One of Ottawa's best kept secrets

Old Ottawa South (follow Bank Street south, past the Glebe) is one of my favourite places to be on a Saturday afternoon. I like to grab a chai and pass the hours browsing through the area's many antique shops. This area is Ottawa's unrivaled destination for antique goodies. I'm talking Persian rugs, vintage posters, armoires, and collectibles--and most importantly for Youth League readers--vintage clothing. 

After careful consideration, and many hours spent "researching" (aka shopping, hee hee) I hereby appoint MaryAnn Harris' shop at the Ottawa Antique Market (1179 Bank Street) as the unrivaled destination for perfectly curated and well-maintained vintage clothing in Ottawa. MaryAnn acquires her pieces from the women who wore them, and she ensures they are in excellent condition before putting them on the shop floor. Her clothes, jewelry, hats, purses and accessories cover nearly every era over the last century, with a particular focus on pieces from 1950 onward. 

On my last visit, I picked up a belted floral dress from the sixties that fits me like a glove. It was $70--one of the more pricey pieces. I was hard-pressed to choose between this piece and some adorable mini dresses, but in the end, I think I made the right decision. It's not the one in the photo below, but that one is pretty fab too...




One of my favourite items from MaryAnn's shop are her clutches. I picked out a couple of my faves for your viewing pleasure:

You can pick up one of these babies for $30 to $60, which could perfectly accent a little black dress, or, as was the case on my last visit, a high school grad ensemble. 

If you've got some time this weekend, I highly recommend an antique shopping trip, with a special visit to MaryAnn's little boutique. If you come out with something special, tell me about it!

Sneaker Peeps

Check out the lastest issue of Ottawa Magazine for a piece on sneaker street style, written by me! Photos were contributed by the lovely and incredible local photographer Mark Cooper.  Page 18 of the June 2008 issue, y'alls!

Kate, meet Chantal

Check out the photos from our shoot with photographer extraordinaire Daniel Weinand and the lovely model Chantal Brisson. It's inspired by an early shoot with Kate Moss where she wandered around her apartment wearing next to nothing and looking damn fine. Love love love! P.S. For the NSFW pics, check out the Lace & Pearls link.

High fives to our favourite hair and make-up team: Illona Bohlmann and Jes Lacasse. Muah!

Styled by Youth League and the Spies.









These ones didn't fit the series, but we still love them so I'm adding them too:

Behind the Scenes at Ottawa Fashion Week

OMG. It's over. After three crazy days of steaming, lint rolling, double sided taping and model herding, I'm now in Ottawa Fashion Week rehab. I'm sitting in my sweatpants eating lemon meringue pie, and I have no intention of showering. Gasp!

The first ever Ottawa Fashion Week was a glowing success. If you don't believe me, just ask the Ottawa Citizen, A-Channel, CBC, Rogers Television, Flare Magazine and countless other media peeps who stopped in to check things out. Project Runway even showed up!

Unfortunately, I didn't catch the shows because I was backstage pretty much the whole time, but that's where the real action is anyways. Check out some exclusive pics of what goes on behind the scenes...

Here I am styling Nick before he worked the runway for Laura Fauquier's scarf line.

The make-up stations:

The hair stations:

The beautiful Tanyta posing before she hit the runway:

Julianne getting her make-up done before walking in the Jessica Halabi collection:

Here's Karina rocking a sky-high mohawk for the Split Spine line:

Kara and Candace get beautified:

Some models hanging out before the madness began:

Tara and Lara getting into character before hitting the runway. Tara's next in line to strut her stuff in this pic:

The models lining up in preparation for Melissa Clemente's show:

Shout out to all the volunteers who made this incredible event come to life. I love you all!

B.W.A.

I don't have much to say about these ladies. I took their pic because they were standing along the railing checkin' out the scene and they had this crazy bad-ass aura I was attracted to. They look like they're straight outta Brooklyn, era 1991.

Respeck.

Lon

There's that yellow we love this season! Doesn't yellow look even hotter when paired with bold colours like black and red? This fine lady is lookin' fierce.

Scissor Sister

I'm totally feeling yellow this spring. It's just such a sunshine, birds are chirping, grass is growing, life is good kind of colour. And I especially love what Jeneen's done with her yellow number in this photo. As any good art student knows, yellow and purple are complimentary colours, so it makes perfect sense to pair this yellow dress with purple accessories. Especially when one such accessory is a pair of purple leggings with scissors all over them. I mean scissors!! For serious. 

Just when I was getting ready to freak out at the next photo of Lindsay Lohan in yet another pair of leggings, I now have renewed faith in this much-hyped fashion article. And it's all thanks to our featured fashionista. 

Getting Fresh with Joe

OMG! If you haven't wandered the clothing aisles at selected Real Canadian Superstores, YOU HAVE TO! Tracie and I decided to go grocery shopping in Barrhaven one afternoon and jetted straight for the Joe Fresh display. We were so impressed with this season's cool designs and even more impressed by the amazing low prices. Here are some of our must have picks:

I love this skirt because it's 100% silk, a super fun plaid pattern and it's only $34;

Hot $19 flats. These were the prettiest ones we saw, but there is such a cute summer collection of shoes that it's definitely worth a peek;

A multi-layered beautifully patterned skirt, $34. I tried this on with a tucked in white 'wife-beater' (pardon my politically incorrect term) and looked so L.C. To die for;

A cute navy and white striped t-shirt dress, $16. I paired it up with an $8 navy rope belt;

A high-waisted skirt in black or white perfect for the office or all those garden parties you'll be invited to this summer, $24.

Beautiful People Frozen in Time

After a busy day of fittings for Ottawa Fashion Week yesterday, I headed over to La Petite Mort Gallery for the OFW pre-party. If the week's events are going to be anything like last night, we're in for a good time. The scene was just what I hope to see more of at Ottawa fashion events: happy shiny people mingling in one of the city's awesome creative venues. If you haven't been to La Petite Mort before, I highly suggest you check it out, stat.

Models--dressed in some of the pieces we'll be featuring on the runway--were positioned amongst the party-goers like they were living mannequins. Hotness, freeze model style. Check it out:



Stay tuned for the scoop on OFW events happening the week of the shows. So fun!

Simon

I took this pic somewhere in March, so it's a little dated considering the warmer weather. But since it's not as hot as we wish it to be, I believe it's fitting that I put up Simon in his great Canadian sweater thing. I like the layering of the striped hoodie underneath and the mismatch of patterns. Note to men: pattern mismatch (like plaid with plaid or plaid with stripes, etc.) totally in for the Spring/Summer. And Pumas always get noticed by me. Hot.

Street Style Las Vegas gets a C-

OK, so I've been a little reluctant to bring up my Vegas trip because it wasn't very fashionable at all. And I've been dealing with this annulment issue. Who knew that a stint up the aisle in an Elvis themed wedding chapel would actually be legal?

As far as street style in Vegas is concerned, it doesn't exist. All I saw was a bunch a tacky tourists that looked like they should belong in Boca Raton. This completely stunned me because all the posh hotels have beautiful malls inside of them with designer boutiques. A completely useless feature.

However, the devil's advocate in me will admit that I should have gone to more local hotspots to experience real Las Vegians, but alas, I was working and was totally stuck on the strip.

This is a tourist that I noticed in Walgreens when I was getting desperate. She looks super cute with her cropped leggings and short frilly skirt, but by the end of my trip I had seen so many short skirts that this looks is lost on me. Imagine this skirt on its own with super high heels (either pump or strappy) and tight tops that expose boobs or belly or both; this was the "look" ladies were going for at the night clubs. The same night clubs that the celebutards go to.

On my last night, I saw an angel. I was so excited to see a well dressed lady that I forgot to get her name but I do remember that she's from Leamington, Ontario. What are the odds? I love the tie-around belt that matches her boots. I will also use this pic as a don't because there's an example of a tourist in her plaid dress and platform sandals in the background.

This is the mall inside the Venetian. Like in Venice.

This is the mall inside Caesar's Palace. Notice the size of the people eating dinner around Zeus.

This is a pretty picture I took outside of the Paris Casino.

This is a picture of the funnest casino on the strip Circus Circus. You can't go wrong with $1 foot long hot dogs and $1.25 margaritas.

Stay tuned for more business trip Street Styles. Later this month I'll be going to NY and next month Cha-town. Hit me up Kanye!