Walks offs! Masked style appraisals! Inside Holt Renfrew’s raucous Toronto Fashion Week kick off party

by Randi Bergman October 22, 2013

Holt Renfrew Toronto Fashion Week Kick Off Party — Photography by George Pimentel

Holt Renfrew’s Toronto Fashion Week party photos »

Who said Monday wasn’t the time to party? Holt Renfrew’s now regular fashion week kick off started things with so many bangs last night, it was hard to keep track of the night’s best.

One of them would surely have been the Cary Tauben-led walk off that took to the store’s mezzanine a little shy of midnight. The Montreal-based stylist and part time go go dancer is known for his fierce moves (typically in six inch heels), and last night’s showcase of his talents was no exception. Ugh, fierce is too light a word.

Another might have been the wall-to-wall gab fest willed by many an eager partygoer, including Holts-stocked designers Jeremy Laing, Tanya Taylor and Smythe’s Christie Smythe and Andrea Lenczner.

Another ongoing highlight took place over the course of the night, as a New York-based phenomenon known as The Bumbys aka. a masked duo who sit at matching typewriters produced “fair and honest appraisals” of guests’ outfits. Fair, honest and quite honestly genius, case in point, mine:

“This is your favourite time of year. It’s the time to whip out leather jackets and the wool knee socks and generally dress like a cheerleader with a motorcycle. Lena Dunham would approve. I hope you write about fashion (perhaps on a blog) because you seem to have a sense of humour and fun with your look. J’adore your oxblood lip. Overall: 9.6.”

Maybe you don’t know me that well, but that’s just really the best.