Friday, October 28th, 2011
When I first told a friend that I’d be interviewing Frank Grillo, she innocently asked, “Who’s that?” To which I responded, “Trust me, you’d know him to see him. He’s been in practically everything — usually he plays a cop.” Despite two decades as a series regular on popular shows like Prison Break and The Shield, and an impressive resume of supporting roles in big-ticket films like Gavin O’Connor’s Pride and Glory, starring Colin Farrell and Edward Norton, 46-year-old Grillo is far from being a household name. But this may be the year all of that changes.
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Monday, October 24th, 2011
On Chuck: Hat, Sweatshirt and Printed Shorts, Givenchy; On Mikey: Vest, Sweatshirt and Shorts, Rick Owens
When Fish Ride Bicycles, The Cool Kids’ debut album, has been a long time in the making – with an original release date in 2008, some fans were skeptical about whether it would ever see the light of day. But with their label issues behind them and a new deal with Mountain Dew’s Green Label Sound, the Chicago/Detroit-based rappers are once again on every indie hip hop lover’s radar. Chuck Inglish and Mikey Rocks gave us a few minutes to tell us about the album, working with Pharrell, and partying on the road.
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Monday, October 17th, 2011
On Selita: All Clothing, Michael Kors; Sunglasses, Carrera; On Seijo: Sweater, 3.1 Phillip Lim
Sure, newly anointed Louis Vuitton mannequin Godfrey Gao is now being touted as the world’s first Asian supermodel, but don’t forget that Seijo Imazaki was here first. Half Japanese – the rest German and Swedish – Imazaki was born to be a chameleon, perfect for fashion’s on-and-offagain tastes. In certain lights, you’d call him “all-American.” In others, he’s a symbol of otherworldly attraction, just bad boy-ish enough for mainstream appeal. Dress him up in J. Crew or strip him down to Calvins, you’d buy anything he sells.
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Wednesday, October 12th, 2011
Dress, Dolce and Gabbana; Necklace, Janis by Janis Savitt
Model, actor, writer, and now director Jaime King has left no Hollywood stone unturned. Even on her days off, she finds something to accomplish. Like today: it’s been ages since King’s had a full 24 hours away from shooting the CW’s new series, Hart Of Dixie, but instead of taking a much-needed poolside break under the Los Angeles sun, King is fielding interview requests, running errands, and prepping for a photo shoot. “It may not be necessarily relaxing, but I’m still having fun,” King laughs.
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Tuesday, October 4th, 2011
Clothing, Prabal Gurung; Earrings, Linn Lomo; Hat, Heather Huey
Meet The Block’s cover model, 20-year-old Ashley Smith. She’s a gaptoothed ingenue who’s quickly risen to the top of the modeling business over the last two years, walking in shows for Balenciaga and Prada, appearing in campaigns for everyone from Diesel to Alexander Wang, and posing for Terry Richardson. We took a moment to ask the music-loving Texas beauty about her life outside modeling, what it’s like being compared to Lara Stone, and what’s inside her makeup bag.
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Friday, September 23rd, 2011
Harp strings echo soft and evocative tones, as the haunting hymns gradually flood your ear drums. A trumpet commandingly chimes in, and 15 seconds later you are met with a voice that sounds as though it has been stripped straight from the almighty Apollo himself. Enter Active Child, the musical undertaking of vocalist, harpist and Los Angeles resident Pat Grossi.
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Monday, September 19th, 2011
Baartmans and Siegel S/S 2012
Since their very recent graduation from London College of Fashion, Wouter Baartmans and Amber Siegel have skipped right to the top of the distribution chain, amassed an enormous amount of credibility and been one the most highly anticipated new menswear labels to emerge in the last two years. Their Spring/Summer 2012 collection, titled “Dust Drifters,” is a rare collection that invokes a true curiosity about the stories that have laced themselves into the fabrics that you see, the ideas that have been woven into the silhouettes before you, the expanse of reference that is the sum of its components.
The duo occupy that popular oxymoronic playground of modern-traditionalism, but so does everyone. However, Baartmans and Siegel entertain this tension between the modern and the traditional differently. They approach it with a narrative, thematic philosophy in mind. They combine their formative and conceptual experience at Viktor & Rolf, the wisdom of the British tradition of menswear enshrined on Savile Row, and their own unique interpretation of culture, cinema, and landscape to create highly visceral pieces that embody a potent and romantic, if somewhat atypical modern man.
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Monday, September 5th, 2011
Eleanor Friedberger, photo by Michael Rubenstein
Since 2003, Eleanor Friedberger has been working relentlessly as the fairer half of brother-sister duo, the Fiery Furnaces, who have released nine records within six years. While the hard work has clearly paid off, the songstress felt that it was time to take a step back from the Fiery Furnaces and stand alone with the release of her first solo record, Last Summer. (Don’t go getting your knickers in a twist, because this does not mean the end of the Fiery Furnaces). With fear of regret and the realization that she isn’t getting any younger, Friedberger – who appears to share the same gene pool as Patti Smith – felt that the timing was right and went forth to produce one doozy of a solo album. Weaving in autobiographical accounts line-by-line, verse-by-verse, song-after-song, Friedberger’s sing-talk vocals only heighten the album’s sense of intimacy. It’s like listening to the quirky musician read a segment of the diary she wrote last summer.
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Tuesday, August 30th, 2011
When sisters Chloé and Parris Gordon debuted on Toronto’s runway as Chloé comme Parris in the fall of 2010, there was a palpable buzz. I missed the show, but it’s all anyone would talk about for a solid twelve hours. Grandstanding phrases like “the best newcomers in years” to “the ones to watch” were thrown around, and the fashion set hailed the Gordon sisters as marking a new, exciting era for emerging talent in Canada. Bloggers were swooning at something they could actually relate to (and probably afford) that was also close to home, and the city’s more seasoned fashion reporters finally had new talent worth genuinely applauding in the papers. The duo’s affiliation with The Fashion Collective – a burgeoning creative agency itself tasked with bringing fresh blood to our fashion week – also did much to enhance the sisters’ persona without questioning credibility. Chloé and Parris weren’t struggling to gain exposure or funding or showing mediocre fourth year fashion student work either – they were already, somehow, a thing. Even before their Toronto debut, two boutiques in the city ordered pieces from their publicly unseen fall 2010 collection.
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Posted in Fashion, Interview, Toronto | No Comments »
Monday, August 15th, 2011
In 2010, Canadian-born Thomas Tait became the youngest MA graduate from Central Saint Martins at only 22 years of age. The same year he was the inaugural winner of the Dorchester Collection Fashion Prize, which allowed him to secure a London studio and begin groundwork on his collection. A year later, he leads his eponymous label, slowly but surely building its promising future. His F/W 2011 London Fashion Week presentation was applauded for its powerfully structured, yet fluid silhouettes, but also for a restraint so rarely demonstrated by young designers.
On everyone’s “to watch” list, this prodigy is refreshingly humble about his meteoric success. So much so that he appears to be acting as his own publicist at the moment. We caught up with Tait for a quick telephone chat as he ran errands around London.
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Posted in Fashion, Interview, Montreal | 1 Comment »
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THE BLOCK MIXTAPE
by Young Empires
Mixtape: Young Empires
Toronto's Young Empires send us straight to the dancefloor with this mixtape for The Block.
www.myspace.com/youngempires
01. Sabali (Vitalic Remix) - Amadou & Miriam
02. Lies (Herve Remix) - Fenech-Soler
03. Hour of the Wolf (Lifelike Remix) - Adam Kesher
04. Dance the Way I Feel (Armand Van Helden Remix) - Ou Est Le Swimming Pool
05. Snake Charmer - Bag Raiders
06. Wait & See - Holy Ghost!
07. All Night (Azari & III Remix) - Voltage
08. You Know I Know It - Tensnake
09. La Mezcla - Michel Cleis
10. Rain of Gold (French Horn Rebellion Remix) - Young Empires
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