina Brown, Ania Rembacz, Dale Chaplin, Jeanne De Partout, Mel Armstrong and Jessica MacArthur. Check out our full collection gallery after the jump.
Chris Nuttall-Smith takes on La Société, Charles Khabouth’s sexy, buzzy French bistro
La Société serves up social cachet wrapped in sex appeal, and some decent French food, too (Image: Eugen Sakhnenko)
Four million dollars buys a lot of restaurant, even on Bloor Street, at the heart of the city’s richest retail mile. Charles Khabouth, the nightclub impresario behind La Société, the new, two-storey, 380-seat, more or less slavish recreation of a belle époque Paris bistro, brought in 29 tile workers, many of them from Montreal, to complete the spectacularly elaborate black, white and gold mosaic floors in the restaurant’s main bar and dining room. He and Alessandro Munge, of the Munge Leung design firm, commissioned a stained-glass ceiling for the bistro’s main space (which they’ve backlit, inexcusably, with sallow fluorescent lights), purchased their zinc bar top from France, outfitted the banquettes in brass and burgundy leather, and panelled the room in enough mahogany to deforest the best-endowed of banana republics. The rent, meantime, likely adds $2 million annually to Khabouth’s overhead. He’ll need to sell a lot of steak frites to cover that, but the man isn’t afraid to go big.
Introducing: La Société, Bloor Street’s massive new bistro and people-watching hub
The bar at La Société (Image: Gizelle Lau)
La Société, Charles Khabouth and Danny Soberano’s new upscale bistro, opened last week to just the chic red-carpet reception one would expect, with guests like “jersey boys” Kirk Pickersgill and Stephen Wong of Greta Constantine, media mogul Moses Znaimer, Canadian Read the rest of this entry »musician music manager and producer Jake Gold and Food Network Canada host Kevin Brauch (no RPattz sighting, though). We first scoped out the dining room’s impressive stained-glass ceiling shortly after it was installed, and returned last week to see how everything turned out.
Greta Constantine’s Stephen Wong and Kirk Pickersgill launch Skin, their collaboration with Danier
Kirk Pickersgill and Stephen Wong have turned to leather in a collaboration with Danier (Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)
Last night, Toronto’s glossiest glamourpusses—well, at least the ones willing to trek to Queen Street West and Brock Avenue on a rainy Monday—hit Neubacher Shor Contemporary for the premiere of Skin, the much-hyped collaboration between Danier Leather and Greta Constantine tag team Stephen Wong and Kirk Pickersgill. The event brought out Sebastian Pigott (we had to catch ourselves from referring to him as Kai Booker, his character from Being Erica), Shinan Govani, Ivana Santilli, Glen Peloso, Katie Boland, Andrew Sardone, Natalie Lecomte and Sandra Pittana, and on display—on a model and at an on-site pop-up shop—were the six outfits from the capsule collection. See our coverage of the showcase and a gallery of the pieces and the scene after the jump.
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Denis Gagnon and Greta Constantine announce buzz-worthy collaborations
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Two designer collaborations in Canada have been announced today. The first comes from Montreal designer Denis Gagnon, who will be offering a series of stacked black heels through Aldo for spring 2011. The second is from Toronto’s own “jersey boys,” Kirk Pickersgill and Stephen Wong of Greta Constantine, who are teaming with Danier to offer a diffusion line named Skin for fall 2011.
Greta and Ezra Constantine drum up a new direction on the final night of Rogue Fashion Week
Stephen Wong and Kirk Pickersgill greet their adoring fans (Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)
The boys from Greta and Ezra Constantine closed Rogue Fashion Week with a star-studded (well, by non-TIFF standards) show at the Bayview Extension Audi dealership. Suzanne Boyd, Jeanne Beker, Tommy Smythe, Barry Flatman and Jully Black (sporting a costume change from the day’s earlier Arthur Mendonça show) filled an expansive showroom so packed with fans, that, even with hundreds of seats, there was a back row labelled SRO (standing room only).
PHOTO GALLERY: see the fall/winter collections from Greta and Ezra Constantine
2011’s Cruella (Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)
Designers Kirk Pickersgill and Stephen Wong of Greta and Ezra Constantine opened up the Bayview Audi dealership on Friday night to show a fall/winter collection they called a “global dialogue.” The objective, however, seemed to be to show that the designers could do more than create Grecian-draped jersey column gowns. Did they succeed? You decide. See the full collection below and have a look at our complete scene coverage.
The six buzziest rogue fashion week shows
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 Rocha, bouncers and an hour-long wait at the Greta Constantine show
(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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Coco Rocha to appear in Greta Constantine show tonight
(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.
The problem with Holt Renfrew’s designer showcase
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.
Runway photos: Greta Constantine fall-winter 2010
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Friday night, an east-end Audi dealership received a dose of glamour as hundreds poured in for one of Toronto’s must-see fashion shows, from Greta Constantine. As they did last season, Stephen Wong and Kirk Pickersgill opted to present outside of fashion week, in order to have more creative control. Slinky dresses in grey, navy and black were accessorized with Studio 54–style chunky metallic bangles and mirrored spike-heeled booties. Black fur vests and tops were paired with skin-tight leather leggings and bodysuits—if Catwoman ever needs a new getup, she should call Greta Constantine. The menswear collection, known as Ezra Constantine, was darker and edgier, with models sporting fake bruises, cut lips and head wounds. See all the looks in the gallery below >>
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