FASHION Magazine

As a follow-up to last week’s shopping post, we’ve rounded up some great spring pieces to freshen up your look. Click the images below to read about our picks Ashleigh Dempster and Amanda Blakley are the co-founders of The Society Global, a social club with chapters in Toronto, New York and L.A. (and coming this […]

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There weren’t any April showers to actually bring May flowers this year, but you can still undertake your annual out-with-old and in-with-the-new regimen. Here are our 6 (mostly Toronto) spots for this year’s spring cleaning. The White Space at the Bay Queen Street ( 176 Yonge St., 416-861-9111, hbc.com) The Bay was our little fashion […]

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We worked up an appetite for Brooklyn’s culinary delights after spending time wandering the borough’s selection of cool boutiques. Here are our favourite stops.

Bird (220 Smith St.,718-797-3774, shopbird.com) This little gem of a shop carries 3.1 Phillip Lim, Current/Elliott, Alexander Wang and everything in between.

Butter By Eva Gentry (389 Atlantic Ave., 718-260-9033, evagentry.com) You feel like you are entering a gallery when you pass the stoop of this directional boutique. They carry everything from artfully-crafted Japanese shoes to delicate diamond micro-bands and scented candles.

Brooklyn’s gentrification in recent years has led to many great things, including ones to satisfy our hunger pains. If you’re in New York this summer, hop over the East River to check out one of these spots for a low-key nosh.

The Auteurs (theauteurs.com). For a monthly stipend you can become a film buff in no time. The Auteurs is like Criterion Collection-meets-LimeWire. Pay by the film or by the month for high-quality, online cinema-on-demand. Soon you’ll be dropping references at dinner parties from the Coppolas to Cronenberg and the Coen brothers.

The Culturites just spent five days on a “working holiday” in paradise–we camped out at The Standard Miami. Somewhere in between our conference calls held poolside and writing proposals over smoothies in the breakfast nook, we found time to completely un-wind with some local neighborhood joints outside of the typical SoBe haunts. Our top spots for a quick Miami getaway below:

Stay, dine, swim or relax in the hammam at The Standard Miami (40 Island Avenue, 305-673-1717, standardhotels.com/miami). It’s off the main strip and offers yoga, a wellness spa, free in-room films, green smoothies (featuring ingredients like parsley spirulina and kale) for breakkie and poolside quinoa salad. This is not the spring-break Miami you may be familiar with.

Puerto Sagua (700 Collins Avenue, 305-673-1115). Cuban comfort food at its best–nothing about this resto is chic or refined, just the way Culturites like it these days! The roasted chicken, black beans and fried plantains are the best Cuban food we have tasted outside of Havana. No preferential treatment here–there is always a line, and slipping the “maître’d” some cash isn’t going to make it move any faster. Instead, order some bottles Presidente beer while you wait and people watch.

Gallery owners to curate art for the walls of your dream home.

1. Daniel Faria, co-owner of the Clark & Faria Gallery (55 Mill Street Building #2, 416-703-1700, monteclarkgallery.com) in the Distillery District. He’s loveable and approachable, with a keen eye for curating rock star contemporary art and photography exhibits.

Whether you like yours with an extra spicy rim on the glass or easy on the Tabasco, we’ve found the Toronto spots that make a Bloody Caesar worth getting out of bed for on Sunday.

1. School (70 Fraser Avenue, 416-588-0005, sbcto.com) This hopping joint always does the trick for a Saturday or Sunday brunch fest. We usually start with a healthy smoothie and then move into the Caesars. Very counter-intuitive but somehow makes us feel like we’re keeping our health in check.

If you’re headed on a break to escape the last dregs of winter, here are a few suggestions to keep you entertained on the flight:

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee by Rebecca Miller ($17, HarperCollins) Rebecca Miller’s tale about a suburban trophy wife with a past came to the big screen last fall. The novel is a great quick read for a short haul trip.

Ashleigh Dempster and Amanda Blakley call themselves cultural curators. Their club, The Society (thesocietyglobal.com), hosts high- and low-arty happenings in Toronto, L.A. and New York (and on March 25, Miami!)—from literary salons to graffiti tours and the always hotly-anticipated S.M.U.T. Soiree—so we can think of no better pair to write our new feature, The Culture Club. Every Thursday, they’ll be bringing you a weekly list of six culture picks for Toronto (and beyond)—everything from the best airplane reads to late-night eats to the top gallerists.

First up (and early this week): The top 6 places to get a cold beer in Vancouver during the Olympics.

The Shore Club (688 Dunsmuir St., 604-899-4400). We love the dark woods, California blinds and subdued interior. It’s also a stone’s throw from Holt Renfrew. Sit at the bar and order a Rickard’s White– refreshing after shopping til you drop in the Pacific Centre.