FASHION Magazine

Some ladies play it safe in blustery, snowy weather. They choose sensible, thick, black tights and pair them with warm, cozy boots and lined wool trousers. These practical women likely have mothers who sleep easy at night knowing their daughters are not going to freeze for fashion’s sake, by glances of approval from their like-minded […]

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I’ve been writing FASHION’s Charlottetown blog for one year, and this is (sadly) my final post. When I began this bi-weekly blog, I did so with the intention of showcasing the talented and independent designers, musicians, and models who reside in my favourite part of the great white north. While perusing my clippings I realized that I had yet to interview any hometown models. My last blog is dedicated to Ellen Connaughton, a nineteen-year-old who’s modeled for nearly all of the independent artists that I have written about and who defines and understands what it means to work in fashion on the East Coast.

What’s a Milks and Rectangles look like?

You can spot a milk (or a rectangle, as the case may be) a million miles away. These four 20-something, East Coast based band members, Justin Uyterlinde (guitar), Mike Carver (drums), Christian Ledwell (guitar and vocals), and Brandon Williams (bass and microKORG) are easily identified in their baseball tees, suspenders, vests, Ray-Bans, shaggy haircuts and awkward Michael Cera-esque grins that inevitably melt even the most cynical and jaded of hearts.

Fashion bloggers are notorious for getting style crushes on certain starlets and singers to the point of almost obsession. Heather and Jessica of Go Fug Yourself fame are shamelessly impressed (and dare I say in love) with the style prowess that is Anne Hathaway and there are whole sites devoted to the fanatical fan worship of the sometimes stylish and sometimes questionable Olsen twins. As a blogger based on Canada’s East Coast, my style crushes tend to be a little more homegrown. My current favourite is the always-impeccable singer/songwriter Jenn Grant.

Greetings fellow nerds! I come before you today with tidings of great joy. It is the computer age and  as such, we who have long been bullied and mistreated for our shared passions (Star Wars, computers, Magic: The Gathering, etc.) are now ruling the world. Geeky and scarily intelligent men like Steve Jobs are reinventing the wheel, skinny, awkward musicians like Joel Plaskett are making clever music, and some of the world’s greatest fashion designers wear their nerd status proudly (see Yuko Yoshitake, Diana Eng, and Raf Simons).

“It Girl” is one of those ubiquitous phrases that gets tossed around a lot, but can be difficult to define. So, on that note, I’m going to propose that an It Girl is a young, fashionable woman who gives back to the artistic community.

Based on this new, unauthorized definition, Prince Edward Island is teeming with these grassroots versions of indie starlets—women who are as quirky as possible and have zero fear when it comes style. The most visible of these Island It Girls is Charlottetown’s Savannah Belsher.

Eating up the East Coast love is all well and good for our Atlantic Canadian designers, but who can say no to a little national exposure? Not Kim Munson, Anna Gilkerson and the Sunsets on the Eastside trio, who will have their designs walked down the runway at Montreal’s Festival Mode & Design (June 17 to 20, festivalmodedesign.com) as part of the event’s inaugural cross-Canada showcase on Thursday, June 18.

The TransCanada Runway will bring together designers from Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Nunavut, Toronto, Montreal and our beloved Maritimes and marks the first time Atlantic Canada has been represented at the festival, a four-day event produced by Sensation Mode, who also put together Montreal Fashion Week.

I love it when a band sounds the way they dress. It feels honest rather than calculated, simple rather than complicated. For example, The White Stripes sound like lovers of dramatic color schemes, Emily Haines sounds like a romper-wearing cool kid, and Charlottetown’s newest band The North Lakes sound like the earnest, sheepish, shy, cardigan-wearing group they are. Remember The Wonder Years? The North Lakes are the band whose music would have been playing in the background when Winnie Cooper dumps Kevin for the first time. They wear button-ups and grandpa’s sweater, polka dots and wire-rim glasses. Basically, they dress and sound like your first heartbreak.

When 19-year-old artist Nathan Loberg spilled paint on his best friend’s jeans, it planted the seed for Groe, his custom design company. Feeling guilty, he made it up to his pal by painting on the same denim, simultaneously camouflaging the mess and transforming a humble pair of pants into a piece of wearable art. Loberg’s friend Mike Wasnidge spotted the potential in this creation and saw it as a prime business opportunity. And so Groe Custom Clothing was born.

 

 

With summer fast approaching many of my nearest and dearest are gearing up for their first ever overseas backpacking adventures. While travel plans differ wildly from person to person it seems like everyone has been asking the same question: What the heck am I going to pack? Fear not young backpacker! My unscientific and informal poll has yielded the following helpful backpacking hints.

Has there ever, in the history of cute boutiques and salons, been a shop with a more appropriate name than Absolutely Fabulous (218 University Ave., 902-367-3398, abfabpei.ca)? I highly doubt it. Ab Fab (as the locals lovingly refer to it) is one of Charlottetown’s most unique and wonderful clothing hotspots; in 2008 it was even recognized by the Vancouver Sun as one of Canada’s top ten small shops for dresses. For the last several years this boutique has been located on University Avenue, but the little shop with huge aspirations is moving this May to a bigger, better location on 284 Grafton Street (their phone number remains the same).

Rihanna may have fallen on some hard times but in rainy April the umbrella is still having a moment—it’s probably the accessory that best embodies the spirit of Charlottetown. They are stylish, classic, useful and nearly omnipresent in early spring when the city begins to resemble a giant puddle.

Besides the obvious reason to carry an umbrella, it can serve several other purposes: