August

2018

ALISON
BRIE
“There’s a loT
more going
on wiTh me Than
people Think”

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Fall 2018
LIMITED EDITION
Contents August 2018

4 4 c u L t u r e When do selfies and

self-care cross the line into narcissism?
4 6 c h o i c e The good, the bad and
the ugly of getting (and removing) implants.
4 8 m i n d Katherine Gougeon discovers
that self-deception isn’t such a bad thing.

CUltUre
5 2 i n t e r v i e w Miriam Toews’s

AlwAys in fAshion upcoming novel will terrify you.

5 6 f e a t u r e The budding cannabis
15 Let ter from 2 3 r u n w a y Berlin Fashion
industry proves weed is more than a gate-
the editor Week’s top accessory? A glow stick. way drug for potheads and wake ’n’ bakers.
16 Behind the scenes 2 4 t h e L i s t Buying into the 6 0 t h e m o o d The hustle and
17 contriButors bucket shape; wearing logos loud and bustle ends in August.
proud; looking to the end of summer in
18 readers’ Letters 6 2 c o v e r A very L.A. morning
bright white sunglasses.
spent working out and eating breakfast with
2 8 P r o f i L e A bra fitting with
style
Alison Brie. Photography by Max Abadian.
Beverly Johnson could change your life.
7 2 e s s a y Memories may change—
2 2 n e w s Protecting models in 3 0 t r e n d If we can’t transcend
but they still matter.
the #MeToo era; a graffiti-clad capsule the news, we might as well wear it.
collection; a supermodel who prefers
the title “supermom.”
3 2 s h i f t The fake-fur debate
is very real. fAshion
79 th e m ixoLog ist

on the BeAUty & heAlth Photography by Brent Goldsmith.

explore
cover 3 6 f i x Next-gen nail colours; new
Photography by Max
photography by brent goldsmith

additions to a cult-favourite line; an

Abadian, styling by
Sophie Lopez, creative honest dose of skincare suggestions.
direction by Brittany 3 8 P r o f i L e Dame Helen Mirren
Eccles. Alison Brie wants to help you get battle-ready.
wears a top, price
upon request, Mary 4 0 P r o f i L e Too Faced celebrates
Katrantzou. Hair, Mark Townsend for two decades of good times and glitter.
Starworks Artists/Dove Haircare. Makeup,
4 2 f r a g r a n c e Soft-pink
Melanie Inglessis for Forward Artists.
Manicure, Mazz Hanna for Chanel Le Vernis. shades and sticky-sweet scents to take
Fashion assistant, Thanda Gibson. you into summer’s final stretch.
9 2 c o n t r a s t s Georgia is a coun-
try of contradictions, but that doesn’t make
it any less earnest.
9 6 c o n t r a s t s Vacations are
lies, and travellers are liars—especially in
Las Vegas.
9 8 f i n i s h i n g t o u c h Jenny
Bird’s plated jewellery is the real deal.
 editor-in-chief
noreen flanagan
creative director brittany eccles
executive editor jacquelyn francis
fashion editor eliza grossman
fashion editor-at-large zeina esmail contributing editor george antonopoulos
fashion features editor isabel b. slone
features editor greg hudson
beauty director lesa hannah
beauty editor souzan michael
health and copy editor emilie dingfeld (on leave) production editor d’loraine miranda
copy editors/proofreaders marjorie dunham-landry, jane fielding
editorial assistant lindsay cooper
associate art director danielle campbell
junior photo editor tiffany voiadzis
contributing western editor joy pecknold
editorial interns ebony goodridge, lauren hazlewood, jamie hoholuk, dila ozsoy
fashionmagazine.com
associate editors pahull bains, meghan mckenna
video editor benjamin reyes

contributors max abadian, caitlin agnew, jillian amos, tim aylward, michelle bilodeau, paco blancas, stephanie deangelis,
thanda gibson, brent goldsmith, katherine gougeon, mazz hanna, daniel harrison, melanie inglessis, sophie lopez, craille maguire
gillies, juliana schiavinatto, wendy schmid, sarah selecky, mark townsend, lotte van noort, cherry wang, nancy won
director of production maria mendes production manager caroline potter
production coordinator brittany wong prepress coordinator alexandra irving
vice-president & group publisher jacqueline loch
general manager, advertising sales kelly whitelock
senior national account managers deidre marinelli, susan mulvihill
retail account manager sue freeman senior sales coordinator wendy brake
national account manager, interactive susey harmer
montreal eastern general manager bettina magliocco
national account & retail sales manager suzie carrier
calgary & edmonton account manager liz duerksen 204-582-4999, 877-999-1890
vancouver retail sales & national account manager sandra beaton 604-736-5586 ext. 213, 866-727-5586
marketing director jessika j. fink director of events and experiential carrie gillis
marketing & communications associate drydon chow
marketing design associate glenn pritchard production designer jonathan wong
marketing & events interns prima corindia, olivia stampone

director, integrated client solutions nevien azzam

custom content project manager krista gagliano director, digital sheldon sawchuk senior manager, digital product david topping
product manager, digital advertising strategy cody gault
project managers asmahan garrib, ada tat art director, digital jennifer abela-froese digital designers urszula dobrowolska, scott rankin
manager, digital services adam campbell senior program manager damion nurse
digital project coordinator dina kearney
newsstand/consumer marketing director annie gabrielian
consumer marketing director rui costa consumer marketing assistant manager amanda graham
credit manager carmen greene collection specialist patricia tsoporis
controller dora brenndorfer senior accountant maryanne foti accounts payable specialist ruth muirhead
senior human resources manager anjana yachamanani
human resources generalist lisa alli
office services supervisor glenn cullen office services garfield stoddard administrative assistant carol bieler
director, i.t. jp timmerman i.t. manager eagle huang

st. joseph communications, media Group

chairman tony gagliano
president douglas kelly
general manager & v.p. finance richard wong v.p. consumer marketing & production darlene storey
v.p. strategy duncan clark v.p. research clarence poirier

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fashion magazine august 2018 · volume 53 issue 7 · printing: st. joseph printing · date of issue: july 2018 · subscription inquiries: 800-757-3977

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 editor’S letter tion to emerge, and infants use it to get
attention even though nothing is wrong,”
Reddy told The Telegraph. “It demon-
strates they’re clearly able to distinguish
that what they are doing will have an
effect. This is essentially [what] all adults
do when they tell lies, except in adults it
becomes more morally loaded.”
Well, morally loaded for some. As of
May 1, President Trump had made 3,001
false or misleading claims, according
to The Washington Post. This averages
Liar,Liar
out to nearly 6.5 #fake utterances a day.
For our truth-themed Before you get horrified (quite rightly), it
issue, we asked readers turns out that most of us are only slightly
to take our “Lying behind the president when it comes to
Survey” online. Turns our per diem fibs. A study funded by
out 29 per cent of you WKD, a British vodka brand, found that
said you don’t think men lie on average five times a day and
lying is bad. So what for women it’s three. And if you think
do you lie about? you can spot a liar, you’re also wrong.
According to psychologist Robert S.
87% of you lie Feldman, who did the research, there’s
about being happy only a fifty-fifty chance you’ll suspect
when you’re not.
something’s up because we’re wired to
53% of you lie
about your weight. want to believe what people are telling

W
25% of you lie us—especially if it makes us feel better
about your age. e live in a world where curated about ourselves. He calls it our “truth bias.”
50% of you lie Instagram feeds filter the truth While we may lament that we live in a post-truth
about being content and where leaders who have era, Robin Hanson and Kevin Simler, authors of The
with your body. a Trumpian-like fondness for Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday
18% of you lie about falsehoods are rewarded. But I Life, argue that we’ve always been biologically hard-
your drug use.
think (hope) we’re reaching a tipping point. Perhaps wired to lie. They even go so far as to suggest that
21% of you lie about
your alcohol use. fashion designers are tapping into our cultural yearn- we have a “limited budget for honesty.” Apparently
33% of you lie ing for truth with the return of the newspaper print. this miserly appetite for veracity serves us well. In
about snooping We saw it at Balenciaga, Alexander Wang, Helmut “The Dark Yet Life-Affirming Magic of Self-
on your partner. Lang and John Galliano. At Sacai Menswear, they Deception” (page 48), they tell writer Katherine
45% of you lie about printed a New York Times ad on a black tee that read Gougeon that our brain acts like a “press secretary,
being happy/content “Truth. It’s more important now than ever.” constantly putting the most noble spin on our
with your partner. In “Fit to Print” (page 30), our fashion features choices and behaviours while keeping our conscious
14% of you lie about
editor Isabel B. Slone writes that “political news has minds in the dark.” But even if our inner Sarah
your political views.
11% of you lie about replaced celebrity gossip as the mainstay of current- Huckabee Sanders is spinning her best yarns, we
your religious views. day conversation…. Realism is replacing escapism still crave the truth—though, as Oscar Wilde said,
9% of you lie about as the appropriate reaction to what is happening in “the truth is rarely pure and never simple.”
PhotograPhy by Erin rEynolds

whether you the world.” And that’s the truth.

want children. But how honest are we with others and ourselves?
31% of you lie about If you think you’re not a liar, you’re just lying to
your sexual history.
yourself. You’ve been fabricating the truth since
46% of you lie about
your sexual satisfaction
you were six months old, according to Dr. Vasudevi
with your partner. Reddy, a researcher and psychology professor at the
NoreeN FlaNagaN, editor-iN-cHieF
19% of you lie about University of Portsmouth in Portsmouth, England. follow me on t wit ter and instagram
having affairs. “Fake crying is one of the earliest forms of decep- @noreen_flanagan

15
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Get your shimmer on $780
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16
 Contribs
Alison
Brie
“There’s more to me. There’s
untapped resources you guys
don’t even know about.”
t H E S O C i A L L i f E

@alisonbrie

62
PhotograPhy: maIN By maX aBaDIaN; WoN By Saty+Pratha; toWNSeND By
hIlary WalSh; SeleCKy By mIChelle yee; BlaNCaS By marK aBrahamS.

E N d C K Y C A S
N N S LE N
O W E A
W

tO

L
B
A N C Y

A R A H
A R K

AC O
m
N

P
S

@nancywon In “Higher
Pursuits” (page 56), Won
chats with women cashing
in on the green rush that is
Canada’s cannabis industry.
“It’s the next tech boom, and
we are the Silicon Valley,”
she says. “It’s exciting!”
@marktownsend1 The
man behind the Olsens’ sig-
nature beachy waves also
styled the effortlessly cool
bob and piece-y bangs seen
on our cover star in “Alison
Brie Keeps Glowing Stronger
and Stronger” (page 62).
@sarahselecky This Ontario-
based writer favours the dog
days of summer; she writes about
the beauty of ennui in this issue’s
Mood essay (page 60). Instead of
job hunting, Selecky created her
own dream job in 2011: an online
creative writing school.
@pacoblancas You may
have heard of some of the
models this makeup artist
has worked with. (Naomi
Campbell, Kate Moss and
Linda Evangelista, anyone?)
His work is featured in “The
Mixologist” (page 80).

17
 letters @ Fa s h i o n c a n a da

Reader of i n s Tag r a m

the Month
I really enjoyed the Beauty Nostalgia package in the Summer
issue, especially Leah Rumack’s “My Teen Queens” essay. I could
definitely relate to Rumack’s stories of schoolgirl friendships being
rather intense, but it’s the way she weaves details—like choosing a
lipstick shade as a vehicle to explore the nature of a friendship and
its intricacies—that makes for such a compelling read. Thanks for
including an article that I’ll read over and over again and that gives
me joy. —Caroline Chuang

T a k e n a b a c k Your Summer 2018
issue was an interesting read. Thank you for the
article “Take Back” [about Outland Denim’s
involvement with a rural factory in Cambodia
that employs people who have been rescued
from trafficking or sexual exploitation or those
who are at risk]. Not many magazines would
brave the topic of sex trafficking and how fash-
ion can become a way out for victims. Bravo to
founder James Bartle!
—Jade
P r e g n a n T P a u s e Your article
on egg freezing, “Frozen Assets” [May 2018],
was well researched and is easy to read. It
chronicles a painful subject that many women
face but are afraid to discuss. Difficulty con-
ceiving and infertility are not things that
women think about when they put off mother-
hood to pursue their education or career or are
fulfilling a desire to travel around the world.
Many do not realize until they are in their 30s
that they are having a harder time getting preg-
nant. Thanks for broaching a subject that
deserves some attention and openness.
@yanggoh
u n c o n d i T i o n a l l o v e I just I talked to Courtney
finished the article “Mother, May I?” [May Barnett for
2018]. As I read it, I recalled some of my own @FashionCanada!
experiences with my mother and our journey.
Most of my memories are filled with laughter,
love and lots of lessons. My mother wasn’t Joan
Crawford, but she was a strong southern Italian
mother! She made me the strong, independent,
loving and hard-working person I am today.
Being a mother has to be the hardest career.
They give us unconditional love, and all they
want in return is appreciation. When we achieve
greatness, they achieve it with us; when we fail,
they feel it more than us. I think we become free
spirits when our mothers push us out of the nest;
all we can do is learn to fly! @glenn_pritchard
—Gia Maggiore Desk reads
@FashionCanada
k i c k i n ’ i T ! Thank you for featuring #FASHIONmagazine
“Sneak Easy” in your April 2018 issue. I am
skeptical about sneakers. I wear a 9.5 to 10 and
think my feet look gigantic, but the Pumas you
featured fit my size. They look simply fab! T W e e T s
—Ada “‘The number of women who
chose to freeze their eggs
in the United States grew
PhotograPhy: brown by arkan zakharov

—Susan (Letters and tweets may be edited.)

by more than eight times
between 2009 and 2013.’
Excellent piece about know-
ing your options, by
W i n n e r ! @blairmlo @FashionCanada.”
Caroline Chuang won an Aldo —@vchanimal
(aldoshoes.com) gift card
valued at $250. We’ll give “@FashionCanada For a
away another great prize magazine called FASHION, it
next month, but you have regularly has excellent politics
to write in for a chance to win: and society coverage. It’s a
letters@fashionmagazine.com. great read.” —@jcvillamere

18  F A S H I O N | AUGUST 2018 fashionmagazine.com

 “let’s play it by ear, and jive to some tunes

out of the
jukebox!”

soda pop shop

go with the flowy

pin me pink

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cherry on top

drive-in & dine

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 STYLE
de c odi ng t h e wor l d of fa sh ion

SaY mY
namE
When you
have one
of the most
recognized
logos in
fashion, it
doesn’t hurt
to spell your
name out
every now
and then. For
more logo-
embellished
pieces, turn to
page 26.
editor: jacquelyn francis. photography by daniel harrison. bag, $2,540, louis vuitton.

fashionmagazine.com august 2018 | F A S H I O N 21

styleNEWS
moDeL aDwoa
aboah is the
bFC’s positive
Fashion ambas-
saDor For moDeL
heaLth anD
Diversity

Tag TEam A nod to New York City’s bygone days,

the new MICHAEL Michael Kors graffiti capsule collection
hearkens back to an era when Kors was still a curly-
headed budding designer. “I started my company in 1981,
at a time when uptown and downtown were really colliding.
Uptown girls partied downtown at the Mudd Club. Artists

Change
like Jean-Michel Basquiat showed their work at PS1, yet
you’d still be just as likely to find their signatures on the
side of a building in the Lower East Side or your subway
car,” says Kors. While New York’s days of squalid glory
may be firmly lodged in the past, you can relive its vibrant

agents
heyday via the jittery street-art-inspired tags splashed onto
handbags and shoes, available worldwide in July 2018.
—Isabel B. Slone

SE N
&

S
Hollywood might be where the #MeToo earthquake struck, but its trem-

ENSE

IB LIT
ors are being felt far and wide. It wasn’t long before the aftershocks hit the
fashion industry, where models have begun to speak up for their privacy and

I
safety. At the opening ceremony of the Fall 2018 season, the British Fashion
Council (BFC), which heads up London Fashion Week (LFW), announced

S
Y
its involvement with the British Fashion Model Agents Association S
(BFMAA), along with leading U.K. modelling agencies, to launch its
Models First Initiative, part of the BFC’s Positive Fashion campaign. We travelled to Montreal for the launch of Ssense’s
“The BFC and BFMAA want to lead the way in setting codes of practice new flagship location (418 St-Sulpice Street) and
that model agencies and the industry can sign up to,” says Caroline Rush, gently subjected the brand’s editor-in-chief, Joerg
CEO of the BFC. Some of the things they’ve already put in place include Koch, to the Proust Questionnaire—which he
(1) a confidential helpline that models (both men and women) can call hated, by the way.
for support and guidance during LFW, (2) compulsory private changing
areas where models at the official LFW venue (with plans to soon include Which living person “Well, I’m German, so I
external show venues) can undress and change without the threat of being do you most admire? could say my car. But
photographed and (3) a private space for models to eat, drink and relax “That’s a hero question. people are so often
between shows. Do you have a hero? unhappy, so the greatest
“We want everyone to be proud of this industry and to work together to Probably not.” extravagances, I think, are
stamp out any form of maltreatment or abuse,” says Rush. According to What trait do you most being really chill with your-
deplore in yourself? self and being happy.”
Adwoa Aboah, the BFC’s Positive Fashion ambassador for model health
“Laziness.” What is your current
and diversity, every such move taken by the people and organizations in
What traits do you most state of mind?
power is a step in the right direction. “For me, as a woman and a model, deplore in others? “Thinking of gin and tonics
these efforts provide a growing sense of comfort and confidence that we “Greediness and at the Maple Leaf Lounge
are taking the right initial steps toward systematically changing the way we selfishness.” at the Montreal airport
collectively work to protect the safety and rights of models in the industry.”
photography: aboah and runway by imaxtree

What is your greatest before going home.”

—Pahull Bains extravagance? —I.B.S.

lookiNg up Everyone knows that models are genetically blessed, but it’s still a surprise to learn that ’90s supermodel Niki
Taylor is 43 years old. Since bursting onto the modelling scene at 13, Taylor has done a lot of living. In 1996, she made fashion
history by appearing on the cover of six major American magazines in one month. But after a near-fatal car crash in 2001, Taylor
is a glowing example of someone who knows they’re lucky to be alive. Maybe that’s why she bristles when she’s referred to as a
supermodel. “I think everybody takes up the term of supermodel,” she says while in Toronto to shoot the Up! Pants Fall 2018 look
book, adding that as a mother of four, she’d rather be known as a supermom trying to juggle a family, a career and close-to-her-
heart charities like the Red Cross. “For over 10 years now, I’ve been encouraging people to roll up their sleeves and give back,”
she says. “I owe my life to blood donors.” —Jacquelyn Francis

22
 styleRunway

W
hen the invite to the
Marc Cain show at
Berlin Fashion Week
arrives at my hotel
room, it comes with
a curious accessory:
a glow stick. I’m slightly puzzled, but the
glow stick turns out to be a brilliant act
of foreshadowing: The show takes place
underground in an empty tunnel beneath
Potsdamer Platz station, and the runway
is intersected with graffiti-covered pillars,
like some kind of gritty electronic rave. As
I arrive at the station for the show, a cold,
brutal rain beats down on the city, punish-
ing all the peacocking showgoers. I over-
hear one colourfully clad attendee say
to another, “It’s a German winter.”
Once I’m safely ensconced
in the surprisingly spacious
tunnel and begin to dry off,
the show kicks off with
a banging ’80s sound-
track of Pat Benatar and
AC/DC’s “Dirty Deeds
Done Dirt Cheap.” The next
15 minutes are a whirlwind of
velvet power suits, monochrome
magenta and white pointy-toed
shoes that wouldn’t look out of place
on Molly Ringwald circa her Brat Pack
years. Georgia Fowler, a Victoria’s Secret
model, opens the show, and a gaggle of
European influencers, including Nina
Suess and Caroline Daur, commandeer
the front row.
The next day, I’m whisked away on
a private jet embossed with the Marc
Cain logo—seriously—for a tour of the
brand’s headquarters in the tiny village
of Bodelshausen, 45 minutes outside of
Stuttgart. As I step inside, I see that every
single detail has been considered—even
the fire extinguishers are painted white.
The factory, which resembles an efficient,

Happy
immaculate Santa’s Workshop, spits out
candy-coloured sweaters that are knit
using technology that combines mech-
anical knitting with 3-D printing. The
brand’s founder, Helmut Schlotterer, an

Hardcore
intimidating Teuton of few words, speaks
of Marc Cain’s unexpected Canadian
connection: He named the brand after an
old Canadian buddy who he thought had
Marc Cain goes a catchy name. “My name was too hard to
pronounce,” says Schlotterer. No doubt the
underground for fall. name will be on the lips of Canadians this
upcoming season. —Isabel B. Slone

23
stylethe list

Bucket
List
 Prada
$380

BCBG at
nordstrom
$40

Cafuné at
shopbop
$695
GuCCi at
farfe tch
$930

danse
lente
$585

marvais
$750

Whether it’s on your head or staud

$490
your arm, there’s only one
EDITOR: ElIza gROssman. phOTOgRaphy: sTREET sTylE by ImaxTREE.

shape to covet this season.

tommy
Jeans $50

HersCHel simon miller

$60 at nordstrom
$1,340

25
stylethe list

Pre-Fall 2018
MISSONI
GuccI
$2,615

With the
brand
MIu MIu
$1,200

Give a nod to the ’90s

and wear your favourite J.W.
ANderSON
verSAce AT logo loud and proud. AT neT-A-
poRTeR
SSenSe $595 $1,050

MA X
MArA
$3,245

LOuIS
EDITOR: ElIza gROssman. phOTOgRaphy: Runway by ImaxTREE.

vuIttON
Top And HILFIGer
boT TomS cOLLectION
$495 $390
eAch
Fall 2018

FeNdI
FeNdI

$1,100

LevI'S
$130

26  F A S H I O N | AUGUST 2018 fashionmagazine.com

 stylethe list

SOAK
UP the 4

SUn
Whether retro or
EDITOR: ElIza gROssman. phOTOgRaphy by DanIEl haRRIsOn.

futuristic, the right

pair of stark white
sunnies will keep
you looking cool all 5
season long.

1. cHrIStOpHer kANe $480 2. GuccI $530 3. MIu MIu at holt renfrew $530 4. le SpecS at Zane $165 5. cutler ANd GrOSS $560

fashionmagazine.com august 2018 | F A S H I O N 27

styleprofile

The Fairy
Bra Mother
With Beverly Johnson’s help, you can
take the matter of underthings into
your own hands.
By Isabel B. Slone

B
everly Johnson’s nickname, “the
fairy bra mother,” is apt for two
reasons: (1) As a tiny, elfin woman
with chipmunk cheeks and dyed
brown bangs, she truly does
resemble Cinderella’s fairy god-
mother and (2) a bra fitting with her might change
your life.
Before she became an internationally known
on a military base in Germany with her first hus-
band in the late 1970s. She was enamoured with
the glitz of the belly-dancing costumes but felt that
most of the bras on offer were either skimpy or
ill-fitting. Ironically, Johnson’s interest in bras was
piqued during a time when many feminists were
choosing to eschew the undergarment. “That was
never an option for me,” she laughs. “I was not
self-supporting past the age of 16.”
photography by Daniel harrison

brassiere doyenne, Johnson was a home econom-
ics teacher, costume designer, sewing educator
and drapery maker. In 1999, she launched her
company—Bra-makers Supply—and decided to
focus her talents on teaching women how to make
their own bras with high-quality fabrics that home
sewers hadn’t been able to access before.
Johnson first became curious about bras after
taking a belly-dancing class while living overseas
When Johnson first decided to learn how to
sew bras, there were no patterns for home sewers,
so she coupled her education in home economics
with her expertise in sewing and began to carefully
dissect off-the-rack bras, detailing their key design
elements and flaws. Today, the effervescent yet no-
nonsense seamstress runs one of the most popular
bra-making classes in North America out of her
aggressively-pink-hued retail shop in Hamilton, Ont.

28
 She estimates that she has taught nearly 40,000
people—in person or through online classes—how
to make their own bras. Business ramped up
significantly in 2013, when website Craftsy asked
her to record a bra-making instructional video for
its site. “It took 10 years to teach the first 10,000
students in hands-on classes,” says Johnson. “With
Craftsy, we reached 10,000 in a single year. We
were the top-selling sewing class two years in a
row.” To date, Craftsy accounts for almost 30,000
of Johnson’s students. Some of her Craftsy pupils
have made a pilgrimage to her shop and been star-
struck. “One woman said she has almost all of my
script memorized,” she says.
For many women, finding a perfect-fitting bra
is the metaphorical equivalent to the quest for
the Holy Grail. In other words, it’s an ultimately
unattainable sartorial goal. Johnson, however, has
pioneered a foolproof pattern that can be nipped
and tucked to accommodate any form, whether
When you’re wearing an ill-fitting bra, there’s this base level
of being uncomfortable that seeps into everything you do.
your breasts are cantaloupes or kumquats—or
perhaps one of each. Many women who have
undergone mastectomies come to Johnson to learn
how to make a custom bra. “Sometimes I’m the
first person who has seen [a student] naked since
their surgery,” she says.
Meghan Brondos, a curly-haired Wisconsinite,
came to Johnson as a last resort. With a slightly
larger left breast, a small rib cage and size D cups,
she had been plagued by bra problems as far back
as high school. “I was sick of spending money on
things that didn’t fit,” she says. Even a dalliance
with ThirdLove’s bras in half-cup sizes failed to
solve her fit issues. “I thought, ‘If this woman can’t
help me, it’s my last chance,’” she says. Brondos
had never handled a sewing machine in her life but
learned how to sew specifically in order to take
Johnson’s class. The bra she made is the first one
she’s ever worn that fits properly—she finds herself
reaching for it more than any other bra in her lin-
gerie drawer. “When you’re wearing an ill-fitting
bra, there’s this base level of being uncomfortable
that seeps into everything you do,” she says. But
in her custom bra, Brondos feels a subtle boost
of confidence. “If I hadn’t taken the class, I don’t
think I would have found a better solution,”
she says.
I signed up for Johnson’s two-day beginner
bra-making course because I was intrigued by the
possibility of sewing my own bra and also, frankly,
because I needed a new one. Specialty sizes are
pricey, so I only own three 30C bras, and I was
getting bored with my current options. After a
quick introduction, I found myself in a private
room with Johnson having my breasts measured
alfresco. She kindly noted that I have an “even set,”
and it turned out my boobs had grown a cup size
since my last measurement (one of the unexpected
bonuses of weight gain). After the seven other stu-
dents in the class learned their size, Johnson gave
us a pattern that we snipped out based on our exact
measurements. The fabrics we used—Powernet
and Duoplex—sound more like high-performance
hockey gear than delicate bra materials. First, we
joined the cups together, and then we sewed them
into the band. Next, we added the channelling, a
fuzzy tube that encases the underwire. Using a
zigzag stitch, we attached elastic to the bottom of
the band and sewed on the straps. The final tasks
were sewing on the hook and eye and threading
the underwire into the bottom of the cups.
While my sewing skill level is decidedly begin-
ner (the class calls for an intermediate level of
experience), sewing the bra was easier than I had
expected. Even if my stitching is off-kilter and the
cups ended up slightly puckered, it still feels pretty
good to wear. The band is much tighter than on
my other bras, which adds support and moves
with my body. It’s not a sports bra, but it’s baseline
comfortable enough to wear to the gym. What it
isn’t, however, is pretty. This is not a first-date-
worthy bra.
Johnson’s favourite thing to hear from her
students at the end of a class is that it doesn’t feel
like they’re wearing a bra. “That’s music to our
ears as bra makers,” she says. “They don’t feel the
wire digging in, they don’t feel the straps falling
off and they don’t feel the band pinching them. All
of those issues are suddenly gone. It’s like we’ve
unlocked a door.”
29
styletREND

clockwise (FRoM leF T): john

galliano, sacai MensweaR,
gabRiela heaRsT anD é TUDes
MensweaR, all Fall 2018

PhotograPhy: runway by imaxtree; newsPrint by istock.

30
 Fit to Print You got the slogan T-shirt—now it’s
time to read the whole truth.
By Isabel B. Slone
T
he year was 2000 when Sex and
the City’s stylish anti-hero, Carrie
Bradshaw, sashayed into a restaurant
wearing a clingy Dior newsprint
dress designed by John Galliano to
apologize to Big’s ex-wife for being
“the other woman.” Yet somehow it was the dress, and
not Carrie’s monumentally selfish behaviour, that
triumphed by being the most memorable part of the
show. Nearly two decades later, designer Bill Gaytten
resurrected the iconic print for Galliano’s Fall 2018
runway, slapping it sideways onto slip-dresses, fluttery
silk skirts and ghostlike transparent rain jackets. Time
to wake up and smell the headlines.
The return of newsprint clothing is a refreshing
change from the brash slogan T-shirts that dominated
seasons past. Sacai’s Fall 2018 menswear collection
valorized Donald Trump’s favourite punching bag,
the “failing” New York Times, by emblazoning the
paper’s rallying cry on basic tees, and Gabriela Hearst
debuted a silky dress featuring “all the news that’s fit
to print.” In contrast, Dior’s “We Should All Be
Feminists” and Jonathan Simkhai’s “Feminist AF”
shirts have begun to ring hollow without the accom-
panying actions to back them up, which suggests that
the world aches for nuanced analysis over scorching
hot takes. We get it—you’re feminist. Now read the
fine print.
Newsprint clothing isn’t exactly new, of course; it
dates back to 1911, when Paul Poiret designed a paper
tunic decorated with ads and phone book listings.
Surrealist designer Elsa Schiaparelli also lent her
irreverent eye to newsprint, overlaying real-life press
clippings of her work onto scarves, blouses and hats.
Beth Dincuff, a fashion historian and professor
at Parsons The New School in NYC, interprets
Schiaparelli’s appropriation of the press as “a unique
way of controlling her message.” Whereas Schiaparelli
used actual reviews of her work, Galliano’s early news-
print dress was based on somewhat self-aggrandizing
fake articles. “Galliano would have had more artistic
control in designing a print than he would have
in writing a press release,” says Dincuff. “But both
Schiaparelli’s and Galliano’s prints act as media
for self-expression that bypass any non-design
room editing.”
While previous 20th-century iterations of the news-
print trend were splashy and lighthearted (Franco
Moschino offered up his own cheeky take on the
pattern circa the ’80s), the current-day resurgence has
taken on a more serious tone—one that prioritizes
survival over aesthetics. The timing and prevalence
of this trend suggest that fashion, which has typically
been rooted in aspirational messaging, is coming down
to earth. Political news has replaced celebrity gossip
as the mainstay of current-day conversation, and even
Hollywood, a place where the law of the land seem-
ingly does not apply, seems to be making up for lost
time with the #MeToo movement and the Time’s Up
campaign. Realism is replacing escapism as the appro-
priate reaction to what is happening in the world.
Since we can no longer escape the pulsating bad-
news cycle—nor should we—it has become natural
to appropriate it. With politics at the forefront of
culture, the newsprint trend appears to be the fashion
world’s acquiescence to the cultural conversations of
the day. If we can’t transcend the news, we might as
well wear it.
31
styleShift

Faux Sure
Fall 2018

As designers turn their backs on real fur, Caitlin Agnew

shrimps

speaks with the creative minds behind the high-end fakes.

O
ne of the most enduring In keeping with the spirit of the original Club
fashion visuals from the Kids, fun fur is living up to its name with a fabu-
1990s Club Kids scene lous following of international It girls. In London,
Fall 2018

is Deee-Lite’s video for Shrimps founder Hannah Weiland built her line
“Groove Is in the Heart.” around colourful faux fur coats that have been
In it, the beyond fabulous worn by Alexa Chung, Susie Bubble and model
stell a mccartne y

Lady Miss Kier is wearing a bouffant hairdo, Laura Bailey. Weiland says she originally gravi-
short shorts and a fluffy white coat next to tated toward the material because of its versatil-
which appear the words “Fake Fur.” It made ity. “Faux fur is a very malleable material; as a
Fall 2018

the statement that fake can be fabulous—and designer, I use a lot of colour and create amazing
the trend is proving to be especially true in jacquards so there are a lot more exciting things
2018 as imitation fur goes from faux pas to to do with the material,” she says of her decision
fierce must-have. to go faux. “It can be both luxurious and fun. I
mary k atr antzou

Like so many of the most creative runway like to think that we create items that customers
trends, the current faux fur revival traces its fall in love with for their quality and unique
fuzzy origins to Miuccia Prada. At her Fall 2017 sense of humour.”
show for Miu Miu, models were swathed in For Tel Aviv-based designer Maya Reik,
retro-inspired faux coats, hats, accessories and faux fur presents an opportunity to revive
boots. For Fall 2018, faux was spotted on the timeless styles in a relevant way for the clients
runways in a variety of styles, from shaggadelic of her line Marei 1998 with retro-inspired faux
at Dries Van Noten to multi-textured at Stella fur designs that easily pass for the real deal.
McCartney, a longtime animal-rights activist. “Sometimes I wear it and people don’t believe
Available in a rainbow of colours and soft-to- it’s not real,” she says. At just 20 years old,
the-touch textures ranging from realistic to Reik has already become an industry darling.
Muppet, the highly photogenic fabric has even Her line has earned coverage from CR Fashion
earned its own hashtag on Instagram, where Book and Vogue and has been spotted on Bella
stars like Vanessa Hudgens have captioned their Hadid. Reik’s Pre-Fall 2018 collection, her
#OOTD posts with #faux or #fauxfur. fifth, evokes a 1960s Elizabeth Taylor with

FROM ABOVE: AlExA chung in shRiMps;

BEllA hAdid in MAREi 1998
32

full-length faux fur coats that retail for $2,565.
Reik says she discovered her faux fabric while
on a visit to a supplier. “I’m in love with it; I’m
really obsessed and happy that we found such
good quality,” she says. “Why should we wear
something if we can find the same exact look
and not in a cruel way?”
It’s a sentiment that’s echoed by Kym Canter,
CEO and creative director of faux fur emporium
House of Fluff on the Bowery in New York. In
her previous role as creative director at J. Mendel,
Canter amassed a large collection of furs, includ-
ing—her favourite—a vintage monkey coat. “I
felt incredibly glamorous and beautiful in it,” she
says. “As culture started to change, all of our
awareness started to change to the things around
us: what we eat, what we put on our bodies,
what we clean our houses with. My closet just
couldn’t escape the same scrutiny.” So Canter
sold her 26 furs and used the money to launch
House of Fluff as a way to recapture the glamour
she felt while wearing her monkey coat.
Alongside the rise of faux (in the United
States, the faux market is worth $148.7 million,
sidebar text by lauren hazlewood. photography: runway and Versace by imaxtree; chung by neil mockford/alex huckle/
having grown 2 per cent from 2012 to 2016) has
stringer/getty images; wintour by lorenzo santini/contributor/getty images; calVin klein protest courtesy of peta.
come a rejection of the real deal, with brands
like Gucci, Versace and Michael Kors all say-
ing goodbye to fur. New-fur sales are illegal in
West Hollywood, where the sale of fur apparel
has been banned since 2013. It’s a motion that
Ashley Byrne, associate director at People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), applauds.
“When you have Donatella Versace doing an
Instagram post about how she’s proudly against
the use of real fur, it really tells you that times
have changed and that what we consider luxuri-
ous has changed,” she says. And those who trade
in fur are sometimes press-shy about the fact.
In April, Women’s Wear Daily asked 22 retailers
to share their opinions on fur’s role in fashion.
Thirteen of the stores contacted declined to
comment, as did the fur-friendly Canadian
designers we reached out to.
The fur market, however, is by no means
dead, with global fur sales reported in the $39
to $53 billion range. To appeal to a millen-
nial clientele, designers are using fur in more
accessibly priced ways. There’s Fendi’s alpaca
and mink Bag Bug Charms, Valentino’s mink-
trimmed sneakers and Dolce & Gabbana’s pink
rabbit Box Bags—never mind the ubiquitous
coyote-trimmed parka by Canada Goose. And
fur has many very influential supporters. Anna
Wintour regularly includes fur in the pages
of Vogue and wears it herself, as do Beyoncé
and Rihanna, who in January stepped out in
a $23,000 raccoon coat by Antwerp-based
menswear label Jun Jie.
Pile UP
1994: Five supermodels
band together for a nude
photo campaign stating
“We’d rather go naked than
wear fur.” This intensifies the
growing anti-fur movement.
“The problem we’re beginning to become much
1994: Members of PETA
raid the offices of Calvin
Klein, protesting the
designer’s use of fur.
2005: Anna Wintour, editor-
in-chief of Vogue, receives
a tofu pie in the face from
protesters in Paris.
“I feel like everyone picks on [faux] fur, when,
2017: Gucci, known for
its fur-lined loafers, is plan-
ning for a fur-free future,
starting with its Spring 2018
collection.
2018: DKNY, Furla,
John Galliano and Versace
announce they are
also working toward
eliminating real fur.
Alan Herscovici, senior writer/researcher
at TruthAboutFur.com and former executive
vice-president of the Fur Council of Canada,
says that there is a lot of confusion around fur
as sustainable clothing. “When you look at the
modern fur trade, the way it’s regulated today,
it’s an excellent example of the responsible and
sustainable use of nature,” he says, adding that
fur coats are often worn for decades, passed
down from one generation to the next or
redesigned into a more contemporary style.
Herscovici stresses that synthetic fabric—
whether that’s a faux fur jacket or polyester
top—comes with its own set of complications.
more aware of is that these materials don’t
biodegrade very easily,” he says. “We’re now
finding out that each time you wash some of
these clothing materials, they leach micro-
fibres—micro-particles of basically plastic that
go into our waterways. They are really just
another form of plastic bag.” While real fur will
eventually biodegrade, faux fur made of acrylic
or polyester could take as long to break down as
a plastic bag does, and that’s somewhere in the
ballpark of 500 to 1,000 years.
When a major label like Gucci says it’s
quitting fur for sustainability reasons, you
have to wonder if it has taken any other steps
toward lessening its overall environmental
impact and its role in climate change, especially
when, according to sustainability researchers
at Quantis, 8 per cent of global emissions are
traced to the fashion industry (more than the
emissions traced to air travel). At House of Fluff,
Canter says it’s important to look at the big pic-
ture, and that means everything in your closet.
in fact, so many of the clothes we wear have a
funky [problematic] textile or a funky thread,
and no one really talks about it,” she says. “Are
we analyzing all of our clothes?” Luxury brands
Shrimps, House of Fluff and Marei 1998 say
they are making high-quality products that are
meant to be worn for years, not just one season.
It speaks to the broader fashion revolution
toward overall sustainability that’s going on
at all points in the industry, from unnecessary
waste accumulated during the production
process to energy consumption at physical retail
stores, and it’s one that consumers play a major
part in. The choices you make about what
Fall 2018
you consume ultimately inform how and what
designers create, and it’s important that those
decisions take into account all of the ethical,
dries van noten
social and environmental impacts they’ll have.
Information is power, and there’s nothing fake
about knowing the truth.
33
Plan your day, your way.
FALL & WINTER 2018 ISSUE OF WEDDINGBELLS ON SALE NOW!

weddingbells.ca
 r e p ort i ng
BEAUTY
on t h e n e x t t r e n ds a n d i n novat ions

rEd
mY lips
Even when it’s
obscured by a veil, a
crimson mouth still has
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volumes.
section editor: lesa hannah. photography by imaxtree.

erdem Fall 2018

fashionmagazine.com august 2018 | F A S H I O N 35

beautyfix hirons is a fan of Canadian
skinCare CompanY INDEED
LAbS, whiCh reCentlY brought
her to toronto for the launCh
from top: ESSIE of its hYdraluron intense
gel Couture moisture lotion ($25 ).
($14 each ) in
“avant-garment”
u m
e r
and “what’s the
stitCh”; CND s
vinYluX long
wear polish

d
($12) in “Jellied”;

a n
L’OréAL PArIS
Colour riChe
nail polish
($7 ) in “roYalt Y

t h
reinvented”

u
r
t

In a world where fake news is increasingly a

threat, we can count on Caroline Hirons—or
at least the beauty world can. Though
sometimes referred to as a blogger, Hirons
has extensive credentials that put her in a
league of her own: She has worked in the
beauty industry for decades, in both retail
and consulting, and is also a facialist. On
her website, which she started in 2010, she
dispenses skincare advice that is straight to
the point (and a little bossy—but in the best
way) and product reviews that are strikingly
honest. It’s an approach that has amassed

neXt gen After what feels like an eternity of millen-

nial pink on our feeds, not one but two new shades have been
appointed its successors. First up is “Gen Z yellow.” Given its
name by Man Repeller, the hue is bright but certainly not neon,
is optimistic but subtly so and was arguably kick-started, as
many worthwhile trends are, by Beyoncé. (See the “Hold Up”
video and even Lemonade as a whole, an album that shares its
name with a perfectly-Gen Z-yellow-hued drink.) Then there’s
The Cut’s mention of “melodramatic purple,” a shade inspired
by the Monique Lhuillier gown Lorde wore for her appearance
at last year’s MTV VMAs to promote her album Melodrama.
The pastel shade, just like its wearer, was at once moody, vul-
nerable and undeniably lovely. We suggest both as alternatives
her a substantial following in her native
England and abroad. Her approval can also
result in sales: Because she is so discerning,
a ringing endorsement from her can mean
a product will sell out when her readers
descend to stock up.
But it’s not just Hirons’s own kind of
candour that is drawing in numbers. Truthful-
ness has such currency right now, and she
believes that that’s why the small indies are
stealing market share from the corporate
behemoths. “They talk to people; they don’t
patronize them,” says Hirons, who points
out that since social media provides direct
access to brands, how (or if) one responds

PhotograPhy: Products By daNIEL harrIsoN; haNd VIa @PaINtBoxNaILs.

to the expected summer nail polish hues of coral and hot pink.
—Souzan Michael
d e e P C L e a n Philosophy’s
cult-favourite cleansing line Purity Made
Simple has two new additions: a micellar
cleansing water and an exfoliating clay mask,
both of which aid in extracting impurities
from the skin. The cleanser contains micelle
molecules that attract dirt in a magnet-like way,
while the mask contains white clay and sali-
cylic acid to unclog pores. “I get a lot of black-
heads because I spray-tan quite a bit,” admits
Philosophy partner Mario Dedivanovic, who
started his career at Sephora when he was 17.
“Philosophy is very nostalgic for me,” he adds.
“It was one of the few skincare brands carried
there at that time.” —S.M.
to customers can “make or break you.” And
the fact that many of the biggest companies
still don’t include their full ingredient lists on
their websites is unacceptable to her. “That,
to me, is arrogance—which will be the end of
PHILOSOPHy them, if I’m being honest,” she says.
purit Y made Despite her unending willingness to throw
simple pore out barbs—and perhaps her slight enjoyment
eXtraCtor ($39) of it?—Hirons is adamant that she doesn’t
“search for the negative” and that she “loves
the industry.” When she questions a brand, it
comes from a good place, and she truly feels
it is her duty to take care of people’s skin.
(To wit: She says to stay the hell away from
any skincare products that contain glitter.
“It’s a trend driven by people who don’t give a
shit about your skin,” she says. “And you can
quote me on that.” Oh, we will.) In the end,
it’s people like her who will make the beauty
world a more honest and accountable place.
“If someone sits in front of me, they’d better
know their shit.” —Lesa Hannah

PHILOSOPHy purit Y made simple

miCellar Cleansing water ($15 )
36  F A S H I O N | august 2018 fashionmagazine.com
beautyprofile
 Direct
Message
With her refreshingly honest and unvarnished take
on life, Helen Mirren is the kind of woman we
should all want to be when we grow up.
By Lesa Hannah

W
hen Dame Helen Mirren greets me at the
door of her hotel suite, my immediate reac-
tion is to curtsy. Not just because she has
played the Queen and is the female equiva-
lent of a knight but because the woman
is so well respected that, quite frankly, she deserves it. But
rather than tut-tutting and nodding, as you would expect
from someone with a distinguished title, she radiates warmth
with a wide, open smile and ushers me in. The publicists
quickly scatter, and suddenly we’re one-on-one. Her outfit
of a long-sleeved black and white polka-dot dress cinched
with a patent-leather belt and accessorized with pearl drop
earrings and black leather booties is elegant with flourishes
of badassery—just like the actress herself.
Mirren is in Toronto to host L’Oréal Paris’s Women
of Worth Awards Gala as one of the company’s brand
PHOTOGRAPHY: miRRen bY scOTT TRindle/AuGusT; PROducT bY dAniel HARRisOn.
The other opinion she shared with the beauty company was
that there should be no retouching of her in photos. (Clearly,
neither request cost her the contract.) Mirren sees advocat-
ing for these changes in the beauty industry as part of the
larger picture that has contributed to the current sea change.
“It’s all these little building blocks toward what’s happening
now at this moment,” she says.
At the same time, Mirren recognizes the value in beauty
products themselves—especially for what they can provide
mentally and emotionally. Last year she was quoted as
saying that although she loves moisturizer, it “probably does
f--- all,” but today she clarifies that what she meant was it’s
about how these products make you feel. “If you feel good,
your whole demeanour—your whole way of looking at the
world—is a completely different thing,” she explains, adding
that she loves makeup and wears it almost every day. “The

ambassadors, and whether she is thinking of #TimesUp, the world is a complicated, difficult, challenging place to be, so
Women’s March or the conversation about the pay gap in any ammunition for your battle with it is a good thing.”
Hollywood, the current climate around the future of females
is definitely on her mind. “Something amazing has hap-
pened,” she says, taking a seat. “Why has it taken so long?
It’s very annoying. It’s the first time in my life that I wish I
were younger.” At 72, Mirren is otherwise very happy with
where she is in her life. “It’s more interesting, I’m freer, I’ve L’OréaL Paris
got more money,” she explains. In fact, her mother made a Age Perfect cell
renewAl rosy tone
point of telling her not to worry about aging, assuring her Moisturizer ($36)
that something wonderful would happen. “I have to say it
transpired to be absolutely true,” she says. For Mirren, this
happened around age 50, when she felt “that sense of ‘Oh,
I see—this is the advantage of getting old.’” She explains,
“When you reach each age, you find that the reality of being
that age is great and you wouldn’t change it.”
Which is why she was thrilled when Allure put her on
its September cover last year as part of its ban on the term
“anti-aging.” “It was something I always said to L’Oréal when
I first came on board,” she says. “I so personally disapprove
of it; I think it’s wrong. It puts women at a disadvantage.”

39
beautyprofile
Fun Fare
Two decades ago, Too Faced
injected some much-needed joy—
and a whole lot of sparkle—into
the cosmetics game.
By Wendy Schmid
E
ntering the Orange County, Calif., headquarters of
Too Faced cosmetics is like arriving at the beauty
version of Oz. Giant tubes of Melted, the brand’s
popular liquid lipstick, greet you like beauty sentinels,
and every turn reveals a new surprise: A bunny-and-
bird-dotted mural at the elevator bank is a clever ode to the brand’s
Natural Love eyeshadow palette (and de Gournay wallpaper); an
enormous mobile of smiling peaches hangs beside a tree “sprouting”
Sweet Peach palettes; and unicorn heads, flirty black lashes and
Chanel-tweed-inspired carpet accent chandeliered conference
rooms. The Yellow Brick Road here? A pink and black stairway
painted with inspirational maxims like “Makeup is power” and
“Own your pretty.”
The beauty wizard behind all this cheeky fun? Chief creative
officer Jerrod Blandino, who co-founded Too Faced in 1998 with
his husband, Jeremy Johnson. The duo met while working behind
the counter at Estée Lauder in Saks at the South Coast Plaza mall.
“Makeup was such an intimidating process in the late ’90s,” recalls
Blandino. “You couldn’t break the rules, everything was brown
tOO FAced
me taLLic
sParKLe
LiPsticK ($26)
in “biOnic” tOO FAced bet ter
than birthday sex
mascara ($30)
40  F A S H I O N | august 2018
tOO faced cO-fOunders
jeremy jOhnsOn (Left)
and jerrOd bLandinO
and I just thought it should be fun.” With his unbridled
enthusiasm and love of art, Blandino began melting
eyeshadows, blushes and glosses from tester units in his free
time, dreaming up a new face of beauty punctuated by irrever-
ent humour and “kick-ass formulas.” “I went to a lab and told them
I worked for Lauder—but I didn’t say ‘at the mall,’ so they took the
meeting!” he exclaims. “And through that, I created the first-ever
glitter eyeshadow and we launched our very first collection.”
Twenty years of glitter and fun later, the brand is debuting
its limited-edition anniversary collection—a throwback to the
first—with sparkly updated versions of the OG eyeshadows and
lipsticks (plus bonus hues) and Better Than Sex Mascara wrapped
in a shimmery birthday suit tube. With design details like high-
lighters shaped into unicorn horns and scented palettes inspired
by scratch-and-sniff stickers, Blandino has an uncanny ability to
translate his creative whimsy into over-the-top products that make
fans feel welcomed into the wacky world of Too Faced whenever
they open a compact. And fans show their appreciation by, well,
breaking the Internet. Like another famous pop culture “peach,”
the Peaches and Cream collection created a frenzy, crashing the
company’s website and selling out within minutes. It’s among the
Instagram and YouTube makeup set that Too Faced has found
particularly explosive success, earning myriad fans including star
vloggers Jackie Aina and Kandee Johnson. “It makes me so excited
to be in the cosmetics world—it has reinvigorated our business,”
says Blandino of social media. When Aina explained that she
needed to mix a number of foundation colours from the brand’s
Born This Way collection to match her skin tone, Blandino even
invited her to the office to help expand the shade range. “There
are important nuances,” he says of getting skin tones right. “Jackie
really educated me.”
But long before social media was a thing, Blandino was creating
PHOTOGRAPHY: MAIN, FOUNDERS AND PRODUCTS COURTESY OF TOO FACED; GlITTER bY ISTOCk.
instant classics. A few brand highlights throughout the years: the
first lipgloss ring for the prestige market; Lip Injection, a blood-
vessel-dilating gloss inspired by a late-night Viagra commercial; the
Chocolate Soleil bronzer, a light-bulb moment during a chocolate
facial in Hawaii; Hangover Primer, a skin-loving formula infused
with coconut water and probiotics; and, of course, Melted, sparked
by a mishap on a hot day. During an errand, Blandino’s sister left
her lipstick in his car. When she went to reapply it, says Blandino,
“it just melted all over her lips! So we played with waxes and bind-
ers and created the first lipstick that wouldn’t solidify.” The latest
incarnation, Melted Matte-tallics, launched in June. And in a
come-full-circle moment, Estée Lauder recognized the talent it
let get away two decades earlier and bought Too Faced for over
a billion dollars in 2016. “I have resources if I want them, and I
have complete creative control,” says Blandino about the sale.
Lucky for us.
tOO FAced then &
nOW eyeshadOW
PaLet te ($69)
 2018

Celebrate the
best in beauty
submit your
brands today!
For morE inFormation on HoW to submit your brands
PLEasE Visit FASHIONMAGAZINE.COM/2018BEAUTYAWARDS.
# F A S H I O N B E A U T YA W A R D S
beautyFRAGRANCE green almond and
frosted pear take
valentino donna acqua
eau de toilette ($130)
to a sweet and juicy
candied place.

ROSe
cOlOuRed
glaSSeS
Though we’re now at the midway
point of summer, the latest
fragrances will keep you feeling
optimistic about the final stretch. prada la femme prada
l’eau eau de toilette
($150) is a delicate floral
with frangipani, ylang-
ylang and tuberose.

photography by daniel harrison

salvatore ferragamo amo

ferragamo eau de parfum
($105) smells sticky-sweet
with blackcurrant, rhubarb
and vanilla and a hint of
italian bitter accord.

42
 inspired by the brand’s
signature tea rose,
coach floral eau de
parfum ($118) combines
rose tea, jasmine
sambac and gardenia.

miu miu l’eau

rosée eau de
toilette ($94)
takes lily of
the valley and
cassis buds and
envelopes them
in notes of musk
to create a dewy
freshness.

kenzo world eau de

toilette ($91) is a spark­
ling fruity floral that
includes pear and peony.

an overdose of jasmine sambac,

along with lavender and vanilla,
makes guerlain mon guerlain
eau de parfum florale ($119)
creamy yet bright.

43
beautyCULTURE
YOU’RE
SO VAIN
In our current selfie-obsessed
culture, where do we draw the line
between self-love and vanity?
By Souzan Michael
W
hen it comes
to identifying
“good” and
“bad” qual­
ities in people,
some are easily
categorized (generous versus miserly,
trustworthy versus deceitful), some
are debatable (after all, who hasn’t
been charmed by a bad boy’s antics?)
and some, like vanity, exist on a slid­
ing scale, constantly evolving with
societal norms.
Once upon a time, the word “vain”
simply meant empty, void or futile.
In the 14th century, it morphed to
mean self­involved, conceited and
narcissistic. Since then, there has
always been an inherent sexism to
its meaning and use, says Dr. Judith
Orloff, an L.A.­based psychiatrist.
44
“Vanity isn’t taken as seriously with
men; it’s swept under the rug,” she
says. “Whereas with women, it’s
used to make us appear selfish and
like our priorities are off.”
Perhaps it’s time to redefine
vanity now that we live in a culture
in which selfies are monetized and
self­care is a concept that has its
own hashtag. Today, social media’s
influence—and usefulness for more
than broadcasting one’s breakfast
choices—is undeniable. It has
changed the way we create, com­
municate and present ourselves.
Only a few years ago, it would
have been difficult to imagine
unboxing and GRWM (“Get
Ready With Me”) videos as popular
forms of entertainment, yet today
millions watch them. (A single one
of YouTuber BeautyyBird’s recent
unboxing videos has racked up
almost half a million views.)
Under the existing definition of
vanity, having an Instagram feed
could be considered an indulgent,
vain act—especially if someone
spends an inordinate amount of
time labouring over how to present
photography by MuhaMMad hardi Saputra
an edited and Facetuned version of
themselves.
Social media has made us very
aware of—and preoccupied with—
how we look in pictures, but does
that make us clinically self­obsessed?
“It’s a spectrum,” says Orloff. “Every­
one wants to look in the mirror and
like what they see. That’s natural.
But vanity is an obsession with
making sure you look better than
everyone else.”
 For those who fall on the healthier
side of that spectrum, the desire to
both demystify and celebrate beauty
FACE FORWARD
rituals explains the popularity of
sites like Into the Gloss. The beauty-
focused website, which was founded
by Emily Weiss in 2010, provides
readers with lengthy and detailed
descriptions of the makeup products
that celebrities use to transform into
the beautiful people we (think we)
know and love.
Sites like Into the Gloss, Violet
Grey and Coveteur have loyal fol-
lowers who are drawn to content
that doesn’t make them feel they
have to be secretive about their
supposed “vain” rituals (hours-long
makeup routines, weekly manicures,
expensive lash extensions).
Makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury—
who once joked “I’m so vain that I
never want to age and I want to look
fabulous until the very end”—has
a daytime look (smoky eye, nude
lipstick) and a bedtime look (softer
smoky eye, just a couple of coats of
mascara). In fact, her husband has
never seen her barefaced because
she feels better with makeup on. “I
believe in the power of beauty,” says
Tilbury. “Makeup can change a
woman’s life for the better—give
her confidence, make her happy,
more empowered.”
Women like Tilbury, who are
confident and honest about the
measures they take to maintain an
attractive appearance, are often
considered vain, says Hannah
Johnson, beauty writer and former
contributing editor for xoVain, Jane
Pratt’s beauty-centred offshoot of
xoJane. She says it’s a term used
to make women feel guilty for
participating in acts of self-care,
“especially if that process requires
time, effort and money.” “Women
are realizing that we can craft any
image we choose for ourselves,” she
adds. “We can use our free time and
hard-earned money to help create
those personas.”
So, how about we propose a
new definition:
van·ity
noun
The self-actualized desire to
present yourself to the world any
way you wish.
w e h av e
lift off
Described as a
“non-surgical facelift”
because it reaches
the level of the muscle
that would be cut if
you were doing one,
Ultherapy delivers “pre-
dictable” results with a
“very high satisfaction
rate,” says Dr. Patricia
Wexler. The New York
dermatologist cites it as
her favourite treatment
for her patients and
even herself. “I person-
ally do it every two
Supermodel and sexagenarian Christie years,” she says, adding
Brinkley on why she’s not hiding anything she that it only needs to
does in the name of vanity. be administered again
because of continued
When Christie Brinkley signed on as a spokes- aging, not because the
person for cosmetic-enhancement treatments results fade.
Ultherapy and Xeomin last October, the 64-year-old I couldn’t offer up
model took issue with how the company, Merz, my face fast enough
originally framed the announcement. “They were when I had the chance
to try it, especially
handling it as if I’d been caught doing something
wrong,” she says, seated in a booth at Avra since French cosmetic
Madison restaurant in New York City. “Even in doctor Jean-Louis
the first release, they used the word ‘reveal.’” She Sebagh suggested it to
requested that it be reworded, insisting that they shorten and tighten the
allow women the right to do what they want. muscles of my jawline
Secrecy surrounding beauty activities is some- when he scrutinized
thing Brinkley says dates back to the 1960s, when my face last year. But
women would keep whether they coloured their hair what I experienced at
under wraps, slipping in the back door of the salon. a Toronto dermatology
“The thing was ‘Does she or doesn’t she? Only her clinic was more painful
than I had anticipated,
hairdresser knows for sure!’” she recalls. “I don’t
understand why. It’s not hurting anybody.” For and no amount of laugh-
Brinkley, she sees speaking on behalf of treatments ing gas or reminders to
she likes as no different from the products she has myself that I’d endured
paid lip service to throughout her career. “I’ve been labour contractions
sharing my beauty tips for over 40 years,” she says. helped me push through
“When I find something that works, I generally talk to the end. Apparently
about it.” the procedure shouldn’t
The one we’re discussing today is Ultherapy, a have hurt that much, so
procedure that sends focused ultrasound energy I tried it again at Clarity
deep into the skin to jump-start the production Medspa, where it was
far more tolerable. There
of collagen and elastin and results in a lifting and
tightening effect. Brinkley wanted to try it after was some residual
seeing it demoed on Today. “It’s something you do tenderness for the next
once and you’re good to go for the next year or 18 few days, and I started
months,” she says. As for Xeomin, the injectable to see results about two
toxin she also endorses, Brinkley says she decided and a half months in;
to try it because she had a marionette line on the it typically takes three.
side of her face that looked like a fork in a road that My jawline is noticeably
she couldn’t let go. But the first time she went for sharper, the skin below
the treatment, it was all “very hush-hush.” “I thought, my cheekbones looks
less jowly and the entire
‘This is so ridiculous.’ Women shouldn’t have to
lower half of my face
feel like that,” she says, adding that if something is
going to make you feel better about yourself, why seems a little slimmer.
be ashamed? “It should be about you and your Like Brinkley, I’m offi-
personal reasons.” —Lesa Hannah cially a believer. —L.H.
45
healthchoice

Inflated
Truths?
Thinking about getting—
or removing—breast
implants? Here’s the latest
take on the pros and cons.
By Michelle Bilodeau

W h at Wo m e n W h o h av e (h a d) t h e m allergies, to name a few. In January 2013, Daruda, who’s based

s a y … When Kirstin Turnbull was 24 years old, one of her on Vancouver Island, consulted a surgeon in Alberta. He told
friends got breast implants. An A cup herself, Turnbull, now her that he’d had patients report similar symptoms stemming
42, immediately wanted to know more; within weeks, she from implants and agreed to remove hers.

PhotograPhy: main by istock; jenner by

went in for surgery to have textured saline implants put in, at a Before she went under, the surgeon asked her if she wanted

gotham/contributor/getty images.
cost of around $6,800. to see her implants post-surgery. After noting that they smelled
Within two years, she was diagnosed with anxiety and like a mix of acetone, urethane and formaldehyde (“They were
depression. After giving birth eight years later, the Toronto very strong, noxious smells,” she says), Daruda decided to do
native was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease—an some further research. She launched healingbreastimplantil-
autoimmune disease that affects the thyroid. By the time lness.com in 2013 and a Facebook group called Breast Implant
she turned 38, she had started going through menopause. Illness and Healing in 2015. Today, the group has more than
Turnbull believes that these health issues were related to her 40,000 members, including Turnbull.
implants. In 2017, she decided to have them removed. (Her Another member, St. Louis, Mo., native Tracie Lunatto,
friend, who had her implants replaced around 2010, has not 37, was 32 when she was diagnosed with stage II breast
had any complications and still has her implants to this day.) cancer. She went through four rounds of chemotherapy
“I can’t say that I have noticed any
immediate changes in my health; however,
I didn’t expect to have any right away,”
says Turnbull, six months post-“explant”
surgery. “I do sleep better at night—figu-
ratively and literally—knowing that I
NiP(PLe) AND TUcK
worldwide uproar. Post-nipplegate,
made this decision.” the singer was unjustly blacklisted
In 2005, Nicole Daruda received her Plumping one’s lips and cheekbones and her career took a hit. Fast-
cohesive gel implants and within two with dermal fillers is pretty forward to today and nipples are pop-
ping up front and centre on braless
years had noticeable symptoms. In 2010, mainstream, but what about celebrities like Bella Hadid, Rihanna
she left her job due to brain fog, and by plumped and perky nipples? and Kendall Jenner—they have
2012, she says, she was bedridden. Her Is this going too far? become their signature accessory.
symptoms included chronic fatigue, body So it’s not surprising that the
aches and inflammation, thyroid issues, Fourteen years ago, Janet Jackson’s latest celeb-inspired trend is nipple
constant ringing in the ears, heart palpita- exposed nipple at the Super Bowl half- injections. We’re not kidding. Docs
tions, digestive issues and sudden food time performance caused a dramatic are using hyaluronic acid fillers like

46
and had a double mastectomy. “Honestly, I wanted a
mastectomy as soon as I heard ‘It’s cancer,’” says Lunatto.
After surgery, two tissue expanders were placed under her
skin to stretch the epidermis in preparation for implants.
After recovering from some complications—one of her
expanders was removed early due to an MRSA infec-
tion—Lunatto had textured silicone implants put in. She
was pleased with her new breasts but still felt depressed.
It had been a difficult year. First the diagnosis and then
the gruelling treatment, and now she was grappling with
lingering post-chemo side effects.
Fast-forward a year and Lunatto began to worry that
her implants were not only exacerbating her post-treatment
symptoms but also causing new problems. “I knew I’d
always have chemo side effects, like short-term-memory loss,
bone aches and nausea,” says Lunatto, but she was also expe-
riencing headaches, ringing in her ears, food and temperature
intolerances and constant nausea, and her face was puffy.
Within 24 hours of her explant surgery, the swelling,
food issues and ringing in the ears disappeared. It has now
been almost a year since her surgery, and she says the
majority of her symptoms have waned or subsided to a
degree where she is much more comfortable. Lunatto says
she misses her breasts but adds that she “wouldn’t recom-
mend implants to anyone.”
W h a t d o c t o r s s a y … There is limited
research on the benefits of implant removal, but a study
published in the journal Immunologic Research in July 2016
concluded that when people with silicone breast implants
who’d experienced silicone-related complaints like fatigue,
autoimmune disease and myalgia underwent explantation, 75
per cent of them saw improvements in their health.
“Extrapolating from U.S. data, an estimated 4,500 women
had their implants removed in 2017 in Canada, which was a
4 per cent increase from 2016,” says Dr. Julie Khanna, a plas-
tic surgeon based in Oakville, Ont. She adds, however, that
she believes that most women have their implants removed
for aesthetic reasons rather than health concerns. (Depending
upon your provincial or territorial benefits, the surgery may
or may not be covered.)
Khanna says that women first started worrying about
implants in 1992, after silicone implants were temporarily
taken off the market due to the possible health concerns with
which they were associated: autoimmune diseases like lupus,
arthritis and scleroderma.
Khanna says that today, however, there are multiple
studies that show this isn’t the case. “At the time, we didn’t
understand the rate of these autoimmune diseases in women
in general,” she explains. “But now, when you compare
groups with implants and without, there’s no difference.”
In 2017, Health Canada issued an alert about breast-
implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma (BIA-
ALCL), noting that it occurs more frequently in women
who have implants that have a textured surface than in
women who have implants with a smooth surface. Research
published in JAMA Oncology earlier this year found that
approximately one in 7,000 women who get breast implants
will develop this rare form of cancer. According to the alert,
Health Canada had received five confirmed cases of the
cancer in Canada over the past 10 years, and as of September
2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated
that it had been made aware of 414 reports of BIA-ALCL.
It’s not clear what causes this rare type of non-Hodgkin’s
lymphoma; however, some suspect that it develops as an
immune response to the implants.
Dr. Pierre Blais has been researching medical implants
(from breast to ophthalmic implants, as well as hip and
knee replacement systems) and their side effects since the
early 1970s. In 1990, he launched his own company, Innoval
Failure Analysis.
Based on his research, Blais says it’s not the breast
implants themselves that cause the adverse effects. “Instead,
it’s the body’s reaction to the tissue that forms around the
implants and the accumulation of stagnant fluid at the
implant site,” he explains. According to Blais, the tissue starts
to form within days of implantation but gradually dies after
about five years. The decaying tissue by-products then seep
into the body, causing inflammatory and immunological
changes. “Breast implants impose a mortgage on the user’s
health, which increases with the implant dwell time and age
of the user,” he says.
Blais notes that once implants are removed, it may take
a “substantial period of time” for the symptoms to diminish,
adding that in some cases, some remain. He also recom-
mends that women be screened for lymphatic disturbances,
especially if they have had the implants for a long time or
have had multiple implants.

Juvéderm and Restylane (the same he recommends that it be done by a

rachel green is soft-tissue fillers used for lips and
often jokingly cheeks) to plump up the nipple-
referred to as areolar complex so nipples are more
the og of the
#freethenipple visible under clothing.
movement. “The thicker the filler, the more
pronounced the effect,” says Dr. Paul
Cohen, a Toronto-based derma-
tologist. “If somebody wants a more
subtle effect, a doctor might use a
thinner filler like Volbella or Belotero.”
Cohen doesn’t perform the treatment;
plastic surgeon. “Like any procedure,
it’s not without its risks,” he says. “It
can lead to skin injury or infection or,
in some cases, may compromise a
woman’s ability to lactate.”
Dr. Stephen Mulholland, a Toronto-
based plastic surgeon, has done this
procedure, usually to treat retracted
nipples. “It will likely be a passing fad
influenced by social media trends,” he
says. —Souzan Michael

47
healthMIND
The Dark
YeT Life
affirming
magic
of SeLf
DecepTion
It’s conventional wisdom that lying to ourselves is a character
flaw, but is there an upside to avoiding the truth?
I
call him the Ovary Thief.
Since moving to San Francisco
after university to pursue a ca‑
reer in tech, my elusive friend
Richard* has spent the past 22
years ambling from one long‑term
relationship to the next. Long‑distance
courtships are his specialty, and the women
he falls for are attractive, whip smart, often
younger, sometimes older and always ambi‑
tious. Yet no matter how electric the con‑
nection seems, the relationship inevitably
winds down around the time she turns 40.
“Will ya make an honest woman of her?”
I text him, after noticing on Facebook
that he and Nathalie,* a 38‑year‑old film
executive and cat lover from Oregon, are
celebrating their six‑month anniversary
in Aspen.
“Maybe,” comes the coy reply.
Ovary Thief.
48
By Katherine Gougeon
Or so I thought. Until I read The
Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in
Everyday Life, which suggests that humans
are prone to self‑deception about their true
motives for doing things. According to
authors Robin Hanson and Kevin Simler,
our brains are biologically hard‑wired
to act in our own interest while trying
not to make us appear self‑serving to
others. “The brain is like a press secretary,
constantly putting the most noble spin on
our choices and behaviours while keeping
our conscious minds in the dark,” says
Hanson, who insists that the brain can
post‑rationalize anything—from why you
didn’t call your mother today to why you
believe in God to why you chose the part‑
ner you did. It all comes down to the story
you tell yourself.
Seen through this lens, perhaps Richard’s
parade of long‑distance girlfriends sub‑
consciously targeted him not as husband
material but as a socially acceptable explan‑
ation for why they never “settled down,” a
lifestyle choice many women still feel the
need to rationalize to others and themselves.
“Self‑deception is the strategic ploy our
brains employ to avoid the appearance of
violating social codes and norms, helping us
look good to others while getting what we
really want,” says Hanson.
That self‑deception could be a win‑
win proposition that upholds your social
standing while furthering your endgame
PhotograPhy by trunk archive
flies in the face of conventional wisdom.
Especially for clinical psychologists, like
Dr. Cortney Warren, who believe that the
lies we tell ourselves are a sign of insecur‑
ity—something we do because we don’t
have the psychological strength to face the
truth and deal with the consequences. For
Warren, honing one’s ability to become »
healthMIND
an “honest liar”—someone who can
identify self-deception even if he or she
doesn’t correct it—is a step up. “Being
able to sit with the good, the bad and the
ugly is empowering,” she says. “Pain is
information, and it can create the anxiety
and discontentment we need to motivate
positive changes.”
While honesty may be the best policy,
our brain often has other priorities.
Before reading any further, think back
to the last time you botched a presenta-
tion at work, said something terrible
to a loved one, got caught stealing as
a child or drunkenly spilled red wine
on your host’s white sofa. That pang of
shame and regret you just felt? That’s
your brain protecting your self-image by
telling you not to dwell on this particular
information. “Cringing and flinching is
your brain’s way of punishing your neural
pathways so the upsetting information
stays as far to the back of your mind as
possible,” says Hanson.
The brain is like a press secretary, constantly putting
the most noble spin on our choices and behaviours
while keeping our conscious minds in the dark.
Suddenly, I understand why change
is so hard. I also understand that every
time I’ve cursed my jeans for shrinking
or blamed an unflattering selfie on bad
lighting, my subconscious is probably
working overtime, cushioning me from
the cruel truth. In a 2008 study con-
ducted by the universities of Chicago
and Virginia, participants were asked
to choose the most accurate photo of
themselves from an array of images
that were either unmodified or altered
to make them look up to 50 per cent
more or less attractive. Most selected
the photo that looked 20 per cent better
than reality. When it came time to select
the most true-to-life images of strangers
to whom they had been introduced a
few weeks earlier, however, participants
were remarkably successful at picking the
accurate image.
Our tendency to self-inflate has been
evidenced in all areas of life—from
driving ability (93 per cent of Americans
believe themselves to be better than
average behind the wheel) to profes-
50  F A S H I O N | august 2018
sional ability (94 per cent of university
professors rate themselves better-
than-average teachers at their own
institutions) and even to sexual prowess
(84 per cent of French men consider
themselves above-average lovers). But
to what self-serving ends?
For Robert Trivers, the renowned
evolutionary biologist who has spent
decades studying how self-deceit gave
our ancestors a competitive edge, the
practice is not an ego-boosting end in
itself. Rather, it serves an actual purpose:
Human beings deceive themselves to
better deceive others. “Lying is hard to
pull off cognitively,” he says. “You must
suppress the truth and construct a plaus-
ible lie that does not contradict anything
that is known, or is likely to be found
out, by the listener. You must tell it in a
convincing way, and you must remember
the story. Plus, there’s the fear of getting
caught.” Drinking your own Kool-Aid—
like the fake war hero who comes to
believe he earned the medal of valour or
the sketch boyfriend who insists he reads
Playboy for the articles—can present you
in your best light, all while eliminating
the mental friction experienced by people
who know they are lying.
Hanson has found that the most
successful self-deceptions are rooted in
perceptions and intentions versus actual
occurrences. “When we make up stories
about things outside our mind, people
can argue ‘Actually, that’s not what
happened.’ But when we make up stories
about our motives—for storming out of
the meeting, for smoking, for not donat-
ing to charity—it’s harder for others to
question us,” he says.
Of course, there are limits. Stretching
the truth too thin—like the politician
who claims 99 per cent of his campaign
promises have been met or the Facebook
friend who touches up her photo to look
50 per cent better versus just 20 per
cent—can leave you more vulnerable to
being dismissed or manipulated by others,
something that won’t work to social or
evolutionary advantage. Hanson admits
that while the subconscious isn’t perfect,
it tends to generate narratives that others
are likely to go along with. “Usually
there’s a long history, and you can just
do something close to what others have
done; the more you step into new ter-
ritory with a story you want others to
support, the greater the risk they will
balk and reject it,” he says.
It all makes perfect sense. But rather
than leaning into a perfectly calibrated
deception that makes it easy for people
to play along, wouldn’t it just be better
to somehow infiltrate our subconscious,
identify and correct our self-deceptions
at the source and live free? Isn’t this why
people go to therapy?
Hanson says he’s sure we can make
small corrections, but it seems too
much to hope to make big changes.
The unconscious is a huge and highly
evolved and planned out part of our
brain. “Human beings have a limited
budget for honesty and have to focus on
figuring out the best place to spend it,”
he says, noting that a therapist’s job is
to help you solve a specific problem by
showing you something you don’t know
about yourself that is standing in the
way of your happiness. One thing.
Not everything.
I ask Hanson if there is anything
encouraging or reassuring about our
species’ propensity for self-deception
that readers can glean from his book.
He points out that aside from becoming
more attuned to people’s real motives,
we may be heartened to learn that our
peers often aren’t doing things for the
important or altruistic reasons they claim.
More likely, they’re just making it up as
they go. Says Hanson: “It’s like swigging
alcohol in a public park. As long as the
bottle is in a paper bag, most people
will turn a blind eye. When it comes to
upholding social norms, sometimes just
the slightest covering will do.”
(*Names have been changed.)
fashionmagazine.com
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 CULTURE
i de a s , i s s u e s , d oe r s a n d t h i n k e r s

TaLk ThERapy
With her upcoming novel,
Miriam Toews has written one
of the scariest indictments of
patriarchy in years.

By Greg Hudson

M
iriam Toews isn’t
known as a horror
writer, yet her upcom-
ing novel, Women
Talking, might just
be one of the scariest books I’ve ever
read. Although it’s really not that much
of a departure for Toews, who has
never shied away from dark subject
matter. Her last novel—the award-
winning All My Puny Sorrows—is the
based-on-true-events story of a family
dealing with one sister’s repeated suicide
attempts. It wasn’t necessarily the most
obvious choice for bestselling book of the
moment, but such is Toews’s talent and
heart. She was able to craft a heartbreak-
ing story of loss and empathy without it
being maudlin or (too) depressing.
In Women Talking, the writer has set
a similar challenge for herself. The
novel imagines what the women in a
Mennonite colony in Bolivia do after
it’s discovered that the men in their com-
munity have been drugging and raping
section editor: greg hudson

the women, regardless of age or relation.

Toews manages to balance the story of
female rage and empowerment with
hope and touches of humour. »

52  F A S H I O N | august 2018 fashionmagazine.com

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cultureiNterview
What’s truly horrifying is that this event
really happened. What’s dismaying is
how relevant the story would be even if
it hadn’t.
Because of the religious context
of Women Talking, when we spoke in
Toronto I started by asking Toews
about her relationship with the
Mennonite faith.
Toews: “Well, I mean, I don’t belong to
a Mennonite church anymore, so I’m
not a religious Mennonite. But cultur-
ally I’m certainly a secular Mennonite.
A lot of my writing has been a kind of...
indictment...maybe too strong a word,
maybe not...a critique of the ultra-
conservative, fundamental, patriarchal
aspects of the Mennonite church. But
I always try to make it clear in my
writing that I’m not critical of the faith
itself, because the Mennonite faith is
a beautiful, positive thing. Its pacifism,
for instance, and its focus on the com-
munity are good things.
“My mother belongs to a Mennonite
church here in Toronto. She lives with
me, and the church provides so much
sustenance and support for her. She’s
an elder in her church, which is very
unusual. That would never happen
in a conservative Mennonite church,
obviously. I see how much it means to
her, and I have seen that all my life. Her
faith is strong, and it was for my father,
too, so I respect that and I see it and
envy it.”
In the faith I grew up in, they felt that any
coverage that wasn’t completely positive
54  F A S H I O N | august 2018
was practically hate speech. “That is also
something that runs through the col-
lective Mennonite community. People
feel that I am exposing things that
shouldn’t be exposed. Mennonites are
humans like everybody else, with all
People feel that I am
exposing things that
shouldn’t be exposed.
of the inherent flaws. And because I
am a woman, it’s especially grating
to some types of Mennonites who put
out the narrative that this is a pure,
hard-working, morally upstanding
community.
“But then there are also all sorts of
Mennonites who have told me that
they appreciate that self-criticism—
that it comes from a desire for things to
be better, for us to be better and for us
to be more loving, more tolerant,
more inclusive. And less patriarchal
and authoritarian.”
When did you first become aware of the
events that inspired this book? “There
were rumours in the Mennonite com-
munity. And because I live with my
mother, who actually subscribes to a
magazine called Canadian Mennonite,
I have a little bit more information
than I did before I lived with her. But
I heard rumours in 2009. That’s when
the first articles started appearing. I
was horrified and wanted to know
more. But I didn’t write about it then
because my sister died in 2010. After
that, I basically closed up. I was
devastated, and I couldn’t even
think about writing. I stopped
thinking about the events in Bolivia
as well, certainly in terms of writ-
ing about them. When I did start
writing, I wanted to write about my
sister. And that writing became All
My Puny Sorrows.”
Because you write from your real life
so much, you deal with the Mennonite
faith and you talk about suicide. I’m
curious if you’ll ever be able to write
about those topics enough to sort of exor-
cise them completely, like, “Oh, now I’ve
dealt with it enough.” “I wish I could
say yes. I wish I could believe there
would be that point, that kind of
finish line that I could cross and say
it’s over...that elusive thing called
closure, which I don’t even really
believe in. I don’t think I’ll ever
stop learning in some way, shape or
form, whether directly or indirectly,
about mental illness, about suicide,
about Mennonites and the Men-
nonite patriarchy, about girls and
women who live under that kind of
authoritarian rule. Those aspects
of the community—and, again,
there are beautiful things about
it, too—the culture of control and
the emphasis on guilt and shame,
punishment and silence that have
contributed to the high levels of
mental illness in the community,
including those of my sister and my
father. Those aspects will always
be of interest to me, and I’ll always
be searching for answers or clues.
photography by Carol loewen 2014
They are always gonna be a part
of me, and I don’t think I’ll ever
stop writing about those things in
some way.”
I still want to correct people when they
get things wrong about my old religion,
even though I no longer believe in it. Do
you experience this? “I do. That’s a
funny thing, isn’t it? As critical as I
am and can be, I’ll correct people
who say ‘Well, Mennonites are this’
or ‘Mennonites are that.’ And if I
know that that is not true or is a
gross stereotype, I will absolutely
jump in and correct people. I grew
up in a Mennonite community. I
had an amazing, wonderful child-
hood. But when I grew up, I saw
how difficult a place like that is for
anybody who is ‘other’…even for
atheists. There was one guy
in my high school who, out of
the blue, started telling us that he
was an atheist. And we were just
horrified. It was like he was telling
us that he had just become a
serial killer.”
Culture can create a certain degree of
confusion about what is actually right
and wrong. Where’s that balance of
figuring out socialization versus free
will? “That’s the thing, right? The
men and the boys who perpetrated
the crimes in the book are also
victims of that kind of culture—
and the control over them as well,
and the roles that they’re expected
to play, and the entitlement they’re
given because of the patriarchy to
abuse these women who are there
to serve them. But, yeah, there’s an
innocence there, too, and
an inevitability.”
Recently, there has been a rediscovery
of The Handmaid’s Tale, which has
some themes that are similar to those in
Women Talking. I wonder if this will
be easier to dismiss because it actually
happened and continues to happen. Like,
“Oh well, that’s just the Mennonites in
their closed community. That doesn’t
actually happen to women generally.”
Whereas a sci-fi dystopia seems to imply
it could happen to anyone. “Right,
right—it’s coming. It’s happening.
Look to various places in the world.
This is where we’re headed. There
will be those who make assump-
tions: ‘Well, these are insane cult
weirdo freaks. It only happens out
there in the middle of nowhere.’
Like it’s almost not real. And
because there’s that sort of attitude,
it completely dehumanizes these
people. But hopefully people will
understand that this can happen if
the conditions are right.”
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culturefeature
HIGHER
PURSUITS
O
nce the domain of
potheads, stoners
and no-good wake
’n’ bakers, weed has
gone from illicit
gateway drug to buzzy
new investment in just a few years. In the
United States (where marijuana is legal
for adult recreational use in nine states and
Washington, D.C.), gleaming Apple Store-
esque dispensaries sell designer herb along-
side artsy pastel-hued pipes; trendy fashion
publications profile cool creatives and their
favourite strains; and bud brands are even
getting in on the ubiquitous streetwear
trend, selling logoed tees and hoodies to
the millennial masses. Canada, meanwhile,
nearing federal legalization of cannabis, is on
the brink of what experts predicted in 2016
could be a $22.6 billion industry.
Perhaps what’s most exciting about the
so-called “green rush” is the opportunity it
presents for women. Because in the current
economic landscape, despite all the leaning
in on and seemingly daily takedowns of
powerful men behaving badly, when it
comes to real decision makers and actual
women leaders, we have a lot of catching up
to do. At the end of the workday, according
56
The budding marijuana industry is ready
for women to take control.
By Nancy Won
to a 2016 diversity disclosure practices
report conducted by Osler, women account
for only 15 per cent of executive officers at
TSX-listed companies and only 13 per cent
of board members.
Weed, in a lot of ways, is poised to blaze
a different path. According to a 2015 survey
by Marijuana Business Daily of the legal
cannabis space in the United States, women
made up roughly 36 per cent of leaders,
including 63 per cent of high-level positions
in testing labs. And there’s more evidence:
Women-run dispensaries are popping up
stateside as well as here in Canada; last
year saw the launch of Broccoli, a stylish
cannabis magazine for women that was
founded by the former creative director of
Kinfolk; cannabis social clubs for women are
a thing now; and fem-forward accessories
are dominating our social feeds. (Rose-petal
rolling papers, anyone?)
April Pride, the founder of female-
focused cannabis lifestyle brand Van der
Pop (which is now owned by Toronto-
based Tokyo Smoke), is the unofficial god-
mother of the women and weed movement.
A serial entrepreneur with a background in
design (she trained as an architect and went
PHOTOGRAPHY: mAin bY LesLie KiRcHHOff; cAnnAbis LeAves bY micHeL
to Parsons for grad school), Pride launched
Van der Pop in 2016 as a fashionable weed
accessories brand after she noticed a severe PORRO/sTRinGeR/GeTTY imAGes; HiGHnOOn bY AKiRA UcHidA.
lack of good design in what she knew was
a soon-to-explode industry. (She’s based
in Washington state, where marijuana
has been legal for recreational use since
2012.) A few months after launching the
site, she noticed that most people on it
were looking for advice and information
about how cannabis relates to women’s
issues. “Women were coming to me about
their own lives, and men were coming to
me about their relationships with their
wives,” says Pride. “After a while, I was
just like, ‘Why am I not doing this?’” And
so she did. In November 2017, she took
Van der Pop’s female focus a step further,
 collaborating with Ontario-based licensed
producer WeedMD to launch a line of canna-
bis strains specifically designed for women’s
needs: Cloudburst, which has a profile that’s
similar to varieties known to help with pain
management and stress, and Eclipse, similar
to strains that promote relaxation and help
you sleep. “Canada has a distinctly progres-
sive attitude toward cannabis,” says Pride. “It
has the potential to be the global leader in
cannabis, and our brand wants to be part of
that momentum.” For Van der Pop, it’s a logi-
cal—and likely lucrative—next step because,
chic accessories aside, the industry reality
seems to point to actual cannabis as the real
money-maker.
In Canada, this means being, becom-
ing or—like Van der Pop—working with
licensed producers. Currently, only compa-
nies holding an ACMPR (Access to Cannabis
for Medical Purposes Regulations) licence
are authorized to produce or sell marijuana
through the medical system. Come legaliza-
tion, it might get easier, depending on where
you live, since provincial governments will
be overseeing licensing and distribution
instead of Ottawa. But if you do the math,
this means that the quietly illegal dispensary
you frequent now could easily be just as illegal
after legalization. “In the legal regulated
market, we have high standards set by
Health Canada that require significant costs
and attention,” says Alison Gordon, CEO
of 48North Cannabis Corp., an ACMPR-
licensed company based in Toronto. “It’s a
hugely capital intensive industry, so there are
constant meetings with investors, bankers
and shareholders.” In other words, it’s hugely
white-male intensive. “It seems that there are
some women leaders in the lifestyle or culture
side of the business, but unfortunately I don’t
see many women at executive or board levels
in the companies in the legal regulated space,
which is where the industry is going. This is
still very male dominated,” continues Gordon.
“I am the only female CEO of the 92 licensed
companies that I am aware of…but it’s hard
to keep track as the list of licensed companies
changes weekly.”
Before joining the cannabis industry,
Gordon was the executive vice-president
of Rethink Breast Cancer, which she
co-founded in 2001. When a close family
member was diagnosed with stage IV ovarian
cancer and began using medical marijuana
to help with sleep, anxiety and pain manage-
ment, Gordon realized that the cannabis
industry had a persistent image problem. “I
was like, ‘Someone needs to rebrand this.
Why does it always have to be just about
hippies and rappers?’” she says. “I realized
that I have this perfect storm of experience female-led
with marketing and fundraising and working
with patients, physicians and government, so cannabis
I jumped into the industry.” businesses
Her first role was chief marketing officer for
a cannabis producer—technically a demotion.
Three years later, she took on a similar role
at 48North. And less than a year later, she
was appointed CEO. “It’s a challenge across
the board, whether it’s women or men, to
find people who’ve worked in the cannabis
industry,” says Gordon. Her best advice for
boss bitches wanting to get in on the lucrative
legal action? “It’s a new industry, and we do
ToronTo
move very quickly, so if women can get in Leah Lavergne, Highnoon
now—maybe not at executive levels but at These handmade ceramic
the senior level—and get a few years under pipes bring artsy geometric
their belts, they will be the leaders of this charm to your Friday-
industry because we’re at such an early point night chill zone.
in time,” she says. “I’m considered a veteran
because I’ve been in it for five years.”
Of course, as with any industry on the
brink of a boom, there’s always the risk of
failure. But when it comes to marijuana, the
ROI is about so much more than the bottom
line—especially for women, many of whom
aren’t just jumping on the cannabis band-
wagon because it’s edgy or trendy or a buzzy MonTreal
investment. For most, it’s about taking control Camille Chacra, Allume
Feed your weed education
of their own health. According to a Van
with this stylish subscription
der Pop-sponsored survey of 1,530 women box of curated essentials.
who use cannabis multiple times a month,
the top four reasons why they consume it
are wellness-related (pain relief, relaxation,
stress and anxiety). Which means the same
woman who does yoga, drinks cold-pressed
juices, meditates with her crystals and adds
spirulina to her kale smoothie in the morning
is probably also open to smoking a little pot to
unwind or deal with a headache or get “in the ToronTo
mood.” And if you consider how massive the Rachel Colic, Eves of Eden
#selfcare movement has become, wellness is Its bestselling Crowns line
very likely going to be the thing that breaks of playful printed filter tips
weed into the mainstream. “Women are start- brings fun party vibes to
ing to realize, especially in the States, that your rolling ritual.
decisions are being made on our behalf either
by the government or by pharmaceutical
companies,” says Pride. “Those in positions
to make the decisions around which medi-
cal challenges to pursue regarding product
research and development and/or regulatory
change have rarely been female, so our true
array of needs have rarely been met. As more
CharloTTeTown
people leave their ‘respectable’ nine-to-fives
Vee Mercier, Fall for Vee
and start taking best practices from the This cannabis lifestyle
established industries, I think we’re going to photographer and influencer
see an incredible rate of innovation. It’s excit- is taking down the pothead
ing—we get to make the rules and break the stereotype, one Insta-worthy
rules at the same time!” image at a time.
57
cultureFEatUrE

take
control
The future of cannabis is
discreet and targeted and as
classy as Gwyneth Paltrow.
dosist’s sleek
By Greg Hudson proprietary pens
are available
in six different
formulas.

I
use cannabis pretty much daily—mostly as a sleeping
aid, but it helps with other activities, too. For instance, it’s
incredibly helpful when I want to eat an entire box of
Eggo Waffles.
It’s a little surprising, then, that a new cannabis company
preparing to enter the Canadian market would be the
catalyst for me to maybe, possibly, for the first time, consider think-
ing about how I might want to potentially cut back a tiny bit on the
totally responsible amount of cannabis I smoke. That might not

sTRinGeR/GeTTY imAGes; dOPeR dininG bY HAnnAH T. PARK Of OuTPOsT diGiTAL cinemA.

sound impressive, but considering my feelings about cannabis, it’s
basically the same as The Rock considering skipping leg day. Such is
the power of Dosist.

PHOTOGRAPHY: mAin bY LesLie KiRcHHOff; cAnnAbis LeAves bY micHeL PORRO/

According to an information booklet that looks like it could be a
special edition of Kinfolk, Dosist is “a health and happiness company
founded on the premise that cannabis-based medicine can bring
healing and happiness to the masses.” It aims to do this through its
cannabis formulations dispensed via its proprietary pens (which
resemble what tampons would look like if they were designed by
Apple). The pens ensure a controlled dose (hence the name) of 2.25
milligrams with each pull, so users can know exactly how much can-
nabis they are using and will consistently get the same results. Dosist
eliminates the intimidating guesswork in marijuana consumption
and makes it as easy, safe and reliable as possible. No wonder it is
Gwyneth Paltrow’s favourite cannabis brand.
All of us on this Dosist-assisted journey through California are
given all six pens in the lineup when we arrive at our hotel in Malibu.
They are packaged stylishly in a classic tin “first-aid kit”—the kind
you’d buy at Best Made, not Shoppers Drug Mart. In it are pens
labelled Sleep, Bliss, Relief, Calm, Passion and Arouse. Each one
mixes THC (the stuff that makes your brain feel high), CBD (the
stuff that affects your body) and specific terpenes (the essential oils

For insomnia, trY... For HeadacHes or migraines, trY...

9 Pound Hammer An 80 per cent indica
cannabis strains strain that is known to relax the body, calm
the mind and lull users into an irresistible
floating-on-a-cloud sleep.
acdc A sativa-dominant, high-CBD strain,
this bud is known to reduce inflammation,
knock out migraines and ease anxiety
without the psychoactive THC high.

58
that give different strains of cannabis their varying scents and health
benefits) in different doses to achieve their titular effect.
The first day: I take two pulls from Calm before dinner. I hardly
feel it. But I’m not stressed about it, so there’s that.
The next day, I try Bliss. I lose count of how many pulls I take
before and during an hour-long hike. By the time it’s over, I feel a
little clumsier than normal but not at all impaired. There’s a con-
tentedness floating at the edges of my awareness (which certainly
sounds like something a stoner would say) that’s pleasant. Like I’m
soaking my legs in a hot tub but I’m not overheating.
We’re joined at lunch by SoYoung Park, Dosist’s chief innovation
Doper Dining Sayegh’s first event in
Canada—a $200 per person
From dime bags to fine dinner, followed by another
officer. She seems excited that I’m a regular cannabis smoker. “Do
dining, you’ve come a the next night—swiftly
you think you’d ever give up smoking entirely for something like
this?” she asks. I’d been wondering about that, too. Because, as I
long way, cannabis. sold out and racked up a
60-person wait-list. He had
tell her, there is something enjoyable about the process of rolling my
After receiving an invite to arrived a few days before to
nightly joints. “We hear that so often,” she says. “The ritual is a big a cannabis-infused eight- source and forage for local
part of the experience.” course dinner at a secret ingredients, including spot
Of course, some people will always prefer to use flower. But the location in Vancouver, I prawns, reindeer lichens and
company rightfully assumes that that ritual—and all the accessories envision the panic attack, pine resin. After all, while
and culture that go with it—is a barrier to entry for people in the mid-course, that the drug cannabis is the draw, food
mainstream. After all, if you want to drink a glass of wine at night might give me. After all, I’ve is still the focus. The THC
to wind down, you don’t have to crush your own grapes. only tried eating it once, and and CBD dosages are low
But that weed-to-wine comparison falls short. Cannabis— it was a very small amount. and controlled (10 milligrams
Explaining the dinner to my each, lab tested), and non-
especially when it’s formulated and packaged like this—is hard to
mother also worries me. But infusion is also an option,
categorize. It can seem like a cure-all, but, unfortunately, nothing
my curiosity is stronger. because The Herbal Chef’s
is. Those with some mental illnesses, like bipolar disorder, should be The talent behind this mission is to create an enjoy-
careful (or avoid it entirely). Plus, they should talk with their doctor. particular meal is Los able experience and ultimately
Cannabis is not entirely medicinal; nor is it entirely recreational. Angeles-based Christopher de-stigmatize the plant.
It’s somehow both and neither. If, for example, you take a dose Sayegh (a.k.a. The Herbal On the set menu, some
of Calm after a hard day of work or enjoy Relief after a strenuous Chef). Studying molecular of the infusions are obvious
workout, it’s not quite medicinal but not quite recreational either. cell biology at UC Santa (items preceded by “herb”),
Even Arouse, which can be used for other activities but is specifi- Cruz, Sayegh, now 26, while others leave my
cally formulated with a high THC-to-CBD ratio to increase sen- started researching can- tablemates and me guessing
nabis—and not just in the (in a sauce is a safe bet).
sitivity and intimacy, falls in that liminal space between recreation
way university students Some say they can taste
and medicine, doesn’t it?
typically “research” it. He it; some can’t. In the sixth
It’s this understanding of what cannabis is and isn’t—along with wondered what smoking it course, a pork-belly iteration
the casual utopian vision that Dosist paints—that makes the com- was doing to his body. He of peameal bacon, it’s prob-
pany special. “Wellness” covers a range of products and practices, also realized he’d rather ably in the smoked apple
some more legitimate than others. And even though Dosist is on the be cooking for a living. His jus, but there could also be
more empirically verifiable end, there’s still something about it that parents didn’t approve of some baked into the potato
feels religious. I find that I want to share Dosist with others the same either interest, so he moved galette. Whatever it’s in, it’s
way missionaries want to preach the Good News: “It worked for me, into his car for a bit while stupid delicious. But is it a
and it can work for you!” he worked his way up L.A.’s cannabis high or a culinary
kitchen rungs, albeit with high that I’m having? The
When I got back from my trip, I got my girlfriend to try a bit
a stint at Michelin-starred dessert course that follows
of Sleep. One pull and she felt her body relax and melt. It worked
restaurant Mélisse and isn’t as mind-blowing, so I’d
perfectly. It made me feel a little like how my dog is with bacon. He New York’s Eleven Madison like to think my palate wasn’t
loves it, but he swallows each piece whole like a pelican. Dogs aren’t Park. In 2015, he launched altered too dramatically. I
great at savouring their food. And me, I’m not great at savouring and his unconventional catering still eat most of the dessert,
appreciating the subtlety of Dosist. There’s something childish company and since then though, because for some
about the way I use cannabis now. Our laws are growing up. It’s has prepared more than reason I’m still hungry.
probably time I did, too. 800 private dinners. —Joy Pecknold

For better sex, try...
skywalker oG This indica-dominant
hybrid reportedly induces a gradual
but strong body high with some serious
sensory stimulation.
For worK stress, try...
blueberry essence An option for when
you want to chill out but not pass out, this
high-CBD strain is known for its relaxing,
calming, blissed-out effects.
For menstrual pain, try...
obama Kush This indica brings with it
uplifting physical effects that reportedly
help ease cramps, subdue headaches and
temper mood swings.

59
60
cultureTHE MOOD

illustration by stephanie Deangelis


August
Finally, a month when you
don’t have to do anything.
By Sarah Selecky
L
et yourself collapse. You can’t be
expected to hold it all together when
the heat is pursuing you like this. Sur-
render to a Mason jar full of ice water,
and squeeze half a lemon into it.
See how the lemon juice creates a haze in the
water? Doesn’t the haze look sort of like smog?
And yet every sip feels like clarity.
There’s a metaphor there, but it’s too hot to
think about what it might mean.
Take 10 minutes to reflect on the emptiness of
your dreams. You don’t have to do anything—just
feel the feelings of nothingness. See how that pat-
tern repeats in your life right now: It’s there in your
lack of productivity, your tired enterprises, the
futility you feel around your creative pursuits, the
list of things to do that don’t feel important any-
more. It’s there in the way you should feel hungry
because it’s suppertime, but you don’t. This month,
all of your appetites are gone.
Good news! That’s just as it should be. If this
feels like sadness or if it simply freaks you out, just
look outside yourself to be reassured.
Watch how the grasses are finished, too. The
trees are all done. Their leaves aren’t pulsing with
green anymore, but they’re not even falling from
the branches, because falling would take too much
effort. The birds are quietly exhausted, waiting
to leave. Even the waves in the lake are dragging
themselves to the shore.
E v E ry m o n t h
h as a m o o d ,
a feeling, some combination
of memories, moments and
nostalgia. You know it—you
feel it—even if you’ve never
really thought about it. To help
encapsulate the moods of the
months, we’re asking novelists to
take on the calendar and evoke
the feelings of each season
through fiction, memoir or some
mix of the two. Sarah Selecky’s
new novel, Radiant Shimmering
Light, was released this spring.
There is no more hustle. Thankfully, that
time is over. It will come back soon enough.
For now, just let everything roll to a pause,
the way it wants to. Let your hips move like
a slowing pendulum. Speak only if you must.
Feel the way vowels stretch the inside of your
mouth; notice how tired you become, just from
speaking and thinking. Pull one or two crucial
sentences out like taffy: “I can’t do that today. I
am taking a rest.” And then stay quiet.
It’s going to be OK.
Let yourself go slowly. Walk to the train.
Stop at the yellow light. You have time: You
contain epochs inside yourself. You can’t be late
when you are creating every minute with your
own languid strides. Nothing exists outside of
this. Your steps become the seconds. When you
step slowly, your time moves slowly.
When the day presses you, let yourself be
pressed. Don’t resist it. Once you abandon your
fight and slip inside that cocoon of heat, you can
feel it actually lifting you. Up there, up above in
the frightening cloud of nothingness, is where
you can rest. It’s the only way.
The city matches your insides and outsides.
Everything is the haze of lemon water. Let
yourself go cloudy. Let yourself slow to nothing.
The end of summer is the time to soften your
gaze, dull your points, release your hunger
and rest.
61
culturecover
Top, $32,290, and
pants, $2,860,
Mary Katrantzou.
Belt, stylist’s own.

A L I S O N

B R I E

K E E P S

G L O W I N G

S t R O N G E R

A N D

S t R O N G E R

By Greg Hudson
Photography by Max Abadian
Styling by Sophie Lopez
Creative direction by Brittany Eccles

62
culturecover
T h e r o o m i s d a r k , illuminated only
by flashes of coloured arcade lights snaking across
the ceiling. The instructor is shouting encouragement
over crunchy EDM. I’ve never been to a Rise Nation
session, but the concept is similar, I assume, to a spin
class—only instead of stationary bikes, there are
climbing machines that, in the low light, look a little
like high-tech easels.
I had booked a climbing machine close to Alison
Brie, whom I am here to meet and who, I would find
out later, had planned on explaining the contraption
to me so I wouldn’t feel lost. But now, owing to a
fundamental ignorance of Los Angeles’s size and
geography and an aggressively lackadaisical taxi
driver, I’m late and it’s impossible to see where she is
in the laser-tag dark. I hop onto the climber closest to
the door and try to get into the rhythm of the class.
I am very bad at this. At least once during every
song (which is apparently how time is measured
in fitness classes), usually when the instructor is
exhorting us to dig deep, I stop to rest. I take these
opportunities to scan the room for Brie. No luck.
Instead, as is the case whenever you are failing at
something, I look around for people who are doing
worse than I am. Definitely not the woman in front
of me. She is a machine—small, strong, seem-
ingly unstoppable. She hits every beat and every
combo the instructor throws at us. I fiddle with my
machine, seeing if maybe it’s on, like, the expert
setting. It is not. The woman in front of me is on
the same machine as I am, hearing the same orders
as me, only she’s Daft Punk-ing me: She’s harder,
better, faster, stronger.
I learn two things once the lights come up at the
end of the class. The first is that if performance were
rated by the amount of sweat pooled at the base of
one’s machine, I would be the best climber-dancer in
the room. The second is that the superhero in front of
me is Alison Brie.
“One other time, I had a journalist go for a hike
with me,” she tells me, over an L.A.-appropriate
post-workout breakfast, after I’ve finally, mostly,
recovered. “She threw up. So I feel like I’m really
destroying journalists’ lives, one at a time. But
you know who needs to be cut down to size?
Print journalists.”
With that history (one more fallen writer and it’s
a trend), it might be tempting to conclude that Brie
doesn’t know her own strength. That would make
for a convenient analogy for an actress who seems so
down-to-earth. But it doesn’t work here. Brie knows
exactly how strong she is.
The problem—if you can say that a career that
includes three critically adored, culturally signifi-
cant shows (Mad Men, Community and GLOW) has
a problem—is that we still don’t understand how
powerful Brie is. “If you need a headline,” she says,
64
“that would be the headline of my life: ‘There’s a Lot
More Going on With Me Than People Think.’” If an
actress is always surprising us with her depth, talent
and/or range, maybe that says more about the audi-
ences’ expectations than it does about the actress.
So let me correct our expectations with this
prediction: A time will come—and it will come
soon—when Alison Brie will be considered one of
the best actresses of her generation. If we let her.
Part of what’s keeping Brie from being known as
a dominant force in Hollywood is the nature of
Hollywood itself. Audiences are so fragmented
and have so many options that it’s hard to become
super-famous without playing a superhero. While
the television projects she’s been a part of have
been—and continue to be—among the most lauded
of the past 10 years, they didn’t exactly bring in Big
Bang Theory numbers. Brie played the innocent, if a
bit unstable, Annie in the cult comedy Community
at the same time as she was bringing nuance and
power to the role of Trudy Campbell on Mad Men.
These days, along with playing the frustratingly
ambitious, morally complicated lead actress-turned-
wrestler in GLOW (now in its second season on
Netflix), she is one of the main voices in the not-
for-children-or-the-faint-of-heart comedy cartoon
BoJack Horseman.
But even among people who do recognize her—she
did star in two Oscar-nominated movies this past year,
after all (The Disaster Artist, along with her husband,
Dave Franco, and The Post, with Meryl Streep)—she
isn’t always remembered for the right things. “The
biggest misconception across the board is that I’m a
comedy actress, and it drives me crazy,” she explains.
“Which is weird because I don’t want to begrudge
that title in a way that implies I hate the genre. I
don’t. I love it! But, to me, there’s more to me. There’s
untapped resources you guys don’t even know about.”
There is a persistent rumour perpetuated by the
mainstream media that Brie is a goddamned delight
to talk to. I can confirm that this rumour is 100 per
cent true. She is warm, open and funny. She riffs
with you. She is naturally, effortlessly charming.
What makes some famous people seem nice is how
they shed the awkward interview dynamic and
power differential like an overcoat—but you never
forget that that coat is close by. Brie talks with you
like she’s never worn that coat in the first place. This
is not a groundbreaking observation, but its persis-
tence is noteworthy. She really is that cool.
And so it’s not that I wish she were less kind
but that, cynically, I wonder if some people are so
distracted by her charm that they aren’t able to fully
appreciate the depth of her talent. So here’s another
prediction: What will happen with Brie will be a »
Top, $3,970, and skirt,
$14,450, Delpozo.
culturecover

Top and skirt, prices upon

request, Mary Katrantzou.

66
Top, sweater and skirt, prices upon request, Miu Miu. Shoes, $1,255, Manolo Blahnik. Socks,
$25, High Heel Jungle. Ring (on left), $4,480, Effy. Ring (on right), $8,335, Jared Lehr.
culturecover

Dress, $21,660, and

bustier, $10,220, Gucci.

68
culturecover
Jacket, $5,180, top,
$2,080, and pants,
$2,080, Gucci. Ring
(on left), $4,480, Effy.
Ring (on right), $8,335,
Jared Lehr. Hair, Mark
Townsend for Starworks
Artists/Dove Haircare.
Makeup, Melanie
Inglessis for Forward
Artists. Manicure,
Mazz Hanna for
Chanel Le Vernis.
Fashion assistant,
Thanda Gibson.
 repeat of how she scored the role of Ruth on GLOW,
only on a larger, permanent scale.
She had to fight for GLOW. But when you know
how strong you are, you get a sense of which fights
you’re going to win. That doesn’t mean it was easy.
“I almost can’t even define why, but certain things
you just read and you’re like, this is my role,” she
says. “Maybe it came from having felt slightly mis-
understood in my career—although I still sort of feel
that way everywhere outside of GLOW—but I just
had this drive to fight for this character, and I knew
exactly what I wanted to do with her. I would go into
every audition superconfident with all these amazing
decisions and then leave the auditions and go cry
in my car because our producers, as much as I love
them now, were very cold and awkward in the room
while I was auditioning.”
See, back when her career was new, after she
trained at the California Institute of the Arts (she
spent a semester at Glasgow’s Royal Scottish
Academy of Music and Drama), Brie took classes
in Los Angeles on how to act for the camera. They
probably helped her score her roles on Mad Men and
Community, but they also changed how she thought
about herself. “You get out of college and everyone
tells you to define yourself now: ‘Put yourself in a box
before other people do and then you’ll work more.’
I was learning good tools that I would continue to
use, but my individuality was at stake because a lot
of work in this industry is people saying ‘Don’t trust
what you think—just be the way these people want
you to be.’ And you have to let go of that.”
So she did and eventually convinced GLOW’s
producers of what is obvious now: There really wasn’t
anyone else who could tackle that role better than her.
Maybe a bit more on GLOW is in order because this
is the kind of marriage between actor and role that
makes other marriages question the strength of their
relationships. “I think, for me, working on GLOW—
I feel like I’m tapping into every part of myself,” she
says. I suspect that an actor can’t create a fully real-
ized character if they don’t know themselves first.
Which is why this role feels like a culmination—a
kind of crescendo of all of Brie’s talents, including,
as she says, some we haven’t seen yet.
Ruth is aggressively ambitious and almost desper-
ate. Unable to find work as an actress—unable to be
seen, really—she throws herself into the opportunity
to become a wrestler and de facto leader of the other
women. There’s comedy (which we already knew
Brie was good at) and the kind of moral ambiguity
that actors relish. But, actually, it’s in the more sub-
dued, everyday Ruth-ness that Brie is most surprising.
She displays this transformative Theronian ability to
be believably plain. Yes, it has to do with makeup—
or the lack thereof—and the ’80s fashions she gets
(has) to wear, but there’s something internal, too. A
switch of focus in the eyes—like something is broken
inside and we can only just barely see it. It’s not there
when we’re talking over smoothies, and it certainly
isn’t there later that day, when she’s dressed head to
toe in golden Gucci. Because it’s in Ruth, not Brie.
Now the downside of saying that Brie and Ruth
represent the platonic ideal of an actor inhabiting a
role is that one might infer the two are similar, that
playing Ruth doesn’t require much of a stretch. But
it’s more like a recipe. Brie brings all the right ingre-
dients for this particular dish—including physical
strength, which I’ll appreciate even more as my legs
stay stiff for days after my Rise Nation experience.
Actually, the physicality of the role—and Brie’s
commitment to it—deserves mentioning. Her body
has often been a factor in her career (not surprisingly,
she is quite popular with men on the Internet), but
it’s different this time. “We work for women and for a
show that’s so much about our bodies, and yet we’re
never sexualized,” she explains. “That’s not a priority
of the show. And it certainly is in sync with how I
feel as a person in terms of having little interest in
having to prove my own sexiness.” And because she
is Brie—and a goddamned delight to talk to—she
continues: “Although, even right now, in this explo-
sive moment, there is still a thing where we’re like,
‘Yeah, I’m taking back my body, and I don’t have to
be sexy… But I’m also 35, and do you still find me
sexy? Because I just want to make sure.’ It’s like as
much as we want to think everything’s changed, I
still have a fear about wanting to be seen that way
enough to continue to work.”
Of course, the most striking difference between
Ruth and Brie is likeability. “Playing Ruth, I adore her
and sympathize with her,” says Brie. “And obviously I
must. I have to understand everything she’s doing and
why. Where this is a challenge is for audiences; there’s
a myriad of reactions. Some people love her. Some
people find her cloying. Some people just hate her and
think she’s awful but still want to watch the show.”
I was looking for an analogy earlier, back when we
were in the dark, sweating and panting, climbing and
climbing and climbing without actually getting any-
where. And while there would be a certain amount
of poetry if I used that to describe Brie’s situation, it
would also be way too sad and untrue, not to mention
pretentious and dumb. Instead, consider how the day
ends: Brie is dressed in a resplendent gown, standing
on a roof that allows you to see farther across Los
Angeles than your eyes can focus on. She’s already
on top—where her followers and fans know to find
her—but soon that whole city below will look up.
And then she’s going to need a taller roof.
71
72 
cultureESSAY

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MicHAel DOnOvAn/THe licensinG PROjecT.cOM

 memories
matter
But, as Craille Maguire Gillies discovers,
whether they are accurate or not doesn’t.
I
don’t know how long I’d been crying when my
mother hit the brakes of our truck and pulled to the
side of a country road. It was late August, and I’d
just turned nine. The next month, I’d planned to
start Grade 4 with my friends, but now we were
on an unfamiliar road, driving north to a new house in a
strange city.
The covered truck bed was packed with pets and other
breakables: There was Ally, a stray cat we’d rescued from
a tree; Goudreau, a dog who looked like a cross between
a corgi and a German shepherd; and my rabbit, Twitcher,
whose cage was wedged among the picture frames.
The sun had softened the vinyl upholstery, and my bare
legs stuck to my seat. The farther down the road we drove,
the more hysterical I became, swallowing air the way a
drowning swimmer inhales water. I was at a loss: for the
home we left behind, for the friends who would continue
their lives without me, for the blank terror of a new place.
At some point, the tears became so disruptive that it was
impossible for my mother to drive any farther.
Looking back, I can diagnose this as my first bout of
nostalgia. My memories of home became preserved as if in
amber. It was the place where we tapped the maple trees
for sap to make syrup, where my brother and I skated on
a homemade ice rink, where I spent countless Saturdays
hiding under my bed reading books, whether or not the sun
was shining. Even events categorically unpleasant seemed
comforting—like the time my father hitched a ride on my
toboggan and knocked his head on the frozen ground after
I hit a bump and then staggered home to nurse a concussion.
But something about these stories (let’s call them what
they are) seems too smooth, as if time and recollection have
polished them to a suspect shine. Could I, under oath (or
even around a dinner table with my family, remembering
times past), wholeheartedly endorse their accuracy? Is nos-
talgia merely self-deception, full of tiny lies we tell ourselves
to reframe the past or, worse, put ourselves in the best light?
Did I really enjoy trudging through the backyard on a cold
day checking buckets for sap? Was my father secretly angry
when I zoomed down the hill on the toboggan without a
thought for how dangerous it might be? And just how hys-
terical was I during that tear-filled drive? Or, as I suspect, is
that memory shaped by what came after: the bullying at
my new school, the sense that our family had been better
before the move?
Memories, of course, are changeable things, subject to
the bias of hindsight—we continually reshape the events
of the past to suit the emotions of the present. Scientists
now know that, like DNA, memories can be contaminated.
Multiple tellings alter them. The first time an eyewitness
recalls a crime, their recollection may be pure, but grill
them before a jury once or twice and the story that emerges
can become a blurry facsimile. Likewise, new information
and experiences can change what Joan Didion describes as
“the stories we tell ourselves in order to live.” For a long time,
I’ve had the firm belief that my father went home early the
night we were tobogganing to nurse his banged-up head
with a glass of whisky and that I had dutifully trundled
along soon after because I felt guilty and because I was wor-
ried I’d hurt him. (I had, but he would be fine.) Yet my story
is full of gaps, like a half-remembered dream. How much
of that memory is shaded by the knowledge that my father
would go on to have quite a battle with whisky, one he
wouldn’t win? And though the memory is clearly nostalgic »
73
cultureessay
and even funny (remember that time I kinda hurt Dad?), it is
a sad story to put on the page.
“Memory might well be described as the incessant
construction of the past and be seen as just one aspect of our
tendency to confabulate,” the late Robert Todd Carroll, an
academic and professional skeptic, once warned. Confabu-
late: a wonderful word, larded with judgment yet almost
naughty. One researcher put it another way: “Memory is not
a stable phenomenon.” I had hung on to childhood memories
as resolute, immutable and, most of all, categorically true.
Details seem to lend my memories a certain verisimilitude.
But just because they look real when you screen these
short movies in the mind’s eye doesn’t mean they are.
Perhaps the easiest person to deceive is oneself.
For a long time, nostalgia was considered an affliction,
even a mental disorder. Derived from the Greek words
nostos (homecoming) and algos (pain), the term was
coined in the 17th century to describe a fierce homesick-
ness among soldiers. Back then, those who were consid-
ered most susceptible—soldiers far from home, children
away from their parents for the first time, young labourers
removed from their families—were punished with leech-
ing, bullying or worse. (One military doctor in post-Civil
War America proposed public shaming to rid homesick
troops of their weak will.)
Yet nostalgia persists, and about 20 years ago, research-
ers began to wonder if it wasn’t such a bad thing after all.
“Nostalgia doesn’t trigger distress; distress triggers nostal-
gia,” Dr. Clay Routledge, behavioural scientist and author,
has said. And though loneliness, loss or big changes,
such as a long-distance move, can put people in a wistful
frame of mind, reminiscing itself has a surprisingly com-
forting effect.
“Nostalgic stories often start badly, with some kind of
problem, but then they tend to end well, thanks to help
from someone close to you,” Dr. Constantine Sedikides,
a social and personality psychology professor at the
University of Southampton in England, has said. “So you
end up with a stronger feeling of belonging and affiliation,
and you become more generous toward others.” That
song lyric you loved long ago, that melody you remember,
the holiday you took with someone no longer alive...
These are the sorts of things that set us fondly wandering
down memory lane. The smell of the woods does it for
me. It brings back memories of driving at 15 kilometres an
hour down the bumpy dirt road to my grandparents’ cot-
tage on the shores of Lake Huron, windows rolled down,
our dog poking his head out and his nose twitching madly.
Whether or not such recollections are based on cold,
hard fact, nostalgia makes us more empathic and less
alienated. It connects us with our family and friends and,
perhaps most important, fosters what psychologists call
self-continuity. “Nostalgia compensates for uncomfort-
able states—for example, people with feelings of mean-
inglessness or a discontinuity between past and present,”
Dr. Tim Wildschut, a Dutch researcher who collaborates
with Sedikides, told The Guardian when their research on
the benefits of nostalgia made headlines in 2014. Far from
74  F A S H I O N | AUGUST 2018
being a “demonic disorder,” as it was once considered,
wistful thinking is good for us.
Wildschut—who long ago left the Netherlands to live
in America and then England and knows a thing or two
about homesickness—has even prescribed it as a kind
of vitamin to “promote emotional equilibrium.” Today,
speaking from his office in Southampton, he says, “Nos-
talgia moves you away from a purely hedonistic view of
happiness.” It is proof, he says, that happiness and sadness
have their place in a meaningful life. “Even though we’re
told we ought to be happy and not sad,” he says, “people
are quite good at reconciling both.”
“A lot of research shows that all memory is recon-
structed, and the same is undoubtedly true for nostalgia,
but whether memory is accurate has little bearing on
what I’m interested in,” he says. These days, Wildschut
is interested in the neurological foundations of nostalgia,
something scientists are hazy on, and whether it’s an
emotion that might help people process threatening or
traumatic events. He wants to know what the purpose of
it is and how it might be harnessed.
Turns out, it is possible to reconcile the good and the
bad, the happy and sad, in one go. So does it matter how
truthful I am being when I recount that fated toboggan
ride one winter decades ago? The story reminds me of my
childhood and how much I love my father and, of course,
how much I miss him. But then I summon that memory
and he’s here with me somehow. Now, whether that
winter night in small-town Ontario unfolded precisely the
way I describe it is another question—and one that I’m
not convinced matters. “Memory fades, memory adjusts,
memory conforms to what we think we remember,”
wrote Didion, who once boasted that the kinds of mem-
ories that ended up in her notebook were “lies.”
Wildschut is right that these little fibs are beside the
point. Still, reflecting on some of these stories has made
me wonder whether I’ve simply told myself the wrong
stories—grafted details and meaning on them that
they didn’t have at the time. As an adult, I criss-crossed
Canada—Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, Saskatchewan—
and then settled in England. Yet, in many ways, that first
move, from the small town where I was born, was the
most profound. And so I returned to my childhood home
one August day not long ago, this time bringing
my camera.
I slowed the rental car down as I approached and
parked near the curb. The house, though smaller than I
remember it—funny how memories make much of our
childhood seem larger than life—looked exactly the
same: white with blue shutters, a long swath of grass at
the front and stone steps leading down to that sprawling
backyard where we’d tapped our maple trees. There was
another minivan in the driveway, another family there
now making their own memories. For some reason, this
didn’t make me jealous or sad. Either time had faded the
pain of leaving or I was able to recognize my affection for
what it was: nostalgia not for the home before me but for
the place in my mind’s eye—for my childhood. Call these
memories lies, call them confabulations, but that will do
nothing to discredit their purpose—or their power.
 LE NOW
SA
N
TS
O

SEA
ALL

$
15
an Ontario government agency
un organisme du gouvernement de lÕOntario
C anada’s Beauty Industry and esteemed experts gathered at the
Carlu in Toronto on May 17, 2018, for Cosmetics magazine’s 13th
annual celebration of the best in the business. This was the first year the
event has been known as the Canadian Beauty Awards, incorporating
skincare, makeup, men’s grooming and hair care categories to bring over
300 industry insiders ― from business executives to beauty editors and
bloggers ― together for the night. Among the accolades were two Hall of
Fame awards and one Lifetime Achievement honouree.

For more on the Canadian Beauty Awards, and to watch the event in full,
visit Cosmeticsmag.com, and for behind-the-scenes action check out PRESENTED BY
@cosmeticsmag and #CBA2018 on Instagram and Twitter.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD Scott Lovell, Hudson’s Bay

Hailing from Hamilton Ontario, Scott Lovell started his career at
Jaggard’s Florist and Garden Centre in Burlington in 1969. He studied
Floral Design at the University of Guelph and went on to work for the
T Eaton Company where he created up to 25 window displays a week.
When Eaton’s closed in 1999, Hudson’s Bay snapped up his extraordinary
talents and made him Visual Presentation Manager. Almost 20 years
later he’s now the Marketing Manager of the �ueen Street store and
considers the relationships he’s made along the way the real highlight of
his beautiful career.

BRAND INFLUENCER AWARD Dave Lackie, Hudson’s Bay

Dave Lackie has amassed the largest beauty twitter following in Canada,
which he expertly leverages with a community of loyal beauty lovers
thanks to exciting giveaways and events. Dave also appears regularly on
Cityline watched by 2.1 million viewers each week where he discusses
the latest launches and trends.
BEST LIMITED FRAGRANCE LAUNCH BEST FULL-MARKET FRAGRANCE — MEN’S BEST FULL-MARKET FRAGRANCE — WOMEN’S BEST SKINCARE — PRESTIGE
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Eau de Parfum [Quadrant Cosmetics] Eau de Toilette [Puig] Eau de Parfum [Coty] Age Control Concentrate

BEST SKINCARE — FULL MARKET BEST SKINCARE — DERM MAKEUP — EYES: PRESTIGE MAKEUP — EYES: FULL MARKET
Neutrogena Light Therapy Acne Mask Vichy Minéral 89 Fortifying Dior Diorshow Annabelle Skinny Mascara
[Johnson & Johnson] and Plumping Daily Booster [L’Oréal] Pump’N’Volume Mascara [Group Marcelle]

MAKEUP — LIPS: PRESTIGE MAKEUP — LIPS: FULL MARKET MAKEUP — FACE: PRESTIGE MAKEUP - FACE: FULL MARKET
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MORE CULTURE
MORE STYLE
MORE ADVICE
MORE STUFF1

THE

@THETITLEMAG MAG.COM
1
More footnotes!
 photography by brent goldsmith (styling, juliana schiavinatto). coat, $38,000, dress, $3,490, and earring (on left), $240, marni. top, $295, jil sander.
shoes, $1,265, dolce & gabbana. sunglasses, $640, fendi. earring (on right), $8,190 (for a pair), ana Khouri x narciso rodriguez. bag, $400, marc jacobs.

august 2018
FASHION

79
Coat, $23,650, jacket, $16,750, top,
$4,900, and earring (on left), $1,250,
Chanel. Turtleneck, $795, Dolce &
Gabbana. Pants, $400, Paige. Earring
(on right), $5,170 (for a pair), Ana Khouri.

T H E M I X O L O G I S T
The first rule of personal style?
There are no rules.
Photography by Brent Goldsmith
Styling by Juliana Schiavinatto
Coat, $38,000, and
earring (on left), $240,
Marni. Top, $295, Jil
Sander. Sunglasses,
$640, Fendi. Earring (on
right), $8,190 (for a pair),
Ana Khouri x Narciso
Rodriguez. Bag, $400,
Marc Jacobs.

81
Top, vest and pants, prices upon request,
Louis Vuitton. T-shirt with lace sleeves,
$515, Goen.J at Shopbop. Shoes, $1,570,
Sanayi 313. Rings, $140 each, Alta Ora.
Earrings, $5,170, Ana Khouri.

Beauty and a Geek

Lotte Van Noort’s Instagram bio reads
“Model & technology freak.” If you were
to paint separate portraits of these two
descriptors, they would likely look very
different. But in Van Noort’s big baby-blue
eyes—the kind that get you signed with
major international modelling agencies—
it’s pretty simple to be both.
When I ask what fuels her enthusiasm
for technology, Van Noort draws a com-
parison to magic. “We can make things
fly,” she says. “We have access to all the
information in the entire world from a
small device in the back of our pocket, and
there are medical tools that save thousands
of lives. So much is possible that we never
thought would ever be reality.”
Sometimes she’s posing in front of a
camera in Chanel; sometimes she is fulfill-
ing her role as chancellor for the Institute
of Exponential Sciences, a think tank
that manages a vast network of scientists
and people interested in science. They
seem like separate worlds, but the Dutch
model insists they’re connected. “Through
modelling, I hope I can inspire people and
show them that technology is not boring
or just for nerds—it’s the foundation of
modern society,” she says. “I want to show
people that being beautiful and being
smart don’t have to be two separate things.”
—Meghan McKenna

82
Jacket, $1,400, Acne Studios. Top, $3,140, shoes, $1,085, and socks, $125,
Fendi. Pants, $230, Bailey 44 at Shopbop. Earrings, $260 each, Alta Ora.
Top, $230, Jil Sander. Dress, price
upon request, Erdem. Earrings,
$880, Marni. Bracelet, $10,140,
Ana Khouri. Bag, price upon
request, Michael Kors Collection.

100
84
Top, $1,920, and gold belt, $3,195,
Céline. Pants and shoes, prices
upon request, Hermès. Fabric belt,
$985, Jil Sander. Earring (on left),
$1,740, Ana Khouri. Earring (on
right), $160 (for a pair), Alta Ora.
Sweater, $615, and skirt,
$1,010, Victoria Victoria
Beckham. Top, $720, Acne
Studios. Shoes, $1,295,
Dolce & Gabbana. Earring
(on left), $830, and earring
(on right), $380, Balenciaga.

86
Vest, $16,640, Altuzarra. Turtleneck, $295, Jil Sander. Top, $585, Isabel Marant. Pants, $335, Paige.
Shoes, $2,495, Brian Atwood. Earrings, $8,195, Ana Khouri x Narciso Rodriguez.
White tank top, plaid
top, dress and belt,
prices upon request,
Miu Miu. Earring
(on left), $390 (for a
pair), Erdem. Earring
(on right), $4,085,
Ana Khouri.
Coat, $4,470, dress,
$3,510, pants, $1,215,
shoes, $1,015, earring
(on left), $830, and
earring (on right),
$380, Balenciaga.

89
Jacket, $585, Marc Jacobs. Turtleneck, $1,015, Dolce & Gabbana. Dress, price upon request,
Michael Kors Collection. Hat, $355, Eugenia Kim. Earrings, $160 (for a pair), Alta Ora.
Jacket, $1,050, Victoria
Victoria Beckham. Top,
$480, Dolce & Gabbana.
Hair, Tim Aylward for
Atelier Management/
Oribe. Makeup, Paco
Blancas for L’Atelier
NYC/Nars. Fashion
assistant, Jillian Amos.
Model, Lotte Van Noort
for Marilyn Agency NY.

91
 EXPLORE
e x pe r i e nc e

t r av e l

ta st e

di s c ov e r

orbeliani bath
house in tbilisi

O
n my second night drives past us. I brace myself for a
in Tbilisi, after an flurry of expletives, but instead we are
opulent yet rela- greeted with a rambunctious holler:
tively inexpensive “WELCOME TO GEORGIA!” The
meal consisting of unexpected salutation is the first of
salty triangles of many surprises I encounter in this
cheese-filled bread (khachapuri) and tiny country bordering Russia, Turkey,
a jeroboam of wine at the Old City Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Wall restaurant, I am walking back to Georgia is a study in opposites. A
my hotel with some fellow travel com- short walk through downtown Tbilisi
panions when a car full of menacing- reveals crumbling 19th-century
looking eastern European bros slowly European facades juxtaposed with
Soviet brutalist architecture. On the
hillside overlooking the city of more
than one million, there’s an enormous
glass villa built by a Georgian banking
magnate. This $65 million home hovers
like a suspended UFO above the
humble clay-tiled roofs below it.
The country is technically only a
mere 27 years old—its most recent dec-
laration of independence was from the
collapsing Soviet Union in 1991—yet
it contains the vestiges of monasteries

92
 True
Colours
In the post-Soviet state of Georgia,
residents woo tourists with their
earnestness and complete lack of
cynicism. You’ve been warned.

By Isabel B. Slone
editor: jacquelyn francis. photography by istock.

that date back to the 12th century.
Men with guns patrolled the streets of
Tbilisi during the early ’90s, but when
you land at the airport today, you’re
greeted with signage that reads “The
city that loves you.”
Georgia didn’t embrace a Western-
style democracy until the peaceful
Rose Revolution in 2003, yet our tour
guide claims that one of the country’s
most significant economic drivers
is mining cryptocurrency. If this all
sounds somewhat confusing and pos-
sibly overwhelming, you’re not wrong,
but the confluence of such unlikely
factors swirling together makes Georgia
one of the most profoundly bewitching
and enigmatic places I’ve ever visited.
My mood today is in stark contrast
to how I felt a day earlier, when I
landed in the city after a rather brutal
12-hour layover in Munich. (I can now
deeply relate to Tom Hanks’s char-
acter in The Terminal.) The frazzled
fatigue lifted as soon as I arrived at
the plush Rooms Hotel Tbilisi. The
Wes Anderson-esque bellhops and
bohemian vibe charmed me, and my
first meal—a three-hour affair at Shavi
Lomi (“Black Lion”)—ended with
shots of throat-searing chacha, a grape
hard liquor that’s a Georgian party
staple. The other highlight was the
pungent salad of fresh scallions and
springy morels, which had been for-
aged by Goran, an aging nomad who »

93
explorecontrasts
came by our table to share the wisdom he
has gleaned since dropping out of society
to live among camels.
I can only imagine who I will meet
today. There’s an overarching feeling of
CLOCkWISE FROM
anticipation in the air, as if Georgia is LEF T: NaRIkaLa
teetering on the precipice of becoming FORTRESS
the next Lisbon or Buenos Aires. Its tour- OvERLOOkINg ThE
CIT y; ROOMS hOTEL
ism revenue has doubled in the past five TBILISI; CaBLE
years, no doubt thanks in part to talented CaR TO NaRIkaLa;
Georgian fashion designers like Demna ThE aBaNOTuBaNI
NEIghBOuRhOOd
Gvasalia and David Koma dominating
the world stage. Yet the most compelling
reason to visit Georgia is the country’s
complete lack of artifice.

Nowhere is this more evident than

E x p E r i E n c E : State Ballet of Georgia
One of the most historic institutions of its kind in eastern
Europe, the State Ballet of Georgia combines the rigour of
Russian ballet with the emotional intensity of the Georgian
disposition. The performances stun, as does the arresting
architecture of the Tbilisi Z. Paliashvili Opera and Ballet State
at the Deserter’s Bazaar, a food market
in central Tbilisi where locals sell
bundles of tarragon, desiccated-looking
pomegranates and wet wheels of imeruli
cheese from ramshackle stalls made
of plastic tarps and dilapidated patio

PhotograPhy: main courtesy of rooms hotels; georgia landscaPes courtesy of

Theatre. With its Moorish influences, rococo chandeliers and umbrellas. One vendor insists I try her
ornately painted ceilings, there’s no better way to feel like a homemade sauces (bottled in recycled
real patron of the arts. plastic Coca-Cola bottles) and then

gnta; tamara KoPaliani by edward James/contributor/getty images.

E a t : Kafe Leila According to locals, a former incarnation
of this opulently decorated restaurant smack dab in the centre
of Old Town was the choice hangout for wealthy expats in
Georgia. Now under new ownership, it has been transformed
into a hipsterish vegetarian café that sells bangin’ butternut
squash soup and traditional Georgian walnut spreads (to be
generously slathered on fresh bread). The ludicrously sumptu-
ous decor—including bulbous moulded ceilings and lacy
pistachio green walls—remains wonderfully intact.
B u y : Samoseli Pirveli Located in Tbilisi’s tony Vake
district, Samoseli Pirveli sells modern interpretations of
traditional Georgian dress. (Think plenty of paisley tunics and
military-style jackets.) Not only is the clothing radically well
tailored and super-soft but it’s all made by hand in the back
of the shop.
proceeds to distribute them via mouldy
hunks of bread. (I discreetly attempt to
avoid the mould by licking the sauces off
the bread.) I buy a couple of strands of
churchkhela (a candle-shaped Georgian
treat made of nuts on a string and dipped
in thickened grape juice) to take home.
Within walking distance is the Dry
Bridge Flea Market, where vendors hawk
jewellery, Soviet tchotchkes and kitchen
implements from blankets on the ground.
Even the wines in Georgia are
marketed as natural. Natural wine may
be only beginning to gain traction in
North America, but Georgians have been
producing it since 6000 BC. (No, this
isn’t a typo. Archeologists unearthing
two villages near Tbilisi found evidence
that these early residents produced wines,

94

making them some of the world’s
first-known vintners.) Natural wine
operates on a philosophy of nothing
being added or taken away, and
much of it is cloudy with sediment
and tastes like tart apple juice (but
with no nostril-flaring acridity).
“Georgia is famous for its opulent
hospitality,” says John Wurdeman,
the owner of Pheasant’s Tears
winery, where we sampled a
wine called Poliphonia (made
from a blend of multiple endemic
Georgian grape varieties) that one
of my travel companions called
“spiritual.” Later, at Wurdeman’s
restaurant (also named Poliphonia),
we sit at a communal table that
groans under the weight of such
dishes as pickled wildflowers (jon-
joli) and mozzarella dumplings with
yogourt-mint sauce. The meal is
punctuated with prolific toasting—
a Georgian tradition that dictates
that whenever a guest experiences
a raw emotion, they must propose
a toast. The result is a meal engag-
ingly interrupted with emphatic
displays of warmth and affection.
Poliphonia’s co-owner, Luarsab
Togonidze, joins us, along with a
number of cronies who spontane-
ously break out into Georgian folk
songs. The a cappella harmonizing
adds yet another layer of wistful
emotion to the scene. Togonidze
explains that the Georgian way
is to approach life with a sense
of openness and vulnerability.
“All my life, I’ve been trying to
attach a handle to my chest so you
can open it up and see my heart,”
he says.
From that evening on, the
locals’ earnest, wholehearted
and cynicism-free outlook on life
seduces me. During my nine-day
stay, I slowly learned how to
drop my ingrained sense of North
American pessimism and just be.
“You’ve been given a chunk of our
heart, and you can keep that with
you, for better or worse,” says
Wurdeman. For me, it is definitely
for the better. That woman who
once feared a car full of local well-
wishers went home with a little
piece of Georgia in her heart.
We asked the
designers behind
four georgian
labels “hoW
does georgia as a
country influence
your designs?”
“Growing up, Georgia was one of the
gloomiest places. We were in ruins—no
electricity, no heating, hunger. I could
not identify myself with this gloom. My
bright colours and radical ideas stem
from countering that despair.”
—Tamara Kopaliani
“Now Georgia is on the fashion radar;
many Western journalists see it as a
post-Soviet country only. Georgian his-
tory is so much deeper and more inter-
esting than 70 years of the last century.”
—Irakli Rusadze of Situationist
“Georgia is a magical country with a
strong heritage, [but] the fashion indus-
try is a completely new concept for us
and the consumer market is still very
small. In order to succeed, designers
have to access foreign markets.”
—Irma Sharikadze of Irma de Flore
“I was raised in a newly independent
country. ‘Proudly heading toward
the future’ is the main message I
try to deliver through my creations.
Babukhadia’s woman is smart, tough
and dashing.” —Nino Babukhadia
95
explorecontrasts
True
Lies
Before tragedy struck,
Greg Hudson visited
Las Vegas, a city filled
with beautiful mysteries.
I
know I’m painting things with an overly broad
brush, but I’m just going to say it: Vacations are lies,
and all travellers are liars. Consider what happens
on vacation. We visit an alternate universe, like
the fortunate frauds we are. This hotel is our home.
This lifestyle? Ours. These complicated meals and
breathtaking activities? We do this all the time. The more
trips we take, the better we get at deception.
I’m reminded of this theory while in Las Vegas for the
Life Is Beautiful festival: three days of music, art installations
and roundtables that feature important people presumably
hip enough to keep millennials engaged. On day one, I meet
a fellow festivalgoer named Chris. He is covering Life Is
Beautiful, too, and by my observation is friendly but not
boisterous, with the general demeanour of a cool high-school
teacher (and the wardrobe to match).
On day two, we find our way to the Indian restaurant-
turned-media centre, and Chris disappears into the bath-
room. When he comes out, he’s wearing shiny red tights,
a silver lamé vest (unbuttoned, naturally) and an Electric
Circus-approved amount of glitter on his face. This crowd
doesn’t frighten him. It isn’t oppressive. It’s an opportunity,
and he came prepared to be who he really is—or at least
who he wants to be at a concert festival in Las Vegas.
It’s easy to associate Las Vegas with the adults-only dubi-
ous debauchery you see in movies and on television. But that
reputation is getting a bit played out, isn’t it? And like the
customer-satisfaction city it is, Las Vegas is wise enough to
move with the zeitgeist. In this era of curation and gentrifi-
96
cation—when millennial consumers are (so we’re told) inter-
ested in experiences and stories—rejuvenating parts of the
city that were previously left to wilt in the shadow of The
Strip has come about. The Downtown Project (helmed by
Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, who relocated the company’s HQ
to Vegas’s old City Hall building in 2013) is the investment
PhotograPhy: main by istock; mural courtesy of las vegas convention and visitors
enterprise behind a lot of the urban renewal I’m here to see.
On The Strip, it’s almost impossible to think (with all
that’s being sold to you), but on Fremont Street—ground
zero for this born-again downtown and home to Life Is
authority; street festival by filmmagic/contributor/getty images.
Beautiful—things are disarmingly, well, beautiful. Here, the
festival has splashed massive murals done by such giants in
the urban-art movement as Shepard Fairey and Faile. There
is a steampunk-y robot cuddling up to his human companion,
a dizzy Linus van Pelt quoting hip-hop lyrics, and so much
more. It’s as if Vegas got sleeved. Aside from a very flashy
zip line attraction that lets you fly over Fremont Street amid
blinding lights, what draws people to Old Las Vegas are
the same things that bring people to any city: the bars, the
restaurants, the character. Old Las Vegas feels real.
There are two aesthetic vibes competing for supremacy
in Las Vegas—not counting The Strip (or the murals). It’s
western (you’ll recall the giant neon cowgirl that used to kick
her leg over Fremont Street before so many of the neon signs
were retired) versus a kind of mid-century chic. The Triple
George Grill in the Downtown Grand definitely falls into
the latter category. It was one of the first restaurants to open
in the early days of revitalization, but it feels like a dinner
club out of Mad Men—or any other cultural product set in
 FROM TOP: A NEON MURAL
PRODUCED BY THE FESTIVAL,
2017; OT T AT TENDEES

the early ’60s. (Think dim lighting, classic cocktails and

simple American cuisine done perfectly.) On the other side
of that aesthetic divide is the Gold Spike. It offers co-
working spaces by day in the “Living Room” and house-
party vibes at night; there’s an extensive vinyl library, and
the “Backyard” has oversized games while the bar offers
boozy milkshakes in a homey environment. It doesn’t have
cowboy boots and lassos on the walls, but it feels a little
like a friend’s romper room, back when people called such
spaces “romper rooms.”
If The Strip thrives on its overtly nihilistic ideation, the
new Old Las Vegas feels like it was made for real people
who actually live here. There’s this notion that I remember
from my religious upbringing about how believers should
be in the world but not of the world. Proximity to sin is
unavoidable, but participation in it isn’t. Downtown Vegas
feels like that. It’s Vegas but not. That’s probably why I
like it.
Although maybe that’s the lie I’m living on this trip….
Yes, I’m attending an outdoor festival (Did I mention that
I hate music festivals? No? That’s another story) in Vegas,
but I am not of Vegas. Not the gambling, blinged-out,
clichéd Grecian Vegas. I’m at this concert—in a field sur-
rounded by looming hotels—watching Muse, Chance the
Rapper and Gorillaz. None have earned a residency yet.
And there’s no kitsch—only thousands of people swaying
outside in the dry desert heat.
But unlike most of the other attendees, I won’t return to
my parents’ bungalow or even to one of these downtown
hotels. No, after each concert, I’ll head for The Strip. I’ll who are bobbing their heads, trying to see around the
walk through a lobby that beeps and plinks and is dying giant in front of them. It’s a music festival, and it could be
to make me a winner. I’ll pass girls dressed like Halloween anywhere, in any open field. There is only love while I’m
cops who pose with you for photos and then ask for money watching Lorde make the crowds ripple and bounce, as
afterwards. And the next morning, I’ll eat more food than unaware as everyone that in 10 days, at a different outdoor
should be legal at a long, winding brunch buffet at Caesars concert, the tragedy of America’s deadliest mass shooting
Palace. I say I’m not of Vegas, but there is certainly enough would tear so many lives apart. But on this day, the love
evidence to the contrary. I can practically hear The Strip feels real. And I realize I’m enjoying every minute of it.
calling to me, reminding me that I watched LOVE, the No word of a lie.
Beatles-inspired Cirque du Soleil show. “Were you not
entertained?” it asks. (Life Is Beautiful runs from September 21 to 23 with
But that lie, along with every other lie I tell myself, fades performances by The Weeknd, Florence + The Machine,
away every night at Life Is Beautiful. I am one of many Arcade Fire, Miguel and more.)

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JACOBS $35
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97
finishingTOUCH

R e a l
Ta l k
If Jenny Bird’s art-deco-inspired La
Bouche and La Vue pins appear whimsi-
cal, the Toronto-based designer is not. She’s
refreshingly honest and a true straight shooter when
talking about the namesake jewellery line she founded
in 2008. She explains how the pieces are cast in brass and
then plated in 14-karat gold or sterling silver at her factory
in China, which she has visited. At $60 and $65, the pins are
reasonably priced—a decision she describes as being about
“the democracy of the brand and just being fair; it’s possible
to make a good living and have beautiful, quality products.”
Another Jenny Bird truth is this: Affordable jewellery can be
precious, and it should be to the person wearing it.
“We [gold-]plate our pieces so that people will take
care of them,” she says. “They can be heirlooms.

text by jacquelyn francis. photography: pins by daniel harrison; background by istock.

You don’t have to have solid-gold
heirlooms; you just have to take
care of them.” Truth.

98  F A S H I O N | AUGUST 2018 fashionmagazine.com

 DESIGNING THE
IMPOSSIBLE

EXHIBITION ON NOW
TICKETS AT ROM.CA

Radiation Invasion, Dress, September 2009. Faux leather, gold foil, cotton, and tulle. Groninger Museum, 2012.0201. Photo by Bart Oomes, No 6 Studios. ‘Iris van Herpen: Transforming Fashion’ is co-organized by the
High Museum of Art, Atlanta and the Groninger Museum, the Netherlands. The exhibition was curated by Sarah Schleuning, High Museum of Art, and Mark Wilson and Sue-an van der Zijpp, Groninger Museum.
B® CHANEL S. de R.L.
©CHANEL, Inc. CHANEL ®

CHANEL
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