LIFE&STYLE THE MARCH ISSUE

BLOGGER/DIY NIGHT

DATE Friday, March 8TIME 7:30pmLOCATION UCC 60

In recent years, nothing has affected the fashion industry more than fashion blogging. Never before have we seen previously unknown fashionistas shooting to fame on the tails of their vintage grandma style, snarky but honest comments, or keen eye for street style. Living in a time where blogging has become a legitimate career, blogs are a dime a dozen—but don’t let that discourage you from staking your claim. On March 8, Kira from The Walk on the Streets (www.thewalkonthestreets.com) will talk to F&LS about what it’s like to find your own voice and how you can develop a strong online brand. She will be ready to answer any questions you have about starting your own blog, so take some time to come out and find a bit of inspiration! While you might not become the next Tavi Gevinson, there’s nothing stopping you from sitting beside her next time Fashion Week comes around.

To end the day, Kennedy, F&LS’s own VP Marketing, will be hosting a DIY tutorial. With her fabulously unique sense of style, you can be sure to learn a little something about spicing up your typical everyday outfit.

EVENTS

THE FASHION & LIFESTYLE SOCIETY’S

Article by Angelica Ng

SPRING TRENDSSarah McLean shows us what’s in season

SPRING TRENDSSarah McLean shows us what’s in season

A new and friendly fashion trend is emerging this spring, and you will not be able to resist updating your wardrobe.

Clothing produced from natural and eco-friendly fabrics has been growing in Southern Ontario, and is becoming a fashion statement for Spring 2013. Green clothing is not only an important component of an evolving wardrobe, but it is also a natural, environment-friendly option. Fabrics are disposable and not processed, which give Ontario fashionstas and the environment a break from cheap, unrecyclable, and unnatural fabrics.

Organic cotton, silk, bamboo, recycled polyester, lyocell, soy fabrics, hemp, cashmere, linen, alpaca, and ingeo are only some of the natural fabrics that create sustainable fashion pieces.

With all these new and natural fabrics, regular fashion is an old fad.

Sustainable fashion is unlike regular fashion, mostly because it is not produced from cheap and processed fabrics. Sustainable fashion respects the environment and it works hard to create social change. If you want to be aware of where your clothing comes from, who makes it, and what it’s processed with, I recommend you update your wardrobe with eco-friendly fashion pieces (and get to know more about eco-friendly fashion designers and shops)!

Cassandra Giugno shows us where to buy and how to wear green clothing

RECYCLED STYLE GUIDE

Photography by Peter Jensen at Vancouver’s Eco Fashion Week 2012

Awear Eco-Boutique143 Hurontario StreetCollingwood, Ontario

Preloved881 Queen Street West

Toronto, Ontario

Thieves1156 Queen Street West

Toronto, Ontario

Green Tree Eco Fashion358 Richmond Road

Ottawa, Ontario

LululemonAn organic clothing brand is sold at Lululemon called “Oqoqo.” The brand

uses boolux (bamboo), soy, hemp, and other organic materials to create jeans, tees, and chic sweaters.

Masonville Mall (1680 Richmond Street North)London, Ontario

Get to know where you can find sustainable fashion in Ontario:

Lur Apparelwww.lurapparel.com

Mulierosewww.mulierose.ca

Nixxiwww.nixxi.ca

Not Just Prettywww.notjustpretty.com

Not sure how to put together a trendy, chic, and eco-friendly outfit? Canadian eco-fashion designer, Melissa Ferreira, designs unique and colourful pieces. Her website will definitely spark outfit-making inspiration (for both guys and girls)! She displays shoots from her fashion shows and all collections from year 2007 to 2013.

Visit her website at: www.adhesifclothing.com Online shop: www.etsy.com/shop/adhesif

Would you rather shop online? Check out these amazing onlineeco-fashion boutiques:

THIS ISSUE’S CONTRIBUTORS

MANAGING DIRECTORS Shivani Patel, Angelica NgLAYOUT EDITOR Joyce YuTEXT EDITORS Teresa Harris, Cassanda Giugno, Joyce YuCONTRIBUTORS Cassandra Giugno, Dana El-Tawil, Sarah McLean, Angelica Ng

QUESTIONS? CONCERNS?INTERESTED IN CONTRIBUTING

TO LIFE&STYLE?

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Life&Style is the UWO Fashion & Lifestyle Society’s monthly newsletter. It highlights club events and happenings, fashion news, trends, and more!

Dana El-Tawil examines fashion’s widening scope, and offers up her take on the latest collections.

Is fashion week losing its exclusivity?

In an age saturated by a plethora of opinions in an endless domain, there is a profound need to sift out legitimate critical commentary from aimless rambling. With commentary that lack foundation and filter, I’m left thinking: when did this become such a crazy, sensational series of events? When did Fashion Week start to feel like Swedish House Mafia’s worldwide ‘One Last Tour’?

Whose opinion is even credible anymore?

Once upon a time, the general public had absolutely no idea what happened on the runway. There was no need for those outside of the industry to see garments, pre-production. But then came along the Internet, Twitter, and Instagram, and all of a sudden invites were passed out like pamphlets on the street corner.

Wait a minute, who even needs invites?!

When every stitch, inch and weave of a garment is photographed from every angle and posted online, fashion is ultimately presented to us directly in our homes. It almost echoes Andy Warhol’s conception of being “the type who’d be happy not going anywhere as long as I was sure I knew exactly what was happening at the places I wasn’t going to. I’m the type who’d like to sit home and watch every party that I’m invited to on a monitor in my bedroom.” Is this democratization of fashion and loss of exclusivity a good or bad thing? It’s a pressing issue that leaves you pacing your room perplexed (well, not really, but you get the idea).

I think what’s more intriguing than the shows themselves is the logistics of the seating charts, where multitudes of bloggers overtake the scene. Now don’t get me wrong; young, fresh, and innovative bloggers are very much at the forefront of the industry, but there are only so many “Man Repellers” the guest list will extend to. There seems to be a host of self-proclaimed “style experts” who attribute everything they know to hours spent reviewing other blogs, regurgitating others’ styles and producing more of the same.

The fashion industry is still, for all intents and purposes, a business; however, it is also a medium of cultural expression and more so in the current century than ever before. Fashion has always had a history of following social and political trends. The politics of fashion now indicate that there is a widening gap between the front row and “everyone else”. Acting as a clear reflection of the current economic climate, it seems as though a “middle class” ceases to exist in the industry.

To conclude something not so brief in a brief manner, with the emergence of the net, things are being posted in real time, the runway comes fresh to our screens, and we can now live stream Marc Jacobs’ NYFW collection and distribute our commentary (desired or not) by flooding public spheres with hashtags almost instantaneously.

Whether this democratization of fashion is a positive or negative thing is up for debate and a contentious issue amongst many in the industry, but what can be noted is that it does exist and many are embracing the change that is blanketing over the entire fashion culture. Going back to the notion that fashion is essentially a business, even something such as street-style, which is a democratic form of bringing to the spotlight the style of real women in their rawest form, has now become commodified and branded (The Sartorialist, anyone?). Although it is a challenge, and quite a difficult one for that matter, to produce unique, characterized material for blogs, everyone strives to sculpt themselves and make a personality out of something that will define them.

So let’s get real. You don’t need to be present at a fashion show to know every detail about it. Some see this plethora of commentary as mere clutter, while others see it as empowering for the industry. Either way, is the desperation for that invite to Rag&Bone, or causing a scene at the front door in some quirky outfit hoping to catch the eye of someone and end up on some insignificant street-style blog really worth that seven minute presentation of clothing you’ll never wear or afford? Consensus says unless the red bottoms of your 120mm un bout PVC Louboutin pumps can be seen front row, then probably not.

Built on concrete foundations, the urban warriors of NYC were blizzard proof and took on the city in full fur force. I particularly appreciated BCBG Max Azria, who indirectly (possibly directly) paid homage to Mr. Marley only a day after his birthday with chic cashmere beanies hitting the runway. Across the board, designers took on the chill-factor and showcased fur-lined coats and pretty parkas, from Jason Wu’s rich shade of caramel to Yigal Azrouël’s warrior army-green coat. Having said that, let’s expand on the former. Jason Wu wowed with a controlled palette of black and white, a trend we’ve seen Beyoncé embrace in her recent Vogue cover and Grammy’s outfit. But let’s not ignore the elephant in the room: his massive chandelier was visually distracting, and on that note, so too was the oversized orange moon at Marc Jacobs. Oh, Jacobs, how could I forget? The overwhelming orange glow at the beginning of the show muted the otherwise bold prints that were used. Overall, I thought there were some unconventional touches to the week, but also an evident appreciation for practicality. As a closing remark, Cara Delevigne is to the fashion world right now what Queen B was to the Super Bowl. Delevigne walked down every show in triumph like she owned it with those piercing eyes, fiercely dark eyebrows, and infamously flared nostrils.

For something closer to home, mark your calendars for Toronto Fashion Week, which will descend on the city March 18 – March 22. Preview the Fall/Winter 2013 collections from both Canada’s emerging talent and established designers. Show your support, ladies and gentlemen!

Dana’s Hits and Misses of New York Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2013 Ready-to-Wear

In addition to the freezing temperatures, absurd amounts of snow, and ever-dreaded midterm exams, February saddles students with a responsibility most of us haven’t yet faced before coming to Western: finding a place of our own to live. We know the basics; for example, we know that we’ll be paying some kind of rent, basic bills (utilities), and would like to be relatively close to campus (and, ideally, downtown). The process becomes more confusing when buzz words like “modern”, “spacious,” and “exclusive” get thrown into the mix, and we often don’t know a good deal from a bad one. That’s where services like London Property Corp, the largest provider of off-campus student housing in London, can step in to help.

Teaming up with an established housing provider like London Property Corp ensures that you’ll be taken care of every step of the way by a professional agent who cares about your comfort and ease of mind. With units close to campus from every direction, London Property Corp offers extremely modern apartments and townhouses for groups as small as 2 to as large as 6. These updated units are equipped with spacious bedrooms, huge closets (!!), 5 appliances (including dishwashers and in-unit laundry) and social gathering-friendly kitchen islands with barstools. Amenities like free parking, grass cutting, snow removal, and full-time property management are all included, making your stay stress-free.

If it all sounds too good to be true, visit www.londonprop.com for more proof, and book a tour—with over 90% of their units already rented, and no new ones to come available, London Property Corp is eager to see you and your group ASAP. With so many housing horror stories floating around Western’s off-campus communities (mice, mould, and flies, oh my!) it’s worth renting with a company that can provide you with peace of mind. Plus, we’ve seen the units—they most definitely earn a Fashion & Lifestyle Society stylish seal of approval.

Article by Teresa Harris

LIFESTYLE: STUDENT HOUSING

MEET THE TEAM

Favourite designer?I’ll spare you the Karl over-infatuation (although he’s fab), Marc Jacobs because well, what’s not to love?

Favourite label?Balmain! Weaving power into the very fibres of haute couture. Each piece is fierce yet delicate, detailed yet sheer simplicity, intricately embroidered yet timeless and because I can’t get thatF/W12 embroidered velvet jacket out of my mind.

Fave fashion accessory?I advocate the concept of accessorized minimalism. My favorite fashion accessory is a statement necklace, it’s a testament to the fact that accessories can change your entire outfit. A luxe timepiece and pearl earrings are my everyday go-tos.

Worst thing you’ve ever eaten?Eel... not a fan.

NAME Dana El-TawilYEAR Third yearMAJOR Honors Specialization in Political Science with a Certificate as an analyst and opinionator on the fashion realm

Get to know a little bit more about one of our contributors...