Material Archive

Shopping in Old Montreal

Bought some lovely things in Old Montreal. Particular stores to note:

Cahier d' Exercices for a great selection of Dries Van Noten, Celine and Rick Owens

Reborn for Natalia Brilli, Acne

Quai 417 for Antoni Alison, L.G.B. (& really lovely sales staff)

Ssense for Marni, Thakoon, IRO, Lanvin - plus many more

A Table for amazing porcelain dishes

 


 

Lastly, even though they broke my heart by being closed for summer holidays the exact weekend I was there, I would still recommend paying these Parisienne transplants a visit.

Rosenstein is right next door to Holt Renfrew and has a really great selection of hard to find Louboutin styles, Jimmy Choo and Repetto.

Two Weeks in New York City: Quickie Intro

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I recently spent 2 glorious weeks in New York shooting an upcoming campaign for a client. During my "free time" there, I took the opportunity to indulge in two of my favourite past times – shopping and eating – and what better city for it!

This post is just a little preview of some fun stops. In later posts, I'll get into more detail about the specifc restaurants I visited.

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I have literally seen Ghostbusters enough times to actually recite the majority of the film from memory. Heck, my Mr. Stay Puft action figure is watching over me right now as I compose this post! So, you can imagine the unique childlike thrill MB and I had when we randomly walked by the original fire station from the film, while strolling through Tribeca. :)

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The new Uniqlo flagship store on 5th Avenue is ridiculously big. So large, that I actually was overwhelmed and felt lost on more than one occasion. Despite that, I still managed to find several great items to bring home. One of particular note was a great wool and cashmere trench coat.

Their prices are so reasonable, I really had to calm myself to not buy a whole other suitcase's worth of clothing.

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Wow – the Christian Louboutin store on Madison Ave is intense! When I arrived at 5pm on a Friday after work, I was greeted by a line-up of other patrons and a massive body guard! According to Mr.Big, a wait time to get into the store is a normal daily occurence. I noted that no other luxury retailer on the street had the same traffic.

When I got inside shortly after, I was met with an unusal scene. Picture: upper crust ladies who lunch, sitting next to hardcore rapper type dudes (all trying on majorly tricked out sneakers I have never seen the likes of before) and then working girls like me. A very odd mix indeed!

Regardless, all were very happy – especially this girl! Why? I had called ahead and secured the last brown Simple Bootie in size 40 anywhere in the whole bloody world after weeks of looking, calling and visiting every retailer that carries CL  – major shopping victory!

The staff were really great too and recommended that I get my soles reclad in red rubber – see below. That's one of them holding his colleague's boot to show the non-slip red rubber add ons. It's a brilliant idea, as the signature red does wear off pretty quickly in my experience.

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I had a pretty productive visit at Prada as well. A new winter coat, bag and wallet were amongst my newly adopted cohorts. :)

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Some random snaps I took during breaks while working at the photography studio...

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A quick visit the to the MET on the weekend recharged my creative inspiration batteries!

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Coming up over the next several posts: reviews and photos of Jean Georges, Corton, Del Posto, BLT, Gramercy Tavern, Nobu, Lucali – amongst others!

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Mercy's GASPARD Opens

The store's fitting rooms are lined in Liberty prints

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While walking home from work yesterday, I came across a lovely new boutique called Gaspard. The moment I entered, I realized it belonged to my former Portrait clients, Richard and Jennifer from Mercy. Their signature use of Liberty prints tipped me off instantly and then I recalled bumping into Richard and chatting about their upcoming venture a few months ago.

After over 15 years as Mercy, the duo have finally expanded to offer their amazing line in their own store – complete with several other clothing, shoe and jewelry lines to compliment theirs. The result is a very tightly curated vision. So happy for them.

Yes please & thank you: Baguette vending machine

"Enterprising French baker Jean-Louis Hecht offers fresh bread 24 hours a day thanks to his "automated baguette dispenser". via

ACME DeLuxe Ice-Cream Bricks

This is a real store sign! Unfortunately, it's sits on what is now an antique store on Queen West, next to Local Kitchen where I had dinner tonight.

Honestly, the concept of an "ice cream brick" store named "ACME DeLuxe" seems too good to be true – it's right out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon...  :-)

Reminded of my love for Parra today:

Just ordered this print as I have loved it for ages.

Am a fan of huge Parra's work and hope to collaborate with him one day on the right project.

J.Crew opens in Toronto: leaves all the interesting merch in the US

The recent pricing controversy didn't keep my curiosity at bay and so I went shopping with list in hand (after doing a pre-shop online) and ventured out to the burbs to see the new outpost of American retailer J.Crew at Yorkdale mall.

Someone must have sent Jenna a memo outlining Canadians' supposed predilection for boring basics because I wasn't able to find one thing on my list in stock. The most interesting shoes, blazers and dresses were left south of the border for their more "fashion forward" customers. Deep sigh.

Canadians love J.Crew because of it's sunny and distinctly American outlook. Having Canadian buyers curate the collection (the sales staff confirmed this) removes what makes the brand interesting to us to begin with. So thanks for your efforts Mr. Drexler but I'll stick to my online / catalog shopping for now.

Photo from the Grid

Today I bought: Ports 1961 Perf Suede Booties

Saw these in the window at Ports 1961 on Bloor Street and decided I had to give them a good home...

A visit to Mjölk

 

Yesterday, after wrapping a TV shoot in the Junction, I luckily came across Mjölk – a store I've been keen to see since it opened. I arrived just as it closed for the day but the manager Lauren was kind enough to let me sneak in and take a quick look around and snag a great bag by Naoto Fuksawa.

With a laser precision curation style, Mjölk carries lovely furniture and craft products from Scandinavia and Japan. In their own words, owners, John Baker & Julie Daoust talk about their vision for the store:

"We specialize in Scandinavia because the north enthralls us. Soft, quiet snowy forests and streets in the winter. Glittery, blinding sunlight on colourful buildings during the summer. Fika (coffee break) at the Konditori, with a kaffe and Napoleon pastry in hand. Trolling the Helsinki open-air markets for treasures. Aalto building tours. S.O.S. (Smör Ost och Sill = butter, cheese and herring). Swedish style. Grass roofs. Hot dog streetside snacks. And of course, the Arctic. These are a few of our favourite things."

 

 

 

  

Are you using Svpply yet?

Svpply allows you to tag items you like on other sites, basically creating a visual shopping list or reference archive. You can have a peek at my list here.

Commute Home

 




 

Some of my favourite pieces at home are from Commute and so I must confess that I'm a little sad that they've moved away from my hood in Queen West – they are now at a bigger space at Bathurst & Dupont. They've also updated their website to showcase some really beautiful custom installation work – have a look.

Making of Bergdorf Goodman's 2010 Holiday Windows

 

Vanity be thy name

From the New Yorker