FASHION Magazine

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Rob Ford mingling with the arts set? Must be election season! This past Saturday, west-enders were treated to a troupe of Fords (make that brother Doug, wife Renata and kidlets Doug and Stephanie) at the pre-opening celebration of The Theatre Centre’s new home on Queen Street. Formerly the defunct Carnegie Library turned public health office, the restored Edwardian will act as a live hub for the arts incubator as well as a café, gallery and event space and a community garden. Saturday’s gala helped raise a final $130,000 for the $6.2 million renovation.

Theatrics were out in full force at the Baroque-themed gala, which featured pop up choral flash mob, a midnight blindfold dance and a custom-made poem to go with your coat check retrieval. Guests including host and actor Don McKellar, nightlife impresario Richard Lambert, counselor Ana Bailo and The Theatre Centre artistic director Franco Boni took in some seriously amazing appetizers and crazy cloud drinks that flowed out of glass contraptions, the mayor posed for photos with more than a few partygoers. We were about to throw shade at their eagerness, but then we saw this and figured it could have been worse.

See all the Toronto Life Most Influential 2013 party pics »

At first glance, a party where every guest is nose-deep in a magazine may seem like the least social event ever. However, when it’s the launch party for Toronto Life’s annual Most Influential issue, a quick read-through is totally necessary: while everyone who made the list was invited, none of the Most Influential guests knew how they ranked. Hence the frantic-yet-totally-casual flipping of pages upon entry by guests like Robert Deluce and Charles Khabouth. Held in the ballroom at the Ritz-Carlton, deep red lighting and a swanky live band made the space feel like a Swing Era soiree.

While Toronto Life’s editor-in-chief Sarah Fulford was quick to make a few drunken stupor jokes, neither of the issue’s cover subjects—that is, Bill Blair and Rob Ford—joined in for the festivities. Sure, it would have been good for gossip, but they wouldn’t have added to the impressive style that permeated the event.

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 photos from “This is Queen Street West” »

Already a favourite spot with the fashion set, add a worthy cause to a party at Toronto’s Jonathan + Olivia boutique and you’ve got a full house. Last night, J+O owners Nic Jones and Jackie O’Brien Jones (and their cherubic son, Phoenix) hosted “This is Queen Street West,” a clothing drive in support of CAMH‘s the Suits Me Fine Boutique alongside Queen Street West mainstays Jeremy Laing, Frank Griggs, Derrick Hodgson, Jesse Girard, Richard Lambert, Brendan Canning and Alison Milne. Suits Me Fine, which provides clothing for patients of the treatment centre, received stylish donations from everyone in attendance, as each party-goer was required to bring an office-appropriate article of clothing upon entry. As Canning and Laing hit the turn tables, the hip crowd snacked on M&Ms and basked in their hipness. Much like a typical night out on Ossington Avenue, I spose, but this time it was for a cause.

See photos from the Holt Renfrew Rag & Bone party »

Toronto is so desperate for springtime, that not even last night’s biblical style storm wouldn’t stop its style inclined inhabitants from flocking to Holt Renfrew for a party in honour of Rag & Bone’s neon-heavy spring collection. Packed to the racks of the department store’s third floor, partygoers—including designers Marcus Wainwright and David Neville, who made it in the nick of time after hours of flight delays—seemed especially eager to throw down to the DJ tunes and get crafty with the makeshift graffiti board that had been installed on a nearby wall.

And now for the fashion: Spring’s graphic black and white trend was embraced by many partygoers, most notably by stylist Mariko Lauren who channeled Wednesday Adams in a peter pan collar dress and wide brimmed hat and the always-fabulous Kealan Anne Sullivan, who artfully paired a vintage policeman’s hat with a black velvet cape, a white turtleneck sweater and beat up jeans. Socialite Stacey Kimmel braved gravity in a skin-baring halter black dress with selectively geometric fabric slashes. And at the other end of the spectrum, designer/photographer Ashley Rowe went for the kaleidoscopic effect with her lime green active suit suit, turquoise-dyed hair and gal pal stylist Cara Joy Purkis who wore head-to-toe red.