By Randi Bergman | May 14th, 2012 | 1:00 pm
Photography by Lewis Mirrett
Spring, as it should be, is naturally a time for the spectrum’s brightest hues. But this time around, one hue in particular reigned supreme: orange. The zesty shade burst out on every runway from Victoria Beckham to Joe Fresh (natch), and now it’s popping up everywhere on the Toronto streets in the form of It bags, skinny jeans and the most unexpected of all: outerwear! Check out our eye-popping gallery for 28 ways the bright is being worn on the streets.
By Kyla Parrish | May 10th, 2012 | 6:00 pm
Photography by Ronald Dumont/Getty Images
Vidal Sassoon, the hairstyling genius responsible for overhauling the tease and set styles of the ‘50s, passed away in his Los Angeles home early this morning. Sassoon, who had styled such iconic manes as Twiggy, Mia Farrow and Mary Quant, has been hailed as the visionary who introduced “ready-to-wear” hair to women around the globe, and transformed the role of hair cutter into hair stylist. Sassoon had been battling leukemia since 2006.
Sassoon started his journey at the age of 14, when he worked washing hair and mixing hair colour. In 1954, he opened his own salon and spent the next nine years perfecting his hair cutting techniques and styles. In 1963 he earned the title “the founder of modern hairdressing” for the revolutionary bob and five-point cut, styles that stood in stark contrast to the beehive and bouffant that had preceded his esthetic. Hilary Alexander, fashion director of the Daily Telegraph, tweeted “Much sadness on death of the architect of hair, Vidal Sassoon. He banished the beehive, boosted the bob; most radical hair shift since 1920s.”
Sassoon explained his creative thinking behind this shift saying, “My idea was to cut shape into the hair, to use it like fabric and take away everything that was superfluous… Women were going back to work, they were assuming their own power. They didn’t have time to sit under the dryer anymore.”
It was Sassoon who was famously paid $5,000 (or so the story goes) to give Mia Farrow a pixie cut—the same pixie cut that her husband at the time, Frank Sinatra, didn’t like—for her role in Rosemary’s Baby. Today, you can still see Sassoon’s influence in the young Hollywood starlet set, including Winona Ryder, Michelle Williams and Emma Watson—women who fearlessly rock Sassoon-inspired looks and prove that short hair can be uber sexy with the right cut.
Read more »
By Ilmie Dharmaratna | May 10th, 2012 | 11:00 am
Left: Photography by Peter Stigter. Right: Photography by Erin Seaman.
In honour of Miuccia Prada‘s birthday (it’s today!) and her retrospective at the Met, we’re getting into our second Prada DIY of the season (check out our flower earring DIY). This time around, we’re fashioning our own fiery accessory inspired by the stylized fifties flames that were shown throughout her Spring 2012 collection.
By Kyla Parrish | May 9th, 2012 | 6:00 pm
A vintage Schiaparelli sketch via WWD
More than 50 years after its shuttering (and almost 40 years after the death of its brilliant founder), the house of Schiaparelli is set to relaunch just as its name once again reaches the prominence it had in the pre-war years.
To coincide with the opening of the Met Costume Institute’s retrospective exhibit Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations, Italian business tycoon Diego Della Valle announced the official relaunch earlier this week. Though the brand has remained dormant, even since being acquired by the titan in 2006, Della Valle plans on giving the old house a contemporary update, saying that it “doesn’t have to get involved in the frenetic world of numbers, accounts and dimensions, but it just has to express itself at its best.” Read more »
By Kyla Parrish | May 9th, 2012 | 2:30 pm
A look from Calla's Spring 2012 collection. Photography by Jenna Marie Wakani
Two Canadian-born designers (and former FASHION Ones to Watch!) have been announced in the running for the prestigious French ANDAM Fashion Award. Both Calla Haynes and Thomas Tait have been nominated for the award alongside Vika Gazinskaya, Cedric Charlier and Nicolas Andreas Taralis, which means each stand to win 230,000 euros—an impressive sum that would certainly help any budding design talent realize their vision—with another 370,000 euros in additional prizes (like 10,000 euros of Swarovski crystals).
Toronto-born Haynes is up for her second and third ANDAM awards—nominated for the grand prize as well as the Prix des Première Collections, a category reserved for French-based labels that are younger than three years old.
Tait, now based in London, who honed his craft at Montreal’s LaSalle College, was also the recipient of the (arguably) equally prestigious Dorchester Collection Fashion Prize in 2010.
By Randi Bergman | May 9th, 2012 | 2:00 pm
We’ve been spotting Miu Miu’s adorably technicolour Spring 2012 ad campaign images starring actress Mia Wasikowska for a while now, but today, the brand upped the cute ante with the release of its printastic video spot featuring the Jane Eyre actress gussied up as a Marie Antoinette-meets-post-mod waving oh so covetable bags at her whim (while double layering the largest cameo accessories we’ve ever seen, to boot). While she may choose to have her cake (and eat it too), we’ll take one of everything onscreen. And eat it too.
By Randi Bergman | May 9th, 2012 | 10:30 am
Photography by Erin Seaman
Today, we’re going inside the bag belonging to another of Canada’s PR power players: Natasha Koifman. President of her namesake firm, NKPR, Koifman heads up a team of 30 to work on blockbuster accounts like Stila, Essie, Kiehl’s and RACHEL Rachel Roy as well as one of the favourite gifting lounges during the Toronto International Film Festival, the IT Lounge. She’s been featured on The Coveteur and she’s also been known to host some pretty bangin’ parties at her beautiful North Toronto home. For that, we’d like to give her an everlasting shout out.
By FASHION Staff | May 9th, 2012 | 2:00 am
Photographed by James White and styled by Penny Lovell.
ALWAYS IN FASHION
24 Fashionmagazine.com
28 Letter from the editor
30 Contributors
32 Behind the scenes
34 Letters from our readers
FASHION FILE
40 NEWS Picnic-ready bags take the spotlight, Hermès dives (back) into swimwear, Tag Heuer’s new leading lady and Diesel shows off its new attitude.
42 FLASHPOINT Stylish women across Canada let the sun shine in with shades of yellow and flirty floral pants.
44 SWIM ESSAY Does shopping for a swimsuit trigger a tidal wave of self-doubt? Leah McLaren keeps your head above water with seven tried-and-true tips.
48 TREND From the runway to the red carpet, strategic cut-outs are exposing a whole new side of womenswear. Read more »
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