surprise, surprise

so, working at flare, you'd expect to be surrounded by expensive designer pieces, right? well, the other day, i picked up an amazing pair of black chunky strappy heels expecting them to be marni or something. but, no - aldo. that same day, i did the same with h&m shoes and clothes and cheap monday/rodebjer pieces.

i guess what i'm trying to say is keep your eyes peeled for next season's shoes and clothing at places like h&m, zara and aldo. eek!

on another note, i am becoming obsessed with fringe! for those of you who follow style.com, you'll notice that the cover story is shredded bliss right now. 

so many designers from alberta ferretti to jill sander are trying out this look. fringe comes in many materials, from suede and silk to even plastic and metal chain. there's also a huge variety of colours and sizes, but my person favourite is the silky loopy stringy beige fringe. and (surprise, surprise) i stumbled upon a cute and classic fringe dress on h&m's website. 

gimme gimme!

like boys

today, h&m launches their comme des garçons collection in select stores. when i first heard about this, i was fairly excited and interested in what rei kawakubo would have to offer the middle class, but after taking a peek at the website, i wasn't very impressed. the asymmetric cuts, polka dot patterns and saggy pants don't do it for me. in my opinion, it looks cheap and thrown together. of course, there are many who will disagree with me on this, though. i'm just waiting for the day when h&m teams up with vivienne westwood (though i could imagine that looking cheap, too), or marc jacobs.

on another note, h&m is coming out with a new line called divided exclusive. i got a sneak peek at some pieces at flare, and they're surprisingly nice, considering their older divided line was juvenile and tacky.

sixty-nine

one of my lifelong dreams has been to own my own boutique. more recently, i've wanted to own a vintage boutique. i recently got the opportunity to speak with kealan, the owner of 69 vintage at queen west and dovercourt (beside that beloved bar that we all know and love). here's a little bit of what she said, for those of you interested...

this is garbage: what influenced you into opening a vintage boutique and when did you open?

69 vintage: we opened in 2004. it'd been a wish to open my own vintage store for 10 years and i had been collecting clothes since i was a teenager. i was lucky enough to meet some other guys who also shared my interest and collected clothes, too, so we opened a business together.

tig: what was the hardest part of starting up?

69: organizing everything to start a business.

tig: why shop vintage?

69: people are becoming more fashion-aware and they like a varied selection of clothes that are authentic and original. there's also a big price difference between vintage garments and newly manufactured clothes.

tig: where do you get the items you sell?

69: [laughs] i don't want to reveal my sources, but i shop locally, sometimes outsource, and i also have friends and connections that help me find new items.

tig: what's the best/worst part about owning a vintage store?

69: the best part is the constant changes in fashion. they're always unpredictable. it's nice to know that the clothes are being recycled, so it's environmentally friendly. as for the bad side... there isn't much of one. i dunno... sometimes we get in interesting customers [laughs].

tig: why do you think vintage clothing is so popular now?

69: people are ecologically proud, want to save money and want to have a unique style. the stigma of used clothes is slowly going away.

tig: how is business now compared to past years?

69: the first two years were slow, but it has increased ever since.

tig: what advice do you have for those of us who aspire to own our own vintage boutique?

69: learn about the retail industry and understand the importance of continuous customer care. prepare for demanding customers. create your own special service to make your boutique unique. keep in mind that the rewards are always the same . there's not much change in the job, so it's important to like what you are doing and be passionate. 

tig: any final words?

69: i'm basically living my dream.

obama fo' yo' mama

i may not know much about politics, but any friend of terry richardson is damn cool in my books.

flare fashion room, leigh speaking.

so my first day at flare is finally over. 

contrary to what i had gone in expecting, things were pretty slow today, however most other days, there is never an end to what needs to be done. shipping, receiving, packaging, labeling, organizing everything from lookbooks and past issues to hangers and boxes, answering calls, signing letters... and there's much more to learn in the weeks to come. to be honest, watching the hills can give you a fairly good interpretation of how the fashion room works and looks (like a closet). my new little hideout that i'll be inhabiting twice a week. hopefully things will be a little bit more busy on friday so that i can start getting practice to get the hang of things.

on another note, i just watched this short video from style.com featuring manolo blahnik. he's so cute! the newest video is also worth watching, featuring coco rocha and jpg at a fitting and rehearsal.

ps: congrats to fiona for getting the assistant fashion editor position! amazing!

uh oh

i'm officially a flare intern!

but with this success comes a ton of stress. i haven't even had my first shift there and i already feel overwhelmed! fashion school, part-time job and now an internship?! i don't know what i've gotten myself into, but i am going to try to change a few things in order to better manage my time...

anyway, tomorrow's my first day at flare! i can't wait to start.

bert & ernie up the ante