Toronto shop notes: V is for Victorinox
Girls Recap: Hannah heads home to Michigan to ditch her parents, date a pharmacist and blame everyone else for her boredom
Daily steal: Striped straw tote, $29
They said/We said: How will Facebook’s going public affect the fashion industry?
Kate does pastel-pink and Prada while having lunch with (no big deal) two dozen international kings and queens
Archive for Joy Pecknold
By Joy Pecknold | May 11th, 2012 | 9:00 am
J.crew cardigan $210, necklace $175, and shoes $150
The city’s cardigan quotient will see an increase this month: J.Crew has opened the doors of its first West Coast location, in downtown Vancouver (1088 Robson St., jcrew.com). The 5,953-square-foot space is brimming with preppy pieces such as ankle-grazing print trousers, bow ballet flats and sparkly statement necklaces. Read more »
By Joy Pecknold | May 4th, 2012 | 9:00 am
Photography: left, Versace Spring 2012; right, Christian Dior Spring 2012 by Peter Stigter
This month marks the 25th anniversary of Leone (leone.ca), a local luxury retailer where Christian Dior, Prada, Versace and Alexander McQueen are among the dreamy designer labels. We asked the grande dame behind this family business, Maria Leone, about must-haves and milestones.
What was the first garment you sold at the store?
“It was a Versace flowered chiffon skirt. I definitely remember the emotions I had when we first opened the doors and cut
the ribbon.” Read more »
By Joy Pecknold | April 27th, 2012 | 9:00 am
Photography by Erin Seaman
Ease into bikini season with this pretty pair of boardshorts by Roxy ($50, roxy.com). Perfect for sea and street, the lingerie-inspired hem ups the flirt factor of this summer staple. Read more »
By Joy Pecknold | April 25th, 2012 | 10:00 am
By day, Kristin MacDonald is the operations manager at a children’s activity centre. By night, the 27-year-old exercises a love of all things fashion through her blog, Doll Parade. She doesn’t mind the balancing act—in fact, balance is a factor in her personal style, which she documents daily on the site. Her look is a mélange of modern and vintage, high and low, classic and quirky—like Breton stripes with a big, bold necklace. She started experimenting with style at four years old. “I would make dresses for my mom from my blankets, brooches and extension cords,” she says. “I never understood why she wasn’t wearing them to functions.” With that early appreciation for the unconventional, it’s no surprise that she counts the late Alexander McQueen as a favourite designer. MacDonald says social media is brightening the spotlight on fashion in Fredericton, but not everyone is accustomed to her flamboyant attire. “There are still stares at the grocery store when I’m dressed for a day out,” she admits, “but you take those things in stride.”
By Joy Pecknold | April 13th, 2012 | 4:30 pm
Photography by Jason Hargrove
A cold day two of Vancouver’s Eco Fashion Week had attendees sporting last season’s winter coats or shivering in this season’s diaphanous dresses, which was fine by Indigenous Designs, who showed first. The California-based label, which uses fair trade and organic materials, sent out a succession of cozy knits in all nature of rich fall colours and patterns. Topping off every look was a very Spring ’12 Miu Miu-esque red eye.
Next Kreati-Ka, designed by French Seattleite Kathy Sabin-Mensah, brought far dressier fare to the runway. She succeeded most with some wearable yet sexy shifts with sheer insets or overlays. Her last grand, voluminous gown got some oohs and ahhs and then some oh nos as the model wearing it tripped a number of times on its extra length.
Read more »
By Joy Pecknold | April 12th, 2012 | 3:30 pm
Photography by Jason Hargrove
Mother Nature clearly approved of the kick-off to the Fall 2012 edition of Eco Fashion Week. She gave a long, wet, chillier-than-usual Vancouver winter its first dry spring high of 16 degrees. The runway, set atop an iceless 2010 Olympiad legacy rink in Robson Square, warmed up with a show featuring no new clothing.
It was stylists, not designers who took centre stage using some $500 worth of pre-loved Value Village finds. Sarah La Greca and Deanna Palkowski styled 21 waste-not, wide-ranging looks from pastel-on-pastel and print-on-print to ‘70s rock and ‘80s glam sent out to a Grimes soundtrack. My favourite: a Chinoiserie smoking jacket that wouldn’t have been out of place in Jason Wu’s fall collection, followed by a Cher Horowitz-esque pastel blue pleather jacket worn over a ladylike ivory ensemble—albeit more spring than fall—and a double scoop of polka dots on a blouse and pencil skirt.
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By Joy Pecknold | March 23rd, 2012 | 12:00 pm
Photography courtesy of Museum of Vancouver
We do say, the Museum of Vancouver’s exhibit “Art Deco Chic: Extravagant Glamour Between the Wars” is well-timed to assuage period piece poppers who have a while to wait for Season 3 of Downton Abbey (to be in the throes of the roaring twenties!) and Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby remake.
The fashion exhibit, which runs until September 23, 2012, features some 73 mannequins adorned in frocks from early 1920s through the late 1930s—those fit for tea and tittle-tattle by day and those for accepting marriage proposals by night. There are designs by French haute couture pioneer Charles Frederick Worth, Jeanne Lanvin, Madeleine Vionnet and Elsa Schiaparelli. One black Chanel day dress which was featured in English and German Vogue issues in 1928 seems particularly perfect for mourning, Turkish diplomats or otherwise.
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By Joy Pecknold | March 1st, 2012 | 11:00 am
Perhaps in response to the collective winter fatigue of Canadians, Vancouver-based clothing line Lifetime Collective launched its new website and online store this week featuring the full range of their road-trip worthy Spring 2012 collection. Snaps of Arizona’s sunny desert vistas (Grand Canyon included), where the brand shot this season’s look book and campaign videos, offer a warm escapist welcome on first click. Then there’s all that clothing to go with the wanderlust, like a cotton Tee printed with the Tolkien quote, “All that is gold does not glitter. Not all those who wander are lost.” In addition to selling the casual men’s and women’s collections, the lifestyle-minded brand offers other aesthetic diversions on their new site, such as a zine titled Free Thinkers featuring stories on and images of creative collaborators—Vancouver designers Ken Diamond and Judith Feller are two.
A POOL WE LOVE: A gorgeous natural granite swimming pool in a backyard setting
Film noir: Osez le noir et blanc avec les robes et accessoires du moment
