Emma Farrow, Topshop design director.

I met up with Topshop design director Emma Farrow at the Topshop show space at the Tate Modern just as she wrapped up a listen-thru of the music before the Fall 2013 show.

On the starting point for the collection: “We wanted to stick with a British theme, so we were looking at our urban heritage—but not really wanting to do country houses and National Trust.  It’s more about that real British girl, like Justine [Frischmann] from the band Elastica—she’s quite a tough girl but she’s really sexy and feminine. We started with her music, but some of the tracks were quite guitary with riffs, and it just didn’t work in the space.”

On the venue and the music: “This space feels like Blade Runner, but the industrial feel works really well for me. And the acoustics are so amazing here, but we were quite conscious that it’s a very monastic, impressive space. With the collection, it was very important that the music be uplifting, so we’ve got a very British theme. And the ’90s are still important so we were looking at the Brit Pop era. We’ve normally had all female vocals at our shows, so that was our brief to begin with, to keep it feminine. But actually, we made the change [the day before the show] to have the Smiths in, so we have these charming male vocals included at the end.” (The show also featured tracks from Brit electronia bands Beats International and Saint Etienne—both have female vocals.)

Click through to read the full post & see more pics from London Fashion Week… Read the rest of this entry

It was a mob scene backstage at Burberry when Cara Delevingne was in the makeup chair.

We snagged two (just two!) minutes in the makeup chair with Cara Delevingne—Burberry It girl, London Fashion Week’s hottest model, and model of the year at the 2012 British Fashion Awards.

Delevingne’s top beauty advice for aspiring models:

1. Practise makes perfect. “Get the biggest heels possible and make sure you practise walking in them. A lot. I had to learn that the hard way by being laughed at [laughs].”

2. Take care of your feet. “Buy a foot bath spa thing. That’s always good. And Epsom salts to bathe in at nighttime.”

3. Keep it simple when it comes to skin care. Her go-to item: “Simple face wipes.” On facials?: “I haven’t had time.”

4. Most importantly, always ask for extra mascara. As Burberry Beauty artistic consultant Wendy Rowe finished up Delevingne’s makeup (a subtle, nod to the ’60s with a golden glow—more to come on that in the next post), Delevingne pouted sweetly and pleaded for extra mascara on her bottom lashes. “See, I can’t give special treatment,” Rowe replied with a coy smile before applying a few extra coats to Delevingne’s top lashes. “Oh, that little bit of mascara is all the extra!” Delevingne cooed as she ran off to hair.

Click through to read the full post & see more pics of Cara Delevingne from London Fashion Week…

Read the rest of this entry

There’s lots of free food to be found at London Fashion Week—if you have time to eat it while running between back-to-back shows.  My first stop was the VIP media lounge at Somerset House, the home of London Fashion Week. It’s a little tricky to find—behind a white wall and velvet rope in the main show space—but once you enter, you feel like you’ve arrived in a cozy, modern forest. There’s a whitewashed fireplace (showcasing a whimsical tree with little birds), a backlit wall of painted trees, and bookcases filled with knickknacks like silver rabbit figurines (I’ve included some photos at the end).

I also munched on the free bags of gourmet popcorn that are constantly being handed out at the main venue—they can’t be avoided. And since it’s “under 100 calories” a bag, the fashion crowd can actually be seen eating it! (Plus, it’s a much yummier choice than the fibre/granola/breakfast bars which have become ubiquitous at NYFW and Toronto Fashion Week…) This bag is a sour cream and chive flavour, but I prefer the sea salt. Still on the lookout for the sweet chili version.

Click through to read the full post & see more pics from London Fashion Week…

Read the rest of this entry

 Christopher Raeburn, Fall/Winter 2013. All runway photos by Imaxtree.com.

It’s the tiniest fashion show invitation I’ve ever received. For his seventh namesake collection, British designer Christopher Raeburn (who also moonlights as the creative director of Victorinox), sent out thumb-sized bottles (complete with a cork cap). Inside each one was a little rolled piece of fabric with the show details—a true fashion-forward message in a bottle. How cute!

I caught up with Christopher after his runway show.

On the invitation

“The message in the bottle links to our naval theme for the season. We do unique invites every season—we’ve done everything from a toy parachute to fabric and texture-based invitations.”

Click through to read about Christopher Raeburn’s Fall 2013 inspiration & see more pics from the show!

Read the rest of this entry

Phil Crozier, PHOTOPHILCRO

It‘s fitting that Paul Hardy‘s spring/summer 2013 collection is a coming-of-age story, as it also marks his 10th anniversary in the business.

Dozens of fashion editors and bloggers from across Canada joined some of Calgary‘s most stylish citizens for a day-long celebration that culminated in a dramatic 40-minute runway presentation of 60 looks at Hardy‘s new design studio in a renovated warehouse in Calgary‘s Inglewood neighbourhood.

“I‘m so thrilled that everyone is here to celebrate with me,” Hardy said earlier in the day at a brunch at Calgary‘s River Café, where he thanked his family, current and former interns and even his Grade-7 teacher, who flew in from his hometown of Winnipeg for the festivities. “When I was in junior high, Irene never wore the same thing twice,” he said with a laugh. “She really inspired my career in fashion.”

A few hours later, we got a good sense of how those early fashion ambitions have materialized. Titled “Breaking Amish,” the runway show was divided into eight chapters (each carefully paired with live music) that told the story of a nameless girl who decides to leave her colony to discover the glamour of the big city—only to become disillusioned before eventually finding her own balance in life.

Read the rest of this entry

The best thing about good, old-fashioned snail mail? Magazine subscriptions! I love coming home from work to find a new assortment of magazines in my mailbox. (I often check out the back pages even before I make it into the house—Entertainment Weekly’s Bullseye, The New Yorker’s Cartoon Caption Contest and ELLE Décor’s Etcetera are just some of my favourites.) And this is the best time of year to stock up on subscriptions. Magazines Canada has just launched its annual buy 2 get 1 free subscription offer. There are 190 titles to choose from (including, of course, ELLE Canada).

At 1free.magazinescanada.ca/savenow until February 28, 2013.

I discovered a new store in an unexpected place on my way to New York Fashion Week: the departure lounge at Toronto’s Billy Bishop Airport.

WANT Les Essentiels de la Vie (the Canadian brand is co-founded and designed by Dexter and Byron Peart) has just opened two WANT PASSPORT shops at the Toronto Island airport: the smaller Departure Lounge Kiosk (which I checked out on my way to NYC) and the larger Arrival Shop (which I’ll stop in at after my return flight touches down in Toronto).

The departure kiosk has a carefully curated selection of luxe travel items including, of course, WANT bags (like the Heathrow Commuter) as well as books (Alain de Botton’s The Art of Travel), foldable panama hats (Borsalino) and sunglasses (Persol). There are also flight-sized beauty products from Aesop and gift items like posh candles by Astier de Villate and cool toys from Swedish design brand Playsam. Plus, they even have handmade Koh-i-noor toothbrushes, in case you forgot yours.

The selection of items is expected to change weekly—which is great news for frequent flyers.

Runway Image courtesy of ImaxTree

Celebs at DVF: Oscar de la Renta! Valentino! Sarah Jessica Parker! Google’s Sergey Brin??? There was a little card titled “What is that?” tucked into the show notes to explain why many of the models (and even Diane) were wearing high tech “Glass by Google” glasses with their turquoise and tangerine colour-blocked caftans and jumpsuits.

Runway Image courtesy of ImaxTree

At Timo Weiland, oversized herringbone and houndstooth prints got mashed up into bright and playful combos of acid yellow and taupe. The prints were also done in an innovative copper metallic embellished with Swarovski bits which made for a pretty sharp pencil skirt. These pieces would look cute on Chloë Moretz, who was sitting front row at the show.

Runway Image courtesy of ImaxTree

Tommy Hilfiger earned his stripes this season—literally—in every possible fabric and direction. (The colour palette, not surprisingly, was red, white and blue.) The show almost started without a number of key editors who made a mad dash to the High Line show set from Zac Posen, which started late at the Lincoln Center.

And finally, just because Saturday’s Altuzarra show is still on my mind, here is the breakdown of the stirring runway soundtrack:

1) Alexandre Desplat – “Prologue”

2) Alexandre Desplat – “The Rendez-Vous”

3) Alexandre Desplat – “Letter”

4) Alexandre Desplat – “Under A Spell”

5) Cat Power – “Cherokee (Nicolas Jaar Remix)”

Now, I’m off to download some Alexandre Desplat!

Let’s get the worst out of the way first. I didn’t have such a great start to my first day covering New York Fashion Week’s spring/summer 2013 shows, but the day did end on a high note thanks to Altuzarra (we’ll get to that, I promise!).

First off, I ended up at the Lacoste show sans my Blackberry—which makes it pretty hard to live tweet. Oops. I’ve never been one of those people who can’t function without my phone, but this time, I felt the pain of tech withdrawal. Thankfully, I didn’t forget my trusty paper notebook and a pen. Unfortunately, the cobalt-blue ink pen (which just made a round trip to Australia without any problems!) chose this very moment to explode. Thankfully, I was wearing mostly black—but my hands did not look so pretty. The ink stains wouldn’t simmer down, even after a good scrub. (I consoled myself with the thought that, “Hey, at least the colour splattered all over my fingers is fall’s hottest shade.”) The experience put me so out of sorts that somehow I missed the fact that the techno soundrack at Lacoste was actually infused with the sounds of thwacked tennis balls and screeching sneakers—and I love this kind of show detail!

A quick cab ride back to my hotel to recover my phone made me feel much better. As did finally tweeting a couple of slightly delayed thoughts on the Lacoste show. I love to tweet pics, but since I didn’t take any photos at the show—I am not one of those annoying people who blocks everyone’s view by taking pics with my iPad—I tweeted images of the tennis racket pattern included in the show notes as well as a snap of the invitation.

You can view those images here:

@ellecanada.com: Head-to-toe printed shirts, pants and fanny packs (yes, they were cool!) in this tennis racket print at Lacoste #NYFW pic.twitter.com/hJnBEsRq

@ellecanada: Leathers embossed with tiny Lacoste crocodiles (like the one on this invite) were pretty cool too. #NYFW pic.twitter.com/lmOkchzJ

Admittedly, in the grand scheme of things, these were pretty minor hiccups. But combined with the sweltering weather and a morning downpour, I was ready to melt in more ways than one.

So now, on to the good stuff. Here are my top three highlights from the day:

Click through for Christina’s top moments from NYFW so far!

Read the rest of this entry

I’ve been a longtime fan of William Morris prints. Just flipping through the whimsical textile patterns in the pages of William Morris By Himself: Designs and Writings (edited by Gillian Naylor) puts me in a good mood.

So when I had the chance to visit the famed Liberty department store in London recently, I was thrilled to check out all the William Morris-Liberty London Collection goodies: notebooks, pencils, trays, clothing, fabrics—and even shoes and bags, thanks to a new Liberty London-Dr. Martens collab.

My favourite item? This leather satchel done in a bold blue-and-green version of the famous Strawberry Thief motif that Morris created in 1883. Every time I look at the print, I picture the scene that inspired the pattern: Morris came up with the idea by watching thrushes steal strawberries from the kitchen garden of his country home in Oxfordshire. Now, with this bag, we can all have a little taste!

Liberty London x Dr. Martens Collection Large Liberty Satchel ($349.99, available at drmartens.com and at Dr. Martens stores across Canada).