FASHION Magazine

See the street style image from New York Fashion Week »

We’re deep into New York Fashion Week Spring 2014 and the sidewalks are officially stacked with the biggest names in fashion—-Solange! Hanne! Giovanna! Put all those fashionistas together and you get a sidewalk-turned-runway full of inspirational, colourful, and sometimes outlandish clothing.

Being total ‘90s children, all the grunge styling had Nirvana on repeat in our heads for the third season running. Plaid and denim were featured in everything from Canadian tuxedos (what what!) to jumpsuits to ankle length denim skirts. So totally ‘90s!. Leather showed up on track pants, dresses, and the sleeves of the most covet-worthy trench of all time. Even The Newsroom’s Emily Mortimer was wearing leather Jason Wu get-up.

See The Outnet party pictures »

For those of us who sideline in online sale stalking, The Outnet is a mainstay. Launched in 2009 as the post-sale outlet for designer den Net-a-Porter, the site has morphed into a full fledged Mecca for designer discounts boasting insane slashes on over 200 brands including Valentino, Stella McCartney, Alexander Wang and its own in-house label, Iris & Ink, which serves as a head-to-toe top off collection for the all the rest of the site’s covetable wares.

Go inside Beckerman sisters’ bags here »

If there were an award for Toronto’s most fashionable twins, Samantha and Caillianne Beckerman would win it year after year. The identical duo’s love for a kaleidoscopic magpie blend of designer duds has not only become a staple on the Toronto fashion scene, but on the web as well, where they boast a cool 44,000 Instagram fans. To boot, the sisters are H&M’s official fashion bloggers and have previously collaborated with Coach, Aldo, Bulgari and Teen Vogue, just to name a few. So, how do they do it? The Beckerman sisters really seem to have fun with fashion. Definitive subscribers of a “more is more” sensibility, the duo are constantly dressing up for each other on their blog Beckerman Bite Plate and well, we just can’t get enough. The twins let us inside their fabulous Mary Poppins bags for a peek at what they carry with them on a daily basis. The results, as you would imagine, are some of the most vibrant and fun imagery we’ve seen all week!

See all the photos from the Toronto Life Spring Stylebook launch party »

Is there a better indication that spring has finally sprung than an empty coat check room at a party? Such was the case at the launch for the spring issue of the Toronto Life Stylebook—there was an abundance of sheer dresses, bare legs and strappy sandals but not a single winter accessory in sight. Adding to the spring atmosphere were Edward Scissorhands-worthy topiaries that dotted the Distillery District’s Fermenting Cellar and greeted guests at the party’s entrance.

Speaking of guests, Toronto Life Stylebook cover girl Sarah Gadon was a perfect fit for the role of guest of honour, wearing a sleek blue and black Greta Constantine dress from the Fall 2013 collection. Considering that many of the partygoers have appeared on most-fashionable lists (be it Toronto Life’s or elsewhere) it was hard to stay focused on one outfit for more than a few seconds. The Beckerman sisters kept things colourful with Samantha in a neon accented blouse and Caillianne in a pastel floral-print dress. Florals certainly were the uniform of choice for the party—from vibrant digital prints to whispy petals, watching the crown was like witnessing an Erdem and Mary Katranzou-themed Pinterest board come to life.

See our blogger-inspired Halloween costume guide »

If you don’t have your Halloween costume yet, it’s safe to say that you are a major procrastinator. Because we may just be guilty of the same offense from time to time, we’re here to lend a helping hand and come up with some final costume ideas for tomorrow’s Halloween festivities. To make it (relatively) easy, we’ve plucked inspiration from some of the most recognizable faces that we see every day, fashion and style bloggers BryanBoy, Man Repeller’s Leandra Medine, Tavi Gevinson, I Want I Got’s Anita Clarke and the Beckerman sisters.

The best part of dressing up like a blogger for Halloween? Your costume shouldn’t require many extra purchases, and you can take fashion risks with styling that you might not be inclined to try regularly. Whether you want to sport Mickey Mouse ears like BryanBoy or an oversized pair of sunglasses á la Anita Clarke, these costumes are as easy as pie.

View by blogger: ANITA CLARKE | LEANDRA MEDINE | BRYANBOY | TAVI GEVINSON | BECKERMAN SISTERS

See the Versailles ’73 party photos »

Though it marked a monumental shift in fashion history, November 28, 1973 has passed through history with none of the mythological treatment as 1962’s Black and White ball or even a single Met ball. Until now that is. Brought to life by director Deborah Riley Draper, Versailles ’73 tells the story of a fashion show of French and American designs which was originally meant to simply fund the palace’s much needed repairs but became the moment that brought American fashion into the forefront. With legendary fresh-makers Liza Minelli, Kay Thompson and Pat Cleveland at the forefront of the American presentation, the show of designs by Halston, Oscar de la Renta, Bill Blass, Stephen Burrows and Anne Klein rocked a guestlist of Princess Grace of Monaco, CZ Guest, Andy Warhol, Lee Radziwell and Baroness Marie-Hélène de Rothschild and more to its feet with simplistic and impactful presentation and lively African American models (spearheaded by Pat Cleveland, who literally spun from one end of the stage to the next).

View FASHION’s 35th anniversary party photos »
Check out our archive of every FASHION cover since 1977 »

What’s better than a birthday party? Your own birthday party! On Wednesday night, the FASHION team (well, that’d be us) celebrated the magazine’s 35^th anniversary, and as you might expect, Toronto’s most stylish guys and gals were out in full force. 700 of our closest friends packed into the Distillery’s Fermenting Cellar to toast us with Skyy Vodka cocktails, mini burgers and musical performances by Divine Brown and The Parallels.

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.

The Hoxton was abuzz with Brit power for the Topshop launch party and concert on Tuesday night, from main man Sir Philip Green and fashion director Kate Phelan, to Jamie Hince, one part of rock duo The Kills (more or less importantly, he’s also one part of Mr. and Mrs. Kate Moss, but you already knew that, didn’t you). Incidentally, the space was also abuzz with It girl power, from Harley Viera-Newton on the turntables, to Coco Rocha in the VIP section. While some complained of the noise, we were amongst the large group of fans including designer Samantha Beckerman, Pink Tartan gal Sarah Marantz, writer Sarah Nicole Prickett, and photographer Adam Levett, that were more than tickled to be enjoying such an intimate setting for rocking out to Hince and Alison Mosshart’s moody hits.

View the photo gallery »