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Halifax: Akshay Tyagi debuts a chilly (in a good way) collection

Posted November 5th, 2009 | 3:08 pm | By Nadine LaRoche | 3 Comments

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For Thaw, Halifax conceptual fashion designer Akshay Tyagi’s (akshaytyagi.com) debut solo collection, the inspiration was simple: cracked ice along the winter-licked shores of Nova Scotia’s St Margaret’s Bay. As swiftly as the icy scene gave seed to the idea of a collection, the designer was instantly envisioning bits of his future designs—the pleats of translucent fabrics and the folds of layered cloth, like frozen water wrapping around a rock.

But how he would share this quickly cultivated idea to the public wouldn’t be as simple.

“This couldn’t just be your typical runway show,” says Tyagi.

Read the rest of this entry »

Fashion » At the shows

Toronto: Katrina Tuttle Spring 2010

Posted October 22nd, 2009 | 2:41 pm | By Jennifer Campbell | 1 Comment

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KATRINA TUTTLE Spring 2010. Photography by Angela Y. Martin

Not unlike fellow designer Jason Meyers, Halifax’s Katrina Tuttle designs clothes for parties, though Tuttle’s are of the garden, not nightclub, variety. And many of her spring frocks were garden variety indeed. Similar one-shouldered shifts marched out in textured white, pink satin with a tone-on-tone circle motif, a black and white paintbrush print. Better was Tuttle’s fun take on handkerchiefs. Fabric was buttoned and folded into bubble skirts gray and white, up the front of a translucent pale gray dress or into a strapless frock in three shades of aqua. (The idea was less successful creeping over the shoulders of jackets and yet more dresses.) A few standalone items of note were a strapless maxi in an oversized flower print, a bubble dress done in bright white jersey with floral burnouts and the final looks: two embellished, effusive pieces that seem to best display the kind of party Tuttle wants to attend.

See a gallery of the show after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

FASHION Reporters » Fashion

Halifax: Louanna Murphy wins Off the Cuff

Posted September 18th, 2009 | 3:33 pm | By Nadine LaRoche | 3 Comments

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Photography by Shaun Simpson

When the first outfit of Louanna Murphy’s four-look collection—a pair of high-waisted drainpipe trousers in a warm, leafy print paired with a dusty blue cami and a camel vest with a flawless circle hem and prim epaulettes—appeared on the runway at the Off the Cuff finale on September 13, the design competition was practically already won. Though her two opponents stepped up as her creative and conceptual competition, her technical talent and flawless execution remained unmatched. After the three presented their eight looks (including looks from previous rounds) Murphy took home the winning title, a prize that comes with such benefits as mentoring and instruction sessions, studio and runway time, and gift certificates and fabric. Read the rest of this entry »

FASHION Reporters

H&M hits Halifax on August 13

Posted August 11th, 2009 | 8:02 am | By Nadine LaRoche | 13 Comments

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On Thursday, August 13 at noon, the doors of Nova Scotia’s first H&M will open in Dartmouth’s Mic Mac Mall (21 Micmac Blvd., 902-466-2535) and, you know what? I’ve got mixed feelings.

It’s blasphemy, I know—we’re too often ignored over here on the East Coast and I should be celebrating with the giant “Thank you!” H&M billboard I spied earlier this week. But I just can’t. That same jealous twang that popped into my childhood heart when I realized my BFF had other friends and, gasp, they had matching friendship bracelets, too (!) is holding me back. You see, I’m admittedly selfish about my relationship with H&M. Read the rest of this entry »

FASHION Reporters

Halifax: Musicians take the stage at Off the Cuff, Week 4

Posted August 4th, 2009 | 11:21 am | By Nadine LaRoche | 4 Comments

Kolston Gogan of Stereo Penguin in Louanna Murphy's winning design. Photography by Shaun Simpson

Kolston Gogan of Stereo Penguin in Louanna Murphy's winning design. Photography by Shaun Simpson

Challenged to dress a local musician for the stage, the four remaining Off the Cuff competitors were back with new work on on August 2. Heather Rappard dressed her musician, a harpist, in a floor-length midnight blue gown–but was again warned by judges to step up her technical game.  Bree Mackin, paired with Mary Stewart, dressed the guitar-strummin’ songbird in a bubbly party dress trimmed in black lace that unfortunately won’t take her to the final round. Read the rest of this entry »

FASHION Reporters

Halifax: Off the Cuff Week 3–The designers tackle avant-garde outerwear

Posted August 4th, 2009 | 11:15 am | By Nadine LaRoche | 5 Comments

Akshay Tyagi's winning design from week three of Off The Cuff

Akshay Tyagi's winning design from week three of Off the Cuff. Photography by Shaun Simpson

Last Sunday’s challenge in Halifax’s Off the Cuff, a fashion competition and runway show presented by Argyle Fine Art gallery, couldn’t have been any more inappropriate. The designers were assigned the task of making a garment that was inspired by Halifax’s tempestuous weather and that could be transformed in some way. And so, on one of the scarce sunrise-to-set sunny days in the ‘fax, five designers wrapped their already-sweltering models in practical, toasty outwear. Read the rest of this entry »

FASHION Reporters

Halifax: Young designers duke it out at Off the Cuff

Posted July 21st, 2009 | 8:13 am | By Nadine LaRoche | 10 Comments

Creations by (<i>from left</i>) Alison Seary, Louanna Murphy and Askay Tyagi. Photography by Shaun Simpson

Creations by (from left) Alison Seary, Louanna Murphy and Akshay Tyagi. Photography by Shaun Simpson

Down the open back of one dress, a waterfall of hard drive platters and spindles spill along the model’s spine. On another, vinyl records make up a dramatic, bell-shaped skirt. Anti-slip fabric folded into box pleats puffs out below a bodice of cassette tape on a third cocktail dress, and a fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh pull together even more shiny bits, from silver-sprayed Christmas tree light bulbs to strips of film and strings of CDs. These are the ingenious creations hatched from week one of Off the Cuff, a fashion competition and runway show that has taken its inspiration from Project Runway and found its home in Halifax’s Argyle Fine Art gallery (1869 Upper Water St., 902-425-9456). Read the rest of this entry »

FASHION Reporters

Charlottetown: Jenn Grant is my style Wonder Woman

Posted July 16th, 2009 | 7:57 am | By Amanda Bulman | 2 Comments

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Fashion bloggers are notorious for getting style crushes on certain starlets and singers to the point of almost obsession. Heather and Jessica of Go Fug Yourself fame are shamelessly impressed (and dare I say in love) with the style prowess that is Anne Hathaway and there are whole sites devoted to the fanatical fan worship of the sometimes stylish and sometimes questionable Olsen twins. As a blogger based on Canada’s East Coast, my style crushes tend to be a little more homegrown. My current favourite is the always-impeccable singer/songwriter Jenn Grant. Read the rest of this entry »

FASHION Reporters

Halifax: NSCAD fashion department is seeing green(er)

Posted July 7th, 2009 | 7:47 am | By Nadine LaRoche | 9 Comments

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When NSCAD University’s fashion students return to their Seeds Building studio in the fall, the art college will have become a little bit greener: the latest muslin cotton available in the fashion department will be certified organic.

The decision reflects the department’s desire to put into practice its long-standing eco-conscious mindset, one that is shared by many members of its student body, its only full-time faculty member, Parsons alumnus Gary Markle, and Anne Pickard, the department’s technician and an instructor within the university’s School of Extended Studies.

But the department’s green approach, urges Pickard, is more than just in vogue.

“We’re not focusing on this because it’s a hot thing,” says Pickard. “This is not for any other reason than that it should just be part of every consciousness.” Read the rest of this entry »

FASHION Reporters

Halifax: Deux Fm’s backyard bikini

Posted June 17th, 2009 | 9:27 am | By Nadine LaRoche | 6 Comments

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This is a bikini you can’t help but feel good in—and it has nothing to do with how much time you may or may not have spent at the gym this spring. Made right here in Nova Scotia, the Deux Fm Mystique ($82, at Love, Me Boutique, 1539 Birmingham St., 902-444-3668 and at select boutiques across Canada, deuxfm.com) string bikini is about as homegrown as you can get, and wearing something saturated in sustainability feels so damn good. Read the rest of this entry »

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