FEST DRESSED

Egads, it is the beginning of the end of summer. You can’t feel it in the fetid humid air but there are ads for the CNE on buses and TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) held its media press conference last week. The Room at the Bay is holding its last-gasp sale where things go up to 85 per cent off which make them affordable to mere mortals. I snapped up a killer pair of Armani linen slouch pants originally marked $800 for just a hair over $100. Did I need them? Get a grip. What’s need got to do with it? But they were the cost of a snack and cocktail in some overpriced and snotty eatery. You know who you are. So I have been keeping an eye out for goodies to wear at TIFF parties – presupposing that you are on the list.
 

I wandered into Avec Plaisir (or Avec Brassiere as I like to call it) on Friday to get a new white bra because my current fave spazzed out on me very publically at the corner of Broadview and Queen recently. I was waiting for a Queen streetcar (what else is new) and put my hands together behind my back to stretch out and my bra unhooked. Yikes! When I tried to discreetly hook it back up I had to hike up my white shirt in the process, which gave the rummies drinking behind me in front of the convenience store a free show.

Avec Plaisir owner Vasilia Panagakos is a genius. She remembers your “shape” and magically produces a dozen bras to try on and they all fit. While there, I wandered over to the half-price rack (what am I, a newbie?) and unearthed a couple of pieces meant for night wear that would be perfect for TIFF, including this exquisite black silk coat by La Perla that looks like a tuxedo from the front and on the back is a graphic that to me references the classic 1927 Fritz Lang film Metropolis.

The front of the coat, which is classic/sexy. All you need is a black camisole, black leather leggings and fuck-me shoes. Or you could dress it down with ripped jeans and black booties.

Another TIFF possibility is this La Perla Chinoiserie-inspired jacket that reflects the Boho trend that isn’t going away any time soon. The arms are cut like a kimono and the piece would be brilliant with flowy pants, jeans or even over a LBD, which jacks the look up a notch and prevents it from being safe and easy. It’s a film festival for god’s sake. Crank up the volume.

I love the signage on the back of a step sitter on Cumberland St. I have no idea what it means but who cares. It made me stop, look and snap.

One of the cool kids at Zara, where the summer sale is fizzling out but the fall merch is coming in fast and furiously. Note the metallic sneaks on the young woman and the cute on-trend fuzzy red ball accessorizing her purse.

Me with Deborah Ingram, personal shopping and image consultant at Hudson's Bay. Deborah is brandishing the highly coveted Lanvin purse, which I am plotting to steal from her. Also I want her job. Imagine getting paid for dressing people with merchandise pulled from The Room and neighboring Sak's Fifth Avenue. I am holding a Lanvin box which houses a killer necklace reduced from $2,200 to $400.

A brilliant knock-off at Zara of the coveted Givenchy satin bomber jacket that retails about $3,000. Zara’s is under $200.

CLUB (MONACO) SANDWICHES

Dropped by the grand opening of the CM (as in Club Monaco) Market at the flagship shop at 157 Bloor St. at Avenue Road, which will be open seven days a week through September 3. It’s a farmer’s market so you can load up on local coffee, flowers, artisanal baked goods, ice cream and salads -- preferably after you have fondled the clothing and accessories inside so you don’t drip gooey stuff over the white linens.

A selection of the yummy sandwiches courtesy of Delica Kitchen.

Theatre producer/p.r. Grant Ramsay, my plus one, who is as handsome as any model/mannequin and still has a good head on his shoulders.

 As my dermatologist keeps reiterating, the cheapest no-brainer items for great, youthful skin are sunblock and a hat. Here is a wall of chapeau at Club Monaco.

Me and stylist Wendy Natale, who has just returned from a gig in the Yukon. I am decked out in a baseball jacket I bought at Topshop last year that easily passes for vintage. It is all about thrifting for me now. Gone are the halcyon days when I blew hundreds of bucks on a blouse; funny how perceptions and pocketbooks change. In fact, I balked at paying $59 for a new Diane Von Furstenberg T-shirt dress at my local Kind Exchange recently. Call me when it’s $10. Hey, I scored a pair of brand new black leather Gap jeans for $10 – and they were even lined. Gazinga!

Aside from Grant, the person with the best head of hair at the event had to be this lovely young creature with über dreds.

It was a white-out. There were innumerable installations of white apparel including a linen mini dress/tunic priced over $400. Say what? It makes me hyperventilate. In the first place, I cannot drop that kind of money on a white garment. Any red wine in the general vicinity would find its way all down the front of it immediately if not sooner. Imagine what it would look like after laundering – just another wrinkly schmatta. 

The back of a fabulous baseball jacket spotted on the stairs of Club Monaco. I was informed that it was from Zara. The stairs were previously lined with buckets of flowers free for the taking. Alas, I cannot have cut flowers at home. Our intrepid cat Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. snacks on them.

One of the casual onlookers outside the opening-party festivities displaying his own inimitable street style.

DAYS OF WINE AND POSES

This is Toronto Fashion Week. I am not ignoring it but I am not exactly parked in the front rows sharing prime real estate with professional socialite Ainsley Kerr. I cherry pick, always doing the shows from Bustle and Greta Constantine. (Alas, this year I had to bail on Greta because of a previous commitment). And I never ever turn down an invite for a wine tasting, especially top-of-the-barrel ones featuring product from Italy and California. Cheers!!!

An interpretation of the ladies who lunched, tippled and smoked in the Windsor Arms Hotel, site of the wine tasting on Tuesday hosted by Halpern Enterprises, importers of fine wines and spirits.  The artwork heralds back to the heady days of notorious table-hopping at the legendary Windsor Arms’ Courtyard Café, a.k.a. the “Yoo-Hoo.”

No, this is not my breakfast. It is a selection of wines and bubblies for the tasting.

This young fashionista is in line at Zara cashing out and multi-tasking by checking out more shopping options elsewhere on her smart phone.

Street shooters outside the tents at David Pecaut Square prior to the Bustle show on Tuesday. The paparazzi outnumbered the attendees.

Veteran photog George Pimentel snapping model Stacey McKenzie before the Bustle show.

The showstoppers at the Bustle show were Georgia and Griffith, the impossibly cute and best-tressed kids of Bustle designers Shawn Hewson and Ruth Promislow. They owned the catwalk modelling pieces from the label’s new Bustle Sprouts children’s line, launched because Georgia kept demanding a quilted track suit just like the ones Daddy wore. 

Ruth Promislow and Shawn Hewson taking a bow after the Bustle show. It is obvious where their children get their glorious heads of hair. Never mind runway modelling. Hair modelling could top up their college funds. Just saying.

Me in my camo coat bonding with a blogger in a fabulous faux fur number. Pattern on pattern is so au courant, sweeties.