FASHION Magazine

View the runway photos »
View the party photos »

Vancouver announced it’s coming out of the closet and into the streets and stores to throw its own official Fashion’s Night Out (FNO) on September 6 of this year. The invite for the launch-come-fashion show decreed “afternoon elegance” as the dress code to suit the Shangri-La Hotel location, and most attendees obliged.

At the press conference, details of the event were announced by Vancouver Fashion Showcase, the licensed local organizer of the global initiative instigated in 2009 by Anna Wintour, and advisory team Alexandra Suhner Isenberg of Searching for Style and designer Jason Matlo. The September event is expected to include the participation of 90-some fashion and beauty retailers, as well as restaurants.

View the photo gallery »

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.

View the photo gallery »

Super Saturday hit downtown Edmonton last weekend with the rainbow-coloured floats at the Gay Pride Parade, TEDx Edmonton talks at the Citadel Theatre, and food truck fare at What the Truck? on 104th Street. For a chockablock day—or, for as long as the rain would hold off, at least—the city came alive.

The most fashionable event, however, was the 4th Annual Al Fresco Block Party, which took place in the old warehouse district on the 4th Street Promenade, one of the most hip, happening, up-and-coming strips in the city.

View the party photos »

The 6th annual Luminato festival kicked off with major buzz on Friday night, as word spread through the opening night party that Nelly Furtado had joined K’Naan at his free concert at David Pecaut Square.

The swishy event at 25 York St. had its own surprises. Martha Wainwright jumped onstage for a sultry take on “Stormy Weather,” and spin duties were handled by Koala Kid (who must have ended the evening a few pounds lighter after sweltering in his faux fur koala costume). Yves Saint Laurent hosted the party, offering makeup touch-ups, samples of Opium and the new L’Homme Libre fragrances and the opportunity to write messages on an iPad that were then projected on a wall.

View the party pics »

Vancouver’s most enthusiastic gossip hounds headed to the city’s first, and hotly anticipated, SMUT Soiree at Vancouver Urban Winery last night, hosted by The Society and LaineyGossip.com. The cocktail party and panel discussion, led by eTalk correspondent and famed gossip Elaine “Lainey” Lui and television host-slash-actor, Dan Levy, dished the dirt for a hungry audience, finally served after envying Toronto’s six-year SMUT streak. For Lainey, it was only fitting that she indulge her adopted home and have Levy join her in moderating the panel, because Vancouver is where the two originally “fell in love” when covering the city’s 2010 Olympic Winter Games. “That’s when we became boyfriend and girlfriend,” she joked.

The proud friend told both me and the audience that her BFF had just returned from filming Admission, a film starring Tina Fey, Paul Rudd and Michael Sheen, but despite her beaming endorsement, Levy modestly added, “I don’t have a very big part, so let’s not inflate things.” Related: Dan, sharing the big screen with Tina Fey (!!!) needs no inflating.

See all the Chanel party attendees! »

The jump from mere popularity to timelessness is a big one, and very rarely does an item cross the gap. The few styles that have become truly timeless (take jeans and the classic white T, for example) usually aren’t solely owned by one brand. The little black jacket, on the other hand, has one very famous creator: Chanel.

To celebrate almost 60 years of LBJs, Karl Lagerfeld and Carine Roitfeld have collaborated on the book The Little Black Jacket: Chanel’s Classic Revisited, which will be released this fall. The book features over 100 images of 109 celebrities, ranging from Monégasque royalty Charlotte Casiraghi to rapper Kanye West, all styled by Carine Roitfeld in Chanel LBJs.

View the party pictures »

As the Statue of Liberty looked on, some of fashion’s finest took to the polo pitch at New York’s Liberty State Park, where Veuve Clicquot rang in their fifth annual Polo Classic. From Poppy Delevigne’s floral sundress to Coco Rocha’s silver-embellished blush dress, the star-studded attendees were decked out in full summer wear as they mingled in the marigold yellow VIP tents. On the pitch, Rachel Zoe sported her signature brand of boho chic in a maxi dress and floppy hat as she threw out the ceremonial ball to start the game. This year, the Polo Classic supported Work to Ride, a non-profit organization that aids disadvantaged urban youth by getting them involved with equestrian activities. Polo star Nacho Figueras, who co-hosted the event alongside his wife Delfina Blaquier, actor Clive Owen and the president of Veuve Clicquot U.S., Vanessa Kay, led the polo game. Once it wrapped up, the polo players celebrated by shooting off a Veuve spray (of course) and toasting the day with raised flutes.

View the photo gallery »

Last night, the sister duo behind one of fashion’s darling labels, Rodarte, descended upon Toronto for a fête in their honour at the Bay’s glittering designer den, The Room. As the finest champagne flowed, the city’s finest, freshly sunned partygoers crowded around Laura and Kate Mulleavy to get a look—albeit a look-but-don’t-touch. “You can’t just sidle up beside them and say, ‘I love you,’” one guest lamented. And isn’t it strange but true? The moment one of your idols is presented on a platter, the nerves tend to overcome. Such wasn’t the case, however, for Toronto’s version of the sister power duo, Chloé and Parris Gordon of Chloé Comme Parris, who got in there to articulate their crush. (I was afforded a private one-on-two with the designers earlier in the day, the gush-laden results of which are forthcoming).

View the party photos »

Oldsters at the New Museum converged in technicolour flocks while young things, no longer bright by comparison, looked greenly on. For once on a champagne-soaked night in New York City, the “it” girls weren’t girls at all. They were women with lives as rich as their Chanel bags, faces to live up to their fascinators. They were maybe even, unironically, “ladies.”

It was the launch party for Ari Seth Cohen’s new coffee table book, Advanced Style, published by Powerhouse and based on the popular blog of the same name—and accompanied by a several-minute video that premiered on Nowness.com in March. Guests were happy to watch it again: with advice like “young women, you’re going to be an old woman someday, so don’t worry about it!” and “someone doesn’t like what I’m wearing? I don’t give a shit!” it’s probably the feel-best fashion film any of us has seen. Iris Apfel‘s in it, and so is Tavi, for whom rad granny style is a major inspiration.

“These women are some of my best friends,” said Cohen, who wore a Floridian pink suit he’d bought for $80 in Chinatown. “They’ve definitely influenced my own style—they’re so liberated!” Ilona Royce Smithkin, an ebullient half-pint of a woman with Tang-dyed hair and mink eyelashes to match, tugged impatiently on his sleeve. He had another book to sign. “We don’t have all night,” sighed an elegant woman in mounds of paste jewellery and piles of clashing silk. “We might not even have another five minutes!” replied her friend, and they cackled together. They did not seem to care when the party ended, so long as they were the stars of it.

View the photo gallery »

Pattern princess Mary Katrantzou’s first-ever visit to Vancouver (“We’ve got fantastic weather, and I was expecting gloomy rain!” she enthused in an earlier interview) turned out a colourful crowd at The Room at the Bay last night. A noticeable number of party people sported kaleidoscopic looks from the designer’s new collection, which has gained equal notoriety for its elevation of everyday objects such as spoons and typewriters, as well as its trippy, engrossing patterns reminiscent of Magic Eye images from the ‘90s (a comparison Mary acknowledges with, “Yes, I heard that recently! I wasn’t sure what those magical eye drawings were.”)

Last night, Toronto’s Bata Shoe Museum opened its latest exhibit, a retrospective of Parisian shoe designer Roger Vivier, with a glittering fête complete with champagne flutes and many a pilgrim buckle. The exhibit follows the designer’s career from his couture-style creations for Christian Dior in the 1950s to his legendary pilgrim-buckle flats made famous by the likes of Catherine Deneuve in the swinging ‘60s and beyond. Italian-born designer Bruno Frisoni, who helms the label in the present day, was there to toast to the exhibit, alongside our editor-in-chief Bernadette Morra (donning—what else?—pilgrim-buckled silver flats), Alexandra Weston, Jeanne Beker, Marilyn Denis and the museum’s grand dame, Sonja Bata, whose star shone brighter than ever with her lively opening remarks.

View the photo gallery »

View the party pictures »
View the runway looks »

“Never seen so many Canadian designed outfits worn at a gala in Toronto.” Derick Chetty’s tweet from last night’s Toronto Fashion Incubator fete said it all. The 25^th anniversary party held at the Royal Ontario Museum was a Canadian fashion love-in.

CBC’s Nil Koksal pinned an enormous white orchid in her hair to match her floral Pink Tartan wrap dress. YSL Beaute’s Jane Connell rocked a crinolined Wayne Clark. And after stealing the Barbie runway show with her robot moves, The Listener’s Tara Spencer-Nairn slipped into a plum kimono dress with gold obi by Vawk.