FASHION Magazine

If you’re of a certain age and have an Instagram account, chances are your feed has been inundated by wedding shots all summer long. More than once, I’ve asked myself, “Has everyone gotten married this summer?” And, hey, in Toronto’s fashion community, it feels like the answer is yes. Romance is in the air—the open […]

The post How fashion girls get married: 11 of the most stylish summer weddings across Canada appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

Whether it’s a horrible bridesmaid dress, a prospective bump-in with the ex, or a classic case of a demanding bridezilla, there are plenty of unavoidable factors that make us want to abandon our position in the bridal party lineup and run in the other direction. Or at least run straight to the (hopefully open) bar. But […]

The post 5 bridesmaid beauty tips that will make the whole experience suck a little less appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

Fashionable bridesmaid dresses coming right up! »

Weddings are S-T-R-E-S-S-F-U-L. Between the vows, venue, flowers, food, guest list and gown, wedding plans have a way of taking over your life. And maybe that’s to be expected…a little. After all, it’s your wedding. You want it to be great! And that’s why you’ve asked some of your closest friends (and that one cousin your mom insisted you include) to be a special part of the big day. But how stressful do you want your wedding plans to be for them?

They’re already planning the shower and the bachelorette party and have marked off a big summer weekend to celebrate your love. Are you really going to make them do it in something that looks like leftover curtain fabric? We’ve assembled a handy list of beautiful, flattering, fashionable bridesmaid dresses that won’t make anyone rethink that fateful day their friend requested them after a second-year keg party. And these dresses will look gorgeous grouped together next to you and your life-partner-to-be! To keep things extra-friendly, we’ve included cheaper versions of dresses over $150. Celebrating your union shouldn’t leave anyone bankrupt, and it doesn’t have to!

See all the Kleinfeld Hudson’s Bay party pics »

Is there a bigger bridal brand than Kleinfeld? Last night, to celebrate the Say Yes To The Dress juggernaut’s debut at Hudson’s Bay in Toronto, a lavish cocktail party took over all 20,000 square feet of the just-opened bridal salon. The space, with white-washed floors and vaulted ceiling could easily pass as a wedding venue itself (there’s even a small patio space for post-saying-yes cocktails!)—save for the dozens of dresses lining the walls. But what’s on display is just a sample of how much Kleinfeld has to offer: behind the scenes, there’s over 600 gowns to choose from, with more than 50 brands on the roster.

See the campaign images »

We’ll be the first to admit it—watching Say Yes To The Dress is one of our favourite pastimes. Not just for the dramas the tag-along entourage sometimes generates, but more so for a glimpse into the pricey world of wedding dress shopping. $10,000 for a designer dress you’ll wear once? You bet. The term “budget wedding dress” for most conjures up images of god-awful gowns that no amount of justification from a stingy mother-in-law could save. Well those days are long gone. Budget-bridezillas-to-be: meet you new fairy godmother, Zac Posen.

The New York designer has come together with David’s Bridal and to create Truly Zac Posen, an affordable line of bridal gowns and bridesmaids dresses ranging from $215 for cocktail sheath to $1,400 for tulle ball gown. Posen is a favourite of red carpet celebrities, known for his figure flattering mermaid gowns and cocktail frocks, and has done one-of-a-kind big-ticket bridal gowns for Portia De Rossi and Coco Rocha.

As a wedding photographer and makeup artist, Dallas Curow knows a thing or two about looking good in front of the camera—which is why we asked her to share her best beauty tips on how to photograph well. Be it a wedding you’re attending or other big event, you’ll want to use these tricks the next time you know you’ll be in the spotlight!

Wedding season is almost in full swing and even if you’re not heading down the aisle yourself, chances are high that many a camera will be pointed your way. Meaning: If there was ever a day want to know how to photograph well, someone’s wedding day is it. Aside from picking a flattering outfit and practicing your smile, the best way to ensure you’ll photograph well is through your makeup. But this doesn’t mean you need to turn to a professional makeup artist to get the job done. With just a few tricks and changes to your everyday beauty routine, you can ensure you look as spectacular in pictures as you do in-person. Follow the steps below and get ready to smile for the camera!

See all the details, including Taylor’s Elie Saab couture dress »

As someone who didn’t grow up fantasizing about her big day, Tanya Taylor’s recent walk down the aisle had all the makings of a modern fairytale. The 27-year-old Toronto-born, New York-based designer—who recently showed her Fall 2013 ready-to-wear collection in both cities, earning high praise from editors and buyers alike—spent a year and a half ensuring that her April 20 destination wedding would be as stylish and personal as the clothes she creates. The idyllic locale—the luxe Sandy Lane resort in Barbados—certainly didn’t hurt, nor did the romantic nature of the groom, business development manager Michel Pratte. He proposed to Taylor, after a 10-year on-and-off courtship, with a poem and a spectacular antique ring—an 1890s old-mine-cut diamond in a 1920s art deco setting—that had caught her eye months earlier at an estate jewellery boutique. So far, so dreamy.

Then there was her magical dress: an intricately embellished cloud of white organza by ready-to-wear designer and couturier Elie Saab, based on a showstopper from his Fall 2012 haute couture show in Paris.

As the weather gets warmer and the hemlines get shorter, the wedding invitations start rolling in. That’s right: Summer wedding season is upon us once again. And while we love an excuse to go shopping, how to dress for a wedding is a question us bona fide wedding attendees are still having difficulty answering.

How does one find the perfect balance between demure and daring? A wedding, after all, is a multi-generational affair that demands a timeless, and semi-conservative look. No pressure. For the bride-to-be, the wedding day is her day to shine. So how do you, the guest, make a statement without stealing her spotlight?

By Olivia Stren

I’m in wedding empress Ines Di Santo’s Toronto boutique, fondling a frothy, aisle-long expanse of Chantilly lace, Italian silk and doppia faccia (double face) Italian satin—a decadent marriage between peau de soie and taffeta. “It feels like orchid petals,” says Di Santo, caressing it. “To know a gown, you have to feel it,” she tells me in a seductive rasp. “How do you know the man you’re going to marry? You have to feeeeel him. The same goes for a dress.”

We sit on a gold-framed divan, the kind of perch that looks designed for fainting, nibbling on petits fours or getting fanned by manservants. There are no men here, though, and one gets the sense there never are. Di Santo’s couture dresses—also for sale at New York’s swish Bergdorf Goodman department store—are lavish, theatrical scene-stealers redolent of the designer’s childhood in Buenos Aires during the 1950s and ’60s. “I remember going to the theatre with my papa and a handsome actor pulled up in a Rolls-Royce, and I thought, ‘Everybody should always look like that—fancy,’” she says. Her first fashion show in Toronto was appropriately dramatic; she rented Casa Loma and had a tiger escort her models down the catwalk. “I see beauty everywhere,” she says. “My husband tells me, ‘All I see is a rock, and you see what it would look like drizzled with rose petals.’” She tells me what she saw when she first saw me: “I see a New York night wedding at a glamorous restaurant and you in a long Chantilly lace gown.” (I’m getting married during the day at City Hall in San Francisco in a knee-length cocktail dress.)

Di Santo is, she explains, in the business of making dreams come true. But I was never one of those girls who dreamed about her wedding day. I’m sorry to add that it was by no means because I was focused on more virtuous or sensible pastimes; I just preferred to view marriage as an ending, rather than a beginning. So thoughts of the Big Day, freighted with the suffocating weight of Forever, were generally wed to a bridal party of neuroses; the festive theme of my outlook was summed up nicely once by actor Jeff Bridges, who said about his marriage: “I thought it was a giant step toward death.”

See every outfit Kate Middleton has worn this year! »

If you’ve been going through some Kate Middleton withdraw ever since the Diamond Jubilee tour of Southeast Asia ended, we feel you. Being privy to almost-hourly wardrobe updates was such a treat! While we’ve heard very little about what Kate Middleton has been wearing since returning to England, there was finally an update this weekend. (Unfortunately, though, no pictures.) Kate attended the wedding of a family friend on Saturday and wore something we’ve all seen before: the pearl-grey Erdem dress she debuted at the Trooping the Colour ceremony in June. She did update the look with a new hat—a custom design from Jane Corbett that included embroidered flowers which matched those on the Erdem dress.

Long before she said yes to the dress (or the oyster bar), bride-to-be Carley Fortune had a much more important decision to make: what to do with her hair.

By Carley Fortune

Last December, my boyfriend of seven years proposed, and we began planning an October wedding. I’d never daydreamed about my wedding day, and I took a pretty laid-back approach to the preparations, except for one minor detail—the hair. You see, my hair is my thing.

I remember flipping to the class survey results when the yearbooks were handed out in Grade 12. Among the winners for Most Popular and Best Athlete, as voted by the graduating class, was my name: Carley Fortune, Best Hair. I loved fashion when I was a teenager, too, but I was overweight, and tending to my hair was one way I felt I could experiment with style and trends. So I hot-rollered and braided, and twisted and crimped.

See the inspiration »

While tales of six figure wedding costs can make any bride-to-be nervous, a little resourcefulness can go a long way to keep a budget under control. For instance: doing your own makeup on your wedding day! (And, as a way of getting in extra practice, for all the related events leading up to your big day!) Consider that even Kate Middleton DIY’d her bridal look—and who can argue that they’ll be more scrutinized than a Queen-to-be? After all, while we all dream of looking like a princess, there’s nothing better than looking like a super-pretty version of yourself. From bridal hair tips to wedding-ready looks that can go from day to night, this week’s Beauty Fix has all the answers.

Read on for all the answers! »

In need of a beauty fix? Email us at beautyfix@fashionmagazine.com.