Working in a fashion journalism has brought me face-to-face with cultural tastemakers in design, photography, theatre and art – to name a few. And yet no matter the scope of the final product, my favourite question to ask of its creator during an interview is always “what was your inspiration?” Simple, yes, but think about it: how does one go from staring at a taunting blank white canvas or mood board (or white screen, with which I’m infinitely more acquainted) to a work of art that shares a likeness with the person who brought it to life? I’m always surprised by the intricate and personal response to such a basic question.

On that note, I’m keeping things simple this summer, from a pared-down list of beauty basics to a minimalist design for my bedroom (yeah, that’s what I’ll call it) so that trivial, beautiful moments in life – a great conversation, a shared laugh – will stand out that much more – much like this print from London-based artist and poet Fréya Eté.

When I contacted Eté via email to ask what inspires her to write and illustrate those simple, snapshot moments in life, here’s what she sent me:

“I am inspired to create simple pieces that I hope will have a positive effect on people. I just try to spread a little happiness and joy in my own small way. We live in such a busy, complicated time and sometimes it’s the smallest gesture or the simplest word that can remind us for a moment to stop and appreciate all we have and just ‘be’. I am admittedly an eternal optimist and have a deep love of this wonderful, complicated world we live in. And we are only lucky enough to enjoy it for such a short time, so it makes sense to cherish it and the people who enjoy it with us while we can.”

Does it get any better than that?

Artwork by Fréya Eté is available at on Etsy under Freya Art and Design.

Deborah Hay as Beatrice and Ben Carlson as Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing. Courtesy of Stratford Shakespeare Festival.

There’s truth to the testy, inflamed love that defines one of Shakespeare’s wittiest couples—Beatrice and Benedick in the bard’s beloved rom-com Much Ado About Nothing. Just ask the real-life married couple, Canadian actors Ben Carlson and Deborah Hay, who star as feuding lovers in the Stratford Shakespeare Festival production, which opened its 60th anniversary season Monday night.

“We bicker in a different way,” says Hay, laughing, about the onstage pair’s “merry war” of wits. “We’re not using our jobs as a form of therapy!”

Set in steamy Brazil at the turn of the 20th century—a believable stretch from the likewise hot-blooded Sicilians Shakespeare originally created— the sparring mates are tricked into falling for one another in fatefully Shakespearean fashion. Read the rest of this entry

About Face director Timothy Greenfield-Sanders between models Beverly Johnson (left) and Cheryl Tiegs (right)

Her Sports Illustrated covers and editorial spreads flash across the screen and it’s as if supermodel Paulina Porizkova is finally seeing what the rest of the world has been looking at for the decades that she’s been a star in the fashion and beauty biz.  “I should have been naked all the time!” Porizkova, now 47, tells the camera, blue eyes wide and rapturous.

Porizkova’s epiphany comes courtesy of About Face: The Supermodels, Then and Now, a documentary screening this week as part of Toronto’s Hot Docs festival. The doc’s director is Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, the famed American photographer, who displays his adeptness at teasing out aha! moments about aging gracefully from some of the world’s most iconic faces.

And it turns out they have a lot to say. The doc’s subjects—from Carmen Dell’Orefice and China Machado to Beverly Johnson and Christy Turlington— are fiercely critical and hyper-aware of the modelling world and their fleeting place in it.

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Krystin Pellerin and Gregory Prest in You Can’t Take It With You, courtesy of Soulpepper Theatre Company.

“What is this strange feeling that I’m feeling?” says Canadian actor Gregory Prest, who’s trying to describe the foreign emotion that’s washed over him lately during rehearsals for Soulpepper Theatre Company’s production of George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart’s You Can’t Take It With You. Then it hits him. “Oh, love!” he blurts out, laughing.

It’s not that Prest— a National Theatre School grad who hails from Pictou, Nova Scotia—is incapable of displaying emotion. In fact, he’s as affable and charming in person as he is tortured and conflicted on stage—well at least going by the menacing and dark roles he’s taken up in recent Soulpepper productions. “I never get to play this sort of thing, somebody other than a tortured or dying young artist,” he tells me one morning in the lobby of the Young Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto’s Distillery District. “It’s wonderful.” Read the rest of this entry

Penelope Cruz, Paris, 2003.

Ellen von Unwerth, the rock star of fashion photography, is glancing around the Izzy Gallery in Yorkville, where life-sized photographs of her iconic shots cover the walls. She’s struggling to select her favourite snap. “They all have something I love in them,” she muses after a moment of hesitation. Then she points to a photograph of Italian actress Monica Bellucci, stripped down to a matching leopard-printed bra and panties. “This shot is from the first photo shoot I ever did with [Monica],” von Unwerth recalls with the sentimental attachment of a proud mother. “And she was actually just changing in the motor home. It was really its own moment. I’ve shot her so many times since but those pictures are still my favourite.”

That’s because von Unwerth— named one of TIME’s top 100 all-time fashion icons—prefers to capture “stolen moments” rather than posed portraits. For the first time since von Unwerth shot to fame in the ‘80s, the self-taught German photog is displaying a retrospective of her work in Toronto. A selection of the frisky, bombshell icons von Unwerth has snapped over the years, Caught! is a decadent visual walkthrough of old-school female glamour.

Rouilly le Bas, 2002.

A von Unwerth signature

The thing about a von Unwerth photo is that it’s instantly recognizable. Take the iconic Claudia Schiffer Guess campaign from 1989, a prime example of von Unwerth’s trademark moody, eroticized aesthetic—a gorgeous woman teasing the camera with a mix of innocence and cheeky come-hither sensuality. “I always go for glamorous,” says von Unwerth, a vision herself in a gold sequined blazer and side-swept, piecey blond bun. “I don’t like the girl-next-door look.”

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"David (LaChappelle) left this photograph of model Jodie Kidd at my door as a thanks for all the support we gave him on FashionTelevision," says Beker.

Jeanne Beker, famed fashion journalist, author and host of FashionTelevision is premiering her personal art collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario’s annual Collector’s Series showcase. ELLECanada.com caught up with Beker before opening night to talk about her favourite pieces and the mystery behind Yves Saint Laurent’s eyes.

Do you have a favourite piece in the collection?

“These pieces all mean something special; to me and my girls. Growing up in our house, for them, there was always an artsy vibe because of all the interesting things we had on the walls. When I was growing up, for my parents— who were immigrants and Holocaust survivors— art was something they would never consider buying. It was like the ultimate extravagance and only the fancy people had art in their homes. My mother used to just have these petit point tapestries that she would hang up.  That was the art that I grew up with.”

Has your views on art evolved alongside your career?

“I have an eye that’s a little more adventurous now or enjoys to be challenged where maybe earlier on things were a little safer. One of my more recent acquisitions was this piece that I got about three years ago in Dublin by an Irish artist named Patrick O’Reilly. He works mostly with sculpture but he does a lot of interesting three-dimensional pieces, like this one:

Patrick O'Reilly

I was visiting his studio with a friend of mine, designer Louise Kennedy, and I just fell in love with that piece because it seemed so alive. It seemed like something from the bottom of the sea. I boldly hung it—where it still remains—over my fireplace.”

What can this collection tell us about you?

“These are images that are so personal to me -  whether they were gifted or I spent my hard-earned dough on them – that they really serve as kind of a visual diary: the places I’ve been to, the people I’ve known, my evolving aesthetic over the years. To see them, first of all, out of context, is pretty damned strange, but it’s also incredibly thrilling that I can share that.”

Is there a story behind this Yves Saint Laurent portrait?

“I love this portrait of Yves Saint Laurent. This was a gift from Andre Rau and the gallery who represents him in San Francisco. This is one of the most important designers of the past century and a true tormented genius. It’s really wonderful to see this contemplative portrait and wonder what goes on beneath the eyes.”

Portrait of Yves Saint Laurent by Andre Rau

(The Collector Series with Jeanne Beker opens Tuesday November 29 at 6 p.m. and is on display at the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Art Rental + Sales Gallery, at 481 University Avenue, until December 16th, 2011)

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

By: Ava Baccari, Photography courtesy of Priscilla the Musical website

In the world of showbiz, all that glitters isn’t Gaga— in fact, the singer stands to learn a thing or two about performance from the original stage diva extraordinaire: the drag queen. With more false lashes and crinoline than a 1980s prom, the ladies arrived in town last night, Toronto— just follow the trail of glitter and pink feathers all the way to the Princess of Wales Theatre for the jaw-dropping, foot-stomping North American premiere of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. (FYI fist-pumping is still not cool).

When the shiny disco ball drops, the Drag Ladies sing. Three divas (and we’re talking actual ladies here) are lowered on to the stage, helming a belted-out, electrifying performance of “It’s Raining Men,” with a cast of androgynous superstar characters that could keep Cher in retirement for a few more years. Read the rest of this entry

By Nancy Won, Photography by Jenna Marie Wakani

I’m standing in a dark, moody warehouse space, sipping Vitamin Water, watching a trippy video installation of paint floating through water and I can’t help but feel more like I’m at a hipster art party in the Lower East Side than at a fashion presentation in Parkdale. But then again, this is Ashley Rowe: young, rogue designer and lover of paint splatters. Read the rest of this entry

Edun-founders Ali Hewson and husband Bono (you know the one) have joined forces with Louis Vuitton in their Core Values campaign. The couple first appeared in an LV advertisment (shot in Africa, Ali carries the Louis Vuitton/Edun collaborative bag with profits going to Conservation Cotton Initiative Uganda) and are now supporting another inspiring initiative: A temporary public exhibition titled “Africa Rising” in Paris (From October 5th-17th at the Rue du Pont-Neuf.)

The exhibit will showcase African art from Jean Pigozzi, Seydou Keita and George Lilanga; all highly-respected artists from their home country.

ELLECanada.com was able to get access to some of the event pics here, take a peak … Read the rest of this entry

Welcome to ELLECanada.com’s official TIFF journal! This festival, Laura deCarufel and Jennifer Lee, the co-editors of Hardly Magazine have the high honour of reporting live from TIFF’S coolest events. Stay tuned for party coverage and behind-the-scenes scoop!

By Jennifer Lee

I officially have the flu. Lucky for me, there’s nothing like a revenge film to perk the senses.

The Housemaid first shocked conservative audiences in 1960, when director Kim Ki-young premiered the now classic South Korean story of lust fulfilled and vengeance plotted. 50 years later, it returns to theaters, reimagined in vibrant artistry for contemporary audiences by writer/director Sang-soo Im. “The characters are really different, but the story is the same,” says actress Jeon Do-yeon, who plays Eun-yi, the naïve-turned-embittered housemaid. Lovely in her delicate cream dress, hair pulled back with deep red lips, she would resemble a dainty ballerina, were it not for the sage intensity in her eyes. Winner of 2007’s Cannes Best Actress Award, Do-yeon’s conveyance of her characters psychological state as fueled by her emotional traumas is the nuance of the erotic thriller. After being used and cast out in a cold game of seduction, Eun-yi obsessively nurtures a nascent taste for retribution for the damages incurred by her seducer Hoon (Jung-Jae Lee) and the family that has enabled his callous treatment of her.

Read the rest of this entry