The collaboration we are all dreading: Jimmy Choo and Ugg.

There has been so many new product launch announcements in the past few weeks.

• Armani is doing a collaboration with Reebok
• and… Armani is making chocolate
• Diane Von Furstenberg is launching home decor
• Acne has launched furniture
• Paris Hilton is launching swimwear and lingerie
• Bebe is collaborating with Kim Kardashian (barf)
• Versace is launching a cell phone
• Tory Burch and Alexis Bittar are giving Barbie a makeover
• Gucci is launching couture
• Steve Madden is collaborating with Diana Ross

Great to hear these brands are doing so well that their allocating ressources to brand extensions, but isn’t it a bit strange that no one seems content to stick to what they do? Are these new products really going to expand profits or increase profiles, or are they just activities to get short bursts of media attention? I’m all for brands expanding into relevant product areas and interesting collaborations like Louis Vuitton’s artist series and H&M designer collections, but some of these brands are overdoing it, don’t you think?

Image source.

The lack of blog post on Saturday was because I needed a full day to recover from Friday night. We started at Chapel Arts for a party for the Here is Now exhibition and then to a club called the Astoria. Thanks to our dates Mitra and Connor from Creative Room for showing us a good night.

Crazy bandana girl, with Tom, a guy I met through my Grandma.

Nice top.

Fur and leopard collars.

Yellow Jeans!

Retro couple.

Unfortunately those martini glasses were just for show. We were drinking out of plastic cups.

This guy had the most amazing accent. He was from Indiana.

Interesting jacket.

Mustache!

Great eagle patch.

I always complain that bars in Vancouver are playing hockey or sports, which annoys the hell out of me. But playing Full House on a big screen is a different story...

Jesse = Hot

It was at this stage that things started to get messy...

The DJs were on the floor so people could dance on the stage.

Fun!

I love blue sequin dress girl.

I’ve had some very good and some very bad shopping experiences this week in Vancouver. You can read about my bad ones here and here. But yesterday I had the pleasure of discovering some very cool retailers for a Vancouver shopping guide I am doing for my friend’s London website, Urban Junkies. I’ll be mentioning a lot of them over the next few weeks, but today I’d like to show you some photos of a really cool store on Main and 8th called Lark.

The concept is heritage brands and classic clothing, but with an edge. It seems they get a lot of people coming in to buy the traditional French Saint James nautical sweaters and tees, but they also carry really beautiful european brands like Bruuns Bazaar, by Malene Birger, Frank Leder (who was in my gradaute class at Saint Martins), Barbour, and Mackintosh. They also sell Chimala jeans and Yoshi Kondo.

I bought this Bruuns Bazaar top at Lark yesterday, I am trying to get more colour into my wardrobe at the moment.

Bruuns Bazaar is a Danish brand. I have a minor obsession with clothing that makes neat geometric shapes when they are flat.

Part of the shopping trip also involved a trip to Gastown, and I bought this diamond ring napkin ring from Parliament. I am going to wear it as a pendant. They do the usual modern furniture and homewares, which you find a lot of in Gastown, but their selection is very affordable, which makes a nice contrast to somewhere like Inform across the street (which, by the way, has extremly cold and uninterested sales people.) Parliament also has a very beautiful and soft shop dog. It is taking me a while to get used to the concept of going into a shop and meeting a dog, but I love it.

Before I talk a little about my Vancouver dislikes, I need to say that when people say it is one of the best cities in the world to live in, trust them, because its true. Cheap sushi, nearby beach and mountain, and an excellent standard of living are only some of the reasons. People are nice, genuinely nice. You can drink tap water. The views are phenomenal. Education and public services are great. You can buy Chanel and Louis Vuitton, but in two hours by car you can be in the middle of nowhere. So generally, Vancouver=good. But there are a lot of crappy things about this town, and one of them is the way its residents perceive it.

Some people say you’re as old as you feel. How about, you’re as cool as you feel. So many people here say “Vancouver is casual” or “Vancouver is laid back” or “we just wear casual clothes here, we don’t care about fashion”. Well, Vancouver, if you keep thinking like that you will perpetually be the town “where people are healthy and dress badly.”

I moved here and I want it to become more hip and interesting, so we can have the best of both worlds. This ridiculous “The World Needs More Canada” display at Chapters book store doesn’t help us one bit. In preparation for the Olympics, we are promoting ourselves and Canada as a great place. People know that Canada is a great place, but they might change their mind when they see idiotic displays like this one.

It basically sums up every Vancouver stereotype I hate, all nicely put together in a dsiplay in a store on our busiest shopping street.

1. Hockey. I have no problem with hockey or sports, but I have a problem with this cities obsession with hockey. I lived in Engand for 10 years, and aside from during the World Cup and Euro Cup tournaments, I could always escape football (soccer) beacuse the Brits understood that not everyone wants to watch a match or a game when they are eating or drinking. But not in Vancouver. Here, every single restaurant and bar has a hockey match playing on a TV.I was in a greek restaurant, watching a belly dancing performance, and they still had the hockey on.



2. Umbrellas. Yup, it rains here, non stop, so I guess the tourists will want to be buying these umbrellas for their stay here, or maybe take them back to their home country as a souvenir of the town that always rained. (Brits, you think england rains? It doenst rain half as much as rains here.)



3. Reusable water bottles. This is for use during exercise and yoga, and that is important because that is how we spend 90 percent of our free time here in Vancouver (the other spare time is spent watching sport, ie. Hockey). I am against disposable waterbottles because I hate the idea of all the waste, but I can’t bring myself to buy one of these reusable ones because A-it means I have officially moved back to Vancouver, and I’m not ready to admit that, and B- I won’t get the thrill of having everyone in my bikram yoga class give me dirty looks because I’m using a disposable water bottle, instead of a reusable one.



4. Reusable shopping bag: Vancouverites like to think they are super environmental, and I am very pleased that I use cotton bags when I grocery shop. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, this is a town where people buy gas guzzling SUVs to drive from their middle class neighbourhoods, 20 blocks east to the mall and then home. Oh yeah, they also drive 15 minutes to get to an area where they are going to go running for an hour. And the best part is, everyone is coming from the same neighbourhood, driving to the same running path, running together, and driving back again. In seperate cars. I am not exactly the most environmentally conscious person in the world, so I won’t criticize that sort of behaviour, but please don’t tell me you are environmental Vancouver, because you aren’t.

Ok, I am being critical, but what’s the solution. Well, if I was going to make a little display of things I love about Vancouver, here is what I would put in there. This is what the Vancouver area means to me.

1. Some aboriginal clothing, like these amazing moccasin boots, which I spotted on one of my students. They are made from local moose leather and rabbit fur, and cost less than $200!!!!
   
2. Smoked salmon: yum. It is bloody good here. Get it in a nicely painted box too. Image source.



3. BC bud: There is no denying that this is what Vancouver is famous for, even Tommy Lee was talking about it on stage Sunday night at GM Place. Of course I don’t endorse this sort of thing, but I have HEARD its really good. Here’s a picture of the Olympic torch, which is said to resemble a joint. Was that an accident, or a reflection of the culture here in Vancouver? Image source.



4. California rolls: Vancouver’s local dish is sushi. Ask anyone. And we do it super well. Tojo’s has been named the best Japanese restaurant in the world, outside of Japan. In the world!



5. A Douglas Coupland Book. We are proud of him!



6. Some local artwork. Something totally unappreciated by Vancouverites, so get it while it isn’t too expensive. Here are two of my favourites, Roselina Hung (top) and Dougal Graham (bottom.)



7. A tree. Can you sell small ones? I guess tourists can’t bring it home on the plane, so experience a tree. See a really big one on the way to Tofino, sit on a log on English bay beach, hike through them in Squamish, or burn some in a campfire on long beach. Be sure to bring a dog along.



8. Vintage clothes. The secret is, everyone here is two years behind the rest of the world when it comes to fashion, so they vintage stores are full of good stuff because the Vancouver people haven’t figured out its cool yet. Image of True Value Vintage, source.

I got another Acne newsletter in my inbox today. I usually ignore them, because the stuff is expensive to ship to Canada, not to mention expensive to buy, but this striped jersey collection really caught my eye. I am going to try and find some of it when I get to London in March.

Full length dresses aren't very practical, but this one looks hot.

and I love the change in stripe direction on the back. This one is called the Extreme Stripe dress.

I have had an interesting relationship with Acne, which included one year of job interviews and a freelance lingerie project with them, which led to nothing because of the damn recession. In fact, that is one of the reasons why I am in Vancouver, because Stockholm wouldn’t have me, things went pretty bad there after the economic crash.

Another cool striped piece, called the Wonder Stripe Top.

I love an oversized t-shirt with a narrow sleeve, which makes it look like its not borrowed from your boyfriend.

These little technical drawings on the website are so cute.

I love Acne’s collections, including the fantastic Acne Paper, but sometimes I feel like they are a little “too cool.” Their offices are cool, everyone who works there is cool, and generally, its just an overload of cool. But the product is great, and I’d love to own more of it.

I love wifebeater tanks.

The back of the Super Stripe Tank Top.

I’m overdue on a blog post of “I love Swedish fashion”, so its something to consider writing about in the next month, maybe after the fashion weeks. In the meantime, I am loving the Acne stripes.

One of my students wore an old Club Monaco logo sweatshirt yeterday, and it looked pretty good. I do think it is terrifying that things that I wore in my teens are now “coming” back and becoming fashionable again, because that means I am old, but I can’t help but love the Club Monaco logo sweatshirt. When I was a teen I had at least two of these and longed for more, preferably one in every colour. I won’t wear them again, beacuse my mother told me you can’t wear a trend again if you wore it it the first time it was popular (although I am not sure I agree with her completely on this…) but I sure wish I didn’t throw mine away. The lesson of the day is Keep Everything! Never throw away old clothes, store it all! When I was 24 I was already regretting the things I threw away at 17.

Prince wearing an old Club Monaco sweatshirt.

By the way, I tried to find some on eBay, but there are none. In fact, when I google “Club Monaco Sweatshirt” there are no images that turn up at all. Boy am I feeling old right now. I guess the place to go is second hand shops or your attic, until/unless Club Monaco relaunch them. But the best ones will definitely be the old ones.

The Valentino brand has been in turmoil ever since Valentino retired. This collection certainly confirms this, it looks like mix between Lindsay Lohan for Ungaro and nu-rave. Terrible.

I Adore…

this dress, the beading pattern is very beautiful. But where is the lining? The thong udnerneath looks terrible!

Valentino red dresses, this one with ruffles and very shiny. But couldn't it have been ready-to-wear?

I Loathe…

this dress, which is too transparent, too short, and too tight.

that this dress looks like the cheap crap House of Holland produces, rather than Valentino Haute Couture.

this is just terrible. And the makeup doesn't help either.

everything about this look, it is extremely tacky. And can someone please feed the model?

All images from Style.com.

Elie Saab is the go-to for super traditional couture, with lots of chiffon, lace, beading, and red carpet-ness galore. Its the sort of thing footballer’s wives wear to their wedding, when they want to be tradiitonal and flash. I think it is boring, especially this collection.

I Adore…

this little dress. If you are going to do heavily embellished lace, then do it flirty and shirt.

the drapes of tulle and bit of gold on this dress.

I Loathe…

the model's pose, the print, the fact that its strapless, and has a full skirt. This is super-boring couture.

more over-the-top couture, with a corseted bodice, and lots of embellished lace.

more strapless, more full-length, this time draped with a decorative flower. Oh yeah, and a really high slit.

the fact that they didn't even bother to make a lining slip to wear under this dress. The model's thong is not Haute Couture.

a very boring wedding dress.

All images from Style.com.

Jean Paul Gaultier had some sort of Mexican theme going on in his couture colection. I’m sorry to say I don’t think it really worked. I love JPG’s work, and he is an incredibly talented designer, but sometimes he overdoes a theme.

I Adore…

this jacket, it is Jean Paul Gaultier signature style a la Haute Couture. And the boots are amazing.

the weave handwork on this dress.

the couture body jewelry. Incredible.

this...swimsuit? Brazil carnival outfit? I don't know what it is, but it looks amazing. So does the hair.

I Loathe…

Haute Couture denim. I'll pay $300 dollars for a pair of jeans, but not $5000.

this suit, which doesn't seem to fit properly, isn't flattering, and certainly doesn't look Haute enough.

this dress, which looks like something you would buy from a street vendor on a Greek Island.

All images from Style.com.

This season’s Givenchy Haute Couture collection looks weak. There are too many reference points, the themes seem confused, the clothing lacks beauty, and the model casting was terrible. Quite disappointing. For me, Ricardo Tisci is a pret-a-porter designer, not Haute Couture.

I Adore…

this dress (or is it a top and skirt?) The shape of the ruffles frame the body and the contrast of soft ruffles, strong lines, and floating feathers is pleasing to the eye.

this ruffled dress. It looks very "Lanvin", but stunning nonetheless.

I Loathe…

the white gloves, the shape of the trousers, and the feathers protruding from the stomach.

satin shorts with knee high boots and a giant feather top. This works for Sonia Rykiel, not for Givenchy.

the look fo this dress, its seventies hippy but none of the rest of the collection is.

this horrible disco outfit.

more scary disco outfits, this time with a fluffy collar.

the ballgown gone wrong. The bustier is too low, the skirt shape is just weird, and why is there a slit when the skirt is so voluminous?

All images from Style.com.