TradeMark = Image with Edge

Look out Toronto: Style agency TradeMark Artists has launched a new crew of music and fashion industry professionals to make you up and style you in the latest moving trends!

Trade Mark’s launch party, Jan 29, 2007 showcased an avant-garde runway show that mixed break-dancing and lip-synching punk band antics. Had me thinking Spandau Ballet meets Adam Ant on ether and speed.

Black Line Studio set the stage and played host to a spectacle of street fashion decadence, care of Tyler Moore’s urban after hours visions of past, present and future fashions (shown left).

Trade Mark founder Moore studied at Complexions Make-up School while managing funky Queen West hair salon Coupe Bizarre. He was surrounded by the best hair stylists and make-up artists in the industry and quickly discovered that he also enjoyed putting together creative teams for clients. “Our goal is to work with our clients to create unique, cutting edge imagery in hair, makeup and clothing.”

Sonja Andic

Fashion File Host Hunt

Last night, Thurs. Jan 25, 2007, fashionphiles from all over the frigid Tdot braved the cold and packed into Suite 106 for a premiere screening of the new Fashion File Host Hunt. If you haven't heard, Tim Blanks is leaving the show after 17 years of service thus leaving an opportunity for a new reality show and new look and feel for Fashion File.

This could very well be one of the greatest jobs in the world which includes travelling the world covering fashion and interviewing designers and models. It also involves writing a column in FASHION magazine and filling the shoes of one of fashion's most respected voices.

Fashion File Host Hunt is an elimination challenge where 10 finalists compete for the top spot and are tested on communication skills, fashion knowledge and star quality. Judges are the candid Bronwyn Cosgrave, former editor at British Vogue; Suzanne Boyd, the founding editor of Suede magazine and former editor-in-chief of Flare; and Réjean Beaudin, the executive producer of Fashion File.
Fashion File Host Hunt airs Thursday, February 1, 2007, 7:30 p.m. on CBC

ADORATION video

A new interactive video installation by Teresa Ascencao

Wait a minute. Is that fashion designer Irene Stickney in a video art installation sporting three different outfits? Yes that Irene, she sure gets her fingers in a lot of pies.

Irene was selected alongside two other Toronto women, from an online request posted on craigslist.com by artist Teresa Ascencao. Each of the women was asked to pick three outfits that represented them in various states of relaxation, fun or work. Once the women were video taped by Ascencao, their images were plunked down inside an interactive world of ‘kitsch’ that viewers could manipulate and decorate in as kitschy a fashion as they desire.

I recommend if you are downtown to pop into the gallery space and into Ascencao’s world. You control from the comfort of an easy chair the kitsch furnishings surrounding the three women, as they walk endlessly from room to room, towards a mirror that shows no reflection. They primp and preen themselves in their various outfits as the viewer – that could be you – uses a specially designed remote control device to add or remove decorative features from Ascencao’s imaginary rooms.

Suite 376, 401 Richmond St West – installation runs until Feb, 20 - artist talk on Feb, 10 at 2:30 p.m.

Sonja Andic

Have a Clothing Swap

What a great way to freshen a wardrobe: We had our first quarterly Clothing Swap at The Drake Underground, Sunday Jan 21, 2007.

About 20 stylish gals brought bags, suitcases and even bundle buggies full of pre-loved clothes and accessories to pawn off to her fellow shopper! All items were sorted and displayed on clothing racks where participants could browse and pick their faves.

Every corner of the room was turned into impromptu changing rooms while hats, shoes, dresses and coats circulated until new owners were found! Overall, this was a fabulous and fun time - sort of like an intimate shopping experience with all your girlfriends!

For those thinking of organizing a swap:
Set guidelines - This is important so guests don't clean out their closets at your expense! We asked for good condition designer, vintage and classic pieces so everyone was on the same page.
Set an intake time - We didn't specify an intake time so the early birds missed out on bags of clothes that came afterwards.
Recruit volunteers - our swap required many hands to keep it smooth. Thanks a bunch to stylist Daniel Wilson; Joseph, Kate and Tiff who hung and displayed; Carolee for organization and Katherine for doing follow-ups.
Plan B - we had bags of clothing left over after the event which we carted over to a local women's shelter.

Fashion Bloggers Brunch

A group of T.O.s fashion bloggers converged for our monthly Toronto Fashion Bloggers Brunch (TFBB) at the Drake Hotel this past Sunday, Jan. 21, 2007. As always, local 'fashion' advocacy conversation with TFI blogger Carolyn Rohaly and Final Fashion's Danielle Meder was appreciated, while meeting a new group of passionate fashionistas entertained.
For more and a list of bloggers, go to Danielle's site here.

Crystal Castles/Cops & Robbers

Crystal Castles are the best band to come out of Toronto since ever. Saturday at the White Orchid was their last Tdot show before they head to the UK for a tour with the Klaxons, and then to Austin to play SXSE so if you missed it, you'll have to wait awhile to see them again but trust me they're worth it. It was also party promoter Phil Azer's newest fashion theme night, "Cops and Robbers". The Boys in Blue were shaking down the house while CC played downstairs. Alice Practice, the stylish lead singer performed in a pencil slim mini and turtleneck. She looks part Karen O, part coffee drinking art student, and part videogame character. When I ran into her after the show and asked her what she was wearing, she looked at me funny and said "Uh, black?".

Plastik Wrap streetwear

Read the Plastik Wrap feature >>

Hard up for fashion hard copy

When it comes to our insatiable appetite for fashion press we are spoilt for choice. Pick up a hardcopy fashion magazine; go online and cruise numerous style websites and online mags; read blogs and listen to trend driven podcasts.

But what about the state of fashion being represented in our local newspaper dailies and weeklies?
Are we happy with the level of style coverage that hardcopy newspapers give the city of Toronto?
Personally, I find the Toronto Star fashion section always begging for more on Thursdays. I do enjoy the Eye Weekly style profiles, as you get to learn a bit about the local person behind the clothes. NOW magazine really strives to celebrate Toronto designers and shops and the fashionnotes section is valuable for finding out what is going on in the city.

Tell us what paper or local mag rag you read for fashion content and why you like it. Who out there is doing a good job and who needs work.

Fashion Radio

The Fashion Fix Radio is a new Nat Radio online podcast show that aims bring the 'true' world of fashion to listeners via industry innovators and design hosts. Can't wait to give it a try.

The show will air Wednesdays @ 8 p.m. - 9 p.m.

This Wednesday, Jan. 17 there are two guests - artist Jessica Gorlicky, and stylist Dev. R.

TFI New Labels Semi-Finalists

TFI New Labels® is a national fashion design competition for professional designers in Canada. Over the next few weeks, five new labels will compete for a spot in the show, tentatively slated for April 17, 2007 (tickets will be on sale shortly). Three of the contenders will then compete to win the title of ELLE Canada New Labels Designer of the Year and a prize package valued at over $25,000, including a one-page editorial in ELLE Canada magazine.

Making the semi-final cut are Lara Presber from Calgary, and Toronto labels 1.618…by Engelbert Gayagoy, Malak by Kalam Lee, OZEN by Phoebe Gao and Enfys Zhuo, and quelques filles by Sarah Nicol and Kelly Dowdall.

Known as Canada’s launch pad for new designers, TFI New Labels® alumni include an impressive roster of talents such as David Dixon, Joeffer Caoc, Mercy, Hyphen, JUMA, Wonderlust, Yso, CinCyn and Katya Revenko, winner of the 2006 competition.

Judges for TFI New Labels® 2007 include Rita Silvan, editor-in-chief, ELLE Canada; Arie Assaraf, buyer/owner TNT boutiques; Nathalie Atkinson, fashion writer, National Post; and Canadian designer David Dixon.

Photo: last year's winner Desperately Different (Mihkel Fortey Photography)

Fidelity Denim