All Hail The Sale: Style Cutters

I'm doing one last show this holiday season and I'm really stoked about it - three fashion designers, two jewellery designers, two handbag designers and a reclaimed wooden toy maker will descend upon Blizzarts, our favourite plateau watering hole.

More than just shopping - enjoy cocktails, desserts, music and old films.

We will be there all day, from 12h - 19h. Come by, say hi, and gift your loved ones or yourself with local creations!

Featured Designer: Simone's Rose

One of the best things about doing the Holiday Craft Fair circuit is meeting and bonding with other designers. I had the great pleasure of hanging out with the wonderfully effervescent Michelle Maynard of Simone's Rose, a Pyxus Passion Project.

When I first met Michelle at Smart Design Mart I tried to limit myself to one piece, the first being this fantastic Amour Houndstooth high-waisted skirt (as seen on me here at the Billie Boutique Blogger's night. Paired with a Pretty Raccoon fringe shirt).

But I spent the week dreaming about the Hailey dress, and so when I saw Michelle at Puces Pop/Rusty Plum I had to try it on. It fit like a glove and it was mine!

This is the dress you'll be seeing me in at a holiday party near you. Paired with my new booties, of course.


Just look at the gorgeous pleating of the sleeve...


Simone's Rose is a brand new line, built upon years of experience creating custom clothing and designing in the commercial fashion industry. Michelle's taste in cut and fabric are impeccable and the quality of the workmanship is undeniably high. Check out her Etsy shop, facebook page or make an appointment to stop by her Mile-End studio. You'll be happy you did!

Bloggers (and booties!) at Billie Boutique

The lovely Annie and Veronique of Billie Boutique hosted a Women Bloggers night this past Wednesday and I had a blast meeting other fashionistas, getting photographed and well...shopping.

The boutique:


The bloggers:


The booties:

Yes, I will be wearing these to a holiday party near you.

So many opportunities to buy local...

The last one on this post is happening TONIGHT and features my favourite DEBORAH ADAMS and her recycled leather bags n' belts!

Featuring the crazy-talented, my jewellery role-model, Anick.
This one is happening tonight - get yourself or a loved one a gorgeous recycled leather belt and bag from Deborah Adams!

Belt yer outfit!

Oh look, another belt-themed blog post! Oh belts... how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

#3882647: Belt That Outfit:

I have been admiring this trend from afar, skeptical about its practicality (I love the look of a winter coat belted with a wide belt not part of the coat... but when you wanna take it off or just zip it open on the metro?) but loving the silhouette it creates.

When Adrienne showed up at my door wearing this cute grey dress with studded belt, I had to try it out on her. She already looked awesome, having taken a shapeless girly dress with great pleating work, and deciding to belt it, not just with anything - some black studded leather to add some edge - and topping the outfit with a black cardigan. The cardigan was a perfect candidate, as it had no buttons or enclosure of any kind - it was actually built to just hang.

And so we belted it. I think it looks awesome and I can't wait to try this look out more often.

The September Issue and the Meaning of Life

SPOILER ALERT.

Thanks to the lovely folks at Worn Fashion Journal, I won tickets to see The September Issue. I was fascinated all the way through - it was crazy seeing how shoots come together and I had no idea designers showed Anna their goods before the clothes even hit the catwalk. But what I was most enthralled with was the juxtaposition of Grace and Anna and what it taught me about how I want to live my life.

Grace Coddington is the Creative Director of Vogue USA, and responsible for styling many of the fashion spreads that appear in the mag. Anna Wintour is the Editor-in-Chief, and held responsible for bringing Vogue back to relevancy.

If one were to judge them by their Wikipedia entries, Grace would be a mousy, unimportant blip in the world of Fashion, and Anna the Emperess. They are both older women, Anna being 60 this year and Grace almost 70, and they've worked together at Vogue in NYC for over twenty years. (There is a much better biography of Grace here.)

The film inadvertently pits them against each other: Grace styling gorgeous, romantic, and eye-candy-laden shoots, and Anna cutting them from the issue. Designers, staffers and famous photographers cowering in front of Anna, and Grace cheering them up afterwards. In the end, much of the magazine is filled with Grace's talent, though Anna will always get the credit.

Throughout the film, Anna lives up to her Ice Queen reputation, often responding with cutting insults or simply a blank stare. Grace makes us laugh, defends pot bellies and cries at the beauty of the gardens at Place Versailles.

Though Anna has lengthy Wikipedia pages to her name, I would rather live my life as Grace.


P.S. Help us ban Zimbabwe Blood Diamonds by signing the Avaaz.org petition here!

Fatshion!

I have been reflecting a lot on body image recently. I don't know if Saturn is to blame, but I have been feeling really self-conscious, especially about my belly. Constant exposure to the fashion industry doesn't help and I set out to find images and blogs that would help me see myself as healthy and beautiful.


I had heard about this Lizzie Miller photograph in Glamour that caused an uproar and a call for more images that mirrored our realities (The November issue of Glamour responded with the photo below). Searching for these images led to an obsessive few weeks of scoping out all the fatshion blogs I could find.



I particularly loved the following blogs and have added them to my reader to keep myself inundated with beautiful pictures of real women's bodies. I hope you do, too!


Every Body is Beautiful - gorgeous fashion photos

Fat Girls Like Nice Clothes Too - full of sass and humour and real life

Young Fat and Fabulous - up on the latest fatshion news

Musings of a Fatshionista - intelligent reflections on fatshion news and outfit pics


Other incidents such as the Glamour shot indicate a changing of the tides: Mark Fast's decision to use plus-size models in his London Fashion Week show, fatshion icon Beth Ditto's line for plus-size clothing line Evans, the relaunch of SKORCH mag, and the outrage expressed over the photoshopped n' fired Ralph Lauren model debacle.

I have added a fatshion tag to the blog to keep track of designers, styling and news.

General 54's Fall/Winter line-up

I stopped in at General 54 recently, one of my favourite Montreal boutiques carrying Canadian-made goodies. They had painted and redecorated and it looked so great in there, I had to snap some pics of some of the great fall fashions they have in stock.


Like this ski-meets-tailored fashion top from co-owner Jennifer Glasgow's line:

Or this gorgeous grey top, also from Glasgow.


This Ramonalisa top is both slouchy and fitted in all the right places.

This gorgeous silkcreened linen dress is from the very-last-ever Nokomis collection.


This sumptuous sweater is brought to you by Anastasia Lomonova.

A gorgeous up-cycled creation from the one-and-only Supayana.

Nothing screams fall more than this red tartan blouse from Grob.


There was also much Birds of North America that I have been drooling over - but photos didn't turn out :(.

Street Stylin': The Wedding Wrap-Up

Wedding season has come to a close and as promised, here are some snaps of some outfits.

Wearing the Eve Gravel Melting dress at Danielle and Carl's wedding.


Accessorized with Melanie Favreau's As-tu-du feu? earrings, embroidered shawl, April Mayde hairpiece and heirloom brooch.


Wearing the Denis Gagnon purchased at Stylist's Own to Billy and Sandi's, accented with same earrings and brooch as above. Mila peep-toes from Cortina.


Bride Tanya is wearing a custom dress from Gloomth.


Anouk is wearing Montreal company Groggy.


Detail of Anouk's Groggy dress.


Anile wearing Anne Klein and some kick-ass black patent Guess heels.


Jenn wearing a Value Village find, La Canadienne boots and my Deborah Adams belt.


And I didn't forget the boys... they clean up rather well.


We found my partner-in-crime's much-complimented blazer five years ago at Value Village for $12.


Tanya and Steph had matching converse sneakers and Steph's whole lavender and plum outfit rocked the groom universe.

Montreal Fashion Week!

I wish I could cover Montreal Fashion Week for you but I'm busy meeting with buyers. But A La Mode Montreal has you covered! Check out their coverage here.

I will be posting wedding outfit pics soon!

Wedding Weekend

My dear, dear friend Danielle is getting married this weekend and in between memorizing my reading during the ceremony and building up my alcohol tolerance, I have been putting together my outfit.

I am wearing Eve Gravel's Melting dress in grey with made-in-Italy peep toe heels in navy blue from Mila purchased at Cortina (7100 St Laurent).

For accessories, I have fashioned a belt from a strip of black satin and my man's grandmother's brooch, gifted to me by his aunt, along with the silver cuff. For my hair, I am wearing the Victoria black lace hairpiece from Montrealer aprilMayde.

To stay warm during the autumn nuptials, I have a beautiful embroidered shawl given to me by my family.

Featured Designer: White Label

I discovered White Label this weekend at Puces Pop. This Montreal line is made here from biological, ecological and renewable materials. Available at Harmony Code and Unicorn Boutique.

I had my eye on two dresses in particular and ended up with both. When you try a dress on at a craft fair and Richard Perry of Arcade Fire says "Wow, nice dress" - you buy. And blush, cause you've had a crush on him since he worked at the AV department in the basement of the Fine Arts building at Concordia in 2001. Not that I'm keeping track or anything.



BTW, that is not me in the photos. I fill 'em out quite a bit more ;)

All Hail The Sale: STYLIST'S OWN!

I squealed like a kid in a candy store at the STYLIST'S OWN v.i.p. launch last night. The space, MW Salon on McGill in the old port, was a perfect and gorgeous backdrop to the racks of one-of-a-kind and limited edition items made by our local design talent. Delectable canapes enhanced the experience normally associated with xmas-time fights between parents at department stores over the last hot toy.

I was going to treat myself to one special piece and between the gorgeous belts, cuffs, vintage shoes, bags, coats, artwork and objects for the home I had my work cut out for me. I was secretly nursing a fantasy of me leaving the launch with a beautifully packaged designer dress made of random lengths of fabric draped about it.

I loved this gorgeous wool sweater:

And this buttery cropped leather jacket by Twenty8Twelve.


But last night my fantasy came true and I left carrying a beautiful black STYLIST'S OWN bag containing this maze-of-a-dress by Denis Gagnon, in grey. You can't see the back but there is a hood-type sheath of fabric that hangs from the shoulders revealing a triangular peek of the wearer's upper back.


Ok. Stop reading! Go to STYLIST'S OWN, starting today (Friday) and going until Sunday!

And then Fashion went POP!

We had a blast last night at Fashion Pop!

Congratulations go out to Angie of Norwegian Wood, who took home the cash prize and Le Chateau gift certificate.

The audience was decked out and Montreal-gorgeous, all the collections were strong and had their share of strange "I don't know what to think about that!" elements - it was everything one wants to see on the catwalk.

All pictures courtesy of the incredible ncbeets, who accompanied me as my photographer. Maybe next time Pop'll have reserved seating for fashion bloggers so we can give you better coverage ;)

My favourite from winner Norwegian Wood. I love the gorgeous layered shoulders on this jacket.


Flavie Le Chat, LeChat clothing


Rachel J Chan's Contradict line.


Emily Brunet's La Fete




Charlotte Edison's Girlfriend Material



Marie-Eve Emond's Betina Lou