We had a fantastic weekend in Squamish, staying with some very old friends, Dougal Graham (a local artist and jeweller) and his wife Camille (also very talented at making beautiful things.) I am insanely jealous of their life up there, we try and visit as often as possible. This weekend was fantastic for my husband, as he got to see things that are very Canadian, including seals, Canadian geese, salmon, and tons of bald eagles, including one that flew about three metres above us.

We also had a very productive weekend…

This is the box I received on arrival, a belated birthday present.

I was ecstatic to find this lovely ring on the inside.

ring + skulls + flowers = perfect (and these are hand engraved flowers made from antler.)

Our first project was making lip balms. There is nothing more comforting and delicious than the smell of beeswax.

The packaging needs work, but here is the finished product. Lemon, Rose, Cinnamon, and Tangerine beeswax lip balms.

I stumbled upon this copy of the Georgia Straights, with my friend Jason's work on the cover (www.jasonmatlo.com)

and on the inside was a photo of this sequined dress. Jason gave me one of these recently, and it is definitely my most "fun" party dress. I was going to swear off sequins after experiencing the sequin overload at Metrotown, but seeing this photo has changed my mind, I'll be wearing this dress to one of my Christmas parties.

Homemade lemonade, staying cool next to the window because the fridge was too full.

The dining room table, where we spent a bit too much time this weekend.

More beeswax, this time for candles. We are so precious with the beeswax, I feel so sorry for all the bees, they are disappearing!

Candle making supplies

Finished candles before the wicks were trimmed. The scents were Lemongrass, Cedarwood, and Cinnamon & Clove.

Our bedroom for the weekend. I hope my friends don't mind me posting pictures of their house...I can't resist, it is so amazing to be in a house surrounded by Dougal's beautiful paintings.

I was walking by Spence Diamonds on Burrard this week and I had to stop to admire their windows. I also had to stop because I was sort of in shock…how can it be that one of the cheesiest diamond companies has managed to create incredibly attractive Christmas windows? (Spence Diamonds is the Le Chateau of the jewelry world…)

The photos do not do the windows justice, as the jewelry in the cakes sparkled and shined, they looked so impressive and delicious, and you can’t really see that in the photos. Lets just say, these windows stopped me in my tracks, whereas I stormed by the Louis Vuitton Christmas windows without so much as a pause… What’s wrong with this picture?

yum! (the cakes, not the diamonds...)

I went to Pecha Kucha on Thursday night…and I am afraid I barely took any photos or made any notes because I was completely riveted by the fantastic speakers.

Pecha Kucha is a format created by Klein Dytham architects in Tokyo, and means chit chat in Japanese. The idea came from the fact that architects tend to talk way too much and for too long, when giving presentations. The Pecha Kucha format is 20 slides for 20 seconds each. You can either talk about each slide for 20 seconds, or just talk for 6 and a half minutes while the slideshow takes place. People talk about their work, inspirations, their favorite things, their family, whatever…

Pecha Kucha now takes place in over 250 cities worldwide, and is a great night out. Vancouver’s Pecha Kucha is run by Cause + Affect, a Vancouver design company. Last night’s highlights included Chris Staples from Rethink, who showed us some amazing ad campaigns his team had created. Tom Pedriks from Haymaker Creative did a presentation about hockey jerseys (much more fun than it sounds) and David Duprey talked to us about how he is transforming empty Vancouver buildings into art spaces. We also got great insights into the businesses of Sarah Bancoft (Vitamin Daily), Will Brown (Adbusters), Anne Pearson (Vancouver Special) and Michael Ziff (Hip Baby.) 

I was fortuntate to be part of the London Pecha Kucha when it first started in the Institute of the Contemporary Arts. It was very different to the Vancouver one, an extremely intimate crowd, and lots of drink breaks for socializing. Iram Quareshi (a Canadian, who was a Director at the ICA at the time), Marcus Fairs from Dezeen, and Max Fraser were responsible for hosting the event, and turned it into a cult event that sold out in minutes each time. The event included some high profile speakers, such as Jefferson Hack and Ron Arad, and some great London creatives (and myself, which was terrifying but fun.) 

I suppose I was a bit disappointed at the Vancouver event because there seeemd to be no networking opportunities. The ideal follow up to hearing such fantastic speakers is to be able to go up to them afterwards and chat and exchange ideas. Vancouverites seem to have very little networking skills…in fact, I am going to say, Vancouver people, you SUCK at networking. And the Vancouver Pecha Kucha, with no break, or drinks afterwards, doesn’t allow for much socialising.

Another disappointment was the news that Pecha Kucha Vancouver is moving to the Vogue theater next year, so they can increase the capacity from 500 at the Park Theater to 1100 at the Vogue. The same thing happened in London, but the original team didn’t want to expand it and lose the fantastic intimacy, so they left, and London’s Pecha Kucha suffered greatly (in fact, I am not even sure if it runs regularly.) Let’s see what happens… But I can’t deny that it is fascinating to hear about what all these Vancouver creatives are doing, and gives me hope about the possibilities in this city.

All the images came from the Vancouver Pecha Kucha website.

This morning’s Business of Fashion Daily Newsletter was about social media (it often is, they are experts in this area) and they talked about Tavi, which reminded me of a really sweet article I read on WWD earlier this week. For those of you that don’t know, Tavi is a 13 year old American fashion blogger (her blog is called Style Rookie), who has captured the attention of the fashion world when she covered the New York fashion week shows in September. She also appeared on the cover of Pop magazine. She is a huge fan of Comme des Garcons, the directional Japanese fashion brand, and describes herself as “Tiny 13 year old dork that sits inside all day wearing awkward jackets and pretty hats. Scatters black petals on Rei Kawakubo’s doorsteps and serenades her in rap…”

How many 13 year olds get magazine covers?

Tavi on the cover of Pop magazine.

Anyway, she has been invited to be the guest of honour at the Comme des Garçons’ holiday party today at the 10 Corso Como store in Tokyo. I thought it was so cute that she gets to meet her idol, Rei Kawakubo (for those of you who don’t know, and you should, she is the creative director behind Comme des Garcons.) There are so many great bloggers out there, but Tavi is defintiely a refreshing change. It will be very interesting to see how she evolves in the next few years, I could easily see her becoming a next Rei Kawakubo, but as Charlie Porter, deputy editor of Fantastic Man put it, “There are 10 seasons of shows before she turns 18 – that’s a long time in fashion”.

She is known for her unusual headwear...

Another great photo of Tavi by Tommy Ton, posted on his Jak and Jil blog.

By the way, Business of Fashion, the blog mentioned above, is my fashion bible, I can’t say enough good things about it. Plus, the founder, Imran Ahmed, is Canadian. If I was on a desert island with only one blog, that would be it.

Dear Holts,

I had some very pleasant surprises yesterday when I came in, as well as a few disappointments. I was in a bad mood after work so didn’t want to enter in the shoe department, in fear I could leave potentially feeling worse. I could see some fabulous shoes that were out of my price range, which would not help to feel any better, or, worse, I could see no fabulous shoes at all. In fear of the latter, I went to your lingerie department.

Well Holts, judging by your lingerie department, your customer’s average age must be 65. You should call it your bathrobe department, because that is really what it is, with a few bras and panties and tights. The brand selection was pretty dull, including La Perla, Elle MacPherson, D&G, Lejaby, Donna Karan, and Chantelle (I have the BEST Chantelle lingerie story ever, see the end of the blog.) DKNY tights took up a full wall of prime space, wool tights shouldn’t exactly be the focus of a luxury lingerie department. And there was robes and nighties, robes and nighties, and robes and nighties.

Bathrobe department at Holts, with a bit of predictable D&G leopard print.

You also had another Canadian favourite, a selection of a basic piece in every colour of the rainbow (see Field Trip to Metrotown, Old Navy) this time things by Hanky Panky.

Hanky Panky thongs in every colour of the rainbow. Not so sure about the yellow...

I’ll admit there were a few nice pieces, the lacey Spanx were much better than the crotchless bicycle shorts the brand is usually known for (another great story to tell there…another day), a few nice Donna Karan bras reasonably priced at 89 dollars, and some a few bits of Stella McCartney and D&G (but why is it always the leopard print D&G? There are things in the D&G collection that ARENT leopard print you know…)

Crotchless bicycle shorts by Spanx

So really all you need is a few bits from some fantastic brands so that people like me can go in and treat myself tom something nice. Here is what I suggest, a bit of Princesse Tam Tam, Kiki de Montparnasse, Chantal Thomass, and Wondervoll.

This brand is so underrated.

Kiki de Montparnasse, sounds French but they are actually American.

Beautiful and totally affordable.

Possibly the only cool German lingerie brand.

I could suggest a few more, but I think you would need to start paying me for that…

And by the way, your staff were fantastic. That is one thing you can count on Canada is good customer service. (In case any readers are retailers in the UK, this word may be unfamiliar for you, so the definition of customer service is “the provision of SERVICE to customers before, during and after a purchase” Wikipedia)

As I was leaving I noticed that you were selling Peachoo + Krejberg. Well done Holts! What a fantastic brand, very edgy, but beautiful, and not mainstream at all! That was a very pleasant surprise. I will have a proper look around the womenswear after I’ve hit shoes, sometime very soon, and now you’ve given me something to look forward to!

Peachoo + Krejberg, a very mysterious brand...they don't even have a website.

——–

OK, the Chantelle Lingerie story…This happened when I was teaching at Central Saint Martins over the summer. I had a student from a Middle Eastern country, I won’t say which one, but it wasn’t one of the ones known for its giant luxury malls, nor one in full conflict. I’ll try and re-create the conversation as best I can.

Here is the situation, each student has been assigned a catwalk show, and they need to present a short report on it. My student was given Burberry.

Student: I am sorry, I am not familiar with this brand, Burberry?
Me: Uhhh, sorry?!?!?!?!?!?!
Student: We don’t have this brand in my country.
Me: You MUST have this brand in your country, this brand is in every country.
Student: No, we don’t have many brands, we only have one mall.
Me: Yes, but you should know Burberry, or at least you would have seen Burberry if you had read a fashion magazine. ANY FASHION MAGAZINE.
Student: No, no, never seen it.
Me: You must have. Ok, do you have Chanel, because if you have Chanel you probably have Burberry. And EVERYONE has Chanel.
Student: Yes, we have Chanel, but only the bras.
Me: They don’t make bras…
Student: Oh, sorry, I meant Chantelle. We have Chantelle, not Chanel.
Me: Please don’t tell me you have just confused Chanel and Chantelle.
I then needed to take a breather.

I recently discovered Minimidimaxi magazine, a webmag dedicated to Canadian fashion. I was impressed, for two reasons. The first was that I got to discover some great Canadian talent I had never heard of, and secondly, because they not only featured designers working in Canada, but Canadian designers abroad (like Erdem, and Mark Fast), which is definitely more interesting than just designers based in Canada.

The website design isn’t up to par with many other online magazines, but the content is definitely extremely useful for anyone wanting to know what is going on in the Canadian Fashion scene. One thing I find really strange from their list of designers is that there are so few. They don’t seem to post any crappy designers, and I know there are an abundance of those in Canada, but how come Canada, which has a population of 30 million, has only a handful of good designers compared to somewhere like Denmark, with a population of 5 million and tons of great designers?

One designer that caught my eye was Jeremy Laing. I had heard the name before, but I had no idea he was Canadian.  He shows during New York Fashion Week and for Spring Summer 2010 designed a collection of dresses and separates that featured geometric shaping, loose drapes, and fabric blocking in shades of black, greys and beiges.

Jeremy Laing Spring Summer 2010. Images from www.minimidimaxi.com

His website photos are also very impressive. His stockist list includes Holt Renfrew, so I will be checking out his collections when I am in again next. (Speaking of Holts, my review on their lingerie department comes out tomorrow.)

Jason and I did a little field trip to Metrotown yesterday. I haven’t been there in about 15 years, so I figured I should have a look at one of Greater Vancouver’s biggest shopping centres.

I wasn’t expecting much, so I was pleased to find a few interesting shops and brands amongst a lot of boring, repetitive fashion.

I know it is holiday season and winter, but I don’t understand why every store insists on stocking seas of sequined dresses and big wool coats. That is not all we wear in winter.

Black BCBG dress and Blue

Black dress by BCBG and blue dress by Urban Behaviour.

Red coat by Bebe and check bomber by Urban Behaviour.

A terrifying sequined window display at Mariposa, although what can one expect..

Another disappointment is the merchandising. I can understand cheap stores piling as many sequined dresses as possible onto one rail, but when those dresses are 100 dollars or more, shouldn’t they keep some of them in the stock room? It doesn’t add much value to a product when you see another 20 of the same thing on the rail. And who wants to browse through rails that are so jammed with goods you can’t even get an item out without yanking another four pieces with it?

Bebe store: this is not the way to sell 100 dollar cardigans.

Another Metrotown favorite (particularly at Old Navy) was displays of one boring item in WAY too many colours. Ok, we like having our basic tee in black, and white, and maybe grey. But we don’t need it in every bloody colour of the rainbow.

Rainbow displays of boring basics at Old Navy (although not nearly as boring as the stuff in the background.)

I was also surprised to see the Guess Jeans store. I remember Guess as a denim brand in the 90s with sexy, big lip blond models and that fab triangle logo at the back. It then because desperately unfashionable, and yet now they seem to have revived themselves a bit. The only problem is, they are still unfashionable. Their store is full of slutty sequined dresses (like everyone else) and boring jeans. I wish they would put that logo triangle back onto the back pockets, then we could wear them as retro pieces. I say bring back Jordache as well!

One last thing before I get to the good parts…

I noticed both Jacob and Gap were selling fragrances. Am I wrong to think this is weird? I mean, almost everyone can afford designer fragrance these days, they are totally accessible, entry-level luxury products. So who would buy fragrance from the Gap? The packaging suggests that the product is quite “classy” but if you want something classy, you go designer. I am a fan of Gap they do great basics, and I have a bag of theirs, and probably some jeans too. But I don’t understand their mentality behind launching fragrance, they should put their energies towards something more interesting, like more of those cool pop up stores, or organic jeans, or more designer collaborations. Something their customers, who are probably mostly middle class and up, would want to buy. Not fragrance please.

Now to the good stuff.

My first trip to Forever 21 was not as exciting as I’d hoped, but they were definitely a step above  the other fast fashion retailers in the mall. Banana Republic had these amazing white t-shirts on sale, I bought 3. Nothing beats a great white t-shirt (note I didn’t need or buy one in every single colour of the rainbow.)

The perfect wide V-neck, long, and thin cotton white tee.

Zara’s patent red high tops were the coolest shoe in the mall. By the way, one fast fashion retailer who has got merchandising down pat is Zara. Bebe should follow their lead, rather than making things looks cheaper than they are (Bebe) make everything look more expensive (Zara.)

Nice!

And my latest brand discovery is JNBY. This is the closest thing we have to COS in Canada, their cuts and designs were unique, interesting, and reasonably priced. I don’t know about quality, but I’ll report after I buy something (which is bound to happen soon.)

The first thing we noticed is the visual merchandising. All the garments are suspended from the ceiling, rather than using rails.

Some images from www.jnby.ca, not recent collections, but still very interesting.

Now to the shoe department at Holts…

I had a really interesting conversation with my friends on Saturday night, about fashion and brands. The subject turned to Hermes, which I believe is an untouchable brand, despite the fact that it has become a lot more mainstream in recent years. We then disucssed the fact that many brands have been “ruined” when they hit the mainstream. As far as I am concerned, when Victoria Beckham wears it, or when it is mentioned in a rap song, the brand is over. Hermes is an exception.

Even Victoria Beckham can't ruin Hermes (images from www.pursepage.com)

Why is this? How has Hermes managed to maintain this powerful brand position? They have superior quality, longevity, classic pieces, and waiting lists, but so do many other brands. On the other hand, Balmain (ruined by the “Russians” apparently), Jimmy Choo, Herve Leger, and Christian Louboutin have been tainted by over exposure on celebrities.

Another thing we discussed is the power of the handbag. For some ridiculous, unexplainable reason I always feel I need to buy a handbag from a well-known luxury brand, however, I am happy to spend fortunes on clothing or shoes from smaller luxury brands that are not very mainstream at all (Finsk being my main example.) I don’t understand why I feel that way… Maybe because I use a handbag everyday for two years, whereas I don’t wear the same shoes more than once a week. Maybe because a great luxury handbag can make a 20 dollar outfit look like a 2000 dollar outfit.

I don’t have the answers, but here are some of the Hermes pieces I wouldn’t mind finding underneath my Christmas tree (hint hint husband.)

Images from www.hermes.com

Refinery 29 posted this article, The 10 Hardest Working Designers, which ended up being Diane Von Furstenberg, Samantha Pleet, Lisa Mayock and Sophie Buhai of Vena Cava, Philip Crangi, Alexander Wang, Phillip Lim of 3.1 Phillip Lim, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler, Stella McCartney, Michael Kors, and Miuccia Prada of Prada.

Here is how they explain their choices:

“It becomes even easier to see which designers can genuinely innovate no matter how scant their resources, and which clothiers are just smoke and mirrors held up by money. Creating short films to showcase collections, traveling to remote Indian villages for fresh inspiration, opening new boutiques in a time when others are closing flagships—fashion’s best entrepreneurs are using extraordinary effort and ingenuity to grow their brands in the face of a shrinking economy.”

I think it is fair enough to commend these designers for all their hard work, but how can you measure who works the hardest? The only people who actually know this are the ones working in the studio themselves, and even then who knows who is doing the work. In some studios, the team does everything, whereas in other studios, the designer or creative director is also very hands on. I was lucky at Sonia Rykiel, she was there nearly every day, and the rest of the team only worked a handful of weekends a year. We never had all-nighters, leaving at midnight or 2am during collections, which is quite early. I had friends at Louis Vuitton who were there 20 hours a day, or another friend who used to sleep under her desk during collections, and was forced to eat lunch every day with her boss.

The behind-the-scenes of the fashion industry is very fascinating, and we don’t see the full picture on movies or the internet. As I said, I was very fortunate at Sonia Rykiel, we worked hard but no extreme hours, however they had their own weird traditions. No one in the company could be called Sonia, so if that was your name, you had to adopt another name while you worked there. Also, my wonderful studio boss was called Antoinette, but Sonia hated that name so at work she was Louise. And we were the lucky ones…

Yesterday I attended the Eastside Cultural Crawl, which is when art studios around East Vancouver open their doors to the public. It was great to see some very talented work, and also opened my eyes to the fact that the art scene is much more interesting than the fashion scene here.

Our first stop was Roselina Hung’s studio, who is a friend and also a very talented artist (who just happens to be on the cover of the Georgia Straight this week.) She was doing her MA at Central Saint Martins around the same time I was teaching there, and we met through a mutual friend. I love her colourful pop paintings, makes me wish I had a bit more cash to invest in beautiful art.

All images from www.roselinahung.com

I also loved Christian Woo’s amazing wood furniture.

All images from Christianwoo,com

Yaletown Pet Portraits was quite fun, I guess someone needs to do this, I imagine this is a pretty niche market with a lot of demand.

And finally, I really like the Wild Rose Tattoo Shirts. I know its tacky, but it would be really fun to wear a tattoo sleeve without any commitment every now and then. They print tattoo graphics onto tops, shrugs, tights, and sleeves.

All images from wildrosetattooshirts.com