Month: July 2020

“We should inspire each other to reach better living standards together, instead of elbowing each other to be at the top of others.”

Montreal-based multi-hyphenate Caroline Pham, who launched her accessories brand Ora-C five years ago, looks at the world a little differently. Actually, it’s hard to say if sometimes she’s not looking at this world at all. Instead, Pham–who graduated from Parsons the New School of Design after studying illustration and industrial design–is a vibe seeker. Imagery from cultures both familiar and unfamiliar are the undercurrents of her inspiration, manifesting in evocative handmade pieces like earrings crafted with an assortment of gemstones, and bracelets with ‘piercings’. Having recently re-opened her studio boutique along with L.L.Y Atelier, Pham caught up with FASHION to talk about her magnetizing work and what’s been on her mind during the COVID-19 crisis and uprising of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Tell me about the latest collection, Folk L’Ore. What’s the story behind it, and what’s your favourite piece?

I’ve always used a lot of flowers and rocks in my previous collections’ shoots as props. Nature has been a huge inspiration since day one; the grimmer the world around us gets, the closer I want to feel to nature. But in the Folk L’Ore collection, I used the floral inspiration and the use of stones more literally in the shapes of my pieces. I have botanical references all over, like petal shapes stamped with my finger tips, vine-like swirls or coils, and natural semi-precious gemstones such as carnelian, jade, blue-lace agates and freshwater pearls. This collection is also a slow re-birth of my work toward leaving textiles and tassels behind and embracing the use of stones, which are the main medium I now use in my one-of-a-kind series.

My aesthetic has always looked towards a romantic form of nostalgia for historical jewels, all while making them look like they still belong in modern days. My jewellery lives in a sort of made-up exoticism, like coming from a far away world we think we can recognize, yet cannot quite put our finger on. It’s a theme I have played with a lot in my work due to the fact that I grew up in multiple cultures at once. I never lived each culture in-depth, I therefore would create my own narratives about them since a young age. In my jewellery, I think it allows people to weave their own narrative into the pieces they buy from me. This is the reason why I think jewellery can be so personal and precious to all.

My favourite piece from Folk L’Ore seems to be changing regularly. I personally wear the Ginette earrings everyday! They are these feminine petal-shaped dangles that can look like you have two earrings at once. A nice little tingling sound follows you around all day when you where them. However pieces like the Roberte and the Louisette earrings really make me feel proud of my work. They are the bolder version of my aim to make regal-looking pieces, a fantasy I have been inspired to explore a lot lately.

And tell me about your OOAK designs. What inspires them?

The original inspiration came during my first trip to Mexico three years ago. I traveled with two friends around the country and found so many amazing hand-cut stones and dead-stock loads in bazaars and small towns; the kind you cannot find when buying from regular avenues. I bought so many, it created this new departure for me to attempt to use unique stones in my work for the first time. Before I knew it, it became an annual ritual. To release the new OOAK series in the spring and summer, based on the stones I have been gathering on trips I would take during the winter days.

It’s such a freeing mindset, to break away from the regular fashion schedule and create pieces that are unique and not reproducible. This makes the designing process a lot less restricting and releases my creative juices to go the extra mile with wilder, bolder pieces that can attract a more niche clientele. In fact, this direction is more and more an avenue I have the intention to explore. It is finding parallels to my values as a small business of promoting slow fashion and ethical sourcing. It also refocuses my love for making and designing jewellery in a creative way. To me, mass-producing pieces that are already available on the market for the sake of trend and profit bores me. I guess I am a romantic artist at heart.

How does living in Montreal influence your work?

 Montreal is a very progressive city when it comes to sustainability mixed with full-blown creativity. There is a real sense of community that pushes for slower consumerism, environmentally-friendly practices, and support for smaller businesses. In fact, in the last few years I have noticed an ever increasing growth of very interesting brands that is redefining the Montreal fashion scene into one to watch out for in the international sphere.

I feel like moving to Montreal has allowed me to make ORA-C a reality. It’s extremely affordable and is hence a vibrant hub for small businesses and creative people in general. There are so many inspiring people here. The pace of living is really soothing, too. So much stress comes from running a small business alone, if I was still in New York City–I lived there for 10 years before moving back here in 2013–I would have had multiple burnouts already. Working here has really helped me be more aligned with my core values of ethical practices, while still being surrounded by extremely creative and talented people to pair myself with to produce incredible work.

What’s the biggest difference you’ve noticed between the New York fashion industry and the industries in Canada and Montreal?

New Yorkers have a fake-it-till-you-make-it mentality, with dabs of side hustles all around. I lived there for 10 very formative years, so in a way there is a part of me that was cut from the same cloth. To live in New York has taught me to work my ass off. But also it inspired me with its ever-dazzling boldness, and its fearless attitude to be seen and heard. The creative juices coming out of this mega city are endless, from the lowest brow to the highest crust. But in the long run, in order to create and focus on my own work, Montreal was a much better fit for my brand.

The Montreal fashion industry to me is a smaller and quieter pond in comparison. At first when I moved back here in 2013, I thought the Montreal fashion industry was too safe and beige. But in the last few years, I really noticed some exciting new brands and designers coming out with the boldness and fire I always loved in New York. It’s having a moment lately, but it’s still coming out of its shell. So though it does not reach the same vibrance levels as New York’s fashion, it has the asset to be malleable. There are fewer established rules, so creativity and innovation is open to all. Plus there is less of an economic pressure for Montreal brands as living standards here are less expensive. We can live comfortably on the edge, without gambling away our brands’ to huge investors that will demand profitability over art and ethics. Additionally, with the industry slowly moving away from retail into the online sphere, the city where your brand is based is almost irrelevant. People can find your work from all over the world and buy it online. As a result, I feel grateful to be living in a city where the rent is affordable and living standards are calmer, all while being surrounded by a vibrant community of inspiring creators in this lovely city.

Tell me about your studio, and why it’s important for you to be able to interact with your customers there.

 My studio is almost more my home than my apartment is. I practically live there. All my work is handmade in this beautiful space, mainly by myself, except for the occasional extra hand I get from a single assistant whenever demand gets busier. Mostly it is me and my studio-mates; we’re three artists sharing the space. Since last year, the studio has partly become a boutique space open to the public every Thursday for anyone to come visit and try on pieces in person without the pressure to buy. It’s a great way to avoid the fees of a brick-and-mortar boutique and to keep a sense of privacy when I work during the rest of the week days. To welcome clients directly into my work space creates the possibility for a deeper relationship with the people who buy my work–to share what goes on behind the slick images of my brand. I can show people how the pieces are made, what is in the works, and show them that it’s really just me behind it all. Customer service for me has always been key. I love chatting with my clients and will always repair pieces they have bought from me, most of the time on my own dime. I just want people to love and wear their pieces for as long as possible.

What are you feeling optimistic about these days given the many issues the COVID-19 crisis and the Black Lives Matter movement have recently brought to light?

I was reading an article in the New Yorker the other day that compared the current pandemic to the 14th century worldwide Bubonic plague and the Black Death in Italy. The article argues how though it wreaked havoc, it essentially lead way to a new wave that opened people’s minds on science, philosophy and politics. It gave way to a wind of fresh air of common sense, basically allowing the birth of what we now know as the Renaissance.

After reading that, I do hope that somehow this worldwide disruption we have been going through lately is indeed a gateway to a new future. During COVID, as we have all been glued to our phones, the news has exposed so many problematic structures that bypassed us for so many years. We are forced into introspection and therefore cannot be distracted by anything but our mortality–and stupidity. People are using this moment to get their voices heard to call all of it out! It is not the first time people have tried, but it’s the first time the people in position of power are listening. White people especially. Racial inequality towards Black people is a huge issue the world has never wanted to pause on. But also the subjects of women’s abuses, inequalities towards Indigenous people and LGBTQIA communities, and issues of immigration, poverty and sustainability. Are we finally recognizing that classism and discrimination in the modern world is no longer wanted?

It’s hard to say if it will really all change soon, considering the federal push back in the U.S. and the extreme austerity measures in China and other countries. But my optimistic hope is that a new mentality of tolerance and mutual respect for others could be in our future. We’re forcing discussions at least.

Actually, in light of all this, I am most hopeful for the consumerist fashion industry to finally be forced to change towards what we have been pushing for years already–that is, shifting from the established rules to more environmentally-friendly practices, slower turn around of products, smaller quantities, more local goods, and more diversified goods. Things that are less conformist, so everything does not become one trend with only a few companies really profiting from it. Also, I hope that we will be more inclusive and less classist, racist and gender conformist. We should inspire each other to reach better living standards together, instead of elbowing each other to be at the top of others. I think this is cultural, and I can see that the younger generation is already changing [our] culture to be a more inclusive one.

The judges have had their say – now it’s your turn.

FASHION’s virtual runway competition Slay The Runway II, a co-production with Karim Olen Ash and XPOSED and presented in association with Tide and Jean Paul Gaultier, in support of The 519, just finished on IGTV (click here in case you missed it!) but that doesn’t mean the fun has stopped! Our 10 incredible finalists gave it their all for the competition – and we want YOU to choose your favourite. Tide is generously donating a prize pack worth over $100 to the winner, as well as the winner of the Slay The Runway II fan favourite poll. Jean Paul Gaultier is also gifting one limited edition bottle of Le Male to the winner of the fan favourite poll, as well as one lucky voter.

For your chance to win, get your vote in below – you have until Thursday, August 6th at 8:30pm. The winner of the fan favourite poll will be revealed on Instagram on Friday, August 7th.

Style Points is a new weekly column about how fashion intersects with the wider world.

Several years ago, a stranger came up to Jill Kargman at a party to say, “Oh my God, I’m a fan.” She assumed they were talking about her Bravo series Odd Mom Out, which drew on Kargman’s experiences as an atypical Upper East Side mother in a sea of Stepford moms. As it turned out, they’d never even heard of the show. “You wrote Intern!” the self-professed fan exclaimed.

Released in 2000, the movie did not find the audience that later fashion-world chronicles like The Devil Wears Prada, The Hills, The City and Ugly Betty did, but it feels like a prequel to all those onscreen portrayals. Twenty years after its making, it’s retained the kind of cult status that surrounds a little-known designer who never quite made the big time. But now that it’s on Amazon Prime Video and other streaming services, it has been finding a niche new audience. Kargman’s admirer even told her it’s informally screened for freshmen at FIT: “They watched it with like 20 people piled on the couches and they said this was the proto-Devil Wears Prada, so I was very flattered.”

To channel SNL‘s Stefan for a moment: this movie has everything. Including an impressive cast pulled from both Hollywood (Billy Porter, Joan Rivers, Kathy Griffin, Gwyneth Paltrow in a cameo role) and the fashion world (André Leon Talley, Diane von Furstenberg, Paulina Porizkova, Tommy Hilfiger, Simon Doonan, and Kevyn Aucoin, among many others.) If that somehow hasn’t sold you, it opens with an out-of-context musical number and only gets wilder from there. ’90’s starlet Dominique Swain plays the titular intern, while a pre-Pose, pre-fashion darling Porter stands out playing an art director who’s type A even by art director standards. (His delivery of the line “Send this fax to Galliano’s buttonist’s boyfriend’s stylist in Monaco!” changed my life.) “He elevates the whole thing,” says Kargman. Rivers’s character was inspired by fashion editor Polly Mellen, who would “weep” at runway shows, she says. The movie is rife with late ’90’s/early aughts fashion in-jokes, including models named Aloha and Resin (a takeoff on Shalom Harlow and Amber Valletta.) Even my favorite bitchy line, which is delivered by Cynthia Rowley, came from a famous designer. “I can’t take credit for that one, it’s all Karl Lagerfeld,” says Kargman. “May he rest.”

Paul BruinoogeGetty Images

I consider myself an obscure-fashion-movie encyclopedia, but Intern was barely on my radar. Beyond its SEO-unfriendly title, the poster makes it look like more salacious fare. “I’m actually looking at the poster now on Wikipedia, and it kind of looks like Intern is a film where Joan Rivers yells at her slutty daughter,” says Griffin. “Which also would be great. There’s no bad combo with this crew.”

Set at the fictional Skirt magazine, the film grew out of Kargman and her co-writer Caroline Doyle’s real-life experiences working at magazines in the ’90’s. One night, they were out late at Balthazar, sharing their wildest anecdotes with a group of friends that included Paltrow, their Spence classmate. “Everyone was laughing,” recalls Kargman, “telling us that we have to write it down.” Kargman experienced a version of the scene that features an editor having a meltdown over 2 percent milk instead of skim in a cappuccino, and culminates with her sticking her finger down her throat. Another real-life moment that made it into the movie: the time Doyle was addressed as Bob, and corrected the editor on her name, only to be told, “No, bob! Your hair is too long! You need a bob! Trust me, people would pay thousands for my advice!” (“Carrie was just like “What?”)

Talley has a memorable part where his fashion almost serves as his costar. “I had just had a black silk taffeta court coat made at Givenchy haute couture, by John Galliano, who had just been hired to be creative director,” he told me via e-mail. “It was inspired by his women’s collection. The coat had 30 feet of ceremonial train and that was what I wore. The coat, ordered and made, was worn only once. Just for that film.” Now, he says, “It’s in a dust free box in my couture archives of coats. I love that coat and since that occasion, I’ve not had an opportunity to wear it. Perfect, cinematic and appropriate. Jill, I think, loved the coat.”

Ron GalellaGetty Images

Griffin, meanwhile, sports a towering hairstyle that almost doubles as a sculpture. “I remember it was really painful,” she says. “At first I was like, OK, this is very different, I have a really different look, and this is cool, and I felt like a real actress. Cut to a few hours later and I was like ‘Ouch! Ouch! Get me out of this fucking thing.’”

For all its camp value—and it contains a Met Gala’s worth—the movie also crystallizes a time when fashion and magazines felt both unimaginably glamorous and closed off from public view. “[Fashion] was not as accessible,” back then, says Griffin, “so I would argue that in those days it maybe had a specialness to it that the Kardashians ruined. There, I said it!” It has an insider-y feel to it that other Hollywood attempts to channel the fashion world, like Robert Altman’s Ready to Wear, never quite achieved. And rather than focus on editors, it heralds the intern-as-protagonist storyline we would later see on The Hills.

Rose HartmanGetty Images

There don’t seem to be any big 20th anniversary plans brewing, à la the widespread celebrations of Drop Dead Gorgeous and But I’m a Cheerleader. “I don’t even think that anybody involved with it has seen it in 20 years,” says Kargman. But the film has a loyal, if small, fan base, including a student who recently contacted Kargman for a paper they’re writing on it. Says Talley, “I am so glad it’s getting recognized as a smart film today. Today, people can see how brilliant the whole project was.” He adds, “I think Netflix should buy it.”

When I tell Griffin that kids are rediscovering it, she adopts a faux “get-off-my-lawn” intonation: “What?! Kids, with the Twitch and the TikTok? I’ve actually done two standup gigs at FIT, and I’ve never known how they even know who I am. But damnit, I’m in the fashion industry, Véronique!”

Maybe the next time she does it, the students will erupt into applause, I tell her.

“I want them to cry,” she says, “and I want someone to call me a fashion icon at some point.”

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Tonight, FASHION held its virtual runway competition Slay The Runway II, a co-production with Karim Olen Ash and XPOSED and presented in association with Tide and Jean Paul Gaultier, in support of The 519. Moderated by Twysted Miyake-Mugler, the judges – Tamar Miyake-Mugler, supermodel and Canada’s Drag Race judge Stacey McKenzie and FASHION’s creative and fashion director George Antonopoulos – watched as 10 finalists (Diseiye, Ebony Xclusive Lanvin, Gala Siriano, Hannah Arsovskihan, Mars Alexander, Nick “Miami” Benz, Oleg Kasynets, Posh Gvasalia Lanvin, Roderic Monroe and Songbird Miyake-Mugler) presented their interpretation of #FreedomFabulousness and turned their living rooms/sidewalks/driveways and more into a fierce runway. Only one could be crowned as the winner – and Posh Gvasalia Lanvin came out on top, narrowly clinching the victory with an impressive 30/30 score after flooring the judges with his submission.

“His walk was incredible!” says Antonopoulos of the Vancouver-based winner. “From the moment he turned the corner and started giving us a ’90s-inspired Linda Evangelista supermodel walk, he owned every second of it. The look, which looked like it was straight off the Jacquemus S/S20 runway, and when he wrapped the massive hat around his body – that sold it for me. ” Tamar agrees, telling FASHION, “Posh Lanvin did what we like to call in ballroom ‘waking it up.’ He demanded our attention in a way many others did not. Just like I teach my house kids, you have to sell it from the moment you are seen stepping onto that runway. Posh not only finessed the limited space he had to work with, he also used his effect (a ballroom term for costume) to elevate the overall performance. It felt seasoned, confident and poised. Posh slayed the runway. The runway didn’t slay him.” McKenzie added, “Posh commanded the runway as soon as he stepped out. His walk was strong and confident with the right amount of playfulness, and his outfit was not only a great representation of his cultural background, it was very well thought out, fashionable and he knew how to work it.”

Speaking with FASHION about the inspiration behind his look, Posh said, “The theme of the runway challenge was ‘freedom’ – which is a word that I believe is quite sensitive during the current climate as society is re-evaluating our systemic racism. So my way of interpreting the theme was to celebrate my Philippine ancestry by featuring the Pina Barong (a traditional Filipino garment made with pineapple fibres) and Banig (a traditional floor mat) wrapped around my waist, and to literally ‘top’ it off  with a very large woven Jacquemus-style hat, that I actually purchased in Thailand.” He adds that he was “in shock” upon finding out he had won “knowing the talent of the community that entered.” As for how he’ll spend the $500 cash prize? “Even prior to winning, I was thinking about what I would do if I did win and promised myself that I would find a way to return the money back into the ballroom community. I will be giving half of my cash prize to The 519, as it was one of the first places where I was exposed to Ballroom when I lived in Toronto.”

In addition to the $500 cash prize, Jean Paul Gaultier is gifting a limited edition bottle of Le Male to Posh, as well as to our first 10 entrants, the winner of the fan favourite poll and one lucky voter. Tide is generously donating a prize pack worth over $100 to the winner, as well as the winner of the fan favourite poll.

Tide has generously donated to The 519, and is encouraging the Slay The Runway audience to do the same during our event by texting THE519 to 80100 or by clicking here.

Overnight, Hedi Slimane unveiled his Spring 2021 menswear collection for Celine in a digital format. Called The Dancing Boy, the collection was shot at the Circuit Paul Ricard Formula 1 race track in the South of France and aimed seemingly entirely at Gen Z, with pieces inspired by teens in lockdown. This focus was even more evident in Slimane’s music choice – the designer commissioned a 15-minute long edit of Canadian rapper Tiagz’s TikTok hit, They Call Me Tiago (Her Name Was Margo).

Tiagz has blown up on the social media platform, largely thanks to the the above song, as well as My Heart Went Oops – both of which have soundtracked thousands of videos. He signed with Sony/ATV Music Publishing earlier this year, and boasts 2.2 million followers on TikTok.

As for the collection itself, Slimane says it was designed in St. Tropez “well before March” and was inspired by Noen Eubanks, the TikTok sensation who fronted a Celine menswear campaign last year. It featured plenty of youthful nods – what Slimane described as “the new adolescent codes” – including sneakers, oversized logo tees (some finished in a very quarantine-appropriate tie-dye), cardigans, patch-adorned and printed vests, ripped denim and leather trousers. Though not everything was grunge-y, with a couple of pairs of tailored trousers and blazers appearing in the mix. There was also no shortage of statement bags and jewellery to speak to the brand’s existing customer base.

Watch the show, and catch Tiagz’s exclusive extended edit, below:

Celebrating local culture through an offering of comfy casualwear.

Jonell George didn’t think she’d ever be at the helm of a clothing brand. But in 2017, the writer and mother–who now works on her brand, Lost In, with her daughters–awoke from a dream that motivated her to explore the concept of getting lost in one’s own city, and the culture within it. “I thought, I would love to do something with a concept where you’re creating a culture and an environment through fashion,” she says.

Hailing from Toronto, George says she “remembered always traveling on public transportation to get to different areas of the city,” adding that this allowed her to explore elements of its diverse communities. “I’ve had times, especially as a youth, where I’ve gotten lost in Toronto myself.”

The Lost In brand branches off from this notion through its collection of T-shirts, sweatshirts and hats (it will also launch jogging pants and a zip-up sweatshirt style later this year). Adorned with various logos promoting local love, one design in particular combines a few pieces of significance for George. “I wanted to make it a cooler version of the TTC line design that I grew up with,” she says of a graphic on Lost In’s goods that feature a subway map bookended by a pattern that represents a heartbeat. “Subway lines are the heart of the city,” George notes. “They connect you to every aspect of [it]. So that’s why I added the ‘pulses’ at the end of the design.”

Lost In’s offerings have expanded to also include an homage to the New York borough of Brooklyn. “New York has an extensive subway line,” says George of why she chose it as the next city after Toronto to represent through her label. “It’s somewhere that I feel very comfortable. It reminds me a lot of Toronto except it’s busier and bigger.” She notes that New Yorkers are “very big on representing their borough”, and says they’ve used the Brooklyn pieces as a test to see what resonates with Lost In fans. “I’m thinking down the road of [featuring] the fashion capitals that have subway systems,” she says, adding they will also develop “some basics for the person who doesn’t want something that has too much design on it.”

For George, her brand’s swell of support has been extremely meaningful given her deep connection to the city that inspired it all; and she says that watching customers interpret Lost In’s pieces in their own individual way has been inspiring to watch. “We love to see the people who purchase our products create their own style with it, and feed the culture we’re trying to build,” she says. “Skateboarders, for example, wear it differently than basketball players or people in the music industry.” George also says that it’s been fulfilling being able to “infuse” her own sense of style, and that of her daughters, into the brand’s identity. “I’m keeping my generation cool, and they’re also feeding their generation,” she says.

Although she’s not been able to explore Toronto the way she normally would given the restrictions in place because of COVID-19, George is looking forward to getting out to do more of the events Lost In has been a part of in the past; and she’s ever looking ahead to how to grow the brand’s presence, and those of local peers. “My hope is that it’ll be a store front eventually, and that we can pursue partnerships with other local brands,” George says of what plans ideally lie ahead; Lost In has worked with several Toronto-based suppliers, including Peace and Cotton, to create its wares, and continuing to foster connectivity with other makers is always top of mind.

Another thing that George is giving much thought to is how a surge in interest in supporting Black-owned brands in the last few months can be sustained. “A lot of people didn’t know this is a Black-owned business,” she says. “I never walked around shouting it from the mountain tops. But once they discovered it, a lot of people jumped on board and wanted to support us.” She says that the momentum in investing in Black livelihoods has impacted Lost In positively. “People who didn’t know the business before know it now,” she notes, continuing on to highlight the necessity in consumers expanding the “why” around their purchasing moving forward.

“I would hate for it to be the cool thing to do for the moment,” George says. “[And] I would love for people to support us not only because we’re a Black-owned business–that’s one aspect of it–but also because they like our designs and the quality of our work. If you want to put a hashtag on a photo of something you buy from us like #BlackLivesMatter or #BlackOwnedBusiness, it continues the journey. That’s a positive thing. But I want people to support us because they like what we do.”