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Jimmy Choo Uggs, Sarah Jessica Parker designs for Halston, Tony Blair to become fashion exec

Tamara Mellon choo-choo chooses Uggs

• Jimmy Choo designer Tamara Mellon has joined the list of people who actually admit to owning Uggs (André Leon Talley and Cathy Horyn are also on it). In fact, Mellon loves the boots so much that she’s collaborating on the design of five styles of Jimmy Choo Uggs (Chuggs?) to be available in October for a whopping $595 to $795. [Fashionista]

• Tony Blair is in the final stages of negotiating a deal to join the French luxury goods powerhouse LVMH as an advisor. The group owns, among many other companies, Louis Vuitton, Celine, Givenchy, Marc Jacobs and a host of high-end alcohol brands. Blair is a close friend of LVMH head Bernard Arnault, and the pair is expected to work closely together to attract new clients. Now, if only Blair would advise his notoriously unfashionable successor on what to wear. [Huffington Post]

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The Goods

Required Reading

January 14, 2010 | 8:27 am

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The New Yorker on Rodarte: the emperor has no clothes

A look from Rodarte's Target collection (Photo from Target)

Rodarte is probably one of the most talked about fashion lines coming out of the States right now. In only five years and with no formal training, sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy have nabbed over $200,000 in industry prizes, won the endorsement of Vogue editor Anna Wintour and designed a sought-after diffusion line for Target. In this week’s issue of The New Yorker, writer Amanda Fortini documents the ascent of the avant-garde designers but isn’t as awed by the sisters Mulleavy as the rest of the fashion world.

Fortini describes Kate as “zaftig” (our favourite new euphemism for “fat”) and takes note of part-eaten boxes of mini-cheesecakes lying around the studio. She also classifies Kate’s sweater as “the sort a frumpy older lady might wear.” But sharper criticisms are aimed at the Target line.

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The Dish

Rumours & Rumblings

December 28, 2009 | 2:31 pm

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Rachel McAdams takes cooking classes in Kensington Market

V0CV001021N0 Rachel McAdams plays it differently than most homegrown starlets who find success in Hollywood: she lives north of the border in a Toronto Victorian, bikes or walks everywhere, and still sports well-worn boots from her days as a York drama student. Although she is currently gracing the cover of Vogue, wearing Dior and Dolce and Gabbana, McAdams says she isn’t interested in material possessions: “I really don’t desire things. I prefer to spend my money on experiences, on meals or travel.” Recently, her Toronto experiences have included knife-skills sessions at the Kensington kitchenware shop Good Egg, which prompted a vow to improve her vegetable slicing technique. She prefers to eat at “unstarry, cash-only, foodie-slacker restaurants” like New York’s Kasadela in Alphabet City, where McAdams opts for spicy chicken wings, grilled salmon skin and dried nori. Her ideal day? Kundalini yoga, grocery shopping and fixing up her once tumbling-down house, which she shares with her brother. This day sounds unconvincingly simple for someone who once dated Ryan Gosling and Josh Lucas, but true to her “famously private” reputation, we assume she’s simply leaving out the most salacious details.

• The Notebook, part two [Vogue]

The Goods

Shop Talk

December 21, 2009 | 2:52 pm

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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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The Goods

Required Reading

December 17, 2009 | 12:57 pm

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The Necky is the new Snuggie, André Leon Talley to judge ANTM, Rachel McAdams’s Vogue cover, Dov Charney strikes again

Who wouldn't take beauty advice from Dov Charney? (Photo by Legalize LA)

• Rachel McAdams is on the cover of January’s Vogue, wearing floral print, a cardigan and a terrible hairdo. She’s a Toronto girl, so we’re full of pride, especially because Vogue covers tend to be reserved for the same few American and British celebs. But we can’t get over that hair, which has been described as Kate Gosselin–esque, and that’s never a good thing. [Lainey Gossip]

• Dov Charney is at it again. The mustachioed CEO of American Apparel is apparently telling staffers how to tweeze their brows. In an e-mail sent to employees, Charney attached a picture of a female with over-plucked eyebrows (in an AA store, no less) captioned “No”; also attached was a shot of the apparently more ideal Brooke Shields eyebrows, captioned with a “Yes.” One of the company’s employees is appalled at how the e-mail was directed at women, but really, beauty tips are pretty harmless compared to Charney’s other alleged exploits. [Jezebel]

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The Goods

Required Reading

December 14, 2009 | 12:14 pm

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The year in fashion: a roundup of 2009 retrospectives

Drew Barrymore's "daring" TIFF dress (Photo by James Helmer)

• Judith Thomson takes a look at the most memorable fashion moments of the Obama era. The highlights: the cardi-skirt combo Michelle Obama wore to meet the Queen, Aretha Franklin’s bowed inauguration hat and Sarah Palin’s glasses. [The New Yorker]

• The fall of Eatons, the rise of fashion week, the influx of starchitecture and seven other noteworthy Toronto design moments of the oughts. [Now]

• Topping People‘s snoozy best-dressed list is Kate Winslet, who wins for her body-conscious red carpet looks. Michelle Obama scored the award for most accessible style, and Cameron Diaz has the year’s best jeans. [People]

• Celebrity style bible In Style has put together a slide show of the most daring dresses of the year. None of the looks come close to J. Lo’s plunging Versace gown from 2000, but one of our favourite TIFF outfits—Drew Barrymore’s Alexander McQueen tattoo dress—made the cut, though we’d hardly call it risky. Barrymore’s dye job, on the other hand… [In Style]

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The Goods

Required Reading

December 3, 2009 | 2:15 pm

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Hermès accused of hoarding alligator skins, Karl Lagerfeld creates SpongeBob doll, Tom Ford disses Jason Reitman

Tom Ford at the TIFF premiere of A Single Man (Photo by Karon Liu)

• Canadian model Coco Rocha announced last week that she’s launching her own fashion line. No details yet, but her sketches include high-waisted skinny jeans, ankle-skimming pants, and a shirt, skirt and cape. We’re not impressed with the initial designs, but if her line comes out anything like Kate Moss for Topshop (we hope, coming to The Bay), we won’t complain. [Oh So Coco]

• SpongeBob SquarePants got a makeover courtesy of Karl Lagerfeld, who moulded the cartoon creature into a golden mini-Karl, complete with sunglasses, fingerless gloves, shirt and tie. The figurine fetched 1,000 euros at a World Wildlife Fund charity auction. Lagerfeld has already designed a teddy bear in his image, but fans shouldn’t wait for a Karl doll. The designer told W magazine, “Nothing scares me more than people with some doll collection. Frightening.” [WWD]

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The Goods

Required Reading

November 26, 2009 | 3:29 pm

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Christian Louboutin calls his customers ‘sluttish,’ Demi Moore denies Photoshop work, Toronto toy company takes on Barbie

The scandalous Demi Moore W cover

• Christian Louboutin, the man who made six-inch heels the norm, describes his shoes as tarty, saying women sometimes buy them to feel more “sluttish.” These customers include prostitutes, who the designer says wear his shoes because they’re “super-chic.” When that inevitable Pretty Woman remake is shot, Louboutin would be the perfect candidate to supply those “super-chic” thigh-high vinyl boots Julia Roberts wore. [The Times]

• Kate Moss is at it again. This time, the British model is being chastised for admitting that she tells herself that “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels,” a mantra frequently touted on pro–eating disorder Web sites. Sure, it was an incredibly stupid thing to say, but cut her some slack. She’s a well-documented cocaine user who used to date Pete Doherty. Clearly, her judgment wasn’t too sound to begin with. [BBC]

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The Goods

Required Reading

October 30, 2009 | 10:52 am

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Lululemon accused of not carrying bigger sizes, Prada wants men in skirts, not even Vogue editors can walk in Alexander McQueen’s shoes

Footwear from Alexander McQueen's spring/summer 2010 show

• While some are praising Toronto fashion week as a bona-fide fashion event, we hear the work’s not over yet. David Graham applauds the designers snagged by the Fashion Design Council of Canada but thinks next year, the FDCC needs more A-list talent. (Well, duh.) Graham wants to see Toronto phenoms Jeremy Laing, Lida Baday and Michael Kale in the tents, too. [Toronto Star]

• Does Lululemon cater only to skinny yogis? One shopper complains that a Lulu employee told her the shop would be discontinuing size 12 outfits because bigger sizes are not within the company’s target demographic of young, high-income, childless women. [National Post]

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The Goods

Required Reading

October 16, 2009 | 3:13 pm

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GQ didn’t alter January Jones’s breasts, Karl Lagerfeld calls model critics “fat mummies,” Torontonian named top fashion blogger

January Jones on the cover of GQ

• The Telegraph has published a roundup of the 20 best fashion blogs. Included are some unsurprising picks (The Sartorialist, Bryanboy), but Toronto’s Tommy Ton also got a nod for the photo-heavy Jak and Jil Blog. [Telegraph]

• The 15th anniversary of Nars cosmetics is being fêted with a celebrity-packed coffee table book titled 15×15. Stealing more buzz than the tome itself is a photo inside of a shirtless Marc Jacobs in bright red lipstick and nails. The shot was inspired by a Richard Avedon picture of ’60s model China Machado. We get the pose and nail polish, but what’s with the trucker moustache? [WWD]

• Critical Shopper Mike Albo visits the Lululemon in Lincoln Square and discovers what Canadians have known for years: there’s no better gear for downward dogging than Lulus, not to mention how good they make our butt look at the gym. [New York Times]

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The Goods

Required Reading

October 9, 2009 | 9:01 am

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Lindsay Lohan’s Ungaro collection includes pasties, Carine Roitfeld freaks out at Galliano show, Irving Penn dies at 92

The future of fashion

• John Galliano’s fashion show started an hour late, forcing guests, who were already snippy about having to trek to the inconvenient location, to wait in the pouring rain. A particularly pissed Carine Roitfeld chewed up a PR rep, who couldn’t find the French Vogue editor a glass of water. Once inside, the roof began to leak and water dripped on spectators. Not surprisingly, the collection was met with tepid feedback. [Telegraph]

• Just about every fashion critic on Earth trashed Lindsay Lohan’s first collection (hot pink, skin-tight silhouettes and heart-shaped nipple pasties) as Emanuel Ungaro’s “artistic advisor.” But the Washington Post put it best: “It lacked finesse, sophistication, technical skill and any evidence of good taste.” At least there weren’t any leggings. [Washington Post]

• The dim financial future of Christian Lacroix looks a little brighter after the announcement that Sheikh Hassan Ben Ali al-Naimi lI of the United Arab Emirates has offered to take over the house, which filed for bankruptcy four months ago. We’ll find out on October 20 whether or not the bid is successful. Fingers crossed. [AFP]

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The Goods

New in Shops

July 22, 2009 | 1:45 am

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Blog almighty: The Sartorialist comes to Holt Renfrew

(Photo by Mike Manalang)

While Vogue’s much lighter September issue is about to hit newsstands, the on-line fashion world is continuing to grow, and one of its most loved members is in Toronto today. Scott Schuman, the man behind the influential street fashion blog The Sartorialist, is at Holt Renfrew’s Bloor Street flagship to unveil his in-store photography exhibit to the public and, we hope, snap a few subjects along the way.

The appearance coincides with the unveiling of the luxe retailer’s new window displays late last month. Each is inspired by a fashion blogger, including Schuman, as well as locals Anita Clarke of I Want – I Got and Jak and Jil’s Tommy Ton.

“It just seems like a natural evolution,” says Holt Renfrew’s creative director, John Gerhardt, on why bloggers are the next big thing in the fashion industry. “Fashion always creates stars in their own industry. We did models, editors and photographers, and now it’s about time we did bloggers.”

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The Goods

Best Dressed

June 3, 2009 | 1:45 am

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Toronto’s Best Dressed: Jessica de Ruiter

Picking the perfect wedding dress is arguably the most important fashion decision some women will ever make. Los Angeles–based stylist Jessica de Ruiter (a former Vogue editor and Toronto native) pulled off an enviable mix of timeless and contemporary for her big day. We caught up with the newlywed—pictured here with her husband, artist Jed Lind, outside their reception at the Gardiner Museum—to get the scoop on stylish simplicity and why wedding conventions were made to be broken.

(Photo by Jon Barber)

As a stylist, you must have been imagining your wedding dress for years. How did you decide on this one?
I was never one of those girls who dreamed about her wedding. I started looking in L.A., where I live, after we decided to get married. I went to Saks and found some amazing Oscar de la Renta gowns. Turns out the only other place to find his wedding collection in L.A. was at a tiny trunk show in the Valley, so I went there, which is where I found the dress. I took Jed to see it.

You took the groom to see the dress before the big day? Isn’t that against the rules?
I know, but I trust his opinion so much, and from the start we’ve been doing everything together. I decided to buy the dress in Toronto so I wouldn’t have to worry about shipping. I went to White in Yorkville, and it was the best experience. The ambience was perfect: they serve cookies and champagne. There is nothing like that in L.A.

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