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All stories relating to trends

Wear it now: two options for fall layering

We’ve found two cover-ups—one a casual weekend sweater and the other a more formal jacket—that are just the thing for this week’s cooler fall temperatures.

IT’S A WRAP
New to Yorkville, Rac Boutique is a welcome addition to the neighbourhood, with a collection of clothing and lifestyle products procured by young owners Glenna Weddle and Faith Orfus from all around the globe. This cozy cardigan from New York’s Mara Hoffman is a marriage of two of this fall’s big trends: Navajo print and chunky knits. $440. Rac Boutique, 124 Cumberland St., 647-352-4433.—Alanna Davey

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The Dish

Pantry Raid

October 7, 2010 | 10:17 am

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2,000 chefs weigh in on the top restaurant trend of 2010

High times: a rooftop garden in Toronto (Image: Steven Harris)

Toronto is not always on the ball when it comes to eating and drinking trends (we’ve only just climbed on the speakeasy bandwagon), but we seem to be ahead of the game on the latest one to make—or rather, re-make—the news. According to a survey of 2,000 chefs by the National Restaurant Association, gardens are the hottest restaurant trend of 2010.

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The Goods

Shop Talk

October 7, 2010 | 10:06 am

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Introducing: Frye’s pop-up shop

The place: The latest in the city’s string of pop-up shops is Frye, which has taken up residence inside Ron White’s swanky Bloor Street store. It has the biggest selection of the brand’s boots, shoes and bags in the country. Frye was founded in 1863 and is the oldest continuously operating shoe company in the United States. Its boots were worn by soldiers during the Civil War, and Teddy Roosevelt and now by Barack Obama.

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The Goods

The Style File

September 30, 2010 | 9:23 am

28 Comments

Suzanne Rogers, celebrity look-alike: the photographic evidence

(Image: George Pimentel)

On a scale of fashion-related risk taking, Torontonians often fall somewhere between “buttoned-up” and “the Amish,” which is why we adore telecom trophy wife Suzanne Rogers, who stands out like a bejewelled pageant queen at a minimalist Calvin Klein show.

True, some outfits are more successful than others, but we love a gal who isn’t afraid to make a Hollywood-style splash. We’ve gathered some of S-Ro’s most Us Weekly–inspired fashion statements. Take a look at them after the jump.

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The Goods

Trend Alert

September 21, 2010 | 1:18 pm

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From the department of ridiculous trends: fashion designer water

Evian's Issey Miyake bottle and San Pellegrino's Missoni design

We’ve noticed some outrageous designer collaborations lately—Cynthia Rowley‘s patterned Band-Aids (a tin of 20 is $10 U.S.) rank among the more ludicrous while somehow still being covetable—but fashion water bottles are surely the most absurd.

The other week, a bottle of San Pellegrino was delivered to the office, its exterior covered in a patchwork sleeve made from Missoni fabric. What a terrific waste of material, we thought. Apparently created to promote Italian-made products, the bottles that will be sold in stores won’t have the cover; they’ll sport a pretty label instead.

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The Hype

TIFF Talk

September 17, 2010 | 3:34 pm

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Variety on TIFF: the Hollywood paper names six trends from the film festival

As the din of snapping cameras and movie buzz dies down in Toronto, cineastes south of the border are weighing in on how this year’s TIFF stacked up to previous years (note: the festival doesn’t officially end until Sunday). This morning, the famous film industry trade journal Variety doled out its rating. The reactions of writers Justin Chang and Peter Debruge are mixed, but what really piqued our interest were some of the trends they noticed. “Emotional” films? A pro-Michigan agenda? Odd choices, to say the least. Here, a run down of the six trends in TIFF’s first major review.

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The Dish

Bottoms Up

August 4, 2010 | 2:58 pm

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LCBO alerts province: people like to drink in good weather

Excellent weather: we'll drink to that (Image: Stephen_Parker)

The Toronto Star‘s Weather360 blog has an interesting post up about something near and dear to our hearts: the great weather this summer has, crazily enough, got Ontarians in a more high-spirited mood than average. And just to be clear, by high-spirited, we mean drinking:

Here’s how busy the bartender at Toronto’s Black Bull Tavern is: When asked if the Queen West establishment has been swamped this summer, he said he was too busy to answer the question and hung up.

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The Goods

Home Guide

August 3, 2010 | 9:10 am

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Taking Stock: five Toronto trendsetters tell us what they can’t live without

We talked to five Toronto trendsetters from the fashion, art and design worlds who make a living selling style. Here, an inventory of home stuff they can’t live without

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The Goods

Home Guide

July 28, 2010 | 2:11 pm

3 Comments

Ask the expert: interior designer Mimi Pineau tells us how to save, when to go big, and which design blunders to avoid

Interior designer Mimi Pineau, known for such innovative residential spaces as the minuscule but modern shed she exhibited at the 2010 Interior Design Show, tells us how to save, when to go big, and which design blunders to avoid at all costs.

(Image: Vanessa Heins)

How much time do you spend on a job?
Longer than people expect—anywhere from a couple of months to many years. With clients you really like, it can be difficult to end. It’s a bit like a breakup. You literally see their kids grow up.

What’s the worst design mistake your clients make?
Being too timid, especially with size or proportions. Get some good design advice at the outset, establish where you want the emphasis, and have the courage to go forward with those decisions. Rugs are a good example: a four-by-six-foot rug in a large room just doesn’t work. And with artwork, sometimes people want to put up tiny little pieces, but I recommend saving up for a while so you can choose something that makes a big statement.

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The Goods

Home Guide

July 27, 2010 | 2:13 pm

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Ask the expert: Matt Creelman, Canada’s Ty Pennington, talks home improvement

If anyone is destined to become Canada’s Ty Pennington, it’s Matt Creelman, head of Mattu Building Specialists. His client base of stylish, young downtown homebuyers swears he’s one of the last honest contractors in the city.

(Image: Vanessa Heins)

How did you become a contractor?
I grew up in a building family; my dad and my brother were engineers. Our motto was “Don’t buy it; we can build it.”

Is there one consistent challenge to renovating in this city?
Fixing other people’s work. I live in an old Victorian in Beaconsfield Village, and when I bought it, only the bathroom had been renovated. So one day my girlfriend calls me, saying, “There’s a big water blister hanging from the ceiling, and it’s dripping.” It was two feet wide and six inches deep. When I took the ceiling apart, I found a bucket sitting on the floor joists. They knew the pipes were leaking and just drywalled a bucket in there instead of fixing the plumbing.

How should clients prepare for a reno?
Get a designer. If nothing else, it helps you organize your thoughts. And make sure you get building permits. I don’t work without permits, and nobody should.

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The Goods

From the Print Edition

July 22, 2010 | 8:59 am

2 Comments

The Thing: retro reel lawn mowers take Toronto

(Photo: Natasha V.; Illustrations: Peter Arkle)

What is it about old-man accoutrements that hipsters can’t get enough of? After co-opting just about everything vintage (handlebar moustaches, white undershirts, Polaroid cameras, fanny packs), grass-loving homeowners from Leslieville to Parkdale are grooming their green space with no-gas, non-electric push mowers—the lawn care equivalent of a straight-razor shave. Eco-warriors use them to reduce their carbon footprint, and row house dwellers—still perplexed over where to stash their XXL blue bins—love the space economy of a lawn mower only slightly larger than a pogo stick. The city kick-started the comeback in 2009, when it began issuing $10 hardware store coupons to anyone willing to retire a pollution-spewing double-motor gas model. The trend is also good news for Sunday morning sleeper-inners: no motor means the only thing waking you up will be the smell of fresh-cut grass. $109. Lee Valley Tools, 590 King St. W., 416-366-5959

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The Hype

Shelf Life

July 20, 2010 | 2:06 pm

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Conrad Black writes like the author of The Godfather

And both know a thing or two about crime (Black: Dave Benett/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images; Puzo: Evan Kafka/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images)

By now many people have heard of I Write Like, the site that takes a person’s writing and matches it to that of a famous author. Of course, the results have as much validity as the personality test we took to determine our aura colour, but that didn’t stop I Write Like from being a huge hit on-line. We put some well-known Canadian writers, bloggers and our favourite convict through the test. The results, after the jump.

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The Goods

From the Print Edition

July 20, 2010 | 12:05 pm

1 Comment

Super Shopper: our monthly roundup of the city’s best stuff

Biodegradable straws, a seatbelt rocker and the rest of our picks for the best stuff in the city right now. View the slide show >>

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The Goods

The Find

July 19, 2010 | 5:05 pm

3 Comments

New generation of leggings: bicycle shorts are back

Just when much of the general population started to get comfortable with leggings (as long as they were worn with a long top, of course), envelope-pushing designers are making the tight-fitting togs edgy again by bringing the hemline up…way up. Get reacquainted with bicycle shorts—the layering staple of the grunge era—because come next summer, we’ll be seeing them all over the city. For 2010, DKNY did them in neon pink (worn under shorter shorts) and Louis Vuitton had a brocade version. Alexander Wang, Michael Kors and Miu Miu have also pushed the pedal. And, thanks to designer Thom Browne’s spring 2011 Gamme Bleu collection for Moncler, we might see the slim shorts on men, as well.

Toronto daredevils can pick up a pair from Covet, a Canadian line known for using organic and sustainable fabrics, now on sale for $25 at Lavish and Squalor. The cotton and lace confection also comes in grey, blue, beige and black.

Lavish and Squalor, 253 Queen St. W., 416-599-4779, lavishandsqualor.com.

The Hype

Leave It to Bieber

July 14, 2010 | 10:15 am

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Taiwanese company’s illustration of Justin Bieber’s syphilis rumour is creepily hilarious

Thanks to language barriers and cultural divides, it is sometimes difficult to understand news coming from another country. That’s why Taiwanese newspaper Apple Daily breaks it down for its readers with CGI re-enactments of real-life events. First, the paper gained international recognition for its animation of Tiger Woods spanking his mistress, then for a very accurate explanation of the Conan/Leno late-night war (complete with Conan transforming into the Incredible Hulk). Now they’ve set their sights on the mystery kid who keeps popping up on their Twitter trends list: Justin Bieber.

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