FASHION Magazine

This holiday season, my top priorities are to support local businesses, complete my shopping at one destination and, because I will have my three very young children in tow, spend no more than a few hours.  I am opting for Crestwood Centre, an elegant collection of stores that are upscale shopping at it’s finest.

Like something from a wild teenage dream, Arielle De Pinto (arielledepinto.com) launched her international career as a jewellery designer on the road between Vancouver, Los Angeles and New York. Crocheting and knitting sterling silver and vermeil chains while driving through the United States, she ended up fresh and ready at New York Fashion Week presenting her collections at the Gen Art Fresh Faces of Fashion and afterwards in Paris.

As the Calgary fashion scene gains momentum, there’s one local designer who’s taking her success one sketch at a time. “I honestly have to pinch myself daily,” Lara Presber‘s (larapresber.com) exclaims as we pore over the pages of her 2009 Spring collection, influenced by early 1900 aerial views of Kenyan landscapes.

“Are you seeing those?” I whisper to my boyfriend, sitting attentively to my right. “I need those.”

He responds back with a raised brow and quick exhalation that surprisingly equates—in masculine form—my own untamable excitement for the high-waisted tartan trousers parading on the runway at the AFW Emerging Designer Showcase. The stuff my fashion dreams are made of typically fall into the wildly interesting, but perhaps not always sexy, realm and so his reaction confirms it: these will be my Fashion Week indulgence.

My friends always argue about which of these dresses, wolf vs. bird, is the most fantastic, and while a verdict is rarely reached, everyone seems to agree that these two dresses are the Lennon and McCartney of the local fashion scene.

Katie Tuttle never went to design school—and she’s proud of it. For this 20-year-old designer—half of Halifax-based fashion label Tuttle & Leonardo (tuttleandleonardo.com)—all the technical training of a classroom would just slow her down.

The holidays will be upon us faster than you can say Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen (less than five weeks to go, loves!), and what better way to kick off the party season with some champers and scrumptious nibbles at a cocktail party for the launch John de Jong’s (jdj-jewellery.com) latest jewellery collection. To marvel at some of the most exquisite diamonds and pearls we’ve ever laid eyes on, this fashionable girl just had to bring some stylish friends to the über-discreet JdJ showroom, which de Jong opened at Bay and Bloor in 1996.

One of the big draws for reading a fashion magazine is the editorial spreads. I’ve been asking myself what it is about fashion photography that I find so fascinating; what is it that is so satisfying. I’ve always been one to believe that fashion is a form of communication, and of course this is no less true of photography.

It’s hard to describe the way I feel about certain local clothing companies. Phrases like ridiculously-enthusiastic-bordering-on-crazed-fandom, and completely-obsessed don’t even begin to cover the way I talk about and covet the pieces that a few of my most favourite Maritime designers produce. One of the most exciting of these small businesses is Rosebud Beads (rosebudbeads@gmail.com or join their Facebook group).

By Stephanie Trendocher

Chic Torontonians are drooling over Jenny Bird’s haute handbags and Daniel Espinosa’s baubles and you can scoop up some of their swag at Spoke Club’s Luxury Holiday Bazaar (November 22; 12 – 8 p.m.; 600 King St., W., 4th floor).

One of the many perks of my job is chatting with super-talented designers and last week, I got the chance to talk to Montreal-based Andy Thê-Anh at the grand opening of his new boutique (83 Yorkville Ave., 416-921-2639, andytheanh.com) in Toronto’s tony Yorkville.

[See the Spring 2009 collection and view our video interview with Andy Thê-Anh]

On a recent Friday night, I sat with designer Anastasia Lomonova (anastasialomonova.com) in her LABoratoire Créatif studio to chat a little about life, fashion and what to do with clothing from past collections. (Answer: She sells them at charity events such as “Au Coeur de la Mode,” which benefits AIDS research. Not bad, right?)