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Some of the city’s savviest sartorialists interpret the trends you’ll see everywhere this spring, from double-breasted suits and bondage details to seventies florals and sheer fabrics.
All stories relating to trends
Model Citizens: 22 stylish Torontonians demonstrate how to wear the season’s top trends
Trend We Love/Hate: the anti-local movement
In this age of conspicuous local consumption, a handful of chefs are racking up the food miles. We’d protest, but our mouths are full.
Trend We Love: tableside ceremony
Chefs are perfecting their tableside manner and bringing a bit of ceremony back to dinner. We heartily approve.
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Trend We Hate: hay
Despite its wholesome pastoral associations, hay, with its eau de barnyard flavour and unpleasant chew, is probably better suited to horses than humans. Here’s where we ate it this year.
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Trend We Love/Hate: Toronto’s inflated comfort food economy
We at Toronto Life are avid consumers of upgraded comfort food—but we’re beginning to notice that the prices are climbing in lockstep with our cholesterol levels. Below, four down-home dishes at premium prices.
Trend We Hate: the proliferation of “Hogtown”
“Hogtown” has become the go-to restaurant moniker for these pork-mad times. Will the city never live down its despised nickname? Below, five recent contributions to the genre.
Street Style Trend Report: manipulated florals at Toronto Fashion Week
Cheery florals return in some form every spring, and judging from the runway fans at Toronto Fashion Week, this season’s incarnation is all about blown-up, smudged or otherwise distorted prints that border on the abstract. Holt Renfrew’s Moira Wright maximized the rich tones of her structured tunic with red lips and shoes, while fashion fashion blogger Lolitta Dandoy opted for black-and-white blooms (proving it’s possible to pull off two trends at once). Meanwhile, marketer Jenny Jovanovic’s coat is a great example of the “flamo” (that’s floral + camo) trend. Below, more garden-inspired prints from the tents.
Street Style Trend Report: bright pink and red at Toronto Fashion Week
At Holt Renfrew’s Toronto Fashion Week kick-off bash on Monday night, we figured the abundance of bright pink outfits was a nod to the host’s signature hue (the magenta lighting also lent the entire party a rosy glow). But as the week wore on, we spotted many more women in cheerful red or pretty pink—or both, in the cases of PR gal Gail McInnes and handbag designer Ela Kowalewska. Apparently, Valentine’s Day lives on—heck, the scalloping on Ainsley Kerr’s sweet red lace dress even reminded us of making valentines in school. See more pink and red looks from Toronto Fashion Week below.
Street Style Trend Report: extra-long coats at Toronto Fashion Week
The weather during Toronto Fashion Week is never warm—it falls in late October and mid-March, after all—but this latest edition has been more blustery and snowy than most. Rather than battle the weather, some clever scenesters hit the shows and after-parties in sweeping coats that looked as chic as they did cozy. We overhead attendees admiring The Globe and Mail’s Tiyana Grulovic in a navy and black houndstooth coat at The Shows, while hairdresser Tony Pham wore a firetruck red topper to Holt Renfrew’s opening night bash. And at the tents at David Pecault Square, floor-length outwear with fur detailing was de rigueur. Below, more dramatic coats from the week’s fashion events.
Runway Trend Report: geometric prints at Toronto Fashion Week
On the runway at Toronto Fashion Week (Images: Jenna Marie Wakani)
Plaid and animal prints might have dominated the fall 2013 runways in New York, Milan and Paris, but so far, Toronto Fashion Week has resembled a geometry class. Jean-Pierre Braganza’s circles and triangles (far left) looked like the result of a long afternoon with a compass and ruler, while the presentations from Comrags (second left) and Pink Tartan (far right) both relied heavily on hexagon prints. Meanwhile, a top by Jeremy Laing (second from right) had us looking up the definition of a rhombus. The looks range from neo-goth to ’60s retro, but they all have one thing in common: no loud colours, which would likely take this bold look a little far.
Street Style Trend Report: big, bold necklaces at Toronto Fashion Week
The editors, bloggers and hangers-on attending the pre-Toronto Fashion Week runway shows at the Andrew Richards Design loft last week all seem to have internalized a lesson that’s as well known to red-carpet regulars and Flavor Flav as it was to the Tudor kings: a big necklace can really make an outfit pop. Rac Boutique co-owner Faith Orfus sported a lethal-looking silver plate from her store, while fashion scenester Lydia Chan wore a profusion of pop-art flowers by Marni for H&M around her neck. Most of the women wearing look-at-me necklaces went neutral with the rest of their outfit (we loved Orfus’s light denim bell-bottoms and structured white tank), but we give PR maven Gail McInnes props for going all-out in a fur coat and leopard blouse. Below, more neckwear from The Shows.
Street Style Trend Report: black and white at Toronto Fashion Week
What’s black and white and printed all over? A good chunk of the outfits at the pre-Toronto Fashion Week event The Shows. The runway watchers at the Andrew Richards design building offered a master class in wearing one the year’s biggest trends. Holt Renfrew’s Julie D’Uva paired her geometric print pants with a solid blouse and accessories, while her colleague Blaire Borins mixed a windowpane check with wide horizontal stripes. Meanwhile, eLuxe’s Susie Sheffman epitomized casual cool with her floral sweatshirt, boyfriend jeans and ladylike pumps. Below, more inspiration for fashion-lovers wanting to cut colour from their wardrobes.
Seven food trends at 2013’s Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association show
Each year, we head over to the annual Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association show to get a look at the big new food trends coming down the pipe. Of our twelve predictions from last year, some were dead on (Toronto couldn’t get enough of rustic Italian cuisine, street food and Mexican flavours), while others were perhaps premature (like our forecast of wide-spread home sous vide cooking and the death of cupcakes). Below, seven trends we observed at this year’s CRFA show:
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Glas is launching a vegetarian tasting menu
Local beets with black olives, pea shoots and horseradish foam (Image: Courtesy Glas)
Leslieville’s Glas Wine Bar is getting in on the tasting menu trend that’s been sweeping Toronto restaurants. Yours Truly led the charge with their Carte Blanche menu last year, followed by Keriwa (which later reversed course), Actinolite, Buca, Farmhouse Tavern and Chantecler, whose menu launches this weekend (stay tuned for more on that).
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Year in Review: 2012’s biggest food trends, from the shadow return of fusion to the reign of ramen
Taste moves in waves: one year tall food is on every menu in town, and the next year, it’s a half-forgotten embarrassment. Sometimes, though, those embarrassments come back in a new guise. This year saw the quiet return of certain tendencies that we thought were long-buried, like fusion cuisine and wine bars, as well as the full-blown emergence of others that were bubbling away just below the surface, like tacos and, of course, ramen. Below, a roundup of what was hot in 2012.
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