FASHION Magazine

A Muslim who works at Bikini Village– what could be more Canadian than that?

When we asked writer Maryam Siddiqi to talk to women about how they balance fashion and faith (“Feel the Heat,” page 107), little did we know the stories she would uncover.

A Brazilian who moved to Montreal and converted from sleeveless and strings to Orthodox Judaism. An Ontario woman who dons different outfits for her parents, in-laws, husband and friends. Clearly summer, for some, is complicated…far beyond deciding whether your new sandals should be gladiators or platforms.

The other eye-opener in this issue is how much success Canadian designers have had selling swimwear. In “Catch the Wave” (page 54), senior editor Sarah Casselman profiles five brands making a splash on the international scene—led by Montreal’s Shan, which has 125 employees and distribution in more than 25 countries. We’ve also aimed to make your swimsuit shopping smoother with market editor Caitlan Moneta’s roundup of the best new suits (“Bathing Beauties,” page 72) and our Focus guide to the country’s swimwear retailers (page 174).

I will never be perfect.

This realization struck me on a recent vacation as I was thumbing through a Martha Stewart cookbook.  (There’s no one like Martha to make you feel inadequate, is there? She is even perfect at that.)

I am not sure where this feeling of self-acceptance suddenly bubbled up from, or why. But it has given me a new outlook on dressing. I am much more sure that my choices are right for me. And I am letting go of the belief that I should wear something because I should.

“Striving for perfection does seem like a form of self-hatred,” cover girl Isla Fisher tells features editor Elio Iannacci in “Feeling Jazzed” (page 146). Ironic, then, that her day with photographer Chris Nicholls in Los Angeles produced so many incredible shots, it pained us to edit them down to just a handful.

“How many shows do you see when you are in Paris?”

I get asked this question often, and to make things easy my response is, “Lots.” But the truth is, though the world’s eyes might be on the runways, insiders know there’s more to fashion week than catwalk parades.

Re-sees, essentially a closer inspection of the clothes in a designer’s showroom, fill the gaps between shows. And if there’s any time left, we try to swing by to see out-of-towners who have rented space in hotels or apartments. As you will see in “French Immersion” (page 54), my diary from the Spring 2013 collections, off-runway adventures are rewarded with the chance to touch or even try things on. And if we’re really lucky, the designer is on-site and in the mood to chat. Of course the extra appointments make for days so long that dinner often winds up being a yogourt I have stashed in the minibar.

While waiting for MiuMiu’s Spring 2013 show in Paris to begin, I looked around the room at the fashion editors, bloggers and front-row starlets and began to feel that anything goes. Flats and four-inch heels. Plain, boxy tops and crazy printed blazers. Mirrored minis and mid-calf pleated skirts. All were present and accounted for.

Then Miuccia Prada’s models emerged in denim pencil skirts, matching coats and needle-nose pumps, adding ’50s polish to the ’60s mod and ’90s grunge that had already hit the Spring 2013 runways. I leaned over to my seatmate and remarked, “You really can wear anything now.”

“Yes,” he agreed, “as long as you have style.”

We love clothes. And accessories. And makeup.

That might seem like an obvious statement coming from a fashion magazine. But it explains so much of what goes on here at FASHION headquarters. Like the debate that arose from “Math Test” (page 118).

Fashion editor-at-large Zeina Esmail was determined to pull together the season’s top looks with pieces that were $100 or less. With so many great brands available—from Jacob to Joe Fresh—that turned out to be easy. The trouble came when she fell in love with a $106 pair of earrings from BCBG. “They look like something Carole Tanenbaum would sell for $2,000,” she lamented. (Esmail even bought a pair for herself and I might do the same.) But that $6 put the ornate crystal shoulder-dusters over her self-imposed price ceiling. Assistant fashion editor Eliza Grossman called BCBG to ask whether the price could be amended. No. “But they look so good!” Esmail moaned, holding them up alongside the outfit Edmonton’s Jenna Earle would be modelling the next day.

The only solution? We amended the story to high style around $100 or less.

On the hunt (as always!) for a fabulous frock, I recently ventured to designer Lucian Matis’ studio in an industrial park miles from my office.

Not long before, I had seen his fall collection—a feast of feathers and lace—paraded in a gilded ballroom.

When I first laid eyes on the spidery strands, which you can see for yourself on page 191 in our “Period Drama” shoot, I assumed they were spun in some futuristic Swiss lab. “Actually,” Matis clarified, “my mother crocheted all my lace.”

Weeks later, I spied a festive David Dixon dress in our fashion closet. It was a delightful hybrid of laser-cut chiffon and folded leather sequins. After listening to Matis lament his lack of novel materials and hearing about his homemade solution, I had visions of Dixon and his kids around the kitchen table cutting out lambskin squares.

Canadian designers do not have access to, or money for, the unique embellishments that haute European brands do. But that hasn’t stopped them from delivering their most glam collections yet, as Sarah Nicole Prickett reports in “Siren Call” (page 64).

It must be that everyman sees himself in James Bond. That’s what happened to me in the course of researching the subject, which arose by way of Designing 007: Fifty Years of Bond Style, the exhibition coming from the Barbican Centre in London to the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto in October.

The more I looked into Bond, the more I saw the secret agent as magnificent lifestyle editor, a material boy engaged with all the things—cars, drink, food, travel, toys—that are covered in a men’s magazine. And so caught up with appearances that, as author Jay McInerney once observed, he was “the only movie hero we had ever seen whose first impulse, after killing a man, was to straighten his tie.”

Of course, Bond came to film from fiction already infatuated with brand names. That was part of the character given to him by his creator, Ian Fleming, who in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service not only specifies Bond’s champagne but also what he uses to wash his hair: Pinaud Elixir, “that prince among shampoos.”

“Snakes. Paris. And Linda Evangelista.”

When ideas started percolating (a year ago!) for this 35th anniversary issue, never did I guess we would wind up here.

But I couldn’t be more thrilled.

FASHION was born as a city magazine helping Toronto women dress for success. Thanks to the brilliance of many over the past 3.5 decades, we have blossomed into Canada’s most-read fashion and beauty magazine. So there were two goals for this special issue.

One: to present a snapshot of Canadian women now to illustrate how far we have come since 1977, when “career woman” was a relatively new concept. Our second aim was to highlight FASHION’s mandate: Bringing the international world of fashion home.

For the latter, we dreamed of the ultimate fashion editorial—haute couture, shot in Paris. Toronto ex-pat photographer Benjamin Kanarek and Ottawa model Amanda Nimmo delivered that and more with a stunning spread set in and around the Hôtel de Crillon (“A Canadian in Paris,” page 204).

The speed with which Carly Rae Jepsen has shot to stardom has been positively meteoric. Between the time we started discussing a cover and the actual shoot, she became a household name. Jepsen was tailed by paparazzi when she arrived at the Vancouver studio where Gabor Jurina was set up to photograph her; features editor Elio Iannacci had to post gatekeepers at the door to keep them at bay.

But the singer couldn’t have been more sweet, and eagerly explored her sexy side in a body-con McQ by Alexander McQueen dress and leopard-spotted Louboutin pumps. “Whenever Gabor showed her which angles were working best for her, she was happy to go back and perfect the pose,” says stylist Zeina Esmail.

Photography is always a collaborative effort, notes Bryan Adams, another Canadian singing superstar. Adams discusses his portraits of Mick Jagger, Daphne Guinness, Amy Winehouse and Lana Del Rey in “Northern Exposure” (page 164). We are left with the impression that despite his fame and fortune, Adams is an artist at heart. This is one VIP parent we can’t imagine buying Dior for his 18-month-old.

But, as Shawna Cohen reports in “Little Luxuries” (page 70), many celebs do. “If the kids look good, they look good. Almost as an accessory,” comments a boutique owner who stocks Lanvin flats from size 2 years. What’s next? Designer diapers?

Sometimes, a new fashion season can seem overwhelming, with trends, images and must-have pronouncements slamming us from all sides.

But then along comes a shoe or a bag—something—that stops you in your tracks. For me, it happened when I laid eyes on a pair of Prada pants with bejewelled hems (shown on page 46). Our senior editor, Sarah Casselman, attended the Fall 2012 runway show in Milan where the elegant embellished trousers were unveiled. I was watching from afar. But still, when I saw those pant legs trimmed in giant cabochons, my first thought was: “I want them.” My second thought was: “How on earth can they be hemmed if they’re too long?” My third thought was: “Who cares?! If they don’t fit, they’ll make a superb wall-hanging.”

The fact that designers can make us fall in love with clothes all over again is a testament to their artistic brilliance. While I was waiting (for two hours!) to meet Victoria Beckham in Vancouver (“Victoria Day,” page 86), Holt Renfrew client Pamela Richardson was telling me how she became smitten with Beckham’s designs.

I can do minimalism, Parisian polish, rock ’n’ roll and full-on glam. But there is one style that I will never be able to grasp: off-duty model.

When they are dressing themselves, models have a nonchalant way of throwing pieces together that looks so right (“Model Behaviour,” page 100).

If I attempted a riding jacket over a pouf skirt, or a sequined mini with white bucks, I doubt it would have the same modern charm. So I stick to my usual (safe) way of styling myself and envy those who are more daring. What I really need is a full day at home alone, the services of an expert stylist and an open mind.

“I wish I had time to play with what’s in my closet,” lamented a finance executive I met recently at a fashion industry dinner. Immaculate in a white shift, with garnet teardrop earrings twinkling through her blonde hair, she looked as if she had nothing but time on her hands.

There’s only one thing that might be worse than swimsuit shopping: Swimsuit shopping while pregnant. It’s something we imagine Anna Paquin will be facing—she announced her first pregnancy with husband Stephen Moyer just days after our cover shoot. Meanwhile, Leah McLaren, who is due to become a mom this summer, braved the swimwear waters for “Hope Floats” on page 44. Her amusing tussle with triangle bikinis gives new meaning to the phrase “grin and bare it.”

I didn’t find much to smile about on my own recent hunt for the perfect maillot. I set aside a good chunk of a Saturday to spend at a swimwear boutique. Previous excursions have taught me that an experienced swim and lingerie specialist can eyeball a body and return with a handful of options that not only fit, but play up one’s best features and camouflage the rest. On this occasion, however, I wasn’t so lucky and after trying on 30 or so suits, I settled for something annoyingly less than ideal.

Great service, whether in a store or a salon, is a major factor in why some businesses thrive and others don’t, especially when it comes to stripping down for summer. Olivia Stren peels back the layers on her deep devotion to her waxer (“Bare it All,” page 98) and how it feels when the woman who knows parts of you better than your gynecologist moves out of town.