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CANADA STYLE: Fashion Designer Roland Mouret At The Room

Monday, May 17th, 2010

By Editor:

editor-with-roland-mouret-2 French Fashion Designer Roland Mouret burst on the fashion scene in 2005 with a must have dress, called Galaxy that soon became the must have for every celebrity and ushered in the era of the fitted dress. The tall, elegant fashion designer looked dashing wearing his very ‘mad men’ suit from his new menswear line. We chatted a bit about his fashions and inspirations at an event in his honour at The Room.

Roland Mouret told me that he believes every woman should have a classic fitted dress in her closet and then use accessories to customize her look. He said he prefers the colours of his collection to be muted or dark (we saw a lot of black) in order for the woman to be the star. Mouret also said he draws his design inspirations from women themselves who he sees as mirrors to the world.

Women as stars, mirrors to the world facing the universe in a fitted designer dress, what a great concept! A girl can really get used to this kind of pampering. Well then what about looking good in his fitted classic dresses? Not to worry, according to this Style.com article, the tres smart fashion designer is not only a charmer he is also very practical and has put in a little secret device to ensure that all women look great in his dresses.

Mouret also came up with a practical device smartly developed from the “built” underpinning that was the secret ingredient in his famous hourglass Galaxy dress. Now he’s selling the underlying power-mesh base as a body-control device in its own right: a skin-toned slip with a zipper in the side.

Love the whole ‘undercover’ secret agent underneath designer dress concept! And the dresses are lovely as well. Take a look here:

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roland-mouret-dresses-at-the-bay

3 Comments

Tags: Canada Style, designer dresses, designer interview, editor feature, fashion designer, features, galaxy dress, roland mouret, the bay, The Room, womens designer fashion
Posted in Canada Style, Events, Fashion Designer

CANADA STYLE:Designer Brian Atwood Feeds Shoe Addiction At The Bay

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

By Editor:

This evening at an exclusive cocktail party at The Room in honour of Brian Atwood, the tres hot shoe designer, shoe love worthy of Carrie Bradshaw was in full swing. Fashion media interspersed with Toronto’s social elite showed their true passion and it was for super high heeled, sexy women’s shoes! There is a reason why Madonna, Nicole Kidman and Gwyneth wear Brian Atwood’s shoes!

Glorious shoes: 6 inch stilettos, studded slingback shoes, platform shoes, thigh high boots, snake print slingbacks, bejewelled princess shoes. It was all there and the shoe addicts were rejoicing. Real Style Network caught up with Brian Atwood at the party.

Real Style Network: What excites you about designing women’s shoes?

Brian Atwood: I love seeing women smile. Seeing how excited they get when seeing a pair of shoes they love.

Real Style Network: Where do you get your inspiration for your designs? Tell us about your Spring 2010 collection .

Brian Atwood: I’m like a sponge. I get inspired by music, on my travels… by things around me. You’ll have to wait and see what will inspire me about Canada. This spring, it’s all about illusion. The juxtaposition of textures, pvc . The colours are about lilacs and blues and the tropics.

Real Style Network: What can we expect to see for fall?

Brian Atwood: For fall the feel is urban, elegant and organic. Sexy, 6 inch hiking booties. The colours are bordeaux, army green, black, brown with embelishments.

The whimsical, sexy and very luxurious shoes suit the former runway model turned shoe designer, personality perfectly. When given a quizzical look about the 6 inch hiking shoes, Brian responded with a laugh “the ’hiking shoes’ are for hiking up Madison Avenue, not the mountain. ”

Now to ponder the big question: To wear or to worship? Yes we are still talking about the shoes!

editor-with-brian-atwood-shoe-designer2 brian-atwood-slingbacks brian-atwood-princess-shoe brian-atwood-fall-bordeaux-bootie

Brian Atwood’s shoe collection is sold in Canada exclusively at The Bay. Btw, the studded LOCA shoes Brian is holding in the photo is the same pair ( in lilac) that Sarah Jessica Parker wears in the new upcoming Sex And The City 2 movie.

4 Comments

Tags: 6 inch shoes, booties, Brian Atwood, designer interview, editor feature, features, slingback shoes, studded slingbacks, the bay, The Room, wedges
Posted in Canada Style, Events, Fashion News

FASHION SHOWS:Toronto Fashion Week-Evan Biddell Goes Prehistoric For Fall Fashion Show

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

evan-biddell-keisha-chante-fashion-interview-3 This week at Toronto Fashion Week or as it also known LG Fashion Week, Evan Biddell did what many young designers aspire for. He wowed us. Lisa Tant, editor in chief of Flare Canada, was tweeting from the show. She said “All I can say is thank God for Evan Biddell tonight. Nice to see something fearless, provocative and really exciting – with a good p-o-v.”

Evan Biddell is of course the winner of Project Runway Canada and at this show he showed once again how he won! Real Style Network spoke to Evan right after the show. When asked about how he felt the show went he said “It was a challenge. I was thinking how was I going to make this work? Fashion can be really boring and mundane and I’m not really into that. I’d rather do something that is a little bit weird and out there.”

The show was definitely “out there”! This promising young fashion designer showed a line of unexpected and interesting shapes and patterns that had the crowd saying ooh-ing and ahh-ing each time a new piece hit the runway.

Evan Biddell’s fall/winter 2010 collection was inspired by battle armor and animal shells. The inspiration was obvious from the shell shapes forms in skirts, dresses and pants on the runway. Evan says he mimicked these shapes to mix things up.

evan-biddell-fall-fashion The structured looks were made out of different fabrics such as cork and neoprene. Long pleather fringe draped down the front of the garments. Whereas many fashion designers this season chose simple neutral shades, Evan’s line ranged from tan animal prints (reptile and tiger) to bright graffiti prints. These are new fabrics for Evan Biddell to work with and not the easiest. The designer admitted this was a tough show for him.

Don’t worry though, Evan Biddell doesn’t expect Canada’s style to shift suddenly to the wild designs he put out on the runway. He just recently opened OZ Studio in Toronto and will be using his line as installation pieces in the store. Although a truly bold fashionista could pick one up from his store if you were brave enough to try one on.

“I have a gallery that I opened. There pieces are meant to be in a gallery. That’s kind of more this season. It’s a little less blazers and shirts. I don’t think it’s too costumey. At times I thought it was too costumey, but then I thought wait a minute, this could totally work.”

His bold move did work as fashion media were taking notice of this growing fashion designer.

3 Comments

Tags: Canadian designer, Canadian fashion designer, designer interview, evan biddell, Fall/Winter 2010, fashion show, features, lg fashion week, project runway, toronto fashion week
Posted in Canada Style, Fashion Shows, Fashion Week, Runway Report

FASHION DESIGNER: DEAN CATEN OF DSQUARED

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

DEAN CANTEN DSQUARED WITH CANADA STYLE BLOG EDITOR.JPG By Editor.

“Born in Canada, living in London, made in Italy” is an apt description for the dynamic design team made of brothers Dean and Dan Canten who together form DSquared. Nevertheless when I spoke with Dean Canten, his down to earth manner, warmth and the open smile was very much Canadian.

The brothers, who grew up in Toronto and come from modest means, have created one of the most recognized fashion brands in the world. They style the likes of Madonna, Britney Spears, Gwyneth Paltrow and numerous other celebs and fashionistas. The brothers attended Parson’s School of Design in New York and in 1991 moved to Milan where after working with fashion industry notables such as Versace they launched their men’s line in 1994 and women’s in 2003. Their sophisticated, yet fun fashions infused with Canadian references and coupled with impeccable tailoring and attention to detail continue to win over devoted followers worldwide.

The designers were in town to be honored with a Walk of Fame Star and I had a chance to chat with Dean Canten.

E: I think that DSquared being such a breakout international brand really puts Canada on the fashion map. You made Canadian style cool! DSquared deserves a Walk of Fame Star and much more. What do you feel has made you such International success? What would you recommend to other Canadian designers?

D. Showing in the major fashion centres such as London, Milan, Paris will help to bring the designer into the international fashion arena. We started by showing our clothes at a tradeshow, not even at fashion week… A buyer liked our clothes and it went from there.

E. You and your brother are the youngest of nine children and grew up in North Toronto. Are your siblings (other than your brother) in fashion?

D. No, they all have regular jobs. Dan and I are the only ones in fashion. Our family is why we come back home so often. As to why we are so many? We are Italian.

Not happy to rest on their design laurels, the busy brothers also host their own Satellite radio show on Sirius XM radio and are hosting a reality TV show called ‘Launch My Line” about how to become a designer. The show premieres this Wednesday, Sept.16th on Bravo.

As they say, “You can take the boys out of Canada, but you can never take Canada out of the boys!” And we are lucky for it!