FASHION Magazine

Forget sports: We’re all about a fashion fantasy draft. FASHION’s editors share their favourite runway looks and the real ways to wear them come springtime.

See the Spring 2014 editors’ picks »

See the J.Crew Collection store party pics »

Toronto Fashion Week may be more than a month away, but street style trends were top of mind for the city’s fashion lovers last week. And with good reason: J. Crew held a sleek party to celebrate the opening of its first Collection store on Bloor Street, making it the brand’s fifth Toronto location and first standalone store. Unlike other locations, the J.Crew Collection store features a curated selection of limited edition women’s and menswear pieces, including accessories (hello, statement jewellery!) cashmere and more.

Despite its 6,000+ square foot size, the store was tightly packed with eager party guests, many of whom were likely hoping to catch a glimpse of the woman who makes print mixing look as natural as wearing neutrals. Alas, it was not to be: a blizzard in New York meant Jenna Lyons was stranded and we had to settle for an Instagram stand-in—which did indeed complemented the party’s Canadian-ified photo booth. (Complete with stuffed moose and a Pharrell-meets-Mountie hat.)

See the party photos »

Rob Ford mingling with the arts set? Must be election season! This past Saturday, west-enders were treated to a troupe of Fords (make that brother Doug, wife Renata and kidlets Doug and Stephanie) at the pre-opening celebration of The Theatre Centre’s new home on Queen Street. Formerly the defunct Carnegie Library turned public health office, the restored Edwardian will act as a live hub for the arts incubator as well as a café, gallery and event space and a community garden. Saturday’s gala helped raise a final $130,000 for the $6.2 million renovation.

Theatrics were out in full force at the Baroque-themed gala, which featured pop up choral flash mob, a midnight blindfold dance and a custom-made poem to go with your coat check retrieval. Guests including host and actor Don McKellar, nightlife impresario Richard Lambert, counselor Ana Bailo and The Theatre Centre artistic director Franco Boni took in some seriously amazing appetizers and crazy cloud drinks that flowed out of glass contraptions, the mayor posed for photos with more than a few partygoers. We were about to throw shade at their eagerness, but then we saw this and figured it could have been worse.

See all the Operanation 2013 party pics »

On Thursday night the Four Seasons Centre was decidedly catering to just one season, with the expansive performance hall transformed into a luscious garden of evil. Filled with party goers and potted plants alike, the green-tinged space was all for the Candian Opera Company’s Operanation fundraising gala, themed as “A Night of Temptation” for its tenth iteration.

While all-black ensembles were by far the most popular fashion statement, texture allowed for individuality. From mesh cut-outs and ruffled pleats to velvet and sequin add-ons, the little black dress (or gown, for that matter) certainly stood out at Operanation. Darker colours, such as navy-blue and deep jade-green—as seen on soprano Leigh Anne-Allen and The Hudson Bay Company’s Megan Loach—provided a different take the all-black trend and should make inky gowns a gala must. And on the opposite end of the colour spectrum, bright primary colours stood out in the sea of dark shades, including Tatiana Read in red, FASHION’s editor-in-chief Bernadette Morra in blue Viktor and Rolf, and a hit of yellow, courtesy Odessa Paloma Parker’s Jeremy Laing number.

See the Greta Constantine summer party photos »

A half naked male model, a midtown mansion and one stellar Spring 2014 collection reveal—what else could you ask for on a late summer’s eve? Last night, Greta Constantine hosted its annual summer party at the beautiful home of Krystal Koo and Michael Cooper. Taking place around the couple’s stunning aqua blue pool, the fashion show-meets-party had lanky models parading in the duo’s latest wares—a sailor inspired wideleg and boatneck combo, a juicy orange bodysuit, a bronze figure-hugging evening gown and the piece de resistance, an itty bitty men’s speedo. (Whether or not that last one can accurately be referred to as a collection piece though is beside the point, right?) As the night progressed, Greta devouts including Anita Clarke, Natalie Lecomte and Stacey McKenzie toasted with Stoli cocktails while Chatelaine’s Tyler Franch and Redken’s Sean Godard posed for selfies by the tiled cabana. All the makings of a perfect summer sendoff, even though we really don’t want to send it off at all.

See the Greta Constantine Fall 2013 collection photos »
See the Greta Constantine Fall 2013 party photos »

Continuing the tradition of showing their collections off schedule and off the grid, Greta Constantine designers Kirk Pickersgill and Stephen Wong debuted their Fall 2013 offering with a restaurant meets art party meets impromptu runway show last night in Toronto. Beginning at the west end hotspot Parts & Labour, the duo hosted the city’s top media and clients for a three-course meal, interrupted of course, by many shots of Stolichnaya vodka. As Greta-clad guests including Cronenberg It girl Sarah Gadon, socialite Stacey Jordan (formerly Kimmel) and trend forecaster Carly Stojsic indulged in main courses of chicken and gnocchi, Amazonian models took to the makeshift runway (aka the bar) in the duo’s latest wares. The clothes, while heavily styled with tribal inspiration—think long braids, faux mohawks and animal skulls worn as jewellery designed by Dandi Maestre—forged ahead with last season’s new motto: sleeker, stronger and relatively pared back. Amongst the pleated and curved statement dresses, the standout look was a long and lean cow’s hide coat paired with black wideleg pants and a simple white crew neck.

With a month long of Fall 2013 fashion weeks in New York, London, Milan and Paris coming to a close and Toronto Fashion Week just revving up, our mental shopping notes are already full with all the new things we want added to our closet. Heeled oxfords! Mini globes! Next level grunge! Most mere mortals will have to wait at least six months for Fall 2013’s newness to hit the ground floor, but we’ve found a few ways to get in on the trends you’re drooling over right now. The best part? You won’t be spending a dime. From Prada’s ever-clever fur and gingham combo to Chanel’s necklace-over-hair combo, our very own editors are showing you 5 chic and easy ways to get on your favourite Fall 2013 trends ASAP.

View FASHION’s 35th anniversary party photos »
Check out our archive of every FASHION cover since 1977 »

What’s better than a birthday party? Your own birthday party! On Wednesday night, the FASHION team (well, that’d be us) celebrated the magazine’s 35^th anniversary, and as you might expect, Toronto’s most stylish guys and gals were out in full force. 700 of our closest friends packed into the Distillery’s Fermenting Cellar to toast us with Skyy Vodka cocktails, mini burgers and musical performances by Divine Brown and The Parallels.

When Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana said they were taking inspiration from Sicily for their Spring 2013 men’s collection, they meant it quite literally. Seventy boys and men from the island, where the label is originally from, were plucked from the streets and brought over to Milan to walk in the duo’s garbs.

The scene on the runway was an overt nod to retro Sicily: lean, olive-skinned boys and moustached men alike took to the runway in an array of belted, high-waisted shorts, soft three-piece suits, carnival-striped shirts and souvenir prints. Though the collection itself has received mostly positive reviews, the fleet of Sicilians was definitely the most standout aspect of the entire show, offering an “authentic emotional punch” that had most of the industry captivated.

It’s no big secret that the fashion industry is on a never-ending search for “the next big thing,” something to shake jaded fashion watchers out of their doldrums and inject excitement into their ennui. Several years ago, style bloggers and street style photographers seemed to offer something more raw and authentic than the traditional fashion circuit, but as the popularity of blogging rose, its “edge” seemed to slowly wear off. Though fashion blogging is still alive and well, its novelty has waned. With street style photography, what used to be an unfiltered take on what real people were wearing on the streets has exploded into a veritable zoo during fashion weeks and outside of fashion hot spots.

The annual Full Figured Fashion Week may only be in its fourth cycle, but its message of empowerment is already abundantly clear.

“We need to stop with the marginalization. I’m not asking for couture, but I demand the right to go into any store and buy a simple black dress,” the event’s creator and former plus-size model Gwen DeVoe told WWD.

With the average woman’s dress size now sitting around a size 12–16, a huge portion of would-be shoppers have had to bypass size 00-12 retailers for years. But it’s not all bad news, at least not for the plus-size retail market: last year, they churned out a whopping $17 billion. In other words, curvy women are just as into clothes as their skinny counterparts.

“If you’re in this business for the sake of doing business, why are you excluding this entire community?” DeVoe asked. Fair enough!

The FFFW’s fourth year in the making marks quite a few firsts for the four-day-long event. Compared to its more modest first three showings, this year’s event was kick-started by an all-white sunset cruise Wednesday night. On the boat, the men got a nod in the Big and Tall male fashion show. Aside from runway shows later in the week featuring plus-size styles from designers like Jill Alexander and Ashley Stewart, the event has also organized blogger workshops, a runway show put on by Bloomingdale’s and shopping events.

Though there have been some recent instances in which the fashion industry has addressed size-related issues (including Vogue’s international health initiative and that scintillating Vogue Italia cover celebrating plus-size beauty), DeVoe has a point: many women are still finding it hard to shop for their body size, and as anyone who’s ever had a near-meltdown in a fitting room can attest to, that can be both demoralizing and infuriating. Anything to make the industry more inclusive is all right by us!

Though Ugg’s latest shoe line is called “I Do Wedding Shoes Collection,” the consensus on the Twitterverse and the rest of the net has been a resounding “I don’t.”

Aimed at the bride who wants “luxury bridal comfort,” the collection’s new line, which is now available in the US and soon in the UK, is the latest in a trend of casual apparel companies offering wedding footwear. Toms Shoes recently came out with a relatively expansive line of wedding shoes, ranging from toddler sizes to more “fancy” takes on their bandage-style shoes for brides.

Tom Ford’s scandalous just-released Spring 2012 men’s lookbook exposes the designer’s affinity for all things sexual (as if that were a surprise). While Ford’s spring collection is conspicuously absent, there is enough naked flesh to make even Dov Charney blush.

The lookbook features a somewhat sleazy male model (read: he wears sunglasses indoors while striking his best “Blue Steel” pose) and his oiled-up female consort. The lolz-y twosome reads newspapers, showers in tandem and plays a mean game of bottom-pinching (hey, it’s certainly got people talking).

While the clothes are almost entirely secondary, the lookbook does feature silky smoking jackets, robes and other Hugh Hefner–esque pieces. And then there are the boxers (or swim trunks—we can’t tell), worthy of a night at the Playboy mansion.

It’s no secret Ford loves gratuitous nudity—remember his men’s fragrance ads with the artfully placed cologne bottle?—but shouldn’t a lookbook feature just a few more looks? Either way, Ford seems to have a sex-sells formula that works for him. Just check out his eyewear campaign where a crow chomps on Freja’s exposed nipple.