Marleys and Me

The lovely Donisha Prendergast and me

Here I am with the lovely Donisha Prendergast , who just happens to be the eldest grandchild of Bob Marley, a responsibility she takes very seriously. “What it means to be a Marley is that you must push on,” says Prendergast. “you have to continue that legacy.”

Prendergast’s contribution won’t be another reggae album, but a documentary film called Rasta: A Soul’s Journey she has just spent the last eight years traveling the world (India, South Africa, Ethiopia, Israel) shooting with Jamaican Canadian filmmaker Patrica  Scarlett that will have its premiere at the Royal Ontario Museum here in Toronto in February 2012. The film is intended to spread the word of  Marley’s faith of Rastafarianism, to continue, what Prendergast describes as her grandfather’s “legacy, not as a muisical artist, but a man.”

“I’m a child of reggae,” says Prendergast. “I’m doing good with ‘One Love’ as my mission.”

To that I say, Irie.

Views of Amalfi

Stone and sea

Just back from a magical, if lightning-quick trip to the Amalfi coast, which was blissfully sunny and warm for October. Our white-coated waiter told us we were enjoying the warmest October they’d seen in 150 years. Off season, it felt like we were travellers in another, quieter, more elegant era–a feeling made more acute in the wonderfully ’50s Italian vibe of Amalfi.

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Layering’s Newest Wrinkle

Jewelry designer Jane Apor lives to layer

Fall is greeted with enthusiasm by fashion types not only because the stores and magazines are thick with fabulous new clothes, but because the arrival of cooler weather means that you get to pile them on in layers. Judging from store mannequins the logic seems to be, why wear just one blouse, when you can layer a t-shirt, tissue weight sweater, cropped jacket, a tangle of chains and a wound-up scarf underneath and over it? Continue reading…

How eco-spin ruined my park

Sir Winston Churchill park, despoiled

In Beijing, people start their day with aerobics, tai chi or ballroom dancing in the public gardens of the Temple of Heaven. In London, they enjoy an invigorating morning stroll under the green elms of Hyde Park. In the public parks of Paris, or New York, school children sail pretty little wooden boats on ponds, artists stage inventive, caravan-style puppet shows and everyone takes in the scene from elegant, wrought-iron benches and chairs. These are the benefits of green spaces in the world’s great cities: the grandeur of well-planned and maintained urban landscape design on a monumental scale for all to enjoy. In my neighbourhood public space, Sir Winston Churchill park in Toronto, however, the whole grand idealistic enterprise has gone to the dogs.

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McQueen and Melancholy

The beauty of sadness

As of last Wednesday, more than half a million people–many of whom waited in lines of up to two hours, and some who returned for a second visit—will have taken in the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum’s blockbuster “Savage Beauty” show of the work of the late British fashion designer Alexander McQueen. So popular has the show proved with museum visitors that it’s run has been extended twice– an amazing turn of events considering the show is essentially a presentation of clothes on mannequins not entirely unlike what one might see in the windows of a store. As the show wraps up this weekend with extended hours until midnight, it is worth asking: what exactly did people see in it that proved so compelling?

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Chinese take-away

Pingyao in the morning

After three weeks in China, my visual in-box is full!  Here’s some of my impressions of this funky and fabulous land in no particular order.

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The Un-store

The new blank G&T

Check out my story on Grand  Toy’s mysterious re-imagination in today’s Toronto

Star: http://www.thestar.com/living/shopping/article/1001452–von-hahn-image-is-everything-so-grand-toy-sells-nothing

Bubble shoes

Plastic fantastic

Love these completely customisable futuristic booties from Italian designer Gaetano Pesce for the Brazilian footwear manufacturer Melissa. They slip on like a bendable pair of stiff socks. All you need to customise them to your liking is a pair of scissors–although I would take them as is, thank you. Talk about a step into the future.

Kensington Cool

Bangin' Bungalow

Just had to pen an ode to my favourite neighbourhood in town, now the perfect place to spend a sunny Saturday afternoon:

http://www.thestar.com/living/shopping/article/993526–von-hahn-old-school-is-new-again-in-kensington-market

Faux Hill

Disney comes to town

Check out my story in the Star about the questionable taste of the new nouveau riches:

http://www.thestar.com/article/985765–von-hahn-there-s-no-accounting-for-taste-in-forest-hill

‘Nuff said

Worthy Message Tee

when Style becomes a Signature

Karl Lagerfeld has a style signature all his own

Check out my Star column on style as a signature:

http://www.thestar.com/living/fashion/article/982090–von-hahn-when-trendsetters-find-their-look-they-stick-to-it

He Shoots, She Strikes a Pose

When Madeleine met Franco

How cute are our cover model, Madeleine Bloomberg, and our ever-amiable photographer Franco de Leo?

Had to capture the adorable pair before Madeleine jetted off to Sweden after a full day of making fashion magic for the upcoming issue of King West!

Election Test Drive

Which one should we take for a ride?

Check out my Star column this week on the style of the leadership candidates:

http://www.thestar.com/living/fashion/article/977787–von-hahn-if-ignatieff-s-a-volvo-which-car-is-harper

My Dwell Moment

Check out my Dwell moment on Christiane Lemieux’s brilliant blog today:

http://www.dwellstudio.com/blog