The question of form over function frequently inspires lively dialogue, especially in the shoe department, where comfort can come a distant second to creativity, and we splurge on that “to-die-for” footwear knowing full well it’ll kill our feet. But that’s fashion for you—an enigmatic world fuelled by fantasies and driven by dreams, where the pursuit of beauty keeps us on …
New York Fashion Week – Spring / Summer 2012
NEW YORK It used to be said in style circles that less was more. But that’s a dying notion these days. With so many labels, so much fashion information, and all the incessant celebrity style hype, it seems that we all can’t get enough of the scene and all it’s material trappings. And while some insiders are saying that the …
NY Fall Winter 2011
NEW YORK Minutes before show time at the big Lincoln Centre tent, a posse of celebrities, including Bette Midler, Anjelica Huston, Catherine Zeta Jones, Michael Douglas, and Debra Messing, emerge from Michael Kors’ backstage, and the throngs of photographers dutifully snap away. As she’s whisked to her front row seat, Midler sings her friend praises. “These aren’t just clothes that …
Izzy Camilleri
There’s lots of talk about the democratization of fashion these days. But making great style accessible to everyone usually has more to do with affordable price points than anything else. And while more and more designers are warming up to the idea of dressing all body types, the furthest they consider venturing is into the plus size realm. That’s why …
IMG Fashion Week Takeover
Fashion may not make the world go round, but when a fashion story makes front-page news, it makes my personal planet spin a little faster. Last week’s announcement that international management giant IMG had bought Toronto’s ‘World Master Card Fashion Week’ was boldly announced on page one of The Star, and it was a business writer that had the privilege …
Jean Paul Gaultier
I’ve had the joy of meeting countless designers these past 25 years, but the most impishly charming has to be Jean Paul Gaultier, the one-time “enfant terrible” of fashion. The genius French couturier, who put men in skirts, Madonna in conical bras and Dita Von Teese in corsets, presented his first ready-to-wear collection back in 1976. Today, Gaultier remains wonderfully …
Couture Spring 2011
PARIS Inside a courtyard off Place Vendome, fashion fans have gathered, compact cameras and cell phones in hand, poised to capture every last bit of the inevitable glamour. Giorgio Armani’s guests have started to arrive for the red carpet master’s spring couture offering, and there’s bound to be at least a couple of major celebrities on his list. The fans …
Martin Lim
The mood was celebratory in the dressing room at Reitman’s in Montreal’s Place Ville Marie recently, as a spirited cross section of fashionable women gleefully tried on a collection of 10 terrific little dresses by hot Canadian design duo Martin Lim. There was something for everyone in the offering from Danielle Martin and Pao Lim, the husband and wife …
Boot Camp
Despite the glamour inherent in the fashion world, those of us who work in its trenches are aware of the arena’s gritty underbelly: It’s a tough-as-nails business that sees countless beautiful young people clamour to climb on board its beastly bandwagon, hoping for a quick ride to fame and fortune. Most don’t get very far. But every once in a …