FASHION Magazine

See all the pictures from Boobyball 2013 »

After all the effort that partygoers put into picking outfits for last Friday’s Boobyball, Halloween is going to have some tough costume competition. The annual fundraiser for Rethink Breast Cancer once again outdid itself with an inventive theme, Booby U, which encouraged guests to show off their best “varsity vogue” looks. And oh, was the alma mater nostalgia ever flowing! From togas and football gear to cheerleader poms and geek chic getups, Toronto’s Sound Academy turned into a virtual university campus—made all the more real thanks to dorm room decor, sorority lounges and an Animal House party zone, perfectly primed for flip cup battles.

Among those spotted in their frosh week-worthy finest were Boobyball’s stylish co-chairs, Whitney Pizale, Lisa Kruger and Rachelle Saevil. Honorary co-chair Ainsley Kerr pirouetted around the venue in a ballerina-worthy tutu while Aliya-Jasmine Sovani breezed into the party at the eleventh hour, arriving directly from the airport but still sporting football style at its best. The letterman jacket dominated most outfits, with school insignia and team numbers being a definite Boobyball go-to. And it’s not just for costume parties: take a look at the black and white outfits on Jill Shaver and Hilary Mymin to see how the varsity trend can work for everyday wear.

See the JNBY party pictures »

Amidst the homegrown talent, one very cool and far away brand will be making its Canadian runway debut next week during World MasterCard Fashion Week in Toronto. JNBY (Just Naturally Be Yourself) is big in Japan…and Thailand and Singapore and France as well as China, where it hails from. A week before its reveal at fashion week (and we’ll save the oohs and aahs till then), JNBY previewed its Spring 2014 collection to an ultra trendy crowd at a pre-fashion week party hosted by The Collections. The stellar clothes were shown alongside a large photo print by Cory VanderPloeg of a model wearing Laura Siegel‘s spring collection..

Regular scenesters like Amina Said, Sarah Magwood, Parris Gordon, Jay Strut and The Collections threesome Dwayne Kennedy, Mel Ashcroft and Brian Richards lined the walls as well as fresh faced models in Miley buns and off duty sweaters. As with any cool kid party, there were plenty of new faces to creep in true Cinderella form. We’d like to crown a new style princess, but we don’t know her name. You! Got the other glass slipper?

See the party photos »

The Room at Hudson’s Bay went full Anglo on Tuesday night with its celebration of two Brit shoe designers, Nicholas Kirkwood and Sophia Webster. Held in the store’s palatial new shoe department (seriously, it’s 20,000 square feet), the soiree served as a shoe shopping kick off as well as, well, just another excuse to party. Toronto’s style setters were in fine pre-fashion week form, pulling out all the outfit stops and the Nicholas Kirkwood chevrons to boot.

Kim Tanenbaum modelled her mother-in-law Carole Tanenbaum’s jewels just perfectly overtop an all-black outfit and Kirkwood’s wholesale director Josephine Papasavvas brought the party’s requisite Peter Pilotto factor alongside a stomach-bearing crop top. West end cred was sufficiently represented by Prince Innocence’s Talvi Faustmann and Josh McIntyre, who matched in long black trench coats. Hair statementing was a thing too, especially for a certain top-knotted shoe associate who delighted us with his kabuki-like appearance and definitive newness on the scene. You go girl.

See the party pictures »

On Wednesday night, Ossington Avenue boutique Jonathan + Olivia kicked of Toronto Fashion Week in high style with a party celebrating homegrown designers Jeremy Laing, Calla and Horses Atelier. Swapping digs for the night, the must-have den brought it’s cool kid friends to the revamped Storys Building, which now boasts a swanky bar set up. Fresh off The Shows, guests including stylists Cary Tauben, Corey Ng and crop cut queen Chanel Croker tripled the double C effect, while Bad Day Magazine editor Eva Michon and Jeremy Laing communications director Frank Griggs lent their tunes to the night in the DJ booth. Many guests wore black, because obviously.

See our shots from Nuit Blanche 2013 »

Toronto’s art lovers came out in droves for Nuit Blanche, the annual sunset to sunrise art fest, which takes over the downtown core each October. With some of the some of the warmest Nuit Blanche weather in memory, all 110 contemporary art displays were stacked with well-dressed merrymakers ready to break out the contraband tallboys.

The exhibits ranged from a poem written in fluorescent lights to over 1000 second hand pieces of furniture sculpted into a tower lit by luminescent bulbs. Drambuie liquor set up shop at the Stephen Bulgar gallery, delivering guests to and fro in a British cab decorated in zigzag stripes. The most talked about exhibit of the night was “Forever Bicycles” by artist Ai Wei Wei, which featured 3,144 bicycles in a maze-like monument located at Nathan Phillip Square.

Sartorially, the common thread between the art lovers was comfort, warmth and some imaginative flair. Chunky knits, sweatshirts and leather and denim jackets provided warmth while sneakers and flat to mid-heeled boots provided comfort for the citywide trek. A contemporary art festival is incomplete without a thought-provoking one-liner inked on a sartorial piece as seen on the back of one attendee’s jacket.

See the Drake One Fifty party photos »

The Drake Hotel can easily be credited with introducing Bay Street types to Queen West, and now, with the launch of Drake One Fifty, they’re reversing the flow. Nested between Toronto’s tallest skyscrapers and expense account-funded bars, the Drake has transplanted its signature sense of (dare we say hipster?) style into a standalone restaurant that will change the scene of the downtown core.

While the space has been on the radar of Toronto’s style set for months, doors officially opened earlier this week with a jam-packed party. From Holt Renfrew’s Moira Wright and Jennifer Daubney to artists Tommy Matejka and Niall McLelland, the guest list was a perfectly curated uptown/downtown mix. In typical Drake Hotel fashion, Drake One Fifty is as much about art and interior design as it is the food. Most of the dining room sits under a huge wooden pergola, designed by Brothers Dressler, book-ended with artwork by Douglas Coupland and Micah Lexier. (You’ll also be sure to see the extremely photogenic emerald-green leather bar stools and banquettes in the background of Instagrams for years to come.)

See the party pictures »

Last month, Alberta kicked off a month of fashion weeks and events around the world with its own fashion gathering, unlike any fashion gathering the province had seen before. Hosted at Latitude 53’s new downtown Edmonton location, Calgary’s PARK  (Promoting Artists, Redefining Kulture) debuted into new, northern territory.

For anyone who knows the history of the two cities, (hockey) rivalry is core to their relationship, but with FASHION as its official magazine sponsor, Edmonton’s fashion industry professionals—from designers, boutique owners, hair stylists and make-up artists, to photographers, bloggers, writers and media personalities—came together to mix and mingle with their local community and connect with their southern counterpart.

Calgary’s Jessie Li and Kara Chomistek, co-founders and producers of PARK, are looking to expand the organization’s reach and connect the fashion industry’s movers-and-shakers by hosting events throughout the province (and one day, they say, Canada). “The Edmonton fashion community has been incredibly supportive of what we’ve done in Calgary and we want to continue to build and develop the relationships between our two cities,” says Li. The two young producers, a chartered accountant and an engineer, respectively, co-founded PARK in 2008 as an effort to provide emerging artists and designers with greater opportunities to show and sell their works.

See the David Bowie party pics »

On Friday night, the Art Gallery of Ontario went full on Bowie for the opening party of its costume retrospective celebrating the gender bending rock star, David Bowie is. Some guests took his various personas literally, while others used them as jumping off points to let their inner freak flag fly. Bowie style makeup jobs were everywhere, from Aladdin Sane’s classic lightening bolt to Ziggy Stardust’s shimmering gold forehead globe. As for the clothes, Bowie inspirations ran the gamut from Style Panelist Leah Gust‘s gold onesie, to AGO publicist Laura Banks‘ pink animal print getup. While many of the evening’s guests spent hours poring over the exhibit (the recommended exhibit time is 65 minutes, but we barely escaped all that beautiful excess at the 120 mark), others partied on the main floor to the Bowie-esque spun sounds of Odessa Paloma Parker, who played DJ for the night in head-to-toe glam garb.

See all the photos from the Upgrade book launch party »

Is there anything more enticing than a promise to make your regular old life extraordinary? It was this premise that inspired Rana Florida to write her latest book, and the reason why a very swishy crowd gathered to celebrate the launch of Upgrade on Tuesday night. Held at the home of Suzanne and Mark Cohon, the party attracted a mix of Toronto’s most stylish and most social. It was certainly a who’s who of the city’s creative set—a group more likely to be featured as an Upgrade case study than those in need of the book’s advice.

Holt Renfrew’s Moira Wright (in a sleek black pantsuit and tuxedo jacket) mingled with Greta Constantine’s Stephen Wong and Kirk Pickersgill, who were just days away from jetting off to Paris. The guest of honour was decked out in a stunning Clover Canyon dress—purchased just for the occasion—and Rana wasn’t the only one in digital prints and vibrant colours. Alexandra Weston toned down her purple, blue and grey Peter Pilotto skirt with a leather moto jacket, while Jane Apor’s fluro-orange clutch and heels added a pop of colour to her ensemble. Twitter Canada’s Kirstine Stewart was also rocking some orange, with a pair of bright pants that should probably be on everyone’s fall must-have list.

See the photos from Grey Goose Soho House »

In some cosmic switcheroo, Taylor Swift may just have been the perfect megawatt replacement for Meryl Streep last night at Grey Goose Soho House. Streep had been the most anticipated guest of TIFF 2013 in connection with her latest sure-to-be Oscar nominated leading role in August: Osage County, but bowed out at the last minute due to illness. There were tears for many, especially one pint sized fan who wore a “Meryl in training” T-shirt to the film’s screening at Roy Thompson Hall earlier that evening. Not for the film’s cast and Gucci and Holt Renfrew’s hosted after-party guests however—they all seemed thrilled by the surprise appearance by Swift, who showed up in a wowza Calvin Klein Collection number after walking the red carpet of One Chance. Flanked by Harvey Weinstein and a dapper Brenton Thwaites who I’m sure will be the talk of the blogs all day long (he’s about to be a Disney prince!), Swift held court on the second floor for most of the night, that is, while she wasn’t busy hanging with the film’s star studded cast, aka. the fixtures of the rip-roarious festivities.

See all the photos from the Night Moves party! »

This weekend’s TIFF parties have been loaded with A-listers, but at the Grey Goose Soho House last night, it was A-list with a capital ‘A’ for the post-premiere party of Night Moves. The film stars Dakota Fanning and Jesse Eisenberg (plus Swedish dreamboat Peter Sarsgaard, though he sadly wasn’t in town) who play environmentalists-turned-eco-terrorists dealing with a major “moral maelstrom.” Both stars were there last night and while we wonder how the notoriously curt Eisenberg held up, we were mainly focused on Fanning’s top knot and super-hunk bf Jamie Strachan. Fanning swapped her Atelier Versace red carpet look in favour of a more relaxed blazer, crop top and pencil skirt combo. Jennifer Morrison was also rocking some amazing hair, with a long, perfectly-messy fishtail braid that started as a French braid at her crown. (That’s definitely going into our Pinterest inspiration folder.)

See all the photos from the TIFF 2013 amfAR gala »

“I have Spanx on top of pantyhose and I’m about to have a hose stroke,” Beth Ditto winced as she took the stage at the TIFF 2013 amfAR gala on Sunday night.

Still the Gossip singer and M.A.C Cosmetics collaborator blew the roof off The Carlu, first with her own set, then in a duet of Dolly Parton’s “Here You Come Again” with emcee Alan Cumming.

Adrien Brody, Maria Bello and Paul Haggis were among those in the crowd which was also treated to a showing of menswear by Marc Jacobs and a rousing auction. Okay, so it may not have been quite as exciting as the amfAR benefit in Cannes in May, when Brody took the Cartier watch off his wrist and auctioned it off for $100,000. Still, two Toronto ladies pushed the bidding up to $22,000 for a night of New York bar-hopping with Cumming.