Video of the Week: Take It Like a Man

I saw them perform recently at Mod Club and have been listening non-stop to their debut album, Galore which was released officially this past Tuesday. Here's Dragonette's video for their second single, Take It Like a Man.


The inspiration: 70's porn. (Ooh, so naughtily good.)

Shoes Outta A Science Fiction Magazine.

Marc Jacobs recently showed his Spring/Summer 2008 collection in New York, premiering his back-to-front heeled shoe, which many are claiming as the first ever. (See top right image.)

However, after a little investigating, I found that they are not quite as original as one may think.

I found a copy of the cover of issue of Galaxy Science Fiction from January 1955. (See image at left.)

Then I found images from Japanese designer, Junko Shimada collection for Fall/Winter 2007. (See bottom right image.)

Not quite as original as you thought.

It's always interesting to see designers doing something a little different from the norm. It makes us step back and look at how we see things, but let's try and keep it original.

Vero Moda

Affordable European clothing stores are taking over Queen West. After the addition of Spain's Zara, then the much anticipated Swedish H&M, the Danish line, Vero Moda decided to open it's first North American store in Toronto. Having over 700 stores internationally, selecting Toronto as its first store location in North America is a bit of a risk considering the city's more conservative relationship with fashion.

Sure, we flocked to H&M and Zara on opening weekends, changing in the middle of the store to avoid the hour long waits at the change rooms, and the same with the recent addition of California chain, Forever 21, but do we really need another cheap knockoff retailer? Even the location gives pause for thought, being more West Queen West than simply Queen West. (The store is located just west of Bathurst at 632 Queen.)

Perhaps being able to boast about having former Victoria Secret model, Gisele as the brand's spokesmodel will help create a buzz, but so far no one seems to be talking about it.

No Anorexia

In reaction to last season's tirade about skinny models on the runway, Italian women's wear brand Nolita recently launched their controversial ad campaign, featuring a skeletal woman who has suffered from anorexia for 13 years. The woman, photographed by Oliviero Toscani, is Isabelle Caro, a Frenchwoman who weighs just 70 pounds at 5'5". The ad launched just in time for Milan Fashion Week and has sparked much debate across the world.

I doubt this image will keep thin models out of the fashion industry, but perhaps it will focus people's attention to what a healthy body image should be. It's just too bad that time and time again it's the fashion industry that gets targeted as the primary culprit. (Hollywood anyone?)

Many of the models used on the runways are still girls who haven't yet developed those sexy curves that come with becoming a woman. The models work with the world's top photographers, makeup artists, stylists, and re-touchers to create an image for the fashion brand. Fashion photography is an art form. And yes, unapologetically it creates unattainable, but fantastically beautiful images using all the talent and skills of a team of people with a creative vision beyond what most people can possibly dream.

The hiring of models falls on the shoulders of the designers, who have seen possibly hundreds of young models. An experienced eye can tell if a girl is too thin for her own frame and hopefully they are responsible enough to acknowledge it and not hire that girl.

Let's be realistic: ugly people don't sell, but anorexia shouldn't sell either.

Cosmo TV Coming to Canada

Corus Entertainment and New York-based Hearst Corporation are planning on bringing Cosmopolitan Television to Canada in early 2008. The channel launched in Spain in 2000, and is now in more than 20 countries around the world.

What should we expect? Well, my guess is lots of girlie guilty pleasures: Sex and the City re-runs, every single Julia Roberts movie made in the 90's, and a bunch of make-over shows.

Just what we need...

Hot Voodoo

W Magazine loves their Moss.

Say what you will about Kate Moss, but she is a great model. It's so rare for a model to channel so many different muses from Marlene Dietrch to Marilyn Monroe and really pull it off well. The October 2007 issue features a stunning story shot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott.


Click here for the full slide show.

The inspiration: Marlene Dietrich's role as a nightclub singer from the 1932 movie, Blonde Venus.

The Body Shop Founder Dies

Dame Anita Roddick, The Body Shop Founder, died today at the age of 64 following a brain hemorrhage. The long time human rights and environmental campaigner founded The Body Shop in 1976 with no training or experience in business. Thirty years later, The Body Shop has over 2,045 stores in 51 different markets.

She was the woman who started a business based on conscious. Asking consumers questions like, "Why waste a container when you can refill it?" and "Why buy more of something than you can use?" She used her experience from the Second World War where everything was reused, refilled and recycled out of necessity. She believed that businesses had the power to do good and wanted to use her stores and her products to communicate human rights and environmental issues. She was involved with many different campaigns, teaming up with organizations like Greenpeace.

Retro Flashback: Jitterbug!

Wham! - Wake Me Up Before You Go Go (1984)



My first crush was George Micheal. The first moment I fell in love with him was during this video where he's wearing the neon yellow fingerless gloves, hugging himself singing, "Cuddle up, baby, move in tight, we'll go dancing tomorrow night. It's cold out there, but it's warm in bed. They can dance, we'll stay home instead." (Oh, my prepubescent heart.)

This is where the recent trend of the large font t-shirts started. The designer, Katharine E. Hamnett designed the "CHOOSE LIFE" and "GO GO" t-shirts roughly the same time she designed the "FRANKIE SAY RELAX", "FRANKIE SAY WAR! HIDE YOURSELF" and "FRANKIE SAY ARM THE UNEMPLOYED" t-shirts. As with any trend, fakes sprouted up all over the place, using the phrase "SAYS" instead of "SAY".

Now these t-shirts are knocked off all over the place and you can find them in H&M and Forever 21, with saying like "REHAB IS THE NEW BLACK". A far cry from where Hamnett's political and social messages originated.

"Sarah Mower said I was the most copied designer in the world - to the point where I had to consider designing something I would be happy to see copied." - Katharine E. Hamnett.