FASHION Magazine

See all the Holt Renfrew party pictures »

Not even a micro-blizzard can stop Toronto from celebrating the start of World MasterCard Fashion Week in style. Open-toed shoes and floor-grazing hemlines were spotted on many of the attendees at Holt Renfrew’s cocktail kickoff party, with barely a salt stain or goose-bump in sight.

The party, which started after the last of Monday’s shows, transplanted the front row set—that is, a mix of editors, designers, photographers and buyers—onto the third floor of Holt Renfrew. Ambient music (courtesy a Bellosound DJ in a white Jeremy Laing dress) mixed well with on-brand magenta lighting, making for quite the party den far away from the tents at David Pecaut square. And magenta wasn’t just everywhere thanks to the lighting: from Ashley Rowe’s dip-dyed hair and bright caftan to Lisa Tant’s magenta bolero jacket to a pocket square (that may have actually been a pair of panties, according to one onlooker) worn by a crafty male guest, the evening was filled with shades of pink, purple and red.

View FASHION’s 35th anniversary party photos »
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What’s better than a birthday party? Your own birthday party! On Wednesday night, the FASHION team (well, that’d be us) celebrated the magazine’s 35^th anniversary, and as you might expect, Toronto’s most stylish guys and gals were out in full force. 700 of our closest friends packed into the Distillery’s Fermenting Cellar to toast us with Skyy Vodka cocktails, mini burgers and musical performances by Divine Brown and The Parallels.

See the TIFF party photos »

After weeks of having Soho House Toronto membership papers sitting on my desk, I daresay last night’s first TIFF foray into the newly minted spot is making it mighty hard to turn down. Beyond a British gent-held velvet rope, the old timey Soho House décor complete with antique mirrors, a wide marble staircase, floor-to-ceiling Grey Goose bottles was in full swing and last night, the cast of Looper was there too. Just before midnight, the stars of the future/past/present time travel action flick showed up on masse to toast the film’s TIFF premiere with vodka cocktails (last year’s Le Fizz is back for another round alongside new additions like a Toronto-inspired tea) and miniature foods. Bruce Willis held court in a cozy little corner nook while Joseph-Gordon Levitt chatted with PRs, pals and…not me. Tidbits for crushing ladies like me? He has a really nice tan, he’s not as tall as you’d imagine but still perfectly babeular in stature and friends call him Joe. (I would have gone for Joey, JGL, or event the full on Joseph-Gordon Levitt, but hey).

Last night, the trio behind The Coveteur (along with the industry fans who love them) descended upon the private abode of a one miss Natasha Koifman to celebrate RW&CO’s new e-commerce website (coming soon) as well as to unofficially kick off the two-week countdown to TIFF. With the site’s founders, Erin Kleinberg, Stephanie Mark and Jake Rosenberg all head-to-toed in RW&CO’s fall collection, the soiree served as a stylish farewell to summer. However, the team at NKPR was surely not ready to give it up just yet, with an ice cream truck parked outside, Tiny Tom Donuts, Food Dudes nachos and Kernel’s popcorn served inside. To boot, TIFF-ified Skyy Vodka cocktails inspired by several of this year’s A-listers (ahem, Knightley, Gosling and Paltrow) with old-fashioned paper straws. Not to mention, the entire event took place in and around Koifman’s pool and waterfall hot tub. No big deal.

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Lauded as the hottest art party of the year, the Power Plant’s annual Power Ball fundraiser certainly lived up to expectations last night. Complete with wall-projected animations, Kobos hanging on trees, an old fashioned swing and a pre-party hosted by the much-hyped Soho House, almost 2,000 partygoers danced into the wee hours while carving off pieces of Marc Thuet’s bison on a spit. Some of our favourite duos—The Society’s Ashleigh Dempster and Amanda Blakely, designer Philip Sparks and NOW’s Andrew Sardone, Knot PR’s Amy Burstyn-Fritz and Tatiana Read, designer Jeremy Laing and Frank Griggs, and eTalk’s Tanya Kim and CP24’s Melissa Grelo—flitted around the scene. There was a mock television talk show (which we took part in) with a dancing robot sharing hosting duties. There was a performance by Dragonette. There were ladies dressed as sailors and men dressed as women. There were, always, many types of cocktails a-flowing (shout-out to Grey Goose, who created a timely Diamond Jubilee mix at the pre-party). Surely, more highlights will come to us throughout the day, but we can’t be asked to recount them all, given how late we were up.

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Walking through the oversized doghouse gate in Toronto’s Distillery District, it was clear that the Paws for the Cause gala and fashion show had marked its territory. The second annual doggies-on-the-catwalk event had the city’s cutest pooches sporting Canadian-made coats from Babies & Beasts while their celebrity dog walkers strutted their stuff in darling duds by Philip Sparks. Plaid-on-plaid suits, faux fur–collared jackets and ladylike dresses ensured that models like eTalk’s Tanya Kim and MTV’s Aliya-Jasmine Sovani looked (almost) as cute as their leashed companions.