I am pleased to announce that I will be hosting my first event in Vancouver. I know most of my readers are not in Vancouver, so I’ll try and limit coverage to two posts, but I am very excited! The event, whose theme is “The Business of Fashion and the Digital Revolution,” will be an intimate affair with Imran Amed, the founder and editor of the Business of Fashion. You may have heard me harp on about how much I love his blog, but it is basically the best fashion industry blog in existence. If you are in the industry it is an absolute must-read. For those of you not working in the fashion industry, but fascinated with all of the ins and outs, it is a very good blog to read in order to keep yourself up to date.

Imran Amed (Photo by Daniel Cianfarra.)

I met Imran at Christmas, when he was visiting family in Vancouver. I knew he was coming back in August, so I suggested we do an event, which would not only give me the opportunity to associate myself with him and his blog (nice!) but also to get him some exposure over here. A lot of people read his blog, but hardly anyone knows he is a Canadian.

So we are doing a small event at OPUS Bar at the end of August, which will include a short onstage interview (discussing our evening’s theme), followed by networking (yes, Vancouver people, I want to teach you how to network. A very underrated activity in these parts.) Of course none of this would have been made possible without OPUS Bar, who is providing the lovely venue, Vancouver College of Art and Design (one of the fantastic fashion schools I teach at), who is sponsoring the event, and to Skyy, for making sure the cocktails will have lots of vodka.

If you really should have been invited (you are local media or industry) and you haven’t been, then please get in touch. And to some of my darling students, particularly the ones who have been Searching for Style subscribers since day one and never failed to get good grades…you may be in luck. I might be extending a few invitations out to students closer to the event date.

(Oops, more special thanks to Fiona, Bronte, and Johana. You guys are awesome.)

Opus Porter show by John Fluevog. Photo by Samantha J Walker.

Last night I got to meet a Vancouver shoe legend (yes, there is one.) Opus Hotel hosted an event with John Fluevog to celebrate the shoe he designed for the porters at the Opus hotels.

Firslty, I have to say that its pretty cool that Opus hotels (Vancouver’s boutique hotel and there’s one in Montreal too) really support local talent. Jason Matlo has designed their server’s dresses (a black jersey wrap dress), and now John Fluevog has designed the shoes that their porters wear. I think its great that they tap into the local talent for the hotel uniforms.

The porter shoe is a basic, classy mens lace-up, but it has “a little bit of cheek” in the form of the shoe’s upper, which is pink. You obviously can’t put the porters into something unpractical, so this does the job, looks slick, and is pretty noticeable with that slash of pink. The shoe is available at Fluevog stores and through the mini bar at Opus Hotel.

John Fluevog's car parked outside the Opus Hotel was very cool.

Such a cool car! And his hubcaps are personalized too.

The event itself was pretty low key, cocktails and an opportunity to meet John Fluevog, which was pretty exciting for me. I love meeting shoe designers, especially ones that have had some sort of impact in my life. I remember coveting John Fluevog shoes in my teens, and nearly always having a pair on deposit in the store (you pay it off bit by bit, and when its fully paid you can take it home.) I bought some amazing Fluevog shoes many years ago (about 15…) that I recently brought out of the closet. There’s a picture of them below, they are amazing, and I get tons of compliments when I wear them. That’s why I like to live by the motto of never throw any clothing or accessories away, you never know when you’ll want to wear them again. Fluevog is celebrating his 40 year anniversary this year, and its funny that on my last trip to London I had a couple of friends ask about the brand. Maybe its time for a proper revival. The Fluevog heel may be ready for a comeback…

A blurry photo of John Fluevog and I.

My very old Fluevog shoes.

A typical Fluevog men's shoe.

A Fluevog women's shoe.

Here are some of the photos from the DSquared2 party at the Opus Hotel. The party was pretty good, very chic and lots of nice, good looking people. I went with Jason, and I think we stayed a bit late. The party started at 8:30pm, and we left at around 11pm, which was when the crowd started to get a bit, well, less “fashion”. We should have left at 10pm.

Here is a blurry photo of me on my way to the party. I'm wearing a dress by Jason Matlo, Sonia Rykiel shoes and handbag.

The waitresses at Opus Hotel are all dressed in Jason Matlo-designed uniforms. They look fantastic.

Rebecca Tay, from Fashion Magazine, really stood out in her leopard print dress.

Dean and Dan Caten from DSquared2

Excuse my ignorance, but I really have no idea who's who in the Vancouver scene, so I can't tell you who this is, only that she is very beautiful.

Lots of well-dressed people...

Another great party shot.

On the left is Tiffany, who does PR for the Opus Hotel and who send me these photos.

The DSquared2 boys were a lot more relaxed and fun at the Opus Hotel.

All photos by Mark Kinskofer, courtesy of the Opus Hotel.

The arrival of DSquared2 is probably one of the most exciting fashion events to have taken place in Vancouver…ever. Which is a bit sad, why can’t we have more fun fashion things?

Anyway, I went to meet Dean and Dan Caten, the twin Canadian brothers behind the Milan-based luxury brand, at Holt Renfrew for photos, and then there as a party at Opus Hotel. I am still waiting on the Opus PR girl to send me some photos of the event, so I’ll post those later, if they ever arrive.

Here I am with Dean and Dan Caten from DSquared2.

Holt Renfrew was manic, there was a lot of media there, as well as a long line up of people waiting to meet the pair. In typical Canadian style, everyone was nice, no bitchy PRs and rude security guards, which make a nice change from Paris or London. Both Dean and Dan were very friendly and fun, especially once things were a bit more relaxed at the Opus Hotel.

I liked Nelly Furtado’s DSquared2 dress that she wore when she performed with Bryan Adams, but I think her shoes were a bit high. Well, maybe not high, but you could tell she couldn’t walk in them properly. If I was going to be seen by millions of people, I would make sure I was wearing a pair of shoes that I was confident walking in. I was at the edge of my seat waiting for her to fall over or trip. Thankfully she didn’t.

While I’m on the subject of the opening ceremonies, I just want to quickly say that although I thought there was some very beautiful imagery, it was generally disappointing. I loved KD Lang’s performance (and I’d be happy to recommend a tailor for her…) but other than that, it just didn’t do it for me. My question was, where was Cirque de Soleil? They are one of Canada’s best performance exports, I don’t understand how such an important Canadian event did not include Cirque de Soleil. We should have had trapeze and silks, instead of dancers in yoga pants.

The Gingerbread House Competition and Auction at the Museum of Vancouver was a great night out. I bid on a house designed by Busby Perkins & Will Architects and won it!

This is the house I bid on.

Here's the house designed by McFarlane Green Biggar Architecture + Design Inc

This one is by Eastside Design & Solus Decor

Here is my house in its new home, on the bookshelf underneath the Christmas Decoration.

We also checked out the Ravishing Beasts exhibition while we were at the Museum of Vancouver, which was pretty amazing. We have been on a hunt (not literally) for a taxidermy deer head for a while.

Anne Pearson from Vancouver Special had the most amazing Mondrian nails.

Speaking of the beautiful people, here are a few photos from the John Casablancas Institute Staff Christmas Party. I lecture there sometimes, and thought it was extremely generous of them to take us all out for a fabulous dinner at Opus. I wore my Jason Matlo sequined dress but stupidly didn’t get any photos of myself on the night.

I guess I wasn't surprised that everyone looked so fantastic...its a hair, makeup, and fashion school!

I don't know everyone is this pic, but Foster Eastman from Axis hair salons is the one in the back and red shirt, and Lori, sitting next to him, is one of the presidents at JCI Institute.

The private room we were in was beautiful!