FASHION Magazine

See the Centre Stage gala photos »

Last Tuesday night, the Canadian Opera Company held its first annual Centre Stage gala at the Four Seasons Centre in Toronto. The event focused around the company’s Ensemble Studio, a training program for emerging opera talents. Part benefit, part performance audition, Centre Stage pit nine hopefuls against one another in the battle for entry into the ensemble as well as a few hella generous cash prizes. And because no singing competition can do without some showmanship, Rufus Wainwright lent his skills, playing the host role for the night in a sparkling Moschino suit. He even surprised the crowd by performing a few of this favourite songs including “Les feux d’artifice t’appellent” from his opera Prima Donna.

After each finalist performed a piece from the likes of Verdi, Bizet and Mozart, soprano Karine Boucher was crowned winner of the judges’ award as well as the night’s audience award. She won the fashion award too, in a floor-length gown covered in gold sequins and featuring a diva apropos plunging neckline. Tenor Jean-Philippe Fortier-Lazure and bass-baritone Iain MacNeil place second and third respectively.

See all the Operanation 2013 party pics »

On Thursday night the Four Seasons Centre was decidedly catering to just one season, with the expansive performance hall transformed into a luscious garden of evil. Filled with party goers and potted plants alike, the green-tinged space was all for the Candian Opera Company’s Operanation fundraising gala, themed as “A Night of Temptation” for its tenth iteration.

While all-black ensembles were by far the most popular fashion statement, texture allowed for individuality. From mesh cut-outs and ruffled pleats to velvet and sequin add-ons, the little black dress (or gown, for that matter) certainly stood out at Operanation. Darker colours, such as navy-blue and deep jade-green—as seen on soprano Leigh Anne-Allen and The Hudson Bay Company’s Megan Loach—provided a different take the all-black trend and should make inky gowns a gala must. And on the opposite end of the colour spectrum, bright primary colours stood out in the sea of dark shades, including Tatiana Read in red, FASHION’s editor-in-chief Bernadette Morra in blue Viktor and Rolf, and a hit of yellow, courtesy Odessa Paloma Parker’s Jeremy Laing number.

See our Design Exchange gala photos »

Toronto’s creative elite was treated to a veritable feast for the eyes at last Friday’s annual Design Exchange gala, this year revamped and restyled under the theme of “Intersection.” Surely meant to rival the glittering reputation held by the Power Plant’s annual Power Ball gala for being the art party of the year, the event succeeded in being everything it wanted to be—part art exhibit, part auction, party VIP hobnob and part knockout bash—complete with guest of honour Douglas Coupland posing for pictures, making speeches and even imitating a Canada goose.

Various phases of the night stretched across parts of the DX I didn’t even know existed. Case in point: a pop up mystery dinner put on by Matty Matheson of Parts + Labour catering, which took place in a dimly lit library overlooking King Street. There was trout roe, but where were the books?

See the full gallery of Operanation party pictures »

Last Thursday opera lovers, patrons of the arts and faces who frequent Toronto’s party circuit came together to support the Canadian Opera Company for Operanation 9: Sweet Revenge. Attendees reflected the event’s theme of high-brow-opera-meets-pop-culture-concert well: Women in floor-length evening gowns navigated the many staircases of the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts with ease—proving there’s no architectural challenge a mermaid dress can’t master—while others used the Centre’s sprawling steps as seating throughout the night.

Actress Gabrille Miller looked stunning in a peplum’d dress from Lucian Matis Fall 2012 while Nelly Furtado had two costume changes throughout the night, starting with a gown by Denis Gagnon and later switching into a Holy Tee dress. On the third floor a group of Argo players attracted many eligible ladies—perhaps the popularity of The Bachelor Canada has given the CFL a new social standing?

See the party shots »

While the rest of the city was busy setting off Canada Day fireworks and lining the streets for the annual blowout Pride Parade, Toronto’s hippest were hanging in the beautifully shaded backyard belonging to gallerist Daniel Faria. Co-hosted by Faria and alongside Rui Amaral and Andrea Beechey, the backyard soiree (complete with drag show by Mozza Fierce, tunes by DJ Diego Armand and drinks served by topless The Earl’s Men) was a welcome respite from the frenzied pulse beating through the city’s wears. Instead, guests like Trinity Jackman, Jeremy Laing, Frank Griggs and Catherine Dean favoured easy breezy Ts, loose summer dresses, tropical prints and strapped flats. Check out our favourite shots from street shooter extraordinaire, Textstyles’ Stefania Yarhi.

View the party photos »

The National Ballet of Canada must be feeling quite royal this year because it’s celebrating a diamond anniversary (that being 60 years) of pliés, and toasted as such at last night’s glittering Diamond Gala. The special edition of the company’s annual Mad Hot gala featured five performance works, including premieres of two spellbinding works, Polar Night (choreographed by Robert Binet and danced by real-life couple Heather Ogden and Guillaume Côté) and Silence Screams Venom (choreographed by Côté and danced by Greta Hodgkinson alongside Giorgio Galli, Keiichi Hirano, Patrick Lavoie and Christopher Stalzer) and finishing off with the most glittering of all: an excerpt from George Balanchine’s Diamonds, complete with the entire company decked out in jewel-encrusted costumes.

After the performances, the full house, including the ballet’s artistic director Karen Kain, Rufus Wainwright and Jorn Weisbrödt and the fabulously feathered Lynda Prince (who was overheard giving Kain posing directions) mingled all around the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. The designer-clad doyennes, Victoria Webster, Trinity Jackman, Cleophee Eaton and Amy Burstyn-Fritz, made Katrantzou/Erdem/McQueen sightings seem as simple as it could be with vodka cocktails and rock candy stir sticks in hand.

Heralded as the art party of the year by those who know (you don’t ball till you Power Ball, I’ve been told), the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery’s annual fundraising bash, Power Ball, has upped the ante this year by adding Toronto’s very own golden designing boy Jeremy Laing to its committee of cool-kid co-chairs. Alongside Jessica Rose (others on the committee include Gabe Gonda and Trinity Jackman), Laing was charged with conceiving this year’s theme, Thirteenth Floor (“It’s the 13th Power Ball, so we decided to embrace the odd and unlucky,” he says). His other task was to program artists, DJs and events for the night. “We landed some great projects for the party, including an installation and performance by New York–based Karen Azoulay, as well as a party room installation by Assume Vivid Astro Focus, an internationally regarded art collective based in France, Brazil and New York,” says Laing. “Think massive digital projections, custom lasers, huge inflatables and a limited-edition party mask with refractive lenses to be handed out at the stroke of midnight.”

Also in Laing’s co-chair description: Dressing this first-time Power Baller (yours truly) in one of his designs. Along with my boy Lewis Mirrett, I stopped by Laing’s studio yesterday for a bit of a pre-party dress-up. My first time being “dressed” for a party, I only had to try on a few numbers before I knew which was to be mine (for one night only).

What did I choose? Peep the dress-up session after the jump! »

This year’s Power Ball takes place next Thursday, on June 16. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit powerplant.org.