The first edition of Modecast was an unqualified success. For an exclusive audience of about 20 individuals, Barima and I proceeded to knock back a bottle of very fine whisky and talk style and culture, as we do. If you missed it, you can watch the recording…

Topics we covered…

• This edition’s intro – “Everybody Dance” by Chic.
• This edition’s official drink – Gordon & McPhail Single Malt Scotch Whisky, neat. Drunk from coffee mugs and chased with Tesco sparkling lemonade.
• Straight Talk – we discuss a New York Times article about post-metrosexual straight male fashion bloggers.
• Jake Davis Blog – we like what this dude is doing.
• Christopher McDonnell – a 1970s London fashion designer that we know nothing about, other than we like his white suit.
• Coco Chanel 1969 interview translation - sometimes when you can’t find something on Google, you can ask a friend to post about it for you. This is a revealing treat, thanks Lucie!
• London in Ruins by Gustave Doré – discovered in this book.
• Another Garçon - shout out to fashion blog friend and street style photographer Jonathan who was a very active contributor to the show.
• The Style Blogger – referenced on the topic of standard street style poses for men.
• Hedi Slimane at YSL – Slimane’s earlier work was gutsy and unusual and worth a long later look.
• Joe Orton – a gay playwright famous for black comedy and taking on taboos, who died tragically.
• Pan-Africanism – we briefly touch on greater ideas before reverting back to frivolity.
• Toe to Type – we attempt to discuss inappropriate toe shapes for men before completely dissolving into our cups.
• This edition’s outro – “Life’s What You Make It” by Talk Talk.

We had a lot of fun and having reviewed the footage, have some ideas of how we could improve for the second edition. We also thank you for your participation and welcome your comments and suggestions. We’d like to do this about once a month, so please stand by and join us next time.

Want to have a drink and hang out with me and Barima of Mode Parade? We will be talking culture and style, live, on our new modecast channel on Sunday, January 29 at 9pm GMT/4pm EST. Please feel free to ask questions for us to address on the broadcast. Just email your bit to  finalfashion@gmail.com. Of course we also invite you to watch and join the discussion live by chat, twitter or facebook.

This edition’s topics include cocktails, theme songs, straight male fashion bloggers, toe shapes for men, and whether makeovers are somehow disingenuous, etc.

This is just something we’re doing for low-fidelity fun, and depending on how well we do it may become a recurring feature. As this is the first time we’ve ever attempted this, we expect to be a little bit lost and somewhat tipsy. Your attendance, patience, and contributions will be most welcome.

Now that Julian Roberts’ Subtraction Cutting Tour is coming to Toronto (June 14 & 15, get tickets here), I’ve given myself the challenge of persuading people that its a class well worth taking.  Beyond this city, the tour is also making stops in New York, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Portland – so if you’re near any of those places this summer, this post is for you.

I met Julian online at the end of 2005, back when I was fairly active on The Fashion Spot.  We were looking at some of his work, and me being the skeptical little troll that I used to be (sometimes still am), I posted something to the effect of “what’s so special about it?” – well, if you’ve got a lot of time on your hands you can read through the whole thread here.  To my great surprise, and eventual delight, Julian found the thread and engaged the forum-dwellers in a discussion about his work, took the time to answer our questions, and successfully showed me what was so special about what he does.

Julian Roberts is a designer who is experimental both in how he develops his designs and also how he shows them.  This video, called “killing labels” records highlights of his portfolio.

As someone who is obsessed with the transitional, ephemeral qualities of fashion (hence, Final Fashion and this site’s old subheader, the last collection) Julian’s act of killing labels inspires me.  He captures the most exciting parts of the process – the creation, and the showing, and turns the act of being a fashion designer from a very pragmatic act of creating objects for sale into the very radical act of allowing fashion to be ideas, events and images and nothing else, eliminating all of the material aspects that weigh down the process, leaving only the physical act of designing.  As someone who loves the act of design but has no desire to see my name on labels, Julian’s career showed me that it is possible to design outside of the boundaries of the existing industry, to celebrate and share fashion as action rather than as a commodity.

Subtraction Cutting is one of the techniques that Julian uses to create, and the one that he is teaching on this tour.  It is difficult to describe, so I would like to compare it to life drawing, or those creative writing exercises where the student is encouraged to write within parameters, but without planning.  Its an exercise that boils down the act of designing, cutting, and sewing a garment into something that is fast and free, uninhibited and playful.

This is a technique that even those who have never sewn before can easily dive into, and those of us who are trained in traditional ways of doing things can recapture the original sense of wonder and discovery that first attracted us to designing.

Plus, Julian is just a very generous, candid dreamer of a professor, the kind of professor who you will always remember, and that comes across in the conversation I had with him.

This class will be a tremendous, transformative treat for anyone who loves to make things.  I invite you to come and share this experience with me.  Please buy a ticket – Julian and I would love to see you there!

For my first ever podcast, I decided to interview my Oma, Herta Meder, not only to get familiar with how to use audio, but also because I’ve inherited my own interest in fashion from Oma and I’ve always wanted to record her experiences with fashion.

As my first ever phone interview and podcast, it is not very edited and moves a bit slowly – but if you do listen, you will hear my Oma’s stories about working with a dressmaker in Germany just after the Second World War, being an immigrant wife in Canada and creating her own wardrobe inspired by the fashions of the time, and eventually working for clothing manufacturers in Winnipeg and Toronto in the 1970s and 80s.

These images, taken from slides, are of my Oma modeling an outfit on the runway, which she designed for a competition at the end of the 1960s. It was a miniskirt, hat and cape created from a Hudson’s Bay blanket.  Oma won a prize for this creation – a Pfaff sewing machine.

Thank you so much Oma, for everything!