Quote of the day by Tommy Ton

"We have witnessed within the past year that you can be anyone living anywhere and become influential overnight" - Tommy Ton in Self Service

It's Toronto Fashion Week!

photo by George Pimentel

Here an image from the Holt Renfrew media breakfast with designers Jeremy Laing, Mikhael Kale, Greta Constantine's Stephen Wong and Kirk Pickersgill, Denis Gagnon and models wearing looks from their collection. They are all great designers working in Canada (Jeremy still lives in Toronto even

though he is on calendar for NYFW).

For more info on Toronto's fashion week you can go LG Fashion Week

Industrial Design - Phillipe Malouin

NextLevel Galerie, Paris

Philippe Malouin

Montreal born, London based Philippe Malouin is immensely talented, super funny, and well I am going to go ahead and say it "very easy on the eye". I met him almost a year ago at a party, got a preview of his humor but did not see his work until much later when I caught it in The New York Times magazine when he was chosen as one of the designers to watch at the prestigious Salone Mobile in Milan last year. Since then Philippe launched his interior architecture firm Post Office with his friend Sacha Leoung, has been working on freelance projects with Tom Dixon , and most recently put together his first solo at NextLevel Galerie in Paris. The reason to feature him other than the obvious? While getting to know him I found out Philippe is one of Rad Hourani's very good friends. The case of two young friends from Montreal on the rise.

Erdem & HH aka H.O.H

Erdem and Henry Holland

I think I am going to have to start a category named "Pulling all stops to include non-Canadians I like in The Canadian School of Fashion" I have managed pretty well with Caroline and Francesco. So today when I found the image of Erdem with Henry in Derek Blasberg's fashion weeks photo diary. I was like bingo!! Here the way to include my first ever tequila pimping client. But I think I will only truly succeed when I have a photo of James Deeny wearing his Canadian Tuxedo which I have been dying to talk about but won't until I have a photo of him. I can also file this under "inside joke".

The Hudson's Bay Company co-sponsors a major fashion award

The St. Regis Room then. Photo from National Post

The Room now

The Room's First Campaign with Daria Werbowy

New York and London are well know for the support of fashion designers with awards like the CFDA and BFC respectively to promote young designers and reward established ones. Over the last little while there has been a lot of talk in fashion circles about the fact that unlike New York and London there are no new names coming out of the capital of fashion. The recent documentary Habillées by the amazing Mademoiselle Agnès took a look at this problem by focusing on the search of the new design talent in France catching some endearing moments on film. This is all about to change in a big way as Paris Vogue's Carine Roitfeld will be the chairman of the jury of this year's Andam (The French National Association for the development of the Fashion Arts) award with the significantly larger prize award of 220 000€. And why does this all matter to Canada? Because the Hudson's Bay Company is one of the 2 new award partners along with Renzo Rosso's group Only The Brave (Diesel, Maison Martin Margiela, Viktor & Rolf...). The panel of jurors this year includes Jefferson Hack, Hilary Alexander, Humberto Leon, Delphine Arnault,Alber Elbaz, amongst important French names. The influential international jury means that we will be hearing and reading a lot from the French award in the next little while. With that said it is safe to say that the HBC is quickly positioning itself in an international playing field. Take note of things like Canadian supermodel Daria Werbowy being the campaign face of the recently revamped The Room and the successful HBC Vancouver Winter Olympics collection. The revitalizing of The Bay by president and CEO Bonnie Brooks, one of the most respected names in the business after heading Lane Crawford for many years, is working.

The first trading company in North America is obviously set for a major comeback.

This week's strong Canadian connection with Karl Lagerfeld

Karl and Bruce at Karl’s studio in Paris. (Photo by Olivier Saillant)

Self-portrait by Karl Lagerfeld

Since Karl likes comics of himself, we commissioned this one by Johnny Ryan.

Karl in the film L’Amour, 1973. (Photo from The Films of Paul Morrissey by Maurice Yacowar, Cambridge University Press, 1993) All images from Vice magazine

Bruce LaBruce's Vice magazine interview with Karl Lagerfeld came out and it it is by far one of the most interesting ones I have ever read. Only Bruce could say to say to Lagerfeld  "I think that you might have Asperger syndrome. Do you know what that is? It’s a kind of autism. It’s like an idiot savant", say it self assuredly, and have the Kaiser agree. They are both erudite people who are able to communicate on an equal footing, more over I love the fact that the 7 page interview did not focus on fashion. A MUST READ

On a fashion note, Bruce looks great.

So now to Lagerfeld's other Canadian connection this week with  Tommy Ton  being involved in an unfortunate appropriation of words. The blogosphere has been busy with rumors that Lagerfeld is exiting Chanel, due to a statement he made being twisted  into a theory by Grazia Australia. Twist all you want...Tommy's news are not so.

I am starting to think that Grazia magazine is all about stirring controversy first Tavi now Tommy. Hmm...I smell grabbing tactics.

C&C

Photo from style.com

Photos from Purple-Diary

My Favorite It girl Caroline Gaimari wearing Calla at the Purple Magazine party got the printed dress some fun prime time...

I died and went to Mexican heaven

Daria Werbowy as María Félix

María Félix

I would not usually try to entertain any of my Mexican fashion obsessions in a blog about Canadian fashion but my luck really struck out today when I found this shoot of Canadian supermodel Daria Werbowy playing one of Mexico's biggest icons María Félix. Shot by Mario Testino for V Magazine the images are inspired by mythic Mexican actress and her collection of serpent and crocodile diamond necklaces from Cartier. Also known as La Doña, Maria Felix was also considered one of the best dressed women in the world during her time. On a recent trip to Mexico I bough a collector's edition series of books about her life at an antique market and spent some fascinating hours with her.

Via The Fashion Feed

Off Calendar kick off - Nicolas Andreas Taralis

Nicolas Andreas Taralis FW 10/11

Paris Fashion Week did not officially start until today but Nicolas Andreas Taralis show kicks off the season by being the first show from the capital of fashion to be on style.com. Great reviews and good music from the runway by my friend the amazing Olivier Bobin, aka FADE.

Most importantly it looks like the Helmut Lang void can now be filled by two Canadian designers; Rad Hourani in New York and Nicolas Andreas Taralis in Paris.

Gabor Jurina in Milan

Gabor Jurina's Milan Memories

Got busy with preparations for Paris fashion week but when I saw this photos from Gabor Jurina fashion week trip to Milan I asked him to please let this be the way I first feature him, a way to show a side most would not get to see. Gabor is of course as everyone knows in Canada the top of the top fashion photographers. He is also tremendously fun and kind; I will never forget the summer night he arrived to my prom themed party in a tuxedo jacket and shorts...best look ever. Gabor has a piscine with his name waiting for him in Paris.

You can see Gabor's work on his site or check out his blog here.