FASHION Magazine

Word: Anthropometry

Meaning: Literally, it’s the measure of a man or a woman; it’s the measurement of human parts relative to the whole. Art historically, it’s the name used by Yves Klein for some of his more infamous work.

Word: Gradient

Meaning: In terms of colour, a gradient is a smooth blending of light to dark, or from one colour to another.

Word: Cacography

Definition: Bad, messy handwriting, from Greek kakos (bad) and graphy (writing). The opposite of calligraphy. It can also mean bad spelling, but you don’t want to get me started on that, f’reals.

All ad campaigns are not created equal. Despite their commercial origins, some creep into the realm of contemporary art—particularly when shot by a photographer as singular as Juergen Teller for a client as fearless as Vivienne Westwood.

By Corrine Aberdeen

Canadian fashion darling Jeremy Laing has donned a new, but equally creative hat by curating a special project for the Toronto International Art Fair (October 20 to November 1, from $16, tiafair.com).

Everything Must Go is a shop within the festival, and was inspired by end-of-season and liquidation sales. It is as much an ode to the aesthetics of merchandising as it is to the art being showcased. From shelves and fixtures designed by artists to the flyer-styled catalogue, each detail has been thoughtfully chosen to explore the exhibit’s themes–and everything is for sale. We asked Laing, via email, about his latest project.

How did this project come about? “I was approached by the Toronto International Art Fair and asked to put together an exhibit tying together ideas and themes around art and fashion however I saw fit.”

This year, the Magenta Foundation has taken their popular Flash Forward competition, which highlights the talent of up-and-coming photographers from Canada, the U.S. and the U.K, and turned it into a festival. The gallery show has been expanded to six curated exhibits and they’ve added workshops, lectures and panel discussions on such pictorial topics as […]

The post Culture pick: Flash Forward Festival highlights emerging photographers appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

Attention all readers in la Belle Province. Montreal’s own Tanuki Project will be bringing their distinct live show, which blends their electro-dance beats with artful image projections, to the stage at Montreal’s Festival Mode et Design. Check them out on August 4th at 10 p.m., just a day after their debut album Playground for Everyone […]

The post Tanuki Project brings it at Montreal fashion and design festival appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

Putting stickers on your laptop is never a good idea. They inevitably begin to peel off and then the employees at the Mac Store Genius Bar always raise an eyebrow at the grey sticky residue polluting the shell of your Macbook when all you really wanted was a functioning track pad. In a series of […]

The post Dell collaborates with Threadless on some charming laptop art appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

Recently listed on the Toronto Star’s 30 best dressed in Toronto list, it’s almost a surprise that photographer Caitlin Cronenberg’s (yes, daughter of film auteur David) debut book is strictly limited to people wearing nothing (or almost nothing) at all. The 134 photographs of Poser ($45, caitlincronenberg.com/poser) explore the connection between the lens and the […]

The post Photographer Caitlin Cronenberg captures the best undressed appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

Though the installation has been in place since Friday, last night was the official opening party for Mark Fast‘s “The Ascension of Beauty” piece for Toronto’s Luminato arts festival. Fast uses Brookfield Place as a giant knitting machine, looping white ropes through the soaring Allen Lambert Galleria, culminating in a tiered knit dress inspired by […]

The post Video: Mark Fast’s “The Ascension of Beauty” appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

Mark Fast is sitting in a chair looking up….way up…at the magnificent white arches of the Allen Lambert Galleria in Toronto’s Brookfield Place. A team of men in hard hats is uncoiling 2 km of thick white rope. Two off-duty window washers are scampering across the lofty beams, rigging the rope according to drawings that are being studied on the ground below. When they are finished, a series of intersecting loops will descend to a human-sized knit dress, creating the effect of a garment crafted by a six-storey high knitting machine.

“When I first walked into this building I thought, ‘this looks like a very large knitting machine,’ ” Fast explained of the soaring atrium, conceived by Spanish designer Santiago Calatrava. “It made me feel very small. I wanted to recreate that emotion.”

Collecting art can seem daunting, unapproachable and, in many cases, simply out of our reach. Yet, when you ask seasoned collectors how they started, many of them say that they bought their first piece in their 20s or 30s. So how to begin when you are young, working hard and have only a small amount of disposable income?

We asked a dear friend and avid art collector this question over a cup of coffee in Toronto. He provided us with the handy list below (and trust us when we say this is coming from a real expert):