Sneak Peeks for STYLIST'S OWN

As promised, here are some sneak peeks of (a few of) the Brazen Design limited edition collection on sale this weekend at STYLIST'S OWN. All the pieces are made with recycled leather and sterling silver chain.

Made in MTL with Love

Holy cow, next week is like a not-so-mini pre-party for Montreal Fashion Week (which is more like three days, not a week, and will be upon us Oct 13th).

But first things first: we're gonna kick things off on Wednesday with Fashion Pop, followed by STYLIST'S OWN on Friday. Saturday will launch the Puces Pop annual Arts & Crafts fair.

FASHION POP

Wed Sept 30th
8 PM (doors at 7)
Espace Reunion, 6600 Hutchinson
This is an exciting fashion show and contest between 6 up-and-coming Montreal fashion designers. You can read my previous blog entry about Fashion Pop here.

STYLIST'S OWN

Friday, October 2nd – 10 am to 9 pm
Saturday, October 3rd – 10 am to 6 pm
Sunday, October 4th – 12 pm to 6 pm
Studio MW
400 McGill
Montréal

This is only the 2nd ever STYLIST'S OWN from respected Montreal wonder woman and stylist Azamit, and founder of souk@sat. She has gathered one-of-a-kind and limited edition items from over 60 Montreal designers. The perfect opportunity to get your hands on a gorgeous unique piece made with love right here in Montreal.

Brazen Design will be presenting a never-before-seen recycled leather/sterling silver collection and I'll post sneak peeks next week.

PUCES POP

October 3rd & 4th, 11am - 7pm
St. Michel Church Hall (105 St-Viateur O.)

Quickly becoming a Montreal institution, this Pop Montreal side-project-turned-raging-arts-and-crafts-beast, The Puces Pop Marketplace is an amazing assembly of handmade clothes, jewellery, zines, toys, ceramics, books and much much more.

I will be there all weekend, and the permanent Brazen Design collection will be on SUPER SALE so take advantage!

Fashion Pop!

I am getting really excited for Fashion Pop, Puces Pop's inaugural fashion design contest in collaboration with Le Chateau.

Six on-the-rise local designers will present a mini-collection of 6 looks to a panel of judges.
The winner will get $1000, a $500 Le Chateau gift certificate and a feature in Worn Fashion Journal.
The participating designers are Emily Brunet (La Fête), Rachel Chan (Contradict), Charlotte Eedson (girlfriend material), Marie-Eve Emond (Betina Lou), Angie Johnson (Norwegian Wood), and Flavie Lechat (Le Chat Clothing).

It's all going down next Wednesday September 30th at 8:30pm @ Espace Reunion, 6600 Hutchinson. See you there!

(image: le chat, betina lou, girlfriend material, la fete, norwegian wood, contradict)

Monday Morning Musings

Lack of sleep and too much caffeine has led to a mishmash of thoughts bouncing around my head, so here's a smattering.

Buy your dad some bling. Look how awesome Sarah's dad David looks in a Brazen ring. Yours could too.

I'm looking forward to shopping local designs at STYLIST'S OWN and Puces Pop on Oct 3-4 weekend.

Wedding season has meant dry cleaning for the first time in my life. I'm trying out Renew System, the Ecological dry cleaner on Bernard, and I'll blog about it when I pick my items up.

I'm sad to say I missed promoting and attending LabCreatif's 5th annual designer sale - still not sure where it happened, but it was this past weekend.

And my very feeble morning glories finally bloomed in a last ode to the dog days of summer.

Top Fall Picks

There's no denying it anymore - Autumn weather is upon us and by the end of the weekend it will officially be the end of summer.

But there is much to look forward to as fall is a really great time for fashion. The weather is not too hot and not too cold, making for outfits full of possibility. We can have fun with layering; wear luxurious cashmere, wool, knits and jacquards; and pay homage to the trees in rich forest greens, wine reds and ochre yellows.

I've picked out some of my favourite made-in-Canada items for the chilly weather.

My favourite materials this fall are leather and denim - the new collections widely feature these in ways we haven't seen them before: in shirts and skirts, highly structured and layered. Like this Denis Gagnon leather shirt.













This wool sweater dress is on sale for a mere $40 from Dace.















This great looking coat is from Lily & Jae's new collection.










The next couple of items are from Chiccane.com. Chiccane.com is a new online boutique retailing Montreal designers, launched about 6 months ago. I was really happy to hear about another project promoting our local talents and sifted through the site for my top Fall picks.

For those who like a really slim fit, Travis Taddeo's Double Empress Dress is on sale here and would look fantastic with a cropped military jacket and tall boots.

I adore the Equestrian Belt from Denis Gagnon, available here.

Montreal Geek Girls rule.

I had a blast presenting last night at Montreal Geek Girl Dinner's "September Issue" - A Passion for Fashion.

Aleece Germano of The SWAP Team talked about their amazingly successful Montreal and Toronto clothing swaps the past two weekends, and about why clothes swapping is so fun and important and sustainable.

If you missed my presentation, I have uploaded it to Slideshare and you can check it out here.

Someone asked about jackets for taller women. I found this one at Melow, and I found an entire collection designed for tall women: The O Collection.

I also mentioned that a great place to get one of my Top Ten Wardrobe Must Haves - The Boot - is at La Chatte Bottees vintage shoe sales at boutiques around town. Well, there is one coming up Friday September 25th at Headquarters Boutique, 6 - 9pm. Don't miss your chance!

The September Issue: Passion for Fashion at Montreal Geek Girl Dinners this Wednesday!

The second half of Montreal Girl Geek Dinner's "September Issue" (focus on fashion) is taking place this Wednesday at 7pm at Station C.

Aleece Germano of S.W.A.P. will be joining me to talk about conscious consumerism, buying local and helpful fashion tips and faux-pas for fashion newbies. It'll be fun and we'll head to the Sparrow for drinks afterwards!

You can read more about the event here at Montreal Girl Geek Dinner's blog.

When: 7 pm on September 16th, 2009
Where: Station C, 5369 Saint-Laurent #430 [map]

RSVP using the Facebook event page here .

Pearls of Fashion/Life Wisdom

One of my favourite fashion bloggers - Kristen O'Reilly of Idiosyncratic Style - asked ten independant fashion bloggers for their best fashion tips.

She compiled them all into Pearls of Wisdom: Fashion Bloggers on Style: a whole lot of fashion advice that can be applied to life in general, like love yourself, have fun and be a trendsetter not a follower.

In the pic in the post, I am wearing Jennifer Glasgow's Thelma shirt and Lalouka's Nautical Pencil Skirt.)

Featured Designer: Jennifer Glasgow

Jennifer Glasgow's line has been a staple in Montreal wardrobes for the last decade. She's a wonderful, warm and funny person... and one of the brains behind mile-end institutions Local 23 & General 54. Last week, I had the privilege of getting a sneak peak at Jennifer Glasgow's studio and Fall/Winter 09. collection. Exciting stuff!


Above, Jenn is wearing the Tamarac dress from the new collection - like everything Glasgow, it has pockets (yay!) and we love her for it.

Below, Jenn is modelling the new Elderberry shirt. I love the scoop neck in back, and that she's taken the pouffy sleeve farther down off the shoulder. The skirt is the Greta, from her Spring/Summer 09 line... and on sale for 59$ here!

I love Glasgow's shirts - the tailoring is so unique and she has a real feel for noble and eco-friendly fabrics such as bamboo, linen and lyocell (a cellulose fiber made from wood pulp! how amazing is that?)

I am really looking forward to rocking some of these wool blend sweaters with swooping birds when the cold weather hits...

Check out the entire Fall/Winter 09 collection here!

Swappin' Saturday!

I had a blast today at SWAP - and there's plenty of goodies left so bring your used clothes tomorrow and Monday to get some for yourself!

We also styled some really fun outfits - like the one above with Tanya wearing a belted purple tubetop shorts jumper.

We found this incredible skirt for Jennifer. (ooh, ooh check out her awesome blog and video about her swap experience and see the other sweet threads she got!)

This sailor dress was out of this world on her!

A very cute little pink skirt.

Some of the shoes I wished were my size!


Nicole found these fantastic cowboy boots.

There were still some incredible finds remaining on the racks when I left - like these two never-worn made-in-MTL Glasgow tops.


And there's one Deborah Adams belt left - a gorgeous black suede number.

I scored some amazing things! Here are some of my favourites:
two belts - a wide leather one from deborah with a vintage clasp and a wraparound leather and wover belt made in England.

This never-worn (bubble) pink bubble skirt from Anastasia Lomonova.

These knee high leather boots.

Vintage shopping with the Smiths

Adrienne and Rebecca were over to celebrate the end of Rebecca's internship with Brazen Design (she did a killer job, yay Becca!) and they were both modelling their fantastic vintage finds. It inspired me to revisit second-hand shopping which I'd become a bit bored with. Rebecca showed up wearing this incredible floral summer dress in greens and creams that she picked up at Cul De Sac and her other finds are from the various vintage stores in Point-St-Charles and Adrienne's gorgeous purple silk dress and leather belt are from a recent trip to Brooklyn, NYC.



Your perfect chance to browse some amazing second hand finds is this weekend at SWAP! And I will be on hand to provide complimentary fashion consultations. Read the blog post here.

Take Off Your Clothes!

Things that go Bling will be doing on-site fashion consultations at the Labour Day weekend clothing SWAP at Piknik Electronik this Saturday from 4 - 7!

Come check out the biggest clothing swap in North America this weekend and keep your consumption to a minimum.

Event Deets:

We’re back for our third year in a row at the Piknic Electronik! You’ll have 3 FULL DAYS to swap your heart out!Plus, we’ll have NEW clothes on the racks from some of Montreal’s hottest designers, including: Olga Tigirlas, Valérie Dumaine, Anastasia Lomonova and Jen Glasglow.

DJs James Holden (Sept. 5) and Misstress Barbara (September 6) will be on the decks, so don’t forget to dance!

Admission: FREE with your paid entrance to the Piknic Electronik ($10)

More details here and here.

About S.W.A.P.:

The S.W.A.P. Team is a non-profit organization founded by Aleece Germano and Nicole Picard. Through its clothing swap event Take Off Your Clothes, the group endeavours to promote sharing as an antidote to overconsumption while increasing awareness of the human and natural resources involved in the creation, transportation and marketing of mass-produced consumer goods.