FASHION Magazine

Across Canada, art galleries and museums have pivoted to offering interactive online exhibits and free virtual tours. Read about nine such venues here.

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See the photos from Power Ball 2014 »

When an event’s billed “party of the year,” you’d better hope it lives up to its expectations. Power Ball 2014 sure did, with the harbourfront’s Power Plant gallery once again tricked out with a myriad of surreal installations, babely partygoers and many, many, many drinks. This year, the event was dubbed “Old World/New World,” which took form in old timey film projectors, hanging mummy-effect moon men and a computer-bed hybrid just ripe for Instagram opps. It was a jumping off point for guests too, who interpreted with mechanical headpieces, metallic cocktail dresses and one pair of seriously awesome Riccardo Tisci Nikes. Stylist Dwayne Kennedy took robot chic to the next level in a boxy ribbed synthetic Sid Neigum jacket that fastened with staples (staples!). Meanwhile, artist Stephanie Comilang went for true high low in white-on-white Jeremy Laing T-shirt and culottes and with a plastic bag for a purse. And while some chose to shoot for the future, others stuck to the classics, like writer Rea McNamara, who aced the menswear look in a sleek grey suit. With the party still raging way past its 1 a.m. last call, I can only image the only future/past Power Ball 2014 attendees are feeling is libation-induced.

12 suggestions for what to wear to Power Ball 2014 »

Toronto’s annual arty blowout is happening this Thursday, which means that the city’s partygoers are in serious prep mode. Even for those who don’t circulate often, Power Ball is a big deal. Every year, the Power Plant comes alive with installations, open bars and flashbulbs. As such, you can imagine the importance placed on wardrobing. If you’re going to this year’s event and still don’t know what to wear, here are 12 tips from some of Toronto’s hippest partygoers and some of those involved with this year’s festivities.

Tickets are still available at thepowerplant.org but by this time tomorrow they’re likely to disappear. Get ‘em while they’re hot!

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.

Selling out is déclassé among art types, until it comes to fundraisers. And a whole week before Power Ball 12, the city’s wildest (read: only wild) art party was most emphatically sold out. Which meant everyone wanted to be there last Thursday night. Which, in turn, made the night feel like the sum of all Fears of Missing Out (FOMO).

This past Thursday, FASHION went Powerballin’ at the Power Plant’s 11th annual “original contemporary art party,” the Power Ball. Co-chaired by Cleophee Eaton, Michael Cooper and Queen West gallery guy Clint Roenisch, the trailer-trash bash was as much about raising hell as raising funds. Design duo du jour Castor hauled in their high-kitsch Winnebago and–what swine flu?–a real, live-looking pig roast. Next door, art (and bar) star Dean Baldwin slung vodka and Kool-Aid to the likes of Drake Hotel-ier Jeff Stober. In the “video outhouse,” scandalous “private parties” became less so, as they were broadcast to the big screen inside; other projections included “Mad Max” and a “Conceptual Art soft porn peep show.”