I enjoy keeping an eye on who the fashion bloggers in Canada are, and one question that comes up from time to time is whether there are any menswear focused blogs in Canada. I always recommend Thom Wong’s site The Sunday Best – based out of Vancouver. Thom’s site celebrates his taste in all things, but especially clothing and music. He occasionally illustrates little story blog posts, something very rare and charming.  He also produces podcasts from time to time and kindly gave me a few tips when I started my own podcast adventures. I asked Thom a few questions about niche blogging and the connection between music and style.

When I think of great fashion blogs in Canada that focus on menswear, I think of you… and then my mind goes blank. Are there any other members of your niche I should be aware of?

That’s very flattering, but I’d hardly call my blog great if only for the simple reason that I don’t put nearly enough time into it. (Wendy Brandes has a great article on this at IFB). I don’t link to any men’s style blogs written by Canadians, but that hardly means great ones aren’t out there. I just don’t tend to read style blogs.

I just Googled “men’s style blog Canada” and the first hit is my friends at Style Salvage out of England. So maybe part of the problem is Google.

Here’s one I found at random: Blame it on Vancouver

Do you agree that there is a lack of great men’s fashion blogs out there, or is supply more or less equal to demand?

I’ve thought about this more than I should, and my feeling is supply actually exceeds demand – in the sense that any at all might be too much. Men just don’t discuss fashion the same way as women do. By that I don’t mean they simply talk about it less, although they do, but more that they talk about it differently. For example, I read Street Etiquette regularly now, but I can’t imagine reading another men’s style blog dedicated to the writer(s)’ style. Almost no one is writing about men’s style from a critical or theoretical standpoint, but I don’t get any sense that there’s a demand for that. I’d read that site.

You are also an avid follower of music – do you think your taste in clothing complements or contrasts with your taste in music?

There was an article in Radar Magazine about “twee-mo” and I was horrified to find how much I fit into it. Wes Anderson movies. Earl Grey tea. McSweeney’s. But the kicker was the styling of the two models – Moscots and bowties and fitted blazers. Basically they pwn’d me, and I had no response.

I also read somewhere that Vampire Weekend had ruined the way rock stars dress. First of all, VW are not “rock stars.” Pete Doherty, god bless him, is a rock star. Not in the sense of his popularity, but in the sense that he seems hell bent on personal destruction.

All this to say – yes, my taste in music is probably discernible from my style.

Are there any music artists in particular whose sartorial savvy is equal to their ability to rock?

Janelle Monae. Full-stop. I am completely obsessed with her. Ok, and David Byrne.

Can you describe a favourite fashion experience you’ve had?

Every time I go into Blackbird in Seattle. It’s just a nice place to hang out.

My first ever glossy magazine editorial illustration was in the July issue of Threads Magazine, a magazine I used and enjoyed even before I became a fashion student. Threads had also introduced me to some of my favourite 20th century designers, Fortuny and Charles Kleibacker. The brief was to illustrate a delighted seamstress showing off her magically perfect darts, I also included my own favourite vintage domestic machine, the Necchi, as a little tribute to my Nana who gave me the machine.

Thanks so much to the editors and staff at Threads for this opportunity – I consider it a milestone in my brief career.

The title of this post is nicked from Sarah Nicole when I was asking her about the social side of building a fashion career. When she was featured in the Worthy 30, this quip:

Why Shinan picked me “My hair looks expensive?”

… made me do a double take.  I asked her in regards to “it girl” social status: How much does hair have to do with it?  I remember your comment for the worthy 30 bit, and I remember thinking that quip wasn’t just a quip – hair seems to play a very significant role in fashion blogland too. Sarah Nicole replied:

Ha! Well, I was just being sardonic, but you’re right–hair is a conscious statement.

I was reminded of that exchange on twitter when there was some discussion of personal brands, and @canice drew the connection to hair again.

Ever since I committed to growing out my hair this year, I’ve been thinking about the connection between hair, personal brands, social status and fashion identity.  The decision to grow out was the first real deliberate decision I’ve made in regards to hair since I chopped off my waist-length hair at the age of 14.  Since then, I’ve had my hair cut in a variety of styles in a haphazard, impulsive fashion, until a stage in 2008-2009 where I was getting hair school haircuts with little to no consultation with my stylists. Random acts of hair are incredibly reckless way to play with your self esteem and identity, especially when you have chosen to make a career in an industry where image is so critical. It took one disastrous cut to force me to my senses.

I am aware that it sounds incredibly flip to place so much importance on hair, but here’s the thing: HAIR IS CRITICAL. Especially in fashion, and even more so when you are creating an online identity.

Here’s why: your first impression for a lot of people is a 48 pixel by 48 pixel square.  It should be of your face because as I’ve mentioned before, human beings have an irresistible urge to connect with faces. But lets face it – at that scale your features and expression are reduced to a mere suggestion of information. The biggest feature on your head is your hair – and like it or not, your choices about colour and shape are a signal about who you are. If you have any ambitions at all, that signal should be a conscious one.

Case Studies

I first began to notice the connection between hair and social status, both online and in real life, when I noticed that Gala Darling and Nubby Twiglet made the move from livejournal to fashion blogland in 2007. Here were two personal style bloggers with a considerable following and a strong point of view.

Nubby has a very clear, consistent visual identity, part of which is her striking, carefully-parted, long black hair. It suits her perfectly (and graphically) and she rarely varies it – she is someone who understands the power of a signature look (learned at a young age).

Gala’s hair changes frequently and dramatically which suits someone whose blog mission is all about personal transformation. She chooses bright colours, switches it up with extensions, accessorizes it with a collection of mouse ears, bunny ears, flower crowns, and other oversized, attention-grabbing adornment.  Descriptions of Gala often mention her hair in the first or second sentence – it is a commanding tool that draws people to her writing work, and sometimes distracts them from it. Her recent abandonment of pink was one of those telling little moments in the evolution of an online identity. She wrote:

I really miss having pink hair sometimes, even though I am pleased to be a blonde. I don’t know if I will ever go back to pink hair, because I feel like it does all your talking for you. Does that make sense?

In early 2010, when the fashion industry trend towards celebrification of teenaged fashion bloggers was in full swing, there was another moment worth noting when it comes to selecting an unnatural hair colour, when Tavi of Style Rookie went blue. This was an imitative move, done with the same guileless quality that Tavi does everything. She collected examples of what she wanted and went there – like a lot of kids, unnatural hair colour is a rebellion against your genetics (and your parents) – and in Tavi’s case, it was a deliberate visual entrance into the grown-up club of the incredibly fashionable just before she went to the couture shows. It seems like instinctively, Tavi understands that what’s on your head will get people talking for you or against you. The bow hat fiasco just amplified that lesson for all of us. Now that Tavi’s hair is red (and without her parent’s permission) it is clear that she’s taking control of her own head and her own narrative.

So sometimes hair is signature, and sometimes it is mutable, and sometimes it is absent.  In Toronto, the fashion blogger with the most distinctive head is Anita of I want – I got whose signature look is bald. It completely suits her style which is modern, assertive, unpretentious, with a complete lack of patience for bullshit. I don’t believe it is a coincidence that Anita’s blog has the most powerful clout of any fashion blog in town. The same sense of identity and confidence that makes her such a striking woman allows her to be all the more influential.

From Suzy Menkes to Diane Pernet to Betsey Johnson to Rick Owens, hair statements are clearly not just important for models, regardless of the fashion career you’ve chosen, hair choices can serve to amplify visibility, and ultimately, status and the possibilities status confers.

Conscious Statements

Now that I’m being deliberate about my hair, I very specifically am asking for haircuts that don’t look like haircuts. As I’ve become more confident in expressing my identity visually, I know that my identity is a bit more nuanced and rather than making bright bold statements with cuts and colours, there is a certain quality of anti-statement which I feel is defining of what I do, from the contrary name of the blog to my obsession with archetypal rather than unique clothing.

How has hair affected your own choices as an online persona or as a follower of online personas? Is it conscious or unconscious?

Welcome to click click, the sporadic review of what I find worth clicking on the internet.

This picture has nothing to do with the internet – it is a collage that has been attached to a chain link fence in my neighbourhood, and may be one of my favourite pieces of random street art ever – not just for the delightful figure drawings, but also for the natural, progressive state of decay.  Click for big.

• Schumer Bill Seeks to Protect Fashion Design – Cathy Horyn reports on a new bill meant to modify the DPPA to take into account the concerns of the AAFA. Fashion-Incubator explains why the Schumer Bill is an improvement on the previous fashion design copyright bill. Even as an illustrator, I find copyright concerns to be increasingly anachronistic, so it is interesting to see fashion going against the current (as usual). The times are forcing us to radically re-assess copyright in all media, I’m not sure if so much sandbagging is going to keep the inevitable from happening, not that I know what the inevitable will be.
• Electric Chaircut – interactive performance art – this man tapes people into chairs, and then gives them haircuts using instruments that make noise through a speaker strapped to his back. Wacky. Hat tip @geekigirl.
• Learn Your Damn Homophones – another terrific link from @geekigirl, I’m not too proud to admit that I found this useful.
• The Beats: Picture of a Legend – review of a book of photographs by Allen Ginsberg of the beats when they were young, with some juicy excerpts including this ultimate truism from Ginsberg: “If you’re famous, you can get away with anything!”
• Seven Years as a Freelance Writer – one of the best mini-memoirs of the freelance experience I’ve ever read, I was nodding all the way through. Gutsy moves, hunger hurts, high hopes and low downs, big wins and devastating losses, it is one of the craziest ways to make a living – and I’ve never known it any other way.
• Fashion industry internships: exploitation or experience? – a look at upper-middle-class slavery – er – the fashion internship economy in the UK. In a winner take all market, a lot of people are racing to the bottom.
• Eloise at Conde Nast – a brief memoir of the internship experience at the prestigious NYC publisher.
• Doodled Dandies – paper dolls get dandified, and look terrific doing it.
• The Man Repeller – enter the trend of fashion blogs with cute gimmicks, and this one is one of the best I’ve seen. Hat tip @tiyanagrulovic.

Karma kisses for linkers -

• On the Fourth Floor: Media Darling – boutique PR firm (and sponsor of the site) rock-it promotions have just started blogging and they are total naturals.  They interviewed me for their column “Media Darling”, where I talk blogger/PR relationships – its an honour to be included among some other stellar interviewees.  Thanks rock-it!
• AnOther – nice surprise that someone at one of the better style sites is reading – thanks Felicity – and I guess it is just lucky that my site is so much more linkable than Prada’s.
• blogTO – Frugal Fashion Week’s fabulous footwear finale – alliterative shout-out from fellow shoe-customizer Briony.

I am blessed to have clients of all kinds, and sometimes I get the chance to do something a little more personal, a little less fashion-y.  This was my first time creating an image for a wedding invitation, for lovely Final Fashion reader Lia. The couple are thrilled with the results and that is the best feeling. All my best wishes for your future together, Lia and Alex!

Sometimes the loveliest projects sizzle into so much smoke. When I got this amazing jacket from Evan Biddell, I exchanged my services as an illustrator to create an ad for a certain independent publication. We came up with this, which I still think is graphic and slick and a lot of fun to put together, but for some reason it never made it to print. Now Evan is no longer a resident at the studio in question, so it doesn’t really matter. Still, I consider it a great, recent addition to my portfolio.

For my final paper doll of the Fall 2010 season, I selected Chanel Haute Couture.  The shapes recall the over-padded, grown-up, rich-people clothes of the 1980s, but the styling was modern rock-chic at its very best.  Karl Lagerfeld’s genius is quite apparent when going through the collection, and the clothes sketched so easily, perhaps because they were cut and sewn based on sketches in the first place.  The doll is based on model Anna Selevezna.

You can buy this paper doll as a high-resolution, printable PDF to cut out and play with! Only $5 CDN. Just click the button below.

Even though I am not a designer, sometimes I am seized with a desire to make a dress. Even if I have better things to do, I’ll find myself feverishly drafting, cutting and sewing to make my idea in the cloth. This is one of those dresses. I shamelessly imitated the bodice of the Butikofer dress I love, but redesigned the skirt to suit some oatmeal crinkle cotton I had on hand, left over from my grad collection.

Once I put it on, I don’t want to take it off.  It doesn’t even come across in pictures just how pretty this dress makes me look and feel. I get an unprecedented amount of compliments and attention in this dress, it is like it is made out of some sort of magic sense of attraction or something.

The maxi trend suits me just fine – it shows off the body parts I love (my shoulders, back, waist and arms), hides what I don’t love as much (my legs and ankles), and just manages to seem so effortless and dressed up at the same time.  I’m planning on making a couple more long skirts and dresses next time the inspiration grips me.  There really is nothing like imagining something and making it real.

A word from… is a monthly news post contributed by the incredible sponsors who support Final Fashion. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, please get in touch.

–

Lisa from rock-it promotions says…

We’re expressing our personal style with original pieces from Made You Look Accessories. Buying unique, locally made pieces satisfies our fashion cravings.

Here are a few of our current favourites:

Tiny Tie necklaces ($30) by Tweek, are reclaimed, up-cycled and reconstructed onto a nickel chain to create this one-of-a-kind necklace. Totally cute and a great conversation piece for any summer soiree.

Syn Accessories has charming and affordable earrings ($12 to $30) in the shape of cassette tapes, ladders and meat cleavers. Great for a hostess gift in place of a bottle of wine.

The lovely Boho Collection by Nicole Kagan features some stunning statement necklaces, like the Scribble Bib ($185) necklace show below. This is an investment piece that you won’t regret.

Made You Look (1273 and 1338 Queen Street West) is a collaborative of more than 100 Toronto-area, self employed jewelry designers. Each designer has a unique take on accessories. There are 20 on-site designers manufacturing beautiful things in the store, so go for a visit and make sure you have some time to spend browsing.

For more about Made You Look, visit their website.

–

Vanessa from 18Karat says…

This year has been a lot about building on some of the new ideas and concepts began the year before. Blending our retail space into a gallery space that promotes local artists has certainly numbered as one of our successes.  Not only are we providing a space where young artists can take their first shot at showing their work to the public, we are also actively promoting to the public our belief that jewellery can be art, not just an accessory. Like every other creative community in the city, the jewellery arts are thriving and we can’t help but be passionate and excited about it.

As the Emerge 2010 group show featuring recent graduates from George Brown’s Jewellery Arts program wraps up, our first ever juried art show begins August 9 – 21st. Envy seeks to use what is coveted to explore the complex and vast means in which we express our insatiable desires. Please join us at 275 Dundas Street West on August 9th from 5 – 7pm as we host an opening reception for all the artists involved in the show, at 18Karat.

–

Paige from Bicyclette says…

The past few weeks have been a blur of activity in the Bicyclette studio as the final arrangements are made to launch the online store. One of the most exciting things for me is putting together the photo shoots: gathering inspiration, styling the looks, working with hair and makeup, and collaborating with a team of talented individuals to bring the vision to life. For the most recent shoot, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and took to the streets, bicycle in tow, of course. I thought I would share a sneak peek of one of my favourite look book shots from the day.

Welcome to click click, the sporadic review of what I find worth clicking on the internet.

I checked out the Douglas Coupland collaboration at the Roots flagship on Bloor. I really dig how Coupland (whose books I have not read yet) chose the alternate, unusual iconography for Canada – that of a technological nation, “indoorsy”, the country of Marshall McLuhan, Expo ’67, vast open spaces spanned by wires. When I saw the initial ads, with models in cheesy poses, I wasn’t convinced, but when I saw the artwork above in the store, I wished that these images had been used for promotion, they’re so striking. Above is “Brilliant Information Overload Pop” by Douglas Coupland.

• Chanel to quit Sears in dispute over dollar – I’ve been following this story for a few months now – its worth scrolling down to the “related information” section at the bottom of the article for the background. Its interesting to watch these big companies throw their weight around. Unlike Chanel, most vendors aren’t gutsy enough to call Sears’ bluff.
• Stephen Fry: What I wish I’d known when I was 18 – A wonderful interview with a wise and witty man about being social, whether online or in real life. Hat tip @bindinglogic.
• Artisanal Pencil Sharpening – nice to see someone is reviving the art of service in the face of DIY culture.
• KNOTpr – a day in the life – Tatiana expands on a question I asked her once, sharing the minute details of a day in the life of an up and coming PR star.
• How Supermodels are like Toxic Assets – this article is fascinating, comparing the injustices of fashion to the social influences on financial markets. A must read for anyone pursuing a career in a “winner-take-all” market.  Hat Tip Jezebel.
• My Vintage Vogue – terrific collection of old fashion magazine scans.
• FASHION Magazine wants you to vlog – seems a bit redundant to make a video for a chance to win a video camera, but this might be a terrific opportunity for an up and coming Canadian fashion blogger.

Karmarama for linkies and commenties…

• Echo Bella – “Passion for all things beautiful…fashion, jewelry, food, decor, photography and people I love.”
• Boys and Heels – “Frugal Fashion Week’s official blog”
• tweek – “I am addicted to making – one of a kind things, quirky things, slightly out there things.”
• Handsome&Lace – “Creating beauty from preserved materials…a McGyver of accessories if you will.”
• Simone Richmond – “jewellery inspired by shapes and patterns found in lace and textiles”
• HéBé’s Blog – “So deal with it or just look at the pictures if you are completely desperate.”
• Communicando Moda – “Especialista em Moda”