FASHION Magazine

You may have heard: Luminato’s on this week. I went to the Giorgio Armani opening-night shindig at the R.O.M. on Friday with a couple of the FASHION crew. After a quick tour around the party, we ensconced ourselves in the VVIP room, which was outfitted with makeup touchup stations and a small cadre of living dolls outfitted avec Giorgio. (To get the full scoop on the party, including the celeb quotient, check out Michelle’s Fashionable Life blog.)

After a long and dull winter, Montreal is full of life again. Last week the Festival Transamériques (www.fta.qc.ca) drew dance and theatre lovers to its indoor and outdoor shows, exhibitions and workshops. With artists in from Paris, Dusseldorf, Brussels, New York, Rio and Berlin, the atmosphere was really thrilling. Among the favourites was Benoît Lachambre and Louise Lecavalier’s Is You Me, a dark, minimalist dance show that questioned the body and its relationship to others. With N.Y.C. composer Hahn Rowe’s magnetic electronic music and artist Laurent Goldring’s live digital creations, it was a voyage for all the senses.

With the summer party season coming into full swing (if only the weather were just as ready!), this fashionable girl has been hitting the town as of late. First stop, the Buy Design for Windfall gala at the Fermenting Cellar in the Distillery District.

The Toronto chapter of Fashion Group International held its annual Night of Stars gala downtown at the Carlu recently, bringing out the brightest of Canadian fashion stars, natch. Though this fashionable girl was riding her couch due to a severe throat infection, details came pouring in fast and furious from my own fashionably lovely friends. Along with the night’s honorees—including twins Dean and Dan Caten of Dsquared, designer Wayne Clark, Holt Renfrew’s Barbara Atkin, journo David Livingstone and interior-design guy Brian Gluckstein—the well-heeled crowd consisted of Zoomer mag editrix Suzanne Boyd (looking lovely in a lingerie-inspired ensemble), who arrived with Ian Hylton, Pink Tartan’s Kimberley Newport-Mimran was there with hubby Joe, who was presenting, Natalie Lecomte from Holts dazzled in a pistachio Greta Constantine mini, while eTalk’s Ben Mulroney arrived with fiancée Jessica Brownstein.

By Kate MacLennan

I’m not so silly as to go comparing B.C. Fashion Week to the spectacles that our editors witness in Bryant Park, the Carrousel du Louvre, or any of Milan’s equally stylish venues, but I will enthuse this: we have a fashion week here in Vancouver, and the alluring mix of up-and-comers and established designers set to hit the catwalk next week is well worth checking out. Here’s some highlights:

By Sarah Hankins

The Goody showroom event on March 6 had expert stylists demonstrating the latest trends in hair products and accessories. Here are my must-have items to keep tresses looking their best this spring:

Hillside Villas. “Morning!” Audrina chirps as she enters the kitchen. Lauren, clearly not a morning person, responds with a grunt. “I have to tell you something!” Audrina says excitedly. “Tell me,” Lauren mutters, but she perks up when she hears Audrina’s news: Spencer’s heretofore-unseen sister Stephanie told Audrina off at a club last night. “I’ve met that girl before… she’s a loony,” Lauren says. Lauren fears the “She-Pratt” more than she does Spencer: “At the end of the day, a guy can’t hit a girl. A girl can hit a girl.”

November 1st was definitely a night to put into the Fashionable Life history books. With three major events in one evening, the FASHION team was off and running.

First stop was the Sephora store opening on Bloor Street at Avenue Road. Packed to the rafters with the latest, luscious beauty booty, the store also became packed with media types and customers alike. After a short and sweet speech by FASHION beauty director Laura Keogh, guests were left to shop and drink champagne. This fashionable girl had to have the Canadian-made Cake Satin Sugar Hair & Body Refreshing Powder for lighter hues, natch. Also among the loot: cult faves Nars, Philosophy and mineral makeup wonder brand, Bare Escentuals. Note to beauty lovers: Add a Sephora gift certificate to your Christmas list – we already did! The big day is only five weeks away.

By Kate MacLennan

Once every few months the stars in the fashion universe align and the dedicated fashion editor finds herself triple booked every day for a week with events. So many soirees, so little time.

We open with Lauren and Brody on a date… a friend date, apparently, as Lauren pouts that she hasn’t been on a “real date” in three whole weeks! Brody counsels her on what to look for in her next guy: “Somebody who’s not Mr. Perfect all the time… somebody who’s gotta be a little bit of a bad boy.” He seems to be hinting at himself here, and Lauren sweetly refrains from pointing out that bad boys neither ask her to cuddle nor cry when she breaks their fingers.

Hillside Villas. Audrina returns home after a weekend away with Justin Bobby. She tells Lauren that she and J.B. “had good talks, fooled around and were silly,” and that J.B. finally agreed to be her boyfriend. We don’t see him in this episode, though, because he’s at home recovering from his lobotomy.

Last week: Spencer dumped Brody and almost looked sad about it, and Justin Bobby swore a lot.

Teen Vogue. Boss-lady Whitney is busily typing away at her computer, while lowly underling Lauren uses a simple pencil and paper. Whitney, as usual, asks what’s been going on, and Lauren, as usual, has boy-related news: Ex-boyfriend Jason is out of rehab and back in her life. Although Lauren makes light of the fact that he only seems to show up when everything’s going great for her, she looks worried.