Oscars favourites: yin, yang, pants and pink
Two opposing trends ruled the Oscars red carpet Sunday night: girlie – in tulle and feathers and pink, oh my – and women in pants.
Karl Lagerfeld: an appreciation
I wore my glittery tweed Chanel blazer today, not because I love it, but to pay tribute to the great Karl Lagerfeld, who made it cool to wear the quintessential ladylike jacket – reinvented. The prolific designer and artist, who died Tuesday at age 85, was a true visionary who changed the course of fashion [...]
Hello, beauty! A fine crop of lotions, potions, products
I have always been a fashion junkie – witness the tie-dye cotton jacket I had a fit for at age 6. Since then, my closets have always been overflowing. Now, it seems, I am going that way with beauty and hair products, becoming a beauty junkie. Perhaps it’s age, perhaps science is finally delivering on all [...]
Festival Mode & Design: catwalks, conferences and a chat with Le Château’s Herschel Segal
The Festival Mode & Design takes to the streets, theatres, conference rooms and museums of Montreal for its 18th edition August 20-25, with an eclectic program of fashion, music, dance, conferences and films. Among the highlights: talks by Robert Lepage, editor Caroline Issa and two Christian Dior luminaries, nose François Demachy and historian Vincent Leret, [...]
Positively plus: Roxy Earle on her Le Château extended size collection
White linen? Check. Jumpsuits? Check. Snakeskin? Check. Fashion? Absolutely! Roxy Earle, with a personality as big as her curvy figure, is thrilled that she finally has access to the kind of fashion she craves. Especially the chic stretch white linen pieces she’s always wanted to wear on holiday in Greece. A former Real Housewife of Toronto [...]
Balenciaga: McCord exhibition sheds light on the master of couture and his legacy
Balenciaga is a label that can generate strong opinions. On the one hand, you have the “master,’’ as his contemporaries called Cristóbal Balenciaga at the height of the haute couture years, the 50s and 60s. On the other hand, today Demna Gvasalia is at the helm of the storied house, upending fashion as we have [...]
Closet confidential: contemplating a fashion diet and what I wore to the Grand Prix
(Headline with apologies and in homage to the late, great Anthony Bourdain) A funny thing happened to me at the Hermès carré counter: I swooned, and felt as if I were about to faint. Was it Stendhal’s syndrome, in which I was overcome by the beauty of the Fleurs de Giverny and Jardin à Sintra [...]
Wearing Canada proud at the CAFA gala
Oh Canada! At the fifth annual CAFA awards in Toronto last Friday, fashion’s glitterati came out to shine in a manner that has hardly been a hallmark of prudent, practical, nice Canadians. Sparkle, tulle and trains were the trends of the evening, in most spectacular fashion. There was Toronto socialite and philanthropist Sylvia Mantella in a [...]
Impressions from Toronto Fashion Week
Impressions from Toronto Fashion Week: Wandering in to the revamped, rebranded Yorkville Village, where Toronto’s new fashion week just wrapped its second season, I was struck by the familiar. Montreal retailers Jean-Paul Fortin, Judith & Charles and Sarah Pacini as well as the fabulous Galerie de Bellefeuille have moved into the luxury retail space, formerly [...]
The future of smart wear: beyond the sports app
Smart wear is here. T-shirts, bras, gadgets and watches are wired with sensors to enhance athletic performance and monitor health. In Montreal, OMsignal has developed applications for T-shirts and bras that measure heart rate, breathing, calories burned and other biometrics for health care, personal care and sports. Hexoskin has developed biometric shirts for aerospace, medical [...]