FASHION Magazine

  • Gala prep: We follow Toronto glamour gal Amy Burstyn-Fritz before the debut of her custom-designed Kaelen dress

    Amy Burstyn Fritz Operanation Dress Kaelen
    Photography by Stefania Yarhi

    See the process and fitting photos »

    If you’ve ever been on this site before, you’ll know that we party. A lot. Especially during the fall months, event calendars seem to be constantly brimming with one glitzy invitation after the next. And while attending an event seems straightforward enough, looking good at said event proves a little more challenging. Someone who knows a thing or two about the constant need to look fabulous is Amy Burstyn-Fritz, director at Knot PR and all around glamour gal. Year round, Burstyn-Fritz seems to flit around gala to gala in one A+ look after another. We’re always fairly astounded at her consistent chicness, which is why we went behind the scenes with her as she preps for Operanation, an annual gala she co-chairs benefitting the Canadian Opera Company which takes place tonight.

    Burstyn-Fritz one-upped herself this time, enlisting long time pal turned client, New-York-based designer Kaelen, to create something unique to wear at the night’s event. “I wanted to work with the [event’s] theme of ‘temptation,’ but not be too literal,” says the designer. To whit, the dress is something wholly unique, featuring a masterful cloud-inspired dye job created by dye artist Audrey Louise Reynolds made of sumac, wood, iris roots, boiled carob and squid ink. (It dried in sage and rose quartz bundles.) For real.