FASHION Magazine

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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.

By Randi Bergman and Paige Dzenis

In T minus four days, the biggest (figuratively) and best (in the academy’s opinion) night in Hollywood will go down at Los Angeles’s Kodak Theatre for the 84^th Annual Academy Awards. We know y’all have a viewing party planned, and if you don’t… well, get on it! Need some inspiration? Our list of oddly-inspired party favours should do the trick.

Let’s get this party started! »

One of TIFF’s most guarded secret spots is the Grey Goose Soho House. Its location has been more or less kept hush-hush throughout the festival, and that’s why it’s probably been such a popular joint for celebs, including Ryan Gosling, Keira Knightley, George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Olivia Wilde, and the list goes and on (and on).

For the first time we’d seen the venue during daylight hours, we stopped by on Saturday to check it out and chat with Grey Goose global brand ambassador Dimi Lezinska, the man in charge of creating Soho House’s cocktail menu. While all manner of good-looking stars come through Soho House, we could easily see patrons being more interested in catching Lezinska’s eye, and not because they needed to get a drink. The Frenchman is charming and handsome, which itself is the best cocktail. Lezinska has been with Grey Goose for six years and has created cocktails for soirees from the Oscars in Los Angeles to the Cannes Film Festival.

Lezinska created the menu for TIFF about three months in advance, and he says when planning he tries to incorporate flavours and ingredients that reflect the location of the event. Experimenting with all of these ingredients and creating signature cocktails sounds rather scientific, but Lezinska makes it sound like more than pouring the right mix: “It’s not a science—it’s an alchemy.” We think he’s struck gold.

Let’s get shaking »