FASHION Magazine

This week we’re taking a look back at the year that was by highlighting some of the best (and worst) moments. First up, we’re turning to you, our dear readers, by re-blogging the top 10 original posts, as clicked by you! We count down your favourites:

We know the holiday season has begun once the winter issue comes out, and once our inboxes fill up with emails inviting us to holiday parties, pop-ups, and sales. We’ve gone through them all (and checked the list twice!) to give you a collection of December’s best holiday sales. Put on your mittens and make the trek out to your favourite shops and markets, Canadian gals—you’ll save a bundle on gift buying, so you can buy yourself an early holiday treat.

Spending a week at Heritage Court, the home of LG Fashion Week, is a little like crashing on a deserted⎯albeit stylish⎯island. Water (other than the $3 a bottle variety) and food are scarce and you’re reduced to playing tug-of-war with bloggers for a half-eaten chocolate biscotti. So I have to tip my fairly crumpled end-of-week hat to the diepo girls… their gift bag had me at “Hello, here are some decadent cake lollies and caramel popcorn.”

But enough sweet treat talk, let’s get to the main course. For their fifth collection, Justine Diener and Kristin Poon churned out a line-up of casual-cool hipster weekend wear⎯simple silk and knit separates in crops and hemlines that left little to the imagination. As a nod to our native land, we thought the feather print pieces were quite cute, along with a preppy cropped sleeve toffee-coloured topper. Although the girls didn’t present anything ground-breaking, they showed a cohesive collection that will take the 20-something party girl from midday brunch to dive bar dance party in one fell swoop.

View the diepo photo gallery »

Last October, a breath of fresh air breezed through the grounds at Heritage Court⎯the home to “official” Toronto fashion week⎯in the form of an über hip group of young fashionites called The Fashion Collective. A sort of mélange of hype-making and style setting, PR maven Kate Mullin, stylist Dwayne Kennedy and producer Brian A. Richards brought the likes of Rita Liefhebber, Thomas, Amanda Lew Kee and Chloé Comme Parris to the official schedule. Whereas the edgy designers such as these would have previously stayed as far away from the official schedule as possible, the group bridged the gap between the established and the upstarts making the official week a hub for all. For the fall 2011 season starting on March 28^th, the Collective’s got a whole new bag of tricks up their sleeve, introducing LABEL, Heather Lawton, Sid Neigum, and diepo into the Toronto fashion week womenswear stratosphere. Here’s our sneak peek of what these hot young things have got in store: