Word: Wunderkammer Meaning: A cabinet of wonders, of marvels, of curiosities; synonym: my bathroom. Origin: Germany. Usage: “A collection of bookshelves, Kunstkammer, Wunderkammer, salon-style hangings, advertising, litter, clutter, chaos, and any other example of our desire to fill space.” —  Among the Mess You should know it because: Wunderkammers have been popping up in the [...]

From the West Coast to the Atlantic Ocean, Beauty Director Adriana Ermter scours the nation for must-try rejuvenating, relaxing and beautifying spas. This month, she sends Nadine LaRoche to check out Spirit Urban Spa in Halifax. Spirit Urban Spa 5150 Salter St., Suite 200, Halifax, 902-431-8100, spiritspa.ca As my aesthetician Allison lifts my head from [...]

Halifax designer Katrina Tuttle is set to put on her second show on the Toronto Fashion Week runway on Wednesday evening. (See her Spring 2010 collection.) She talks champagne and Sarah Jessica Parker in our pre-show Q&A. Describe the inspiration for your fall collection in 5 words or less. “The world from a distance.” A [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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!” [...]

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, [...]