FASHION Magazine

See the pictures from Artscape Salon »

Earlier this month, Toronto’s art community hobnobbed at the converted heritage centre Wychwood Barns for Artscape Salon, a speed-dating style dinner that allowed over 200 guests to meet 20 of the city’s creative luminaries as they roved from table to table. During dinner, speakers including artist Gary Taxali, musician Maylee Todd, actor David Sutcliffe (read: Christopher from Gilmore Girls) and painter Amy Shackleton met with guests, switching up conversation as they went. Indeed, the chit chat was anything but boring, with my table erupting in ballet fandom during a meet-cute with National Ballet Principal Dancer Sonia Rodriguez, with talk of the AGO’s upcoming Art Spiegelman retrospective upon visit from CEO and director Matthew Teitelbaum and with a game of temp tattoo with illustrator Alanna Cavanagh, who gifted us drawn lemons, pears and watermelons. The Salon was just the latest in Artscape’s fundraising initiatives, which benefit the organization’s not-for-profit urban developments including affordable live/work studios, schools and theatres at the heart of Toronto’s arts community.

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.