Baby, It's Cold Outside

Yes my Bunnies, it's that time of year again I'm afraid. The time of year when we bid a tearful goodbye to Chic Fall Layering and say hello to its cousin Wacky Winter Bundling. It can a be confusing and painful time but it need not be ugly! To get through it we must act in the way that we would when our own crazy cousin comes to town uninvited; cringe a little on the inside, briefly consider an escape route and then slap on a smile and act as if we're loving it.

It was a downright nippy day on Queen West when I took this photo. My hands may have been like ice but my heart warmed when I spotted the likes of Jillian walking to work in her wintery best. This outfit is such a gloriously rad collision of prints, textures and shapes. Girlfriend's look is seriously on fire.

I'm just two ticks away from renaming this blog www.I Bought My Outfit at Value Village.com/ And I Still Look Better Than Ya'll. Jill's fabulous printed jacket, lace-up booties and toasty leopard- print earmuffs were all found at the VV. Her skinny black jeans come courtesy of American Apparel and her scarf is straight-up Burberry! Shopping second hand is not only an avenue of style for Jillian but also part a personal philosophy. She feels that plenty of clothes and things exist already in our world and tries to recycles the best of the old when possible rather than always going in for the new! To this I say: Rock On!!

P.S. Earmuffs are Back!!!

A for Ainslie, I for Inspire

One of the things I love about this city (and this life) is that sometimes out of the gray comes something so fresh and beautiful that you can't help but feel inspired. And Darlings, I'm not talking about the Starbucks gingerbread latte (so maybe I am, a little bit). No, I'm talking about this deliciously coordinated ensemble that makes me want to turn my face skyward and say 'thank you fashion Gods, thank you!'

Ainslie was out talking, walking and sipping coffee with her friend Jessica (please see post below) in the Annex when I stopped her to ask just how she came to look so cool. Her answer dear friends, may surprise you too. She came to look this way by scouring the racks at her trusty neighbourhood Value Village to find this sweet striped top, great mini skirt, and killer lace up shoes. She threw on a sassy belt from Zara, a wonderful tube scarf from H&M (one of which I'll have to pick up ASAP) and topped it all off with a glorious red vintage London Fog coat!

We may not all have such a great eye for pulling a look from vintage threads (don't I wish), but darn it, we can still try! Ainslie, your name is tricky to spell, but your outfit is simply w-i-c-k-e-d!

Red Is Best.

Kathy Stinson once said: Red Is Best, and honey, it still is! It's the colour of rage, the colour of love, and the colour that brightened up an otherwise dull day in October when it came walking towards me in cardigan form. I found Sam doing some vegetable shopping in Kensington Market the day after Nuit Blanche. This OCAD student had been up all night participating in a group performance piece and was probably looking to blend in with the peppers, but I couldn’t miss him!

In this outfit Sam manages to look both cozy and hip with a little dash of sexy, a tough combo I've been trying to pull off for the last decade. Inspired by interesting colour and shape he works the look in his fave sweater (from Value Village) in his fave shade, natch. The scarf was stolen from mom, and the trench was stolen from a friend's ex boyfriend (and that's where all of our best clothes come from, no?). The jeans are Levi's with a self styled rip and the shoes are Adidas with killer gold details. Since we're on to details, a special shout out goes to Sam's rad hair, recently cut at W on Queen St. Wicked.