Here is Part 2 of my summary of the last decade. Click here for Part 1.

New Blood in the fashion industry and on the catwalks. Images from Style.com

Christophe Decarnin for Balmain.

Tomas Maier for Bottega Veneta.

Christopher Bailey for Burberry Prorsum.

New designer Gareth Pugh.

Ricardo Tisci for Givenchy.

Alber Elbaz for Lanvin.

New designer Marios Schwab.

New designers Rodarte.

New designer Giambattista Valli.

Stefano Pilati for Yves Saint Laurent.

New designer Zac Posen.

Nicolas Ghesquière for Balenciaga.

And I am not forgetting Jonathon Saunders, Proenza Schouler,  Alexander Wang, Philip Lim, Richard Nicoll, and many others (including revivals of Halston and Ossie Clark.) In fact, when I was researching this post, I realised that in Fall 2002, Style.com showed 114 designers’ catwalk collection on their website. For Fall 2009 the number was up to 262.

A New Retail Perspective resulted in an shopping evolution, or revolution.

Dover Street Market in London.

Dover Street Market, considered one of the “best” stores in the world, opened on London’s Dover Street. Curated by Rei Kawakubo from Comme des Garcons, the store continues to innovate.

Primark’s first central London location had people queuing over an hour to buy £1 tights and £3 t-shirts. Dubbed “Primani”, the store continues to attract crowds and has not felt the recession as badly as most high street retailers.

A new retailing concept: The Pop-Up Store. A temporary retail space, opened for a short period of time, sometimes with a limited edition product. This one is a pop up for Louis Vuitton’s collaboration with Rei Kawakubo from Comme des Garcons for a collection of handbags.

Net A Porter changed the way consumers shop for luxury online.

ASOS (As Seen On Screen) started as a site selling copies of celebrities outfits, but as turned into one of the largest, most-successful multi-brand online retailers.

Gilt Groupe is one of the many discount luxury retailers thriving in the recession.

American Apparel sold basics tees with a new angle: using sleazy and sometimes pornographic images to sell a product made in the US in factories where workers had holiday and sick pay.

A Decade to be Forgotten. How many of these fashion trends do you look back on and smile, or cringe? (in no particular order…)

Kate Moss wearing gladiator sandals, first seen at Balenciaga.

Luxury denim, aka the $300 pair of jeans. These ones from Rock and Republic.

Lingerie becomes fashionable again, thanks to brands like Agent Provocateur.

I remember when there were one hour lineups outside the Birkenstock store.

Bling: a trend I definitely did not embrace.

Nu Rave. The worst trend of the 00s. What were they thinking? This look by Cassette Playa.

The IT bag: Chloe Paddington anyone?

and we certainly cant forget the Motorcycle bag by Balenciaga.

The new IT bag: The IT shoe. From top to bottom: Manolo Blahnik, Jimmy Choo, and Christian Louboutin. I think we have Sex and the City to thank for this.

On second thought, Crocs were definitely the worst trends of the 00s, with Nu Rave coming in a close second.

Not wearing pants. A Lady Gaga phenomenon, lets hope this one doesn’t last. Image source.

Leggings. These ones by American Apparel.

Boho, Hippie, Hobo, whatever. A look that kept on giving. Sienna Miller image from Dave Hogan/Getty Images.

Skinny jeans helped us to discover the muffin top. These ones by Topshop.

Maybe it was a decade of really bad shoes…. But unfortunately we still haven’t seen the end of the Ugg boot.

Wellington boots by Hunter. Remember when there were for farmers, not festivals?

If anyone had told me that a company would make millions buy selling velour jogging suits, I would have never believed them. Nauseating.

The Birth of the Recessionista and the credit crunch will probably be one of the defining events of the last decade, even though it took place at the end. The losers were the big luxury brands that didn’t have a strong brand identity, hedgefund managers, department stores, anyone selling cars or furniture, and the millions who ended up unemployed and homeless. The winners were the discount retailers, online retailers, anyone selling an education, and MacDonalds.

Susie Bubble as a Recessionista.

Catch Part 3 of 3 “Remembering the Noughties” posts tomorrow!

All images from the brand’s or person’s website, except all catwalk images from style.com, unless otherwise noted.

My friend Michaela pointed out to me recently that everyone has just sort of been ignoring the fact that we are about to enter a new decade. Well, I wouldn’t say it has been ignored, but I agree we aren’t really making a very big deal of it. Maybe we had millenium overload ten years ago, but no one can deny that a lot has happened since 2000.

I have been working on this post for a while, looking through other websites’ and newspapers’ “summaries of the decade” and trying to think what I felt was really important from the last ten years. I have combined it all under a few categories, and I am probably forgetting loads of important things, but here I go. Also, I don’t agree with Time Magazine, who has called the 00s “The Decade from Hell”, I prefer just using the term The Noughties. Nought means zero in British English. Maybe we can call it The Decade Nought to be Forgotten? Ok, that sounds cheesy. Lets just call it The Noughties.

It is a very long post, so I have broken it down into 3 parts. Here is Part 1. Enjoy!

The Politics of the Stars and Stripes really took over the world stage in the past ten years. First, the Americans had the disastrous Bush era, whose ignorance, terrible international relations, and poor leadership led to the US being the most hated country in the world. That pissed some people off so much that they flew planes into the World Trade Centre towers, which led to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and very long line ups to get through security in airports. Things started to look up at the end of the decade, when Barack Obama was elected the first African American president of the United States. He hasn’t been around long enough for us to feel the effect of his good deeds, but it definitely brought hope to the world, and has calmed down their enemies… a little. And his wife is the best dressed first lady ever…she deserves mega kudos for showing off her arms, supporting young American designers, and wearing affordable clothing.

Yay!

These images from are from The Cut’s Michelle Obama Lookbook, they have been documenting all of her outfits. Definitely worth a look.

A Shift of Power took place in the fashion industry, as we saw established designers disappear, famous retirements, celebrities taking over the industry, and revived brands making headlines.

Valentino retires, and so we say goodbye to the man known for red dresses, animal prints, and perma tan.

Emanuel Ungaro also retired in 2004, which resulted in turmoil in the house for several years, leading up the current disastrous state which sees Lindsay Lohan as Artistic Director. The above images are from her first collection for the house, which was bought by only two stores.

Things are not looking good for Christian Lacroix, who has had to suspend his Haute Couture and Pret-a-porter because of financial difficulties.

The Ferre brand is also unstable, since the death of the founder, Gianfranco Ferre, in 2007. Image source.

And some very old brands have been reinvented…

Alber Elbaz is now the Creative Director behind Lanvin.

Nicolas Ghesquière is the Creative Director for Balenciaga.

and Christophe Decarnin is the Creative Director for Balmain.

Luxury Made Accessible by the high street retailers collaborating with big names. Owning a piece by Karl was no longer unattainable, as long as you were willing to wait in a line up.

H&M were the pioneers of the designer high street collaboration.

H&M designer collaborations. Clockwise from top left: Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, Viktor & Rolf, Matthew Williamson, Sonia Rykiel, Comme des Garcons, Jimmy Choo, and Roberto Cavalli.

Christopher Kane for Topshop, the famous crocodile print.

Target launched collections with McQ Alexander McQueen, Anna Sui and Rodarte (shown above.)

New Media changed the way we consumed news and information. Time Magazine summed it up in 2006 when they named “You” as person of the year. Web 2.0 changed the way we consumed the web, making users the new contributors. Google, Wikipedia, Facebook, and Myspace changed the way we searched, researched, communicated and socialized.

The computer screen was a mirror...

This image of bloggers Bryanboy and Tommy Ton (from Jak & Jil Blog) sitting front row at the Dolce and Gabanna Spring Summer 2010 show with Anna Wintour, Hamish Bowles, Suzy Menkes and other big player fashion journalists showed that blogging was being taken seriously in the fashion industry.

Scoot Schulman’s street style blog, The Sartorialist, is known for his well-chosen photographs of men and women of all ages on the streets of the world’s fashion capitals.

Websites like Vogue’s Style.com has allowed us to view fashion catwalk images hours after the runway show itself, changing the way we consume fashion. Years ago, fashionistas would wait until the magazines published the new season’s collections, usually months after the show itself. Now we see the shows immediately after they happen, and hear about them on Twitter as they are happening.

Catch Part 2 of 3 “Remembering the Noughties” posts tomorrow!

All images from the brand’s or person’s website, except all catwalk images from style.com, unless otherwise noted.

I had brunch today with the Vancouver/London girls, girls from Vancouver living in London and home for the holidays. It is good to hear that I am not missing much across the pond.

We had brunch in Sophie’s Cosmic Cafe, which is a really fun place I have been going to for years. We then took a walk up 4th, which included my first visit into a Lululemon store since I moved back and I think my second visit to a Lululemon store ever. Lululemon are great for yoga clothing, but I don’t like that Vancouverites have taken to wearing it as street clothes.

Our main shopping destination after brunch was Gravity Pope, which is supposed to be Vancouver’s best shoe store. They also have a clothing store next door. This was another example of the terrible visual merchandising you see in Vancouver. I walked into both stores, saw tons of stock, with no consideration to visual merchandising, and a sea of browns and neutral colours crammed together. Under normal circumstances I would have thought “crap” and walked straight out. But since these are supposed to be “amazing” stores, I looked around.

Gravity Pope’s clothing store does in fact have AMAZING stock. I was ecstatic at the number of cool brand that they carry, including Peter Jensen, Acne, Paul Smith, Nudie Jeans, and Cheap Monday. The selection was great, some really fun pieces, mixed in with edgy classics, tons to choose from. But presented in a way that give absolutely no value to the clothing, makes it look drab and boring. All the rails look the same, brands had no clear differentiation, and there didn’t seem to be any real attempt at merchandising the stock.

I know my pictures aren’t great (its hard to take sneaky photos from your Blackberry) but I am sure you will agree that the selection looks BORING. And its not, in fact, its the best selection of clothing I have seen in this city. So why use all the same rails…all the same height…with no inspiring displays…

The shoe store was exactly the same thing (I know it was sale, so I’m not criticizing the sale racks, as everyone has sale racks.) Their regular priced shoes were all crammed onto low shelving in the middle of store, giving nothing any value. The average shoe price there isn’t low, lots of shoes around $400-$700, which is fine to pay for a good pair of shoes, but not when they are displayed like this.

Great shoes, terrible displays.

I don’t understand what is going on in Vancouver. How can all these retailers be so clueless about merchandising? I am sure that the buyer from Gravity Pope, and many other great Vancouver shops travel to Europe for their buying trips. While they are there, don’t they visit other stores, for inspiration? Can’t they see that in London and Paris and New York and Stockholm and Amsterdam and Shanghai and in all the great cities, luxury boutiques display their product in beautiful ways? You certainly won’t see stores that cram fifty pairs of expensive shoes on one shelf, and a rail crammed with so much amazing clothing its a struggle to pull something out to have a look…This is wrong!

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I need to start moderating my comments on the blog. I have started getting way too many spam comments (which is a good thing, as it means the blog is getting noticed. So a special thanks to all my readers for their support!)

I think you all know where to buy Viagra if you need it, so from now on, I am going to have to approve comments, which means there might be a slight delay from the time you write a comment to the time it is posted. Once I have approved a comment from you, your next comments will go up automatically (until the spammers figure that out too.)

While I am working on my “decade summary” post, I thought I would coment on some of the news headlines from the past few days.

Terrorist attack foiled: OK, it is of course very disturbing that there has apparently been another attempted terrorist attack. Particularly since I am flying to the UK in March via the US, which probably means I need 5 hours to clear customs. This guy was reported to the official, BY HIS FATHER, who was worried about his extremist views. Now, how the hell did he manage to get on the plane with a bunch of explosives in his underwear, if his father had already raised the alarm?  The FT reported that “US ‘will do more than strengthen defences’” Does this mean they will be doing underwear checks in all the US airports now? Maybe we won’t be able to travel with any underwear, which means Victoria’s Secret will be opening concessions in all the airports. I don’t remember there being many terrorist threats on airplanes back in the days when certain countries were minding their own business…

Women’s Parking Lots: I read this morning on my BBC newsfeed that a shopping mall in China’s Hebei province has opened a parking lot just for female drivers. The stalls are one metre wider than normal. It is also very colourful, with lots of pink and purple. Comments? It sounds like an idiotic idea to me, and if I were Chinese (funnily enough I have been mistaken for being half Chinese on several occasions) I would be extremely offended.

Mommy & Me: WWD reported that the newest trend is for celebrities to bring their daughters out with them. Does this mean we are facing another decade of hearing about famous people’s offspring? Are people aware that just because your Mom is famous/beautiful/talented/successful, does not mean you will be too. Or is this just another case of “we have nothing to write about so here’s a bullshit story we can publish.” I think its the latter, and to make matters worse, the article ended with this: “And, there is an added bonus for the junior set: If you party with Mom, there’s no risk of getting grounded for breaking your curfew.” Barf.

Tallulah Willis and Demi Moore. How can you not feel sorry for Demi Moore’s daughters? Their Mom is hot and dating a guy half her age. Depressing. Photo from WWD.

The only personal collection that rivals my shoe collection is probably my books. I guess I spent most of my disposable income in the past 15 years on shoes, clothing, and books. Definitely not enough spent on traveling.

(warning Blackberry people, this post is very image heavy, no point trying to read it without the pictures!)

As a teenager I used to collect fashion books, but then I started to branch out into photography, art, music, and whatever was beautiful.

My most precious books definitely include the following.

Helmut Newton’s Sleepless Nights. I have already write about how much I love Helmut Newton, and I have many of his books, but this one if definitely the most precious. It is out of print and quite difficult to get ahold of. My friend Chris found this copy for me, before that I used to borrow the one in St Martins College library and curse the asshole who had ripped pages out of it (and at the same time admired the pages that were left.) By the way, if you are the type of person who rips pages out of books in a library you are a TOTAL ASSHOLE.

Cover of Sleepless Nights

I love the colour in these photos.

He always used the most amazing locations for his shoots.

Michael Cooper’s You Are Here. I bought this at the beginning of my studies and immediately became obsessed with this photographer (there is more on him below.) He was the unofficial photographer of the Rolling Stones in the early years, and I am still mesmerized with some of his photos. Mick and Keith looked so amazing when they were young, and I really respect that they haven’t lost their credibility after all of these years (unlike some people…Paul McCartney.) My husband was doing the inventory for our insurance when we shipped our stuff back from England, and it turns out that this book is also worth quite a bit of money because it too is out of print and hard to find. So it traveled hand luggage with me, along with Sleepless Nights, all my Hermes, and several pairs of shoes.

Mick Jagger looks so cute here. What a babe.

Mick and Keith are definitely the coolest music "duo" ever.

Michael Cooper is best known for shooting the cover of this Rolling Stones album, Their Satanic Majesties Request

The Clash. Photographs by Bob Gruen. This is another great music book, in an amazing sleeve. I like The Clash, but they are not in my top ten, however these photos are fantastic. You can really see the influence they had on modern mens dress, the skinny jeans, the whole “cool”guy” thing. And The Clash were really a band that stood for something, in a time where there were a lot of issues going on in Britain, and it is great to see the atmosphere and mood going on during their shows.

This is the sleeve for the book.

Here's what it looks like from the side.

And this is the actual book.

I'll bet a Jonas Brothers concert doesn't get like this.

Petit Pattern Books. I love these little Japanese pattern books. They each have a theme, and tons of drawings, and it comes with a CD of digital files of all the prints (they are royalty free.) The texture of the paper and the graphics are so cute. I know they are a copy of Pepin Press‘ concept, and Pepin Press is a far superior publisher (you’ll hear more about Pepin in coming months) but these books are fun anyhow.

They look delicious on the book shelf.

I love the graphics and the cover parts.

This book is full of free icons.

This book is full of checks.

And this one if full of flowers and fruits.

OK, so now I can get to the main subject of this post, which is fabulous luxury books that I desperately want and are out of my price range. It feels sad that there are books out there I really want and can’t have. I can accept that I’ll never have a wardrobe of Birkin bags, but for some reason I feel as though I am entitled to own a copy of the Helmut Newton Sumo Book.

There are many wonderful, fabulous, and ridiculously expensive books out there, and I am going to show you three that I desperately want. The first one has been released very recently, and is what inspired me to write this post.

The Life and Times of Hugh M. Hefner
An illustrated autobiography with highlights from Playboy ’s first 25 years

I know that most people associate Playboy with “something I don’t buy and certainly don’t want to look at.” But there is no denying that a book, or six books, about the first 25 years of Playboy is going to contain some amazing photos. Yes, there are naked women, but for some reason porn mags from the sixties look a hell of a lot cooler than ones from last year (I am guessing this, since I don’t often buy porn mags.) In fact, I have been meaning for some time to start collecting Playboy from the 60s and 70s, but of course that is another thing on the “list of things to buy.”

Here’s some images from the book and some blurbs about it, all from the Taschen website.

Hugh M. Hefner presents an illustrated autobiography with chronological highlights from Playboy’s first 25 years. His personal life and career—from cartoon-drawing childhood to astonishing success with Playboy—are revealed in the most intimate portrait ever.

Limited Edition of 1,500 numbered copies signed by Hefner, in a Plexiglas case. Includes a facsimile edition of Playboy #1 from 1953—featuring the iconic Monroe cover and first nude shots—and a 7 x 7 cm piece of Hef’s famous silk pajamas, worn by the great man himself.

This sumptuous six-volume anthology celebrates the decadence, sophistication and wit of the original men’s magazine and its creator. Hugh Hefner’s Playboy highlights the extraordinary years from 1953 to 1979, with a selection of each era’s spiciest centerfolds and writing by literary icons Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer, Jack Kerouac and Ray Bradbury, as well as some of the most important Playboy Interviews, including Martin Luther King, John Lennon, Richard Nixon, and Roman Polanski.

Here is another one that is also out of my price range but definitely on my wish list. Blurb and images also from the Taschen website. Helmut Newton’s SUMO.

It is so big it actually comes with its own table!

The biggest and most expensive book production in the 20th century
Limited edition of 10,000 copies worldwide, each signed and numbered by Helmut Newton!

Probably Helmut Newton's most famous fashion images, these are of Yves Saint Laurent's "Le Smoking", which means tuxedo, one of the first pantsuits for women.

SUMO is a titanic book in every respect: it is a tribute to the twentieth century’s most influential, intriguing and controversial photographer. Measuring 50 x 70 cm (20 x 27.5 inches) and weighing approx. 30 kg (66 lb.), the book contains 464 pages, breaking any previous record. SUMO is a truly unique publication.

SUMO, edited by June Newton, features a wide selection of over 400 pictures, most of which are published for the first time, covering every aspect of Newton’s outstanding career in photography: from his stunning fashion photographs, which pointed the way for generations of photographers, to his nudes and celebrity portaits.

My last book today is Blinds and Shutters by Michael Cooper. This is the same photographer I mentioned above, but this is his very very special book. Here’s some images (I couldn’t find very many) and a blurb from the Snap Galleries website.

Blinds & Shutters is a journey through the 1960s, and has been internationally acclaimed as the definitive cult chronicle of that decade. Each volume has a variety of thirteen different contributors signatures which means, no two copies are ever the same. Copies signed by Ringo Starr are the most desirable.

Photographer Michael Cooper worked with leading musicians including, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Marianne Faithfull, Eric Clapton, artists such as Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol, Peter Blake and David Hockney and writers like William Burroughs, Jean Genet and Allen Ginsberg. He was never without his 35mm camera and captured some of the most intimate and confortable images with a vast collection of different legends from the 60s. Blinds and Shutters is limited to 5,000 copies.

Forgot to include prices above, in case you are feeling flush, here they are (in USD): Playboy book: around $1000, Helmut Newton Sumo Book, around $15,000, and Michael Cooper’s Blinds and Shutters, $4000.

Here’s my first article for Style Republic Magazine. It was published on Tuesday and it is an interview with one of my favourite shopping bloggers, Susan Tabak.

Read the article here.

Hope you are all had a fantastic Christmas day! This was definitely our funniest Christmas card received. Thanks Tom!

I thought it would be appropriate at this time of year to do a post about food. Since I spent so many years away from my hometown, Christmas was always about family and food. Presents were usually the flight I took home, and on a couple of good years, it was vintage Louis Vuitton luggage, but generally its more about the company than the presents. I have a very big family, and there is generally not a lot of fighting going on, which means Christmas is usually a very good time.

So we tend to eat a lot over Christmas, and my highlights are always the chicken liver pate, oyster stuffing, trifle, and Grandma’s curry (we are a very multicultural household, so there are a few unusual dishes…) Of course there is a bit of guilt associated with all the feasts, but I try not to worry too much, and I’ll make sure I am on the treadmill tomorrow morning, just like I was this morning.

Sizes, weights, and bodies are always an major obsession in the fashion industry, and it can be quite difficult at times. Dressing models certainly doesn’t help with body image, nor does being surrounded by people who don’t eat. But the fashion industry is not all to blame, in fact, I think there are far worse factors than that. So, as a Christmas present to all of you, I am going to set the record straight about food and fashion.

“French women eat all that butter and cheese and pastries, and they still don’t get fat.” Well, let’s start by feeling sorry for french women. Yes, they tend to be slim, beautiful, and well-dressed, but their main reason for needing to be like this is that for some ridiculous reason it is acceptable for their husbands to cheat on them. If I was constantly competing with all of the young, beautiful women swanning around Paris, I too would be keeping myself in tip top shape. Yes, they eat bread with butter, but they eat one slice. And that’s their lunch. And breakfast was probably a black coffee. The fact is, the more calories you take in without burning, the fatter you will be. There are no exceptions, not even for French women, so while they are eating their pastries, remember that is probably all they are eating today.

I remember when Carine Roitfeld (Editor of French Vogue, and the ultimate French Fashionista) used to style our shows at Sonia Rykiel. She would drink water and take a lot of pills, but I don’t remember seeing her eat. I will not deny that she is a fabulous woman, but I do think once women get into their 50s, its important not to be too thin. It just looks bad. Carine is not at that point yet (and she is in her 50s), but she definitely can’t afford to lose any weight. There is no myth about French women, they don’t eat a lot, that is how they stay slim.

“The fashion industry is to blame for body image issues.” I won’t lie, models are under pressure to be thin. But lets face it, a model is a freak of nature. How many people are born six feet tall, with size 2 bodies? Not many, they are anomalies. And, when you sign up to modeling, you sign up to staying thin all the time. That is your job, simple as that. Actresses, on the other hand, are a different matter. You don’t need to be six feet tall, or a size 2 to be a successful actress, yet for some reason Hollywood has become obsessed with dieting and plastic surgery.

And the media doesn’t help by publishing photos of actresses and singers who are “too thin”, “too fat”, and with “too much cellulite.”

Hollywood is much more to blame for body issues than the fashion industry is, and even within the industry, models are not the ones to blame. Journalists are just as bad, if not worse, with their eating habits. I once saw a fashion week food diary from a designer, a model, and a journalist, and the journalist ate by far the least, in fact, she was dangerously below a healthy calorie intake. My friend works as a designer at Dior, and she told me about an American press lunch she attended. She was sat around a table with a bunch of American journalists, and most of them didn’t eat their lunch. In fact, one actually said “I don’t do food.” So let’s leave the poor models alone. Most of them are 16, having to get naked in front of loads of strangers, and will have to retire when they are 28, because they will be too old. So it is not that great of a job.

“The size zero phenomenon is affecting our society.” Ok, yes, I won’t deny that size zero is not a very good thing to be exposed to when you are a vulnerable 14 year old girl. But the fact is, there are way to many over weight people than there are underweight people. I think it is important to realize when you are overweight, and when you are dangerously overweight, but as long as you are happy and healthy, you shouldn’t put pressure on yourself. The UK was one of the main “voices” in the size zero debate, and they also have terrible media that criticizes celebrities and follows them like crazy. But the UK is very close to catching up to the US in terms of percentage of overweight people.

I’m a size 8, and in the UK I feel like I am average, or sometimes below average, whereas in France I feel fat. The problem with a lot of Brits is that they are overweight from drinking and eating huge amounts of unhealthy, processed foods. I once heard that it is totally acceptable to say to someone “You shouldn’t smoke” or “You are too thin” but when is it acceptable to say to someone “You are too fat.”? Its not really acceptable at any time. I feel that the media just finds a scapegoat (thin models) rather than dealing with the real issues, which in the UK and the US, is definitely the people who are eating too much, not too little.

On that note, I hope you all have a very happy Christmas. I’ll be back in a few days, so I am going to leave you a few images from the upcoming V Magazine “Size” issue. I read about this on New York Magazine’s The Cut, and what they have done is shoot a “normal” size model next to a plus size model. Terry Richardson did the photos, and the girls are Crystal Renn (the plus size one) and Jacquelyn Jablonski. Although there is a pretty distinctive difference between their sizes, I am sure we can all agree that Crystal looks pretty hot in some of the shots.

Enjoy your families, food, and presents, and make sure you do it guilt-free!

I took theses photos of The Bay Christmas windows recently. At first glance, they don’t look so bad.

I couldn’t quite see what was so Canadian about their Christmas, and so I took a closer look, only to discover that “A Canadian Christmas” actually means designer perfume bottles tied onto tacky pieces of twine and hung from trees.

I just don’t understand why they would do this…its looks cheap and very last minute. I remembered I decorated some windows at a shop on 4th Avenue when I was 17 and working in a shop there. They were much better than this! Susan Tabak posted some amazing Christmas windows on her blog, if you really want to be depressed about the state of Canadian retailer’s windows, have a look at what some of the big players are doing.

On my way downtown last week I took the Skytrain, which is unusual for me since I prefer to do most of my traveling in Shoulder Pads. I saw this TD Canada Trust bank ad and I laughed out loud. This is obviously aimed at the pink dollar (just to clarify, the pink dollar refers to the money that gay people spend, and its generally quite a lot since most of them don’t have dependents), but it seems to be done so badly. And I imagine a photo like this is not only going to offend the homosexual community, but possibly alienate some of the heterosexual ones. Its bad, BAD.

The best part about it was the little graffiti comment written on the side. “WTF” summed it all up so well, I laughed out loud when I saw this. Well done to whoever wrote that.

I am working on a very large post summing up all the fashion-y things from the past decade. It is taking quite a while, and is not even half there, but it should be up before New Years. If anyone can think of anything important that happened in the past ten years, feel free to send it over.

I was reading somewhere an article about some girls, I can’t even remember who or where, and they were all being asked about their favourite TV character. I started thinking about who my favourite TV character is, and of course there is no question, it is Patti Hewes, played by Glenn Close in the TV series Damages.

I have only seen the first series, and I plan on watching the second series over Christmas, but it was clear from the beginning that she is definitely my idol. Here’s a blurb from the website: “The series follows the turbulent lives of Patty Hewes (Glenn Close), the nation’s most revered and reviled high-stakes litigator and her bright, ambitious young protégé Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne).”

I know she isn’t very nice, but I love her. She doesn’t take any bullshit, she is smart, in control, a bit manipulative, and always gets what she wants. “Patty Hewes is the undisputed champion in the ruthless, back-stabbing world of high-stakes litigation.” Her outfits are perfect for her role, crisp shirts, beautifully tailored suits, polished but not overdone.

When I am in my 50s I want to be exactly like her (except for the murderess qualities, of course.)

By the way, there may be a small slowdown of posts over Christmas, I am trying to take some time off. But I’ll definitely be posting at least 2 or 3 times a week.