FASHION Magazine

The night the news of Leonard Cohen’s death broke, I walked the few blocks from my apartment to join a crowd of Montrealers gathered at his doorstep, a vigil for the man we were all so proud to call one of us. Candles, letters, artworks, photos and faces encircled his home, the indelible mark he […]

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I wish I could say that I was more cultured as a kid than I was; that I heard Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” after looking through my dad’s record collection or signing out a copy of Various Positions from my local library. In truth, the first album I purchased was Mary-Kate and Ashley’s I am the […]

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Music’s best fashion lessons »

We all know how much music influences fashion (otherwise, the semester I wore Dickies and ties to school like Avril Lavigne was a total wash). But even before the days of “Complicated” or begging our parents to let us wear sky-high Spice Girls sneakers, music was outlining style rules in a less visual, equally memorable way.

I mean, sure. Watching “Baby One More Time” may have inspired us to re-adjust our Catholic school uniforms or trade them in for a less monochromatic public school dress code, but songs by artists like Cake or Flo Rida instilled something even more important: clear verbal instructions on how to wear clothes.

And today is no different. Thanks to rules laid out by Jay-Z, Kanye, and even Lana Del Rey, artists continue to guide us through the murky waters of looking presentable. Through music, we’re learning what works, what doesn’t, how accessible fashion can be. After all, any of us could be the girl in the short shirt and long jacket, or the woman in the leopard print skin pillbox hat. So let’s get fancy with this list of some of music’s best fashion instructions.

They say two wrongs don’t make a right. But sometimes, three rights don’t make a right either. Or do they? I’m still undecided. Lana Del Rey has released her latest video, a cover of Leonard Cohen’s 1974 “Chelsea Hotel No 2.” The instrumental beauty, which has long been rumoured to have been written about Cohen’s […]

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The princess of London is Lily Allen. She is—no exaggeration—everywhere: on enormous billboards, on the radio, on every gossip page, on catwalk playlists, on the February cover of Spin. (She makes a charming appearance in FASHION’s latest issue, too!) And just when you’re starting to feel a bit bothered, she does something you can’t deny is brill. Like cover “Straight To Hell” by The Clash with all the insouciance she can muster, turning a punk classic into ska-lite delight (with the help of one Mick Jones, by the way). The song is a smash, the first whopping success from the covers album Heroes for humanitarian charity War Child. It starts playing in your head every time you see War Child posters on the subway and you think two things: 1. Is there anything Lily can’t get away with? And 2. Oh, right. I was supposed to blog about that album.