Month: October 2020

From horror movie marathons to Halloween-themed drive-in features to virtual pumpkin carving parties, here’s how to celebrate Halloween safely this year.

With cases on the rise in certain regions of Ontario and Quebec and a second lockdown in place, Halloween is going to look very different this year. And for those parts of the country fortunate to not be dealing with stricter Covid restrictions, it’s still a challenge—indoor parties are out of the question and trick-or-treating seems like a risk not worth taking. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still dress up and have some fun. Here are some ideas to help you celebrate Halloween safely at home.

Do a horror movie marathon
There are plenty of scary movies and television series on streaming platforms to scratch your Halloween itch this month. If you’re looking for a binge, look to shows like viral hit The Haunting of Bly Manor or German export Dark on Netflix, Stephen King’s The Outsider or the recently-concluded supernatural rollercoaster Lovecraft Country on Crave, or the new “Indigenous gothic horror” series Trickster on CBC Gem. For a one-night fright fest, pick from films like Evil Eye on Amazon Prime, Canadian films Blood Quantum or Disappearance at Clifton Hill on CBC Gem, or Toni Collette-starrer Hereditary on Netflix. And if you need a bit of a palate-cleanser after all that, may we suggest making your way through all the Halloween Heist episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine?

Add some creepy at-home decor
If you’re not looking to go all-out with spooky decorations but still want to bring a dose of the Halloween spirit into your home, look for subtle fall-themed items like pumpkin-shaped mugs or ghost-shaped stoneware from Pottery Barn, a handpainted skull-shaped tequila decanter from CB2, or some creepy accoutrements from Etsy.

Offer a nod to Halloween via your nail art
Give your daily look a spooky update with a Halloween manicure. From spider webs to ghosts, black cats, witchy details and blood stains, there’s no shortage of creepy nail designs to try. For a more subtle look, opt for the colours of your favourite Halloween candy or go the pumpkin spice route with shades of orange. For 22 Halloween mani ideas, click here.

Look for local outdoor events in your city
At-home get-togethers and Halloween parties at bars or clubs are out of the question, but do a quick Google search to scout out safe outdoor events going on in your city. In Toronto, Casa Loma is offering a self-guided walking tour through its famed Halloween sets from October 23 to 31. In Prince Edward County, the Mustang Drive-In is screening a triple feature of Halloween movies—such as The Shining, Hocus Pocus and Beetlejuice—on October 30 and 31. And over in Peterborough, Ont., Escape Maze has put together a series of outdoor Adventure Games such as The Stalking Dead, Apothecary Crisis and Electric City Sabotage.

Plan some Halloween-themed virtual events
If you’d prefer to stay indoors this year, plan ahead and set up some spooky evenings with a group of friends over Zoom. Host an online pumpkin carving party, dim the lights and do a storytelling hour with each person contributing a different horror story, plan a virtual costume competition, or do a round of tarot readings with this book of custom Tarot cards designed by Salvador Dali. And if you’ve got kids to entertain at home, check out Craftoween: Once in a Virtual Blue Moon. In partnership with The Hospital for Sick Children, this interactive digital event on October 31 features edible crafts, a creative costume competition and a spooky hunt, all from the safety of your home.

Hari Nef is not your average campaign star. The 27-year-old actress, model, and writer has steadily rose to fame via Gucci runways,Transparent airwaves, and an aspirational Instagram grid that seamlessly weaves together high-brow references alongside unfiltered selfies so personal, they virtually place you in her inner circle. So despite casually dropping the word “parochialize” in ELLE.com’s conversation with Nef, she staunchly retains a lack of pretension that reminds us why she has come so far. Nef is, quite thoroughly, super likable. To use the word cool feels like a disservice.

The Vampire’s Wife, a fashion brand known for Victorian gowns with a spooky bent, strikes the same balance. Designed by Susie Cave (wife of that Nick), the label has amassed a celebrity cult following for making Halloween dressing a modern, year-round affair. The brand is lending its vintage touch to H&M for a collaboration that drops today, tapping Nef to be one of its bright faces. The alignment couldn’t be more perfect.

We spoke to the star about her initial thoughts on the seventeen-piece collection, how her style remained unchanged during the pandemic, and her fraught relationship with the term “self-care” in 2020. Read on to learn more about the triple threat, and shop our favorite styles from the H&M x The Vampire’s Wife collaboration, below.

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What is your relationship with The Vampire’s Wife and Susie?

Susie is somebody I have admired from afar for a while. I always had a girl crush or a friend crush on that cool chick with the black hair in those amazing, form-fitting dresses. Obviously, I’m familiar with her husband’s work as well. She was this cool woman who made cool clothes and I admired shyly from afar. I was so excited when this came through.

Susie’s designs are always a little goth. So speaking of vampires, can you give us a little teaser of what your Halloween costume might be?

You know what? I’ll tell you what my costume is because it’s relevant. I’m going to be dressing up as Maggie Chung’s character in the Olivier Assayas film Irma Vep where she’s in costume. It’s a film within a film. They’re making a movie where she’s doing a remake of a vampire film from the 1920s. I’m hoping that my costume is going to arrive in time, I’m not sure it is going to. I might end up going to a fetish store. I just moved into the West Village and there’s a lot of really fun sex shops here. So if not, I’ll just take it as an opportunity to explore my local sex shop.

What did you think when you first saw the collection?

I thought, “Is this allowed? This is so luxe and glamorous! How were they doing this at an H&M price point? Oh, well, if they’re doing it at an H&M price point, how could it possibly be sustainable?” And then I found out more about the collection and these prices are accessible to anybody looking to make a small investment in a statement piece. The fabrications are made in large part from sustainably sourced materials including recycled nylon and recycled polyester, so I was pretty much ready to go.

I’d wear a lot of these pieces pretty much anywhere. That’s my test when I’m buying a garment. I ask myself two questions: Could I wear this to the grocery store and could I wear this to a wedding? All of the dresses fit that denomination, but maybe not the full length dress. I’m not sure I would wear that to the grocery store just because I don’t know if the grocery store is ready for that kind of goth glamor, but I would definitely wear it to a wedding or a seance.

Have you been to a seance?

If I told you, I would be betraying some deep, dark secret and I think that that’s what The Vampire’s Wife is all about, the unknown and secrets.

Could you elaborate a little bit more about how you approach your style?

I think that if you’re going to buy a piece of clothing and spend your hard earned money, create more demand for more stuff in the world, which is something that we need to do less of, you really have to know that you’re getting some mileage out of buying [it]. It’s not just going to be something that sits in your closet that you wear once or twice a year.

On a totally abstract level of taste and what inspires me and what my preferences are, I’m always looking to history and the past. I’m always looking to road groupies in the sixties and seventies. I’m always looking at Pre-Raphaelite paintings. I’m always looking at kind of a ’90s, early 2000s Hot Topic, Marilyn Manson idea of goth or occult.

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Has your style changed at all during quarantine?

No, not at all. If anything I’ve doubled down. I will plan an outfit for later, maybe a year later, maybe the one or two times a week that I venture out to some safely distanced social situation. I just moved back to New York from L.A. where nobody dresses for anything. I’m obsessed with dressing up right now. And I’m taking any opportunity I can to do it, even if it’s just for a mirror selfie in the privacy of my own home at one in the morning.

So no sweatpants?

I’ve never been more tapped into clothing as a source of personal joy, just not for how you can look for other people, not for a man, not in a social setting. Literally— I’ve never dressed more for myself because there’s nobody else to dress for right now and that feels good.

That touches on Susie’s themes for this collaboration: vulnerability, intimacy, the unknown and womanhood. With everything that’s happened this year between social unrest, the pandemic, the election, and being stuck at home, what does being vulnerable in 2020 mean to you?

Being vulnerable to me means engaging in difficult conversations with people who are close to you, people who you love, people whom you believed you shared a unanimous point of view with, who actually differ on this issue or that issue. Or there is maybe a fundamental difference in values between you that is uncovered by the difficult conversations that are being had right now about public health, racial justice, gender and sex politics, about queerness. It’s all coming to the surface and people are alert.

I’m not so interested in having a conversation about these issues with someone on the internet who I don’t know. I’m not so interested in baseless internet fighting. I think what’s important is bringing it back to a sense of intimate relationships and a sense of intimate accountability. Relating this back to clothes or a garment is a tenuous connection at best. These are high-minded things. But when I am dressed in a way where I feel beautiful, where I feel armored, then I feel better equipped to engage in all manner of discussions. I feel like anything I can do to arrive at the so-called revolution from a place of strength, comfort, confidence, and bounty, that’s going to serve me and my community well.

How do I reconcile the positives of life, like this campaign, with the negativity of 2020?

You’re not going to get anything done for anybody if you’re constantly throwing yourself into the fray. You’re not going to get anything done for everybody if you are torturing yourself for a thought or a belief you may have harbored that is now being parochialized or disabused by emerging discourses. Whether that’s a belief about race or gender or sexuality. You’re not going to get anywhere just frantically reposting for every cause you find, every infographic. You’re not going to get anything done if you’re constantly caught up in a state of alarm and penance and worry because that does not equip you to think. That does not equip you to demonstrate. That does not equip you to protest if you need to, or even fight if you need to.

I struggle with the term self-care because I feel like there’s a slippery slope between self-care and self-indulgence. But I do believe that balance is key. We’re living in a time of extremes. Bad versus good, good versus evil, wrong versus right. There has to be gray area, whether it’s thinking ambiguously, seeing both sides of an argument, or mixing the hard stuff with the stuff that brings pleasure and puts us at ease. I’m not someone who can speak to where some sort of collective “we” wants to go. I can only speak from my experience, but my initiative is readiness and if I don’t do right by myself, I won’t be ready.

How have you been trying to find joy personally in your life, especially in quarantine at home?

I don’t have a shocking, thrilling, or glamorous answer for this. I think that I’ve turned toward a lot of the things that other people have been saying, which is cooking for myself and writing, and really deepening and fortifying my relationships with the people in my pod. Getting outside as often as I can, wearing a mask every time, working on my fitness from home has been huge. I’ve gotten in shape in quarantine. I’ve decorated my apartment.

Anything that I was putting off, again, I’m sort of thinking of that phrase it’s all coming to the surface. When things come to the surface, you deal with them.

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We’re kicking off a three-part primer on imbibing your cannabis by answering a timely question: What exactly are cannabis beverages?

If you’ve ever been curious about cannabis beverages that have popped up at your authorized cannabis retailer, we hear you. We were just getting used to all the new flower options and vaping apparatus, and now we have sparkling libations to potentially add to how we sip and chill during our leisure time.

Not to fear. Here’s our handy guide to get to know cannabis beverages.

First, the basics. A smoke-free way to consume cannabis, beverages include sparkling liquids and flavoured waters. Insider note: Because THC (a cannabinoid found in the cannabis plant that is known to produce the psychoactive, “high” affect) and CBD (the cannabinoid not associated with the “high” effect) are not water-soluble, brands must mix these elements with an emulsifier to blend them properly into liquid form.

What’s really great about these bevvies is that they range in the amount of CBD or THC — or both, as the case may be — that they contain. If you’re a newbie, best to start low and sip slow. Lower THC options include CBD dominant Veryvell sparkling water or beverages with just 2.5 mg of THC and CBD, such as the Little Victory sparkling beverages. Little Victory has a range of options including Dry Grapefruit and Dry Lemon, which have a more tannic mouthfeel, or Dark Cherry and Blood Orange, beverages that are more flavour forward.

For a medium dose, opt for an expertly made concoction with 5 mg of THC and 5mg of CBD, such as Mollo 5 — a crisp, lightly hopped beverage that’s great for backyard barbecues or post-game chilling. And if you are feeling adventurous, you could consider a brand that’s built on flavour: House of Terpenes consists of two sparkling tonics that celebrate the flavours of cannabis, which pair nicely with gourmet dinners.

Finally, some guidance on the effects. Unlike smoking flower or vaping, the onset time for cannabis beverages is not immediate — expect to wait about 15 to 30 minutes to two hours for the full effects to take hold.

At the end of the day, the adage that always holds is that one drink does not fit all. Every consumer experiences flavours, onset times and duration of effects that are unique to them. Remember to start low, sip slow and adjust along the way, as you see fit. Welcome to the world of cannabis beverages. Cin cin.

Up next in part two: What on earth are terpenes? We break down these and other ingredients in cannabis-infused beverages.  

The livestreamed event happens this Friday at 10am EST.

Later this week, sustainable knitwear designer Olivia Rubens, who hails from Ottawa, will compete in the International Talent Support competition taking place virtually this Friday at 10am EST. The 11 finalists in the Fashion category of the prestigious competition (who follow in the footsteps of greats like Richard Quinn, Mark Fast and Demna Gvasalia) are vying for not only The Diesel Award – a €10,000 cash prize and 6-month internship at the Italian brand’s headquarters; the festivities also include a Responsible Fashion Award, and one for People’s Choice.

Rubens is well poised to win the responsibility-focused accolade as the ethos of her brand centres around using ethical production practices as well as upcycled and recycled materials to craft the complexly quirky knits she’s known for. “My motto is that once you know something, you can’t unknow it,” says Rubens while describing her foray into mindful design.

After participating in another design competition several years ago, for which she crafted “the heaviest sweater you’ve ever seen” out of yarn she spun from 15 pairs of second-hand denim, Rubens began to dig deeper into the roots of ethical and sustainable practices. And after learning more about the myriad facets of these issues, including what materials are actually better for the environment versus those that are merely marketed as such, Rubens said there was no going back with for her brand’s direction. As she asks, “Why would you want to continue using certain materials once you know how horrible they are for the planet, or how bad they are ethically in terms of production?”

In addition to not using petroleum-based textiles in her collections, Rubens – a Fellow at the Suzanne Rogers Fashion Institute who did her MA through the London College of Fashion – has collaborated with textile scientists Dian-Jen Lin and Hannes Hulstaert, of the London-based Post Carbon Lab, on two material innovations: Creating a pigment dyeing process using bacteria, and developing ‘photosynthesis coating’ for fabrics (meaning it would convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, and you’d have to water your garment like any low-maintenance houseplant).

“My standards are really high now,” says Rubens about her approach to researching, developing and sourcing the elements that go into her designs. She says that initially the scarcity of sustainable textiles – particularly when she was working out of Toronto – was frustratingly daunting; but she’s built up “a good network” to draw from, and she even lends her skills as a sustainability consultant to others in the industry.

Another way Rubens has taken charge over her destiny as a designer is by going ‘off-schedule’ and choosing to no longer adhere to the traditional fashion week cycle. Having most recently participated in the digitized Helsinki Fashion Week this past Spring, Rubens has decided going forward to “release looks whenever I want. It’s kind of stressful, but also exciting.”

Charting such unfamiliar territory seems second nature to Rubens. Growing up a “weirdo” who was bullied throughout middle school, she says that she considers herself to “be a very resilient and stubborn person. That’s how I got through that period without changing who I was; I was always super eccentric – definitely an oddball. I stuck with that, and I think it made me stronger.”

In fact, Rubens says that what she endured is “a huge influence on where I derive my research, and how I decide to express myself through my work.” Her ongoing interest in unpacking questions about humanity, judgement, and the perceptions we have of one another informed her MA graduate collection, titled Duplicitous Lives, which took inspiration from the research question, ‘Is it possible to really know yourself truly?’

“My perspective is no,” Rubens says with a laugh, adding that in order to do that, one would have to meet “every single human being on the planet, and perform yourself to them because you change based on who you’re in front of. [It’s] logistically impossible.” The notion of identity and how we present ourselves is connected to the collection in other ways, including the inspiration Rubens drew from the work of visual artists Laurie Simmons, Juno Calypso, Nadia Lee Cohen and Cindy Sherman.

“She doesn’t act out anyone specific,” Rubens’s says of Sherman’s challenging oeuvre. “She acts out these types of ‘nostalgic’ people, and we are able to read who that person is without having a direct reference or knowing who that person is. It comes back to us putting our perceptions on people of who we think they are.”

Rubens surmises that for these reasons the journey to self-discovery is never ending; and she says that she also has “more purpose” to fulfill. After creating masks and medical gowns for local long-term care facilities and hospices when quarantine began, Rubens is now contemplating the launch of a sustainable knitwear cycling brand (she rediscovered her love of the outdoors in recent months while back in Ottawa during lockdown). And she says she’ll continue to find ways to improve the lives of others through design. “It’s about creating positive impact through everything I do.”

Watch the 2020 ITS competition here.

“It felt nice to bring a lot of empathy to Jessica Hyde because I understood where she was going and where she was coming from.”

Anyone familiar with the career of Utopia star Sasha Lane likely knows this already but it’s such a good story it bears repeating: the actress was discovered laying on a beach during spring break by acclaimed British director Andrea Arnold, who scouted her for her 2016 film American Honey. At the time, acting was “the opposite of what I ever wanted to do,” Lane says over a phone call, but instinct told her to just go for it. “Something in my gut said ‘you have nothing to lose, just do it.’”

Four years later, that gut instinct is still paying off. Lane is making waves on new Amazon Prime sci-fi series Utopia. Written by Gillian Flynn, the show follows a group of comic book fans who believe that a graphic novel called Utopia can predict catastrophic epidemics. Lane plays Jessica Hyde, a character from the comic series who’s in fact a real-life recluse who has been on the run her whole life. We caught up with the actress to find out more about what drew her to the show, its real-world parallels and what utopia looks like for her.

What was it about Jessica Hyde that made you want to play her?
“I think the main thing was the psychology of it and the idea of playing someone who didn’t really grow up with any social norms. She didn’t have a lot of nurturing, she’s kind of always been in survival mode her whole life. She’s someone you want to hate from the jump because there’s a lot of killing and all of that, but I loved the idea of being able to bring some emotion to her. She’s a layered character and there’s reasons why she does the things that she does. I fell in love with that aspect of her—of not really being good or bad but having a purpose. And then she meets this group of people and it kind of starts to crack at her armour a little bit.”



It’s a really challenging role, both physically and emotionally. Was there anything you were nervous or apprehensive about going into it?
“I loved doing all the stunts. The physicality of it was exciting, but also I ended up being pregnant [while filming]. So I was like ‘how do I still push myself and give the character what she needs but be safe at the same time?’ When do I tell myself ‘hey, the stunt double needs to step in because I don’t necessarily have to go that far right now.’ But I still kept the same energy so that at least on my face it appears like maybe I did all that.”


I read in an interview that the script reminded you of your past — a time when you always felt you were in survival mode. Can you tell me more about that?
“Growing up I suffered a lot of mental illness and kept to myself a lot. There was a sense of paranoia and I didn’t really like to socialize. Every day was like ‘okay another day, let’s see if we make it through this one.’ I wasn’t really good with my emotions, I held a lot in. But it’s because I didn’t want to go that far, because when you bring in emotions and feelings you’re vulnerable and I didn’t want to be vulnerable because I felt so fragile inside. That’s why I appreciated the Jessica Hyde character and the fact that you can’t judge her because she doesn’t want to go hug everyone. It felt nice to bring a lot of empathy to her because I understood where she was going and where she was coming from. My job was to bring that out of her and hopefully make people see a bit of that and not just surface level ‘she’s crazy.’”

Jessica’s style on the show is so interesting — what can you tell us about her look and what it’s supposed to communicate about the character?
“I talked a lot to the stylist. Not to shade but when it comes to clothing for female badass characters, it’s tight pants, skinny boots and a tight leather jacket. But how many punches can you throw in that leather jacket? For Jessica, as someone who’s been running since she’s 10 or 11 years old, if you’re going to find clothing you’re going to find things that are thrown away on the street, like an eight-year-old’s sweater or a 45-year-old dude’s big t-shirt. I know Gillian wanted the raggedy skirt really bad, and I wanted things that were rugged and torn apart a bit and didn’t fit right. It’s realistic, and what somebody on the run would be wearing.”



At the centre of this crazy story is a group of young people who want to save the world. And I think that ties in to the wave of activism we’ve been seeing in recent years that’s all been led by young people. What are your thoughts on that?
“Overall that shift is a great thing. I think we’re moving in the right direction. What I love about the show is the different nerds coming together with their own purpose and reason for wanting Utopia but also realizing ‘maybe we have a form of obligation to do something about what we know.’ That ties in with the world now. That one decision that you make could actually lead to so many other decisions or open so many doors, so you may have a different purpose or a different direction or part to play in the overall scheme of things but it’s still important. You’ve got to find out what you can do and what your action is because it’s like a domino effect—it can all lead to the greater good or the downfall.”


Everyone’s been bingeing Utopia lately, but what have you been binge-watching during lockdown?
“Death in Paradise. A lot of true crime documentaries. I like to guess who killed who or try to pick up on things. That’s my favourite stuff to watch. I guess that’s telling… I haven’t read any of Gillian’s books but after seeing the movies and Sharp Objects, I really want to now.”

No one would expect a show called Utopia to be so dark and stressful. What does an actual utopian world look like to you?
“I guess when I first think about it, there’s peace and everyone’s kind of just vibing, and money isn’t really a thing, and there’s no hate crimes. It sounds kind of boring but it’s interesting to think of what that would look like because I don’t think that’s ever existed unless in my mind. So just feeling light and flowy and just good vibes, good people, good energy.”

Welcome to My Story, our weekly series championing creatives of colour and their paths to success.

Nova Stevens’ path to her current career as a model and actress hasn’t come easy. She was born in Kenya to parents who, fleeing the civil war in South Sudan, decided to send her to Canada at the age of six with the hope of providing her a better life and more opportunities. She hasn’t seen her parents in 22 years but lived with various other family members in Alberta and Ontario until the age of 15, when she decided to move out and live on her own. Modelling gigs began coming to her at age 16 and after a brief stint in New York, she moved to Vancouver in 2014 where she began to pursue work as an actress as well as a model.

Later this week, Stevens will be competing for the Miss Universe Canada 2020 crown and we caught up with her to find out why winning this beauty pageant is so important to her, her ongoing work with various non-profit organizations, and her commitment to racial justice.

On her challenging past and journey to success:
“I think it definitely made me more resilient. I have to thank my past experiences because they really have shaped me and who I am. If not for the struggles I experienced growing up I don’t think I would be as strong as I am. I don’t think I would have the ability to overcome obstacles that arise out of nowhere. I’m a firm believer that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. It’s a motivating factor to keep pushing and to keep pursuing my dreams. Because not only do I have to be there for myself but also my family who are in a war-torn country with very little resources.”

On her volunteer work with non-profit organizations:
“I’ve always said that I’m going to pay it forward in any way that I can. Canada essentially raised me. Its organizations and people have given me resources and support while my family’s in Africa. So giving back to the community was always something I was going to do, no matter what. Keep 6ix is an organization I work with based in Toronto whose mission is to help youth who have been incarcerated get back on their feet, rehabilitate them and give them resources that allow them to integrate back into society and change their lives for the better. Then there’s Operation Smile, which provides free life-saving surgery for kids with cleft lips and cleft palates, and Feed it Forward, whose mission is to eradicate food waste and to help the food insecure. What I’ve learned through them is that 58% of all food produced in Canada is lost or wasted and that 1 in 5 Canadians are food insecure. A lot of people don’t know that. You never think that there are people suffering in your own backyard.”

On organizing the Freedom March in Vancouver this past summer:
“I went to the first Black Lives Matter protest at an art gallery and at that point I had no interest in speaking, I was just going to go there in support of everyone marching in solidarity. But when I got there I had this sense of urgency, I had this voice in my head that told me I had to go speak. I didn’t know what I was going to say but I knew I had to get up there. So I just spoke from the heart, nothing was rehearsed. Shamika Mitchell [an actress/activist] reached out to me and said ‘I heard you speak, you inspired me, let’s do a march together.’ And so Shamika and I started the Freedom March [which brought together over 15,000 people in the streets of Vancouver on June 19]. 


We’re also in the process of setting up a nonprofit with a mission to continue the conversation and to help Black, Indigenous and people of colour with resources, which often times are lacking in our communities. What’s important to me is education and financial literacy. Part of what I want to do with my organization is to have scholarship funds for kids and to give business grants to Black entrepreneurs. It’s important to empower yourself and I think business really does that.”

On racism in the modelling industry:
“I was modelling in Milan and I remember doing a casting where the casting director said ‘what are you doing here, we told your agent – no Black girls.’ In my mind, I was like ‘that is not okay, you can’t just say that to someone.’ I was a grown woman so that didn’t really affect me as much but imagine if I was a 16-year-old girl hearing someone say that to me, at a point when I’m still trying to figure out who I am. That can cause a lot of damage in someone.”

On hair and makeup artists who don’t know how to work with darker skin tones and textured hair:
“All my life I’ve been told to bring my own foundation and do my own makeup, and that’s so hurtful. If you’re a makeup artist you should be able to do makeup on all people, not just white people. It’s troublesome that schools are not teaching makeup artists and hairstylists to do hair and makeup on people of all backgrounds. They’re essentially saying ‘this is what you have to focus on because this is what matters and this is what’s considered beautiful by society.’ That’s troublesome but if it’s your career, you should take it upon yourself to learn.”

On why she’s competing for the Miss Universe Canada crown for the third time:
“The first time was in 2014, and my second time competing was 2018. That time I competed with short hair. It was very important to me to represent myself authentically by competing with my natural hair on a national stage, to show other girls that we don’t have to conform to be beautiful. You can be beautiful just as you are. When I didn’t win, I was devastated and I swore off pageants. But something happened when Zozibini Tunzi won the Miss Universe pageant in 2019. I saw myself in hair. She’s a Black woman from Africa with short hair—the same texture as my hair, the same complexion as me. This is why representation is so important. When you see yourself in someone else it inspires you to be the very best version of yourself. That’s what she did, she inspired me. So I said to myself, if she can win Miss Universe, if Miss Universe can see her, maybe finally Canada can see me too.”

On the fact that Miss Universe Canada has only ever crowned one Black winner:
“In 1989, Juliette Powell was the first (and last) Black woman to win Miss Universe Canada. That was over 30 years ago. It’s bothersome to me that in the last 30 years there has not been another Black woman good enough for the crown. I will not accept that. Because I don’t believe that to be the case at all. Canada’s a land of immigrants and it’s our diversity that makes us so beautiful. But I find that often times in certain industries—a lot of industries—it’s always one face that’s being shown as the face of Canada and I’m tired of it. We have to show the world that Canada really is diverse and a land of equal opportunity.”

On her response to people who say beauty pageants are sexist:
“I disagree with those people. Beauty pageants empower women. The skills that you use in the competition are skills you’re going to use for the rest of your life. You’re public speaking, in front of thousands of people, which takes a lot of courage. Preparation—you have to be mentally and physically prepared. It’s not as easy as people think it is. The questions that we’re being asked on stage are not easy. There’s more to it than ‘world peace.’ You have to be able to eloquently answer questions while remaining diplomatic and within 30 seconds. I don’t think a lot of people can do that. These are women that are strong and confident, they’re resilient, they’re diverse and they’re leaders. To put yourself out there is a mark of leadership. These are leaders that have worked hard and they’re using their voices. I want to win so badly because I want to use that platform to not only encourage others to use their voices but also to advocate for change.”

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If you’re a Silicon Valley exec, a great aunt living in Vermont, or a celebrity who uses their platform responsibly (say, for example, Oprah, Katie Holmes, Kerry Washington or even Barack Obama), you already know about Allbirds and own a style yourself.

For the uninitiated, Allbirds launched a first-of-its-kind sneaker made from merino wool (a natural fiber) in 2016 and has sold over a million pairs since. The brand’s allure? An alchemy of simplicity, comfort, and transparency in—brace yourself, here comes fashion’s equivalent of the word ‘moist‘—sustainability.

When it comes to the ladder, Allbirds has, to their credit, been transparent in exactly how they source its materials since beginning. The only polyester found in their shoes’ laces come from recycled bottles and packaging is made up of 90% cardboard materials. In April, founders Tim Brown and Joey Zwillinger even announced they’d start labeling the carbon output used to create a single pair of shoes, akin to how food packaging signals to consumers the calorie count of what they’re eating.

Earlier today, the brand announced what’s next, and it’s a big leap. AllBirds is now venturing into womenswear and menswear. Specifically, merino-wool based sweaters and cardigans, as well as puffer jackets and T-shirts made using the brand’s patented TrinoXO™ fabric, a natural material harvested from the Chitosan in crab shells (the world’s second most abundant biopolymer, per Allbirds).

Every item in the collection is made from natural and recycled materials.

A press release shared with ELLE.com from Allbirds answers the question of why now, stating: “As the chasm between disposable fast fashion and utilitarian basics has grown, the fashion industry has clung to the same outdated methods that continue to drive excessive carbon emissions, soil depletion, and synthetic waste. So we asked ourselves, why couldn’t we give people clothes they’ll love and simply make them better?”

Allbirds is hardly the first shoe or clothing brand to care about responsibly sourcing their materials. (Fair trade brand Veja launched back in 2003.) However, perhaps, more brands will finally feel the pressure to hold a mirror to themselves and see how they measure up in emitting greenhouse gases, and feel the need to do something about it.

For its part, Adidas has joined the conversation. As ELLE Canada reported in May, Allbirds and Adidas are joining forces to create a sports performance shoe with the lowest-ever carbon footprint by 2021.

To learn more about about sustainability in fashion, the fashion campaign for Allbirds’s launch thoughtfully stars environmental activists as part of the brand’s Allgood Collective. Among the (many) leaders in this space worth checking out are Leah Thomas, founder of @intersectionalenvironmentalism, as well as photojournalist Aditi Mayer.

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You’re going to want one in every colour.

Sustainable footwear brand Allbirds is expanding its offering today with the launch of its first clothing line. The US-NZ brand is now bringing its expertise in textile innovation to clothing in the form of a curated collection of essentials.

The brand’s debut clothing line includes a puffer, wool sweater, cardigan and T-shirt – or as the brand calls it, “apparel with purpose.” And in a world-first, each item is labeled with the carbon footprint of the piece. As with its intelligent footwear offering, the Allbirds clothing line utilizes hard-working fabrics to keep you warm and dry, without hurting the environment.

The hero piece in the line-up is the TrinoXO Tee. The shirt ($65) is made with a proprietary material innovation that uses naturally derived fibre made from the discarded shells of marine life (combined with Tencel Lyocell, a breathable tree fibre, and merino wool). These shells are the second most abundant biopolymer on earth and the chitosan – a fibre found within the shells – “has unique capabilities allowing your clothes to stay fresh longer without relying on extractive minerals like zinc or silver,” the brand notes in a release. The tee – available in six colourways (three classic, three limited edition) each for men and women – is incredibly soft to the touch and cut with the perfect amount of slouch for casual comfort.

The line also includes a water-repellant puffer ($340), available in charcoal for both men and women, as well as cream for women and forest green for men, that uses a blend of Tencel and recycled polyester as a down-alternative that still provides winter-proof warmth, as well as a slightly oversized wool cardi ($200) and sweater ($185), both of which are made with responsibly-sourced (and super soft) New Zealand Merino.

If you’ve been wanting to give your winter wardrobe a sustainable makeover, look no further.