Our brightest stars are hitting all the right pop-culture marks this season.
Check out our roundup of the highlights »
NYFW backstage beauty: The Chinese military meets ’40s Hollywood at Jason Wu
NYFW style snaps: We’re at Peter Som and Jason Wu, and so are Grace Coddington, Kate Lanphear, and Olivia Palermo
NYFW diary: The dispatch from day one including Jason Wu’s updated Mao jacket, Rag & Bone’s granny mishmash, and Suno’s sweet, sweet garden print
They said/We said: Kate Moss battles good and evil (like, really evil!) in a new W photoshoot
NYFW style snaps: We spy many fur coats, lots of studded leather, and is that Waris Ahluwalia?
All posts under ‘Culture’
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The bright young Canadian stars that need to be on your radar
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February culture picks: Canada at the Oscars, cool picks from IDS and new music
Left: Vitra Panton chair, reimagined by Bruce Mau. Right: Mirror by astro of Trash Bonbon.
The designed life
Toronto’s annual Interior Design Show (January 27 to 30, interiordesignshow.com) is a blow-up labyrinth of commercial and sponsor exhibits, indie design experiments and much spectacle in-between. On opening night, 20 one-off Vitra Panton chairs will be up for charity auction, all reimagined by big names like design legend Bruce Mau and fashion darlings Greta Constantine. In an exhibit titled Sibling Revelry, Sarah Richardson dreams up a space with her younger brother, Theo Richardson (who happens to be one-third of the hot N.Y.C. design trio Rich Brilliant Willing), while ladywear designer David Dixon worked with his brother Glenn Dixon, an interior designer. For discoveries, you can’t miss the Studio North exhibit, featuring bright young talent like Montreal graffiti art object–maker Trash Bonbon and Toronto eco-minded, sleight-handed furniture designer Evan Bare. —Sarah Nicole Prickett
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Toronto culture picks: A trio of dance performances, and the importance of to-do lists
Dream of the Red Chamber
I’m going to have to polish off my Arty Girl Outfits–it’s a big week in Toronto for dance and theatre and I want to look “thinky.”
First up is a two-nights only performance of Dream of the Red Chamber from the Beijing Friendship Dance Company. The 80-dancer, 800-costume extravaganza is a sure-to-be pretty Chinese Romeo and Juliet tale combining classical ballet and traditional Chinese dance (sonycentre.ca). Catch the performance at the shiny new Sony Centre for the Performing Arts October 12 to 13.
Next up is the kickoff to the World Stage 2010-2011 performance series at Harbourfront with the internationally acclaimed Out of Context – for Pina, from the award-winning Belgian Les ballets C de la B at Fleck Dance Theatre, October 13 through 16 (harbourfrontcentre.com/worldstage1011).
And on Thursday, October 14 I’ll be adding some words to the mix with the opening of the Governor General award-winning play The List starring Allegra Fulton, a Nightwood Theatre production at Berkeley Street Theatre (nightwoodtheatre.net) about a woman who overlooks one item on her to-do list with dramatic results.
Phew. I feel more cultured already.
On now:
Two large foam blocks provide the set and metaphor for Toronto contemporary dance company ProArteDanza’s first “evening-length” production, …in between… (from $22, until October 9, Fleck Dance Theatre, Harbourfront Centre, 416-973-4000, harbourfrontcentre.com), which is themed around instability, transition, crisis: the moving of one state to the next. The eight athletic, powerful dancers (these are not the reedy sylphs of classical ballet, although those techniques are gorgeously incorporated) make good use of the blocks—they leap onto them and over them, sit and sprawl on them, fall off them. At one point, all the dancers attempt to stand and balance on a single upturned one, chatting loudly about how tricky it is. It’s one of a few warm, light-hearted moments that pepper the show, interspersed with fluid, intense routines infused with more serious, heartfelt emotion. It’s only on until October 9—if you miss it this time, be sure to watch for the company’s next outing.–Rani Sheen
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Culture pick: Flash Forward Festival highlights emerging photographers
Kevin Van Aelst One Heart Beat
This year, the Magenta Foundation has taken their popular Flash Forward competition, which highlights the talent of up-and-coming photographers from Canada, the U.S. and the U.K, and turned it into a festival. The gallery show has been expanded to six curated exhibits and they’ve added workshops, lectures and panel discussions on such pictorial topics as marketing oneself in the fine art market to the future of photobooks in the digital age. All of the venues, including the all-Canadian show Where is Here, and almost all of the external events are free to access, so even if you don’t have an image on display you can learn about the industry and what it takes to be the next Robert Mapplethorpe or Cindy Sherman. The photographs range in their context—dramatic shots of soldiers, snapshots of odd suburbanites and stills of decaying architecture—with photographers taking the role of silent observer or composer of a scene. The Flash Forward Festival runs October 6 to 10, with venues throughout Liberty Village in Toronto (a complete schedule and map can be found at flashforwardfestival.com).
Click the images below to see a gallery from the Flash Forward Festvial
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Culture pick: A high-wire rivalry in The Great Farini Project
The Great Farini Project (until September 25, Enwave Threatre, harbourfrontcentre.com) is “a harrowing dance of one-upmanship” that chronicles the real life, decades long rivalry between high-wire walkers The Great Farini and The Great Blondin. Inspired by the life of Canadian William Hunt, or “The Great Farini, this is the first full-length work by choreographer and 2010 Dora Award nominee Sharon B. Moore and promises to be a vivid, exciting look the no-holds-barred competition between the two men.
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Culture report: The films to see, TV to watch and music to listen to this fall
Shia LeBeouf and Carey Mulligan in Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps
This way for the season’s best TV, books, music and more:
FILM: Fate, Facebook and finances invade theatres this fall.
BOOKS: Our fall book club from the cream of the crop of Canadian fiction femmes.
MUSIC: The most fashionable bands, the most intriguing artists and the releases simply too big to ignore.
TV: There’s plenty of sex, fun and guns on the tube this fall.
ARTS: The don’t miss art, opera and dance events of the season.
Fashion
The culture club: 6 spots for spring wardrobe cleaning
The White Space at the Bay
There weren’t any April showers to actually bring May flowers this year, but you can still undertake your annual out-with-old and in-with-the-new regimen. Here are our 6 (mostly Toronto) spots for this year’s spring cleaning.
The White Space at the Bay Queen Street ( 176 Yonge St., 416-861-9111, hbc.com) The Bay was our little fashion secret weapon, but as of late it seems our secret is out of the bag with their new contemporary space, The White Room. With lines like Opening Ceremony, McQ, Haniiy, and Sonia by Sonia Rykiel we simply cannot get enough.
Net-a-porter.com (net-a-porter.com) If your mantra is that less is more, this is a great place to splurge on a few special articles to take your spring wardrobe to the next level.
69 Vintage Collective (1207 Bloor St. W., 416-516-1234, 69vintage.com) For your vintage staples (leather shorts, worked in denim shirts, Levi’s and clutches) let this be your first and only stop. Each piece has been lovingly selected and it shows!
Finn Boutique (1 Yorkville Ave., 416-961-0101, finnboutique.com) This shop stocks some of the cleanest and most fashion forward Canadian lines around. The proprietor, Amalie Bruun, is passionate about cut and craft and it shows when she tells you lovingly about all of the amazing goods she stocks in this white, minimalist boutique.
Gee Beauty (2 Roxborough St. W., 416-486-0080, geebeauty.com) The team at Gee have impeccable taste and personally curate the collection of accessories, products and spring must-haves. Our personal faves at the beauty spot cum lifestyle boutique: Trove Tkees flip flops and Jenny Bird leather wrist bands.
Forever 21 (various locations, forever21.com) The accessories and colours are always right on trend, and an easy way to update any spring wardrobe.
Ashleigh Dempster and Amanda Blakley are the co-founders of The Society Global, a social club with chapters in Toronto, New York and L.A. (and coming this month to Miami). For more info on The Society Global, visit their website, thesocietyglobal.com, or follow them on Twitter at twitter.com/culturites.
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The Culture Club: 6 great airplane reads
If you’re headed on a break to escape the last dregs of winter, here are a few suggestions to keep you entertained on the flight:
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee by Rebecca Miller ($17, HarperCollins) Rebecca Miller’s tale about a suburban trophy wife with a past came to the big screen last fall. The novel is a great quick read for a short haul trip. Read more »
