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Diary | Brunch at the Birds Nest

Brunch is such a luxury. To find the time between work (sadly, it can be tough even on the weekends) and errands to actually sit for a few hours with your ladyfriends as you sip champagne and plan your next road trip — there’s nothing better. And I have a new favourite brunch spot: an underground restaurant where you dine like a guest of the chef in a home that feels like it belongs in Paris, though it’s actually smack dab in the middle of the ‘Couv.

Its name? The Birds Nest.

Do you have underground restaurants in your city? They’re absolutely delightful, especially since the chefs are often very accommodating to dietary idiosyncrasies — no red meat? No eggs? No dairy? No problem. And very patient as you linger well past mealtime. In Vancouver, underground restaurants can’t serve booze (we brought our own bottle of bubbly) and because they can’t technically charge you for your meal, you leave a donation. We left $25 a pop, which makes this one of life’s least expensive luxuries.

P.S. Not only was Erika Renfrew one of the best interns I’ve ever had, she’s also one of the sweetest — take a peek at the article she wrote about yours truly. Thanks again, Erika!

May 7, 2012 by

Beauty | AG Hair

What do these images have to do with hair? (Aside from that mermaid’s sick Marge Simpson ‘do?) They inspire my favourite kind of hairstyle: go to the beach, let your salty hair air dry into messy sea witch locks. And then put on tons of jewelry to distract people.

Also, they’re part of AG Hair’s feature on yours truly. You’ll find it, along with a few confessions about my high school crush, addictions and desire to time travel, riiiiiight here.

Thanks for having me, AG!

May 3, 2012 by

Style | Spring Trends on Breakfast Television

When you do morning television your day starts early. Like, really early. At that time of the morning when only hardcore joggers — you know, the ones who lace up their running shoes before dawn — are up.

I’ve never been one of those joggers, but with a heckuva lot of coffee, I can be one of those morning people.

I did Breakfast Television for Vitamin Daily the other day and talked spring trends at Old Navy (the outfit pictured), Gap and Banana Republic. Think lots of fun, summeriffic colours, even for gentlemen.

And me. My silk top and lace skirt are from Banana Republic.

My shoes are Elizabeth and James.

If you were out jogging and missed the clip, you can watch it riiiiiiiiight here.

Thanks for having me, Breakfast Television! And thanks again Banana Republic, Gap, Old Navy, Tara Parker Tait, Vitamin Daily, Michelle and Laura!

May 3, 2012 by

Style | Prepping for Breakfast Television

Bright and early tomorrow morning I’ll be on Breakfast Television Vancouver talking trends from Banana Republic, Gap and Old Navy. Which means today I got my style on. Those are raspberry shirts I’m leafing through, gentlemen. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Then be sure to catch my segment Tuesday morning at 8:20.

Thanks, Michelle, for snapping that photo!

April 30, 2012 by

Style | Hosting JNBY’s Anniversary Party

Mad bonus points if you can guess what I wore to host JNBY‘s third anniversary party last night.

Orange you glad you said JNBY? Obvi I’m wearing it head to thigh. Not JNBY? My eel-skin clutch, which is vintage, my ring, which is from the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, my bright blue nail polish, which is Slapper by Butter London (courtesy of Nail Polish Canada), and my gold cuff, which I’ve had for so long I don’t even remember where I found it. I do remember last night being a heckuva lot of fun, though. It was so great to see all your beautiful faces!

[Thanks to my sister Larissa for snapping this picture!]

P.S. Even madder bonus points if you follow @TheAnthology on Twitter.

April 27, 2012 by

Style | Inside Vancouver’s new J.Crew with Design Directors Tom Mora and Frank Muytjens

Funny that there hasn’t been a J.Crew store in Vancouver until now. The New York-based brand’s dressy/casual approach to basics seems right at home on Canada’s west coast.

“It never feels too dressy or over done,” says Tom Mora, Vice President of Women’s Design (pictured on the left). “And that meshes with Vancouver’s aesthetic. I mean, look at you, you’re wearing a tailored jacket with a t-shirt underneath.”

Good point.

Before J.Crew opened its Robson Street doors I got a peek at the two-floored space filled with cashmere sweaters, pencil skirts and button-up shirts. Though the basics may be the basics, this isn’t your mother’s J.Crew. If you’ve been following the brand’s trajectory – or if you’ve seen how they’ve styled their lookbooks in recent years – you’ve noticed a dramatic shift away from plain-old preppy, which is in no small part due to the vision of J.Crew creative director Jenna Lyons.

Lyon’s laid-back luxe style has made her every fashion girl’s girl crush and a source of inspiration for Mora. “Between Jenna and my designers, I’m lucky to work with beautiful, stylish women,” he says. “We’re a company where people walk around in sequins in the middle of the day.”

The Vancouver store is the second J.Crew location in Canada (the first opened in Toronto last August) and the first to carry menswear.

Frank Muytjens, head of men’s design, describes the J.Crew man as fashion-conscious but not too trendy. “Men don’t like change too much so we take smaller steps than we would with women’s,” he says.

“You need to be persistent and consistent with menswear; you need to show a piece many times before [the customer] is comfortable with it.”

Speaking of comfort, a style staple of the Great White North has been given Muytjens’s blessing. “It’s perfectly acceptable to wear denim on denim,” he says. Good news for the Canadian tuxedo.

J.Crew is now open in Vancouver at 1088 Robson Street.

[Thanks, Little Fashionisto, for snapping that second photo!]

P.S. Like The Anthology on Facebook.

April 25, 2012 by

Style | Jeff Garner’s Prophetik

Jeff Garner may look the part of Australian surfer dude (a role he once played in a Barbie commercial, no less), but he is every bit the Southern gentleman — all charm and chattiness, even in the middle of a model fitting. The man behind Prophetik, a sustainable, organic design house, Garner grew up on a horse farm in Franklin, Tennessee; the same farm he now lives on when he’s not dressing celebrities in LA, showing at London Fashion Week or headlining Eco Fashion Week in Vancouver.

Garner has been in the fashion world for nearly a decade, but truly captured the attention of editors and fashion fans this spring when he dressed Esperanza Spalding for the Oscar red carpet. His silver-blue gown earned the singer a spot on Vogue’s Top 10 best dressed list alongside a Tom Ford-clad Gwyneth Paltrow and a Louis Vuitton-wearing Michelle Williams.

“That was an unforeseen blessing – to be an unknown brand on a newly recognized artist,” he said. “We were the underdogs in that running.”

How did the designer go from horseshoes to Hollywood? Instead of following in his family’s military footsteps and accepting a full-ride scholarship to West Point Academy, Garner packed up his Jeep, drove to LA and dove right into all things sartorial, only to discover it wasn’t what he thought it would be.

“I realized very quickly that I myself didn’t even want to go into some of the places in which we were dying and cutting and sewing,” he said. “It was just nasty – the place itself, the working conditions, the way people were treated – and I came out of there with a feeling that I didn’t want to be a part of this.”

“I either had to stop doing what I loved or I had to do it another way.”

He chose the latter.

Treating eco-friendly fabrics like hemp with organic dyes, Garner creates sustainable fashion which he shows in theatrical style on runways the world over. Live music figures prominently in his shows, as it does in his life — he’s dressed the likes of Miley Cyrus, Kings of Leon and Jonas Brothers and grew up surrounded by friends in Nashville’s music industry.

“My buddies and I used to sit around in guitar circles and jam and write songs. When they asked me to be in a band I said No way, but I’ll dress you. And that’s how it all began.”

Jeff Garner’s Prophetik headlines Eco Fashion Week in Vancouver tonight. On Sunday, April 15th, his newest collection will be available on eBay.ca as part of a Green Option. And yes, that includes the dress he created for Esperanza Spalding for the Oscars.

P.S. In case you missed it, you’ll find Eco Fashion Week’s lovely little feature on The Anthology riiiiiiiight here.

April 11, 2012 by

Art & Design | Angela Grossmann’s The Future is Female

When I reached Angela Grossmann in her studio to interview her for a piece in Vitamin Daily she apologized for putting me on hold while she removed her gloves.

“I’m always working,” she said.

The prolific Vancouver-based painter’s latest show The Future is Female is a study in being studied. It captures – in soft-coloured pieces and more aggressive-looking collages – women in private, sometimes awkward moments.

“We are always being looked at,” she said of the fairer sex. “We can’t see ourselves outside of the influences of being looked at our whole lives, even when we’re alone.”

The Future is Female finds beauty in less-than-glamourous moments like getting dressed. In it, Grossmann uses the female form as subject matter in a way that only a woman could.

“I feel tectonic plates shifting in the art world. Some of the best artists right now are women.” Among them are Marina Abramović and Cindy Sherman, whom Grossmann says “Mark a real movement towards women-centred ideas.” Funny, I’d say the same about her.

The Future is Female is at Vancouver’s Winsor Gallery until May 6, 2012.

[Image: Angela Grossmann’s Cinnabar Twist from Winsor Gallery.]

April 9, 2012 by