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Fashion » At the shows

TFW Diary: Rad Hourani closes out the week with an androgynous video/model takeover

By Caitlin Agnew | March 19th, 2012 | 11:00 am

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Photography by Jenna Marie Wakani

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For his fifth anniversary show Friday evening, Rad Hourani opened with a multi-screened, black-and-white video presentation set to an ambient soundtrack of chirping birdies. But before long, the runway was taken over by an army of androgynous models, hair centre-parted and slicked back, in a parade of beyond-streamlined belted coats and tight pants. The classic Rad by Rad Hourani uniform of black-on-black was given an earthy punch of mossy green; nearly every model carryied a sleek, sharp-angled leather bag. With spring barely here, I’m already getting excited for the fall, if only to wear Hourani’s futuristic take on the varsity jacket.
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Fashion » At the shows

TFW Diary: Juma throws a scarf party in lieu of a fall runway show

By Caitlin Agnew | March 14th, 2012 | 5:30 pm

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Photography by Anthony James Giura

On Monday night, Toronto’s Juma took over the Edward Day Gallery to present their techno-meets-jungle scarves. More cocktail party than fashion show, sunglasses-donning Queen Westers mingled with suits and bloggers, all with a Beck’s in hand. The brother-sister duo, Jamil and Alia, gave their scarves the Picasso treatment, turning the walls of the gallery into a kaleidoscopic feast for the eyes. Featuring many of the same prints used in the Fall 2012 collection, which showed last month in New York—abstract snakeskin, birds of paradise, mountaintops and, my favourite, toucans—these ferocious hits of colour will become fast friends with your black winter coat (you know the one).

Scene

Inside the Reel Artists Film Festival opening night party featuring the one and only Marina Abramovic!

By Caitlin Agnew | February 24th, 2012 | 11:30 am

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Photography by Erin Seaman

It’s not every day that you get to play host to a living, breathing masterpiece! The Canadian Art Foundation was lucky enough to showcase Yugoslavian performance artist Marina Abramovic, who was in Toronto for the Canadian premiere of The Artist is Present at the Reel Artists Film Festival. The new documentary film chronicles her prolific and often painful career and follows the preparation for her 2010 retrospective show at the MoMA—she spent more than 700 hours over the course of three months staring into the eyes of museum visitors. Beyond her lifelong love affair with performance art, Abramovic is a designer devotee (having discovered fashion after a particularly nasty breakup); in the film, she’s shown shopping at Givenchy with none other than Riccardo Tisci. It’s no surprise then that the 65-year-old wore head-to-toe Costume National to the premiere, or that she counts Fashion Television’s Jeanne Beker as a fan. At the a swank soiree, held at the TIFF Bell Lightbox and bookended by not one but two cocktail parties, we spotted a smattering of guests from Canada’s creative set including Luminato’s Jörn Weisbrodt (who also made an appearance in the film), the Beckerman clan, and gallery owner Daniel Faria.

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Inside last night’s Interior Design Show opening party: The who’s who of Canada’s design scene and Karim Rashid DJing from within in a canary yellow cage

By Caitlin Agnew | January 27th, 2012 | 1:00 pm

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Photography by Phil Birnbaum

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Last night the Metro Toronto Convention Centre was brimming with the who’s who of Canada’s design scene, there for the opening night party of the country’s largest contemporary design fair, the Interior Design Show. Dashing gents­, like fashion designer Philip Sparks and veteran FASHION photographer George Whiteside, and sophisticated design ladies—Sarah Richardson, Dee Dee Taylor Hannah (in Christopher Kane, no less), Love It or List It’s Hilary Farr—sipped flutes of Veuve and paraded along the rows upon rows of out-of-this-world design.
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Inside Jeanne Beker’s personal art collection: LaChapelle, Gaultier, Saint Laurent, and more!

By Caitlin Agnew | November 29th, 2011 | 4:00 pm

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Photography by David LaChapelle

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Jeanne Beker’s lifelong romance with fashion has been widely broadcast over the years, but did you know that she’s also an art lover? The Fashion Television host has been collecting contemporary art since 1980, beginning with her first painting from artist Marion Perlet. “Starting a collection seems daunting because it sounds like you’re making a commitment to a certain style or form or sensibility or type of work,” says Beker. “Art is all around us and exists in so many wonderful, different forms and at so many different price points.”
Beker was invited by the Art Gallery of Ontario to share several works from her diverse collection as part of the gallery’s Collector’s Series. FASHION got a one-on-one tour of her favourite pieces, along with some tips for would-be art aficionados. “Buy something that really speaks to you at the moment,” she advises. “And don’t ever buy anything just because you think it’s going to look good over your couch!”
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Beauty

Oscar de la Renta on life, love and his new fragrance

By Caitlin Agnew | October 31st, 2011 | 2:00 pm

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Photography by Jason Hudson

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For as long as I can remember, my mother’s vanity held curvy glass bottles of Oscar de la Renta’s namesake eau de toilette. The elegant black signature on the bottle stood out, and I remember asking her more than once, “Who is Oscar de la Renta? Two decades later at the Bay’s Queen Street flagship in Toronto, I finally got a chance to see the man himself, in town to promote Live in Love, his newest addition to the fragrance world. Accompanied by the Bay’s CEO Bonnie Brooks on his left arm and Fashion Television’s Jeanne Beker on his right (he’s always been popular with the ladies), the navy suit­–clad de la Renta was the very picture of living in love.
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Inside Thursday’s Paws for the Cause gala: Toronto scenesters and doggies in designer duds

By Caitlin Agnew | October 31st, 2011 | 12:00 pm

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Photography by Jenna Marie Wakani

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Walking through the oversized doghouse gate in Toronto’s Distillery District, it was clear that the Paws for the Cause gala and fashion show had marked its territory. The second annual doggies-on-the-catwalk event had the city’s cutest pooches sporting Canadian-made coats from Babies & Beasts while their celebrity dog walkers strutted their stuff in darling duds by Philip Sparks. Plaid-on-plaid suits, faux fur–collared jackets and ladylike dresses ensured that models like eTalk’s Tanya Kim and MTV’s Aliya-Jasmine Sovani looked (almost) as cute as their leashed companions.
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Scene

Inside Friday’s Operanation ball: Toronto’s glitterati, Arthur Mendonça, Ashley Rowe, Greta Constantine, Rufus Wainwright, and Austra

By Caitlin Agnew | October 25th, 2011 | 11:00 am

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Operanation 8: A Muse Ball, October 2011

Photography by James Lourenco

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It’s not very often that an evening can be described as unforgettable, but Operanation 8: A Muse Ball was exactly that. Last Friday, the Canadian Opera Company’s annual gala took over the three-storied lobby of the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, a glittering venue that had passersby on University Avenue gawking through the windows, and with good reason.

Yorkville’s Rac Boutique put together a fashion installation of custom-made designs by Canadian labels like Calla, Joeffer Caoc, Ashley Rowe, and Greta Constantine. Since the wares were showcased by models more mannequin than mortal, more than one of the 1,100 guests was excused for mistakenly fondling the ladies’ outfits. But really, who could resist copping a feel of that floor-length, electric-purple Arthur Mendonça number?

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