fourONEsixSTYLE

Taking a page from NYC’s Fashion Week, celebrated in midtown’s Bryant Park, Toronto’s week of runway shows is also back in a prime pedestrian intersection, Nathan Philips Square. I’ve been around for the Liberty Grand shows and Muzik too but this venue excites me a bit more. Likely it’s because the best fashion I see in Toronto is on the streets, where style is most exposed. It’s also where, rubbing shoulders with strangers all day long, fashion plays the biggest part in your identity, you can play it up or play it down, be anyone you feel, swathed in the sweet cloak of anonymity.

L’Oreal Fashion Week begins its showing of fall collections for 2008 on March 17th.

The Distillery District is one of a few places I visited during last weekend’s Doors Open Toronto. This heritage area can be found near Parliament and Lakeshore, just off Mill Street.

Down at the Distillery the doors had been thrown open to buildings and secret areas few of us ever get to see inside. Within the dusty Scale Tank Loft we found the tanks and scales used by the government to measure and ultimately tax the booze which flowed out of Gooderham & Worts until the 1990’s.

We wandered into the open Rack House where booze was stored for 2 years at a time until it was allowed to be sold, another government intervention.

I was most excited to get into the Kilns Building and Tunnel but regrettably didn’t have the time to wait in the long line leading down into these secret catacombs.

Instead, my friends and I wandered through the street level galleries, like my favourite the Monte Clark Gallery, and found some artists on the upper levels who willingly threw their doors open too. Then, a bit thirsty from the dusty air and dry heat, we stopped in at the Mill Strett Brewery for a beverage and a bite. (I had a ceasar but I do love their Organic beer).

I’d gone down with a couple friends since one had told me she’d never seen the Distillery. I’m still amazed when I hear from Torontonians that they’ve never visited this part of the city which boasts North America’s largest example of Victorian Industrial architecture and is a popular spot for filming in Toronto.

It’s lovely but packed during the day with pedestrian only sidewalks brimming with people and pooches. Given its eerie history it’s fun to wander through the Distillery’s dark and empty pathways by moonlight too.

Photos 1, 2 and 4 by blogTO author and photographerMike Rotenberg, photos no. 3 by me/sookie. Story originally posted on blogTO.

For those who get totally stressed-out Christmas shopping I have one piece of advice - go local and stay out of the malls. Over the course of two rainy days I’ve found nearly everything I need in Bloor West, Parkdale and West Queen West, granted I’ve been buying for people who love design as much as I do and it’s always easier to find unique gifts away from the dreaded mall.

Relatively new to the block is blue igloo in Parkdale, a small shop with a bit of everything for the home. Every time I go in I leave with something for my flat, but this time the silver teardrop lamp I picked up had someone else’s name on it. At Jolanta Interiors on Bloor every kitchen accessory you could dream up is somewhere on its shelves. Smallish brandy glasses were a nightmare to find anywhere else - they were out, too pricey or not the right shape - but they were a quick find at this established shop in the village. Wish I’d bought the ramekins for creme brulee for $1.50 a piece at Jolanta’s instead of at Williams Sonoma at $11 a pop, though WS did wrap them up extra pretty.

Of all the places I’d been Studio Brillantine at Dovercourt and Queen is my fav. Whenever I’m lost for gift ideas SB is where I end up. I spent an hour looking at every piece in the store - Stelton’s stainless steel coffee set by Arne Jacobsen, Shiseido candies from Ginza, Toyko and minimal digital watches by Philippe Stark. It’s the kind of stuff that wins design awards and gets noticed - conversation pieces - the kind of pieces people usually don’t buy for themselves but would love to own and probably don’t already have. I left with a great bag of goodies, easily finding something for the home-office guy, the entertainer and the traveler too all in one simple spot.

Studio Brillantine @ 1082 Queen Street West. Ph: 416.536.6521
Jolanta Interiors @ 2368 Bloor St. W. Ph: 416.762.9638
Blue Igloo - now online only.

the drake hotel toronto
Originally uploaded by 416style.

Back in the day, Queen West was the place to go, to eat and to shop, but the big boys and big brands moved in, and though it still has some charm and style, cool had to move further west. It did, and West Queen West was born. More great boutiques and eateries, including Susur Lee’s designer fish and chip shop.

This became the new trendy part of Queen, now near Trinity Park, but it too has lost its original boho charm. So let’s go further west, out near the Queen Street Mental Health monolith. Welcome. Until recently, the rundown area didn’t see too much action, but it’s come alive, and it is the new cool. Now galleries and subdued cafes easily mix with greasy spoons and vintage clothing shops.

I’d long meant to see what the area had to offer. Today was the perfect opportunity, I’d drank too much at The Drake Hotel last night and had to go back for my car this morning. So this is where my stroll began, at The Drake’s Beaconsfield Street. 18 galleries I counted, on a 6 block stretch to Shaw.

I hadn’t even noticed the largest of them before, the MOCCA (Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art). Its student art show didn’t impress me the same way the smaller galleries work did, where works of art, design and science hung and were projected onto spaces gutted to the reveal the guts and bones of an original 1800’s building.

The Deleon White gallery with it’s massive ceilings took me in. I nodded to the fantastic little man working away on his mac G4 laptop. Upstairs, the Emmersive gallery showed me what a water drop looks like magnified and made luminescent by a laser beam. The Spin Gallery had its homo-moderne twist of New York 70s body art.

A few blocks further down, at the Clint Roenisch Gallery, I realized that gallery owners whiling away at their G4’s is a bit of a cliché. I enjoyed the artist’s printing techniques while coyly smiling in his direction.

Katherine Mulherin’s Contemporary Art Projects space was most impressive (see link). Strewn across the walls were small frames of needlework showing little Japanese space girls partying with polar bears, something I’m sure Bjork would love to see. There were futuristic robot dolls and also a map of the world etched out of several old layers of paint on an antique piece of wood. I liked that the space contained a variety of media and artists’ work.

How charming this street is, I thought as I looked up to the sign for Camera Bar, a swank and original little space used for screening movies. This, I thought, had to be filmmaker Atom Egoyan’s new venture. It was indeed. The filmmaker sat at the edge of its communal table, while people poured out into the street, no doubt reflecting on the latest kudos received at Cannes.

So cool can be found, but not always where you’d think. Because if everybody already knows about it no doubt it’s already lost some originality, and isn’t that what cool is all about.

Explore a little farther down the street next time and see where it takes you.