Ode to Lara and Lara

I'm probably not the first to make this connection, but isn't Lara Stone a dead ringer for an early Julie Christie (aka. Dr Zhivago's lady love, Lara)? This month's British Vogue shoot has me humming Lara's theme with particular gusto...

Update Alert! I just read that Lara was actually named for Julie's famed character!

Hip Hip Hooray! Jeffrey Monteiro to Bill Blass

Because this blog is really all about ME and the people I know and love, I just wanted to give a quick lil shout out to Jeffrey Monteiro, who’s just been appointed Head Designer at the legendary house of Bill Blass. I can't wait to see how Jeffrey's quiet tailoring and bold colour combos shape the house of Blass in the coming seasons.

He’s got big shoes to fill, but me thinks he’s just the man to do it! After all… he did give me my favourite fall-inbetweeny black and grey tweed cardigan coat. If I was on the Jersey Shore, I'd have been fist pumping all weekend...

Swift Idolatry

If this 24 year old has been hesitant to raise her teen freak flag until now, let it be known: I’m a die-hard Taylor Swift fan. Not so much in the sense that I know the words to more than even one of her songs, but in the sense that worshipping her (and anyone else who has a face for ABC Family) excites me like nothing else. It reminds me of temp-tattoos, Chupa Chups and crank calling 1-800-COVERGIRL.

But before I wax on about my days as an obsessed Backstreet Boys fan, let’s get back to Tay Tay and her amazing looking spread in the just-released T Magazine. If Sharon Tate circa Valley of the Dolls and Sue Lyon circa Lolita had a baby who inspired Prada’s Spring collection… it’d be Taylor don’t you think? Don’t you loooooove her in clunk shoes? And the bouffant? I die!

Pop (Up Shop) Life

The Pop Up Shop has become so darn catchy in the last year that the term may as well be entered into the 2010 Websters (along with Tweet, Twit and Twerp, of course... ) Leave it to the masters though, to make it seem like the Pop Up was their idea from the start.

Holt Renfrew showed up to the Pop Up party (I just want to say Pop Up again, okay?) with bells on, in their new temp space at 560 King St. West in Toronto, which is open until this Sunday. Featuring a jazzed up decidedly un-Holtsish space of contemporary and vintage clothes, accessories, trinkets and beauty products, the the shop is carefully constructed to look as chicly random as possible. Everything from vintage YSL to Philip Sparks to Sorel boots is mixed together in a hodgepodge of buy-me-now!

Aside from all the die-worthy clothing of course, the best thing about the shop is most certainly it's button-maker! After volunteering myself as official Button Officer, I found myself quite unable to stop stamping everything from initials to magazine cutouts and adorning my shirt with my designs! Check out how cute I made my friend Suzanne look! And look at my shirt! And look at all the great buttons I made for the customers!

Art Attack: Besties As Models

Procrastination ain't such a bad thing when you're busy discovering gems like I just did! While in one of my dontwannawork moods, I happened upon the work of up-and-coming photographer, Nicole Lesser. She works with photo gods like Ryan NcGinley and is currently getting her BFA at the New School, but as if that weren't enough... her photos already look like those of a seasoned photographer. What I especially like about Nicole's work is that it seems to have the same raison d'etre as the blog's! Nicole's work is based upon her relationships with her subjects, who are all her friends. Gee wizzz...

Check out more of Nicole's work at http://nicolelesser.com/