Vintage Montreal: 01

anyone who knows me knows that i'm a self-proclaimed history nerd and, specifically, a montreal history buff. i feel that my blog is missing... montreal meat, if you will. this month's fashion week left me feeling disinterested and even annoyed with local designers and their lack of originality and so i'm looking to beef this up in other ways. i'll soon start posting photos of random montrealers with style, i've begun style profiles on locals and i have begun to put together a few pieces on local establishments.  i've decided to start posting photos that i've uploaded to my montreal tumblr over here. after about twenty of these, i'll see...

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Monochrome Madness: My Top Picks For Affordable Mod-Inspired Dresses

for the third and final installment of my series on mod culture, i'll point you to my top ten favourite, affordable dresses (in no particular order) that are either reminiscent of the original era, perfect for mod revivalists or simply pretty and wearable for anyone who loves the looks and wants to style themselves to fit it, without necessarily immersing themselves in any aspect of the overall lifestyle.  the criteria i set for myself when looking these up were price, versatility (who doesn't love not having to change for dinner or drinks after work?) and silhouettes that could work on more than one body type. this latter point...

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Mods: A Style Profile. Dominic Chevrier (or "This Charming Man").

from now on, toward the end of each month, i'll be featuring a stylish montrealer and posting their answers to a series of questions, along with some photos of them in their everyday garb. i thought it would be fun to start with a mod, given the theme of the current series but also to kick this trend off with a profile of a man.  this particular man not only dresses sharply, has a sweet ride and has great taste in music but he would invite his girlfriend to a dinner for six if he could invite anyone at all, dead or alive, and knows well enough to not recommend the tiki restuarant on sherbrooke east. read on... Name:...

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Mods: Their Roots, The Revival and How Mainstream Fashion Has Borrowed From it Again

as thrilled as i've been to see ad campaigns featuring bold, geometric prints and a-line mini dresses, all topped with bouffants and beehives and multiple layers of lashes, i'm also, at times, annoyed at how other fashion writers are presenting these to the masses. titles and captions enticing people to be "go" or "become" mod are making me cringe, for reasons similar to the ones i've listed in a piece i wrote in november entitled no such thing as a punk fad: the effects of mainstream fashion borrowing from subculture style. in it, i briefly mention mod fashion and promise to write about it at a later date and so here we are. firstly,...

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V-Day Un-Woes and Natural Born Quiller

i'm not a fan of st-valentine's day. not at all. and yet, some years, certain people do things that make me feel good enough about it. that is the case this year more than ever and i'm single so i clearly was not expecting that. firstly, at my new office, everyone got truffles from the building owners and one of the developers went around and gave everyone more chocolate. i also tried my hand at table tennis for the first time in sixteen years and didn't suck, although that probably had nothing to do with valentine's day but it did happen at work and right before i handed out the truffles so just go with it... last week, i got the sweetest...

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Involuntary Lull

i had several pieces planned for this week, including the third last installment of the "roots" series, some photos of a fantastic local shop and a three-day series on mod culture and its influences on current trends (complete with my first style profile, featuring a montreal mod) but it looks like i won't have time to sit down and write until this week-end. in addition to my nine-to-fiver and my photography class, it is a week for parent-teacher meetings, meetings with mentors and family coming in from out of town.  i hope my fellow quebecers are dealing with this last leg of winter and are hanging in-- about six weeks to go! oh!...

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My Take On Montreal Fashion Week 24, Written for CultMTL

check it out over here. ;-) ...

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Sheinart's is Closing

i have walked passed sheinart's large display windows at least three-hundred times in my life and i can count the number of dresses that have caught my eye in a good way on one hand. despite the gaudy collections of colourful, generic, bejeweled prom and bridesmaid dresses that have been staged here over the years, i must admit that my heart sank a little when i saw the signs announcing the closing sale they are currently hosting.  sheinart's, located on atwater at the corner of ste-antoine, has been around for as long as i can remember and, while it may not be affecting as many people as when dunn's closed, i do think this is an iconic,...

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Montreal Fashion Week (and why I have to write about it).

please pardon the radio silence, which i'm sure seems all the more bizarre given that it's montreal fashion week. i'm currently working on a piece for a local publication and i want to be sure that nothing i write here overlaps with what i'm preparing for them. that said, i'll be sure to post something about it all within the next few days and you will be hearing from me before then, too!  i hope everyone is having a great week.  back to work i go! ...

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