CHRISTMAS SHOPPERS

It has been getting to look a lot like Christmas ever since Halloween. Now get a grip; that is total overkill. Having said that, I confess to dipping my twinkle toes into the early festivities.  Anything with an open bar and I am there.

Oyster bar, beauty boutique, prosecco flowing – and hello, sailor. On November 23^rd, OverCat Communications hosted Shoppers Drug Mart’s beauty boutique holiday party at Malaparte on the sixth floor of TIFF Bell Lightbox. Here I am with OverCat president Audrey Hyams Romoff, one of my all-time fave p.r. mavens.

Romoff is traditionally the chicest chick in the room, and that night was no exception. I lusted after her velvet booties, which she scored at Topshop. Alas, I don’t have a Topshop foot. It’s the reverse little-red-riding-hood curse: too big or too small but never just right.

  

Here are two young glam gals at the beauty party just to make you feel bad about yourself.

The folks at Michael Kors previewed some of their spring 2017 line – and we haven’t even got through winter 2016! Michael Kors makes the best straw totes around and I love these platforms which work if you don’t go anywhere near a spring shower.

A pair of vertiginous floral Mary Janes that are so sweet and serviceable as long as you have an Uber hovering. My back hurts just to look at them.

These bejeweled skinny jeans are way off the cool meter but are not available in Canada. Just as well. How would you launder them anyway?

I was circling this Dries Van Noten sleeveless feather duster coat at Holt Renfrew. It went on half price but I still couldn’t justify buying it. It is such a knock-out show piece that you wear it once and everyone remembers it; wear it twice and the feathers trail behind.

Rob Salem at broadcaster turned entrepreneur Gene Valaitis’s 60^th birthday party at the Spoke Club on November 18^th.

Gene and me at the party, which included happy gang members like Jesse Dylan, Gene’s fellow Morning Zoo keeper starting way back in 1987 on Q107; Lorraine Segato, Gene’s sister in law; Kid Rock; Geoffrey Dawe and Wendy Muller; John Gallagher; Rosie and Michael Levine; and Joanne Smale.

No, it’s not me but a resident at Labdara Lithuanian Nursing Home putting up her feet near the Christmas tree. Give me 20 years and it’s me in fuzzy slippers.

Some members of our unofficial whine club doing a photo op at the Distillery. The gaggle includes gal-around-town/real estate person Val Dooley; journo Rosie Levine; photographer Biserka Livaja; and irrepressible BamBoo-who Patti Habib.

You know it’s a great bash when the shoes come off. These belong to Sheila McCarthy and they were resting comfortably last Saturday in the kitchen of party hosts nonpareil Colin Mochrie and Deb McGrath.

FILM FESTERING

It’s nearing the end of TIFF and I have been negligent. Last year we were in Sicily and avoided the whole festival, the first time in about a quarter of a century of covering it. And guess what? No one died. So this year I have been cherry-picking TIFF events and just attending things I have been invited to and/or attached to people I know. Or involving champagne and seafood.

The three large noggins occupied by Gene Valaitis, Geoffrey Dawe and Rob Salem at the pre-festival cocktailer held in the green room at Roy Thomson Hall and hosted by Dawe’s TIFF Festival Style magazine.

Massage therapist Claire Blondeau, moi and broadcaster Gloria Martin at RT Hall. Claire inevitably gets busier as the festival progresses.

Moi and Bill Marshall, co-founder of TIFF, at his All Star Luncheon at Barberian’s Steak House, serving arguably the best food at the fest. I mean, c’mon: monster shrimp, oyster bar and pass-around fare like oysters Rockefeller. Yumola!!!

Moi and dueling Robs: Rob Salem and Robert DeNiro, part of a celeb portrait installation by veteran photographer Tom Sandler.

The huge wine cellar at Barberian’s, which houses 20,000 bottles of red wine, with an additional 18,000 bottles of white secreted across the street. Imagine being locked there overnight with a cork screw. I have been told that should one find oneself corkscrew-less in such a scenario, one can use the heel of a shoe to uncork the wine. I have yet to try this at home, kids.

The irrepressible Jaymz Bee with comely companion at the luncheon. Told he is channeling Colonel Sanders with that goatee, Bee retorted that he was going for Burl Ives.

Henk Van der Kolk, another co-founder of TIFF when it was called Festival of Festivals, with wife Yanka, iconic photographer and stylist, with just a walk-on by effervescent actor/singer/DJ Melleny Melody at the luncheon.

Rob Salem with the ultimate accessory at TIFF – a moustache fashioned from swizzle sticks.

 

I bumped into this sign in the window of a shop on Queen Street West and it spoke to me, unrepentant shoe slut that I am.

My Marni fake fur shoes face off with Melleny Melody’s glow-in-the-dark high-tops at the All Star Luncheon.

A pair of Chanel see-throughs I encountered and coveted during a non-TIFF cocktailer at a penthouse apartment on Avenue Road. I was a plus-one.

A fabulous pair of men’s Louboutin slip-ons worn by a femme guest at the Birks Diamond Tribute party for this year’s Women in Film honorees at the Shangri-La Hotel.

A killer pair of $20 shoes purchased at Kind Exchange thrift store sported by another guest, who checked the label because she thought they were Betsey Johnson’s but they weren’t. Never mind. They were cool and only $10 a foot.

Actor/comic Naomi Snieckus (right) killed it in a sexy black concoction designed by the fashionable woman beside her and made from vintage fabric.

Another standout gown in a sea of babeliciousness at the Birks event.

I met this delightful staffer at The Bay while I was interviewing a leopard clutch by Brian Atwood. Note how her hair colour perfectly matches the tassel on the bag.

Loved the red Mohawk rocked by a fellow passenger on the Queen streetcar, a.k.a “a streetcar named perspire.” Though a streetcar is not nearly as sweat-drenching as the non-air conditioned subway cars on line two.