Lida Baday

Lida Baday is a Canadian fashion icon, much beloved by your average Holt Renfrew shopper, but a virtual unknown to the Under-30's.  She's been running her own label since 1987, which is about as long as I've been sucking in air and expelling CO2.

Above and below are some looks from recent spring shows.  Very minimal, in a Costa-era Calvin Klein way.  Everything is clean, spare, and monochromatic (which isn't meant to read as "boring", but does to us more experimental youngsters).

I can see why office-appropriate Baday isn't a strong seller to the girls who shell out bigger and bigger bucks the higher the hemline travels.  Cocktail dresses are now like fine dining, in that the more you spend the less you seem to get.  I, too, thought I needed a party dress with a little bit of Zazz! to it: gotta show off those adductor muscles, otherwise what's all that bike riding for, my health?

Then, I found this demure navy number at Value Village (which I say in a Pepe le Pew voice so it sounds like a French Boutique.  Hope you do too.)

The picture doesn't do it justice, although the wrinkles really do look defined.
It's incredible.  I still feel like I stole the darn thing since I got it for $6.99.  Whichever V-squared peon priced it clearly didn't know what it was; the wretched Old Navy apron dresses were running you $7.99. 

The cut is meticulous and the fabric is high quality.  Even the lining is so silky, I just want to rub it on my face.

The construction is 'just so'.  Corsetted bodice/cap sleeve combo is super flattering.

Best part = whoever this Lida Baday woman is, she must be cutting on a dress model that is shaped exactly like me!  It fits so well it's almost creepy.  I am now her biggest fan.  Must.  Buy.  More.  Baday.

Dion Lee

My friend, The Gazelle, went on a 6 month holiday to Australia and came back two and half years later (with a tall drink of water who sounds a lot like Crocodile Dundee, btw).  There must be something in the air down there.  Time moves slower, skies are bluer, and everyone is tanned and happy.

You may be able to tell I've never actually been where women glow and men plunder. 

My concept of Australian culture has been formed largely through too much coverage of the Sydney Olympics and too many eBay orders from the likes of Alice McCall, Karen Walker, and Sass & Bide.  The fashion scene down there bolsters my generalization - they wear pastel playsuits and slinky minidresses... in broad daylight... without a scoatch of irony.  There are maybe two weeks out of the year that I feel beachy-cool enough to wear my Lover dress out of the house.  And even then, I'm double-bagging with the Spanx.

The Aussie girls look fun and fearless, reaping cuter designer collaborations than the comparable American ranges available at Kohl's and Target.  Stella McCartney has done two (2007 and 2010) Australian Target lines.  Both were fresh, without being overly trendy, and thus highly coveted:

USA-Target's most recent collab was with William Rast, the barely legitimate label founded by Justin Timberlake.  The company makes jeans, hoodies, and T-shirts but was somehow still able to water their 'designs' down for Target consumers.  It's hard to fault ol' JT, though.  Even the fabulousity of my beloved Zac Posen didn't translate so well into poly-rayon blends and mass production.  Maybe there's a reason that these designers' target demographic isn't, well, Target.

The conclusion I draw: designer-conceptualized minidresses and casual separates fit snugly into the Australian aesthetic. In the States, not so much.

Dion Lee and one of his designs.

Enter Dion Lee, who won the 2010 L'oreal prize at the Melbourne Fashion Festival.  He does a slightly more grown-up take on the typical short/bright/tight Aussie fare.  The look is still spirited and funky, but in a far more wearable way.

His pieces capture the nonchalance typical of Australian design, but contrast that ease with severe shapes and a graphic palette of black, white, and robin's egg blue.  His most outstanding items look carved, sculpted:

I have been stalking this cut out blazer online for months, but it's hard to find and retails between $350-$600.
Some day, my pretty.

The closest Australia has come to a pond-hopping designer is probably Collette Dinnigan.  Perhaps Lee is poised to make the leap.  So far his collections are small in scope, but extremely well-done.  I'm betting they're marketable too.  

Where to buy Dion Lee?  Even Net-a-porter carries only a few pieces.

An airline ticket to Australia is a $2000 touch, so I think it's about time to start flying some of Lee's

sharp cut out jackets and knife-pleated dresses up here.

leather shorts, Rorschach tee, sheer-back blazer all Dion Lee

Nitty Gritty Dirt Brand

I've always wondered about Nudie jeans, the popular raw (untreated) denim brand.  I know styles range from $150-$600 and have been gaining popularity with fashion-savvy dudes for the past few years (see also: Canadian brand Naked & Famous). The emo hipsters in my painting class would constantly preach their no-wash virtues like you would praise a growing child.

and the Nudie website serves up lots more new-agey BS::
     "Use your dry jeans as much as possible before the first wash. Six months is a good start. A pair of jeans
     is like a second skin where the indigo and denim are living materials. Jeans is all about passion and deep
     relationship – the more you wear and treat your jeans, the more beautiful they get. Your everyday life
     gives the denim its unique character, formed by you into a second skin – personal and naked."

They're not jeans, they're a journey!

Well, a University of Alberta student has taken the Nudie "six month start" and turned it into an experiment in human ecology.  Josh Le, 20, has been wearing the same pair of Nudies for the past 15 months. He wore them nearly every day, including one month of 24-hour wear to "really let the sweat shape the creases".


--What about stains, you ask?  Wipe them with a paper towel and carry on.

--What about the smell, pray tell? Le would hang the jeans up overnight to aerate.  After a family trip to California he was forced to triple-bag them and stash them in the freezer.

--What about bacteria, you say?  Le and his surpervising professor swabbed the jeans at the end of the 15-month wear and then compared the skin flora to that of freshly washed jeans - no difference.

Josh Le walks the halls of The UofA, Nudie clad.

So, can you wear the same pair of jeans for 15 months straight without washing them and remain free from harmful bacteria?  Looks like you can.  Should you?  Well, all the raw denim geeks will think you are righteous and soulful; everyone else will think you're homeless.

It's (Not Just) In The Bag - Rebecca Minkoff

Rebecca Minkoff Spring 2011

Rebecca Minkoff, the woman who names her bags things like "The Morning After" (satchel), "Fling" (bedecked clutch), and "Paper or Plastic" (folding wallet) now makes appropriately hip and cheeky clothes.

Isabel Marant and Rachel Comey are the reigning queens of French girl chic, ... but I love the creative 9-5 style that Minkoff is going for.  She's definitely in their territory, and at a far fairer price point. 

the eponymous designer

Her first ready-to-wear collection came out in 2009; limited, but edgy and cool, with enough mini-dresses to ensnare a few Hollywood starlets.

'Claudia' dress $310

Paris Hilton in the 'Claudia'

Her bags have been long favoured for their marriage of rock-chic toughness and practical detail.  They're bedecked with rivets and zippers, belying the hyperorganized interior - for girls who date tattooed musicians without checking accounts, yet still want to keep their iPads and lipsticks compartmentalized.

Her clothing is becoming just as synergistic:
Skinny pants for late-night concerts, ruffled silk blouses, demure dresses, and a new shoe line that's predominantly Parisian-girl ankle booties.  Her collection is like a capsule version of that study in contrasts mix.  It's part buttoned-up and wearable, part raw and rebellious.   And it all looks even cooler with rumpled bedhead, which I consider to be a huge plus.


'Victor' zipper sweatshirt $250



'Ilaria' dress $310

'Python' skinny jeans $195



'Sophie' top $200



'Bardot' top $250



'Lindbergh' jacket $495



Silk 'necklace' dress $430



'Serge' suede zipper pants $625



'Tatiana' top $250

Denis Gagnon

  I admit, I am woefully uninformed when it comes to Canadian designers.  I hadn't heard of Denis Gagnon, the bespectacled French Canadian who's been in the business for a decade, until I looked into who designed that zipper dress that's been featured in every October/November fashion rag around:

It's sad that I only take notice of a domestic talent once it's featured in an American glossy, eh?

Like Schiaparelli before him (who is sometimes credited with being the first to put ornamental zippers on gowns), Gagnon is an artist first.  He obviously places a premium on inventiveness, letting the wearability of his garments and commercial viability slide.  This (commendable) approach to the industry had everything to do with his shop closure and restructuring, circa 2007. 

His comeback show (the 'Denise' Collection) was well-received, containing the zippered and fringed dresses that have been given prominent placement in recent spreads and editorials.  While his trademark is leather, artfully swirled, pieced, and puckered...

his new vision also includes bias knits, chunky pendants with matching silver cuffs, and the interplay of heavy fringes/zippers with light silks and softly slanting hems.

His show is a striking study in comparison and contrasts, made all the more cohesive and involving for it.  The pieced-together leather pants reference the concentric swirls of zippers that form the neckline of a layered chiffon dress.  Articulated elbows could look like knight's armour, if they weren't accompanied by similarly structured sweater dresses that are tucked and folded just so.  As a layperson who doesn't always 'get' the concept of a runway show, I adore how precise and focused Gagnon's work is.  He has a vision, and he's letting us take a peek at it.

I would recommend Gagnon to fans of Rick Owens, Martin Mariela, Haider Ackerman, Gareth Pugh, and Mark Fast.  They all share that kind of brooding, somewhat gothic, romantic, and razor-sharp intensity.  Back in August, Gagnon did a cheap-chic line with retailer Bedo that was all those things.  The severe, all-black collection showed his signature leatherwork, eye for detail, and edgy aesthetic.

While I'm stoked to see a great Canadian talent experiencing a bona fide comeback, I hope this collaboration is a one-off and not the seeds of future commercial cow-towing.  It's clear to me that Denis Gagnon creates works of art that just happen to be clothes.  I would hate to see these beautiful means unto themselves weaken and become mere means to some profit-motivated end.

Fringe

Zippers

Stripes

Sheepskin Showdown

I've always had a bit of a hate-on for Uggs and their wearers.  Mostly, it's that zombie-like foot dragging teenage girls do down mall corridors and crowded sidewalks.  The swooshing, scraping, sheepskin shuffle.  For the love, pick up your feet!



photo credit: Stephen Lewis

I get it.  They are one of those products, discovered by niche groups for utility and comfort, then adopted by the fashion set, somewhat ironically.  Skater punks wore Converse OneStars and nurses wore Crocs.  Australian surfers wore generic twinfaced sheepskin boots, bought at corner stores and gas stations.  Now, they're ubiquitous.

Etymological legend says that 'uggs' or 'fugs' began as shorthand to describe the knee-high sheepskin boots Aussie pilots wore in WWI... you need your Flying Uggs in that unpressurized cockpit, Mate!  Shoe companies have been using the 'Ugg' title ever since (see: 1930's company Blue Mountain Ugg Boots).

Now, we say UGG like we say KLEENEX, the registered trademark has transcended brand status, coming to identify the entire genus albeit but one species.

But it's been an uneasy and litigious rise:

• "In the process of transforming an item of utilitarian footwear into a ubiquitous fashion icon, UGG’s corporate parent, Deckers Outdoor Corporation—an American conglomerate selling an Australian sheepskin product manufactured in China—sparked an acrimonious international trademark dispute that ensnared politicians, reshaped fashion and hobbled a national industry in order to shape a global one." (Wall Street Journal online, Sept 9 2010)

Deckers, the American company that bought Uggs in 1995, has aggressively hunted the competition through:

• trademark infringement lawsuits (ie: against rival sheepskin boot company Koolaburra),
• fraudulent eBay auction pogroms,

Fake Uggs -->

SiteJabber estimates they are the most counterfeited brand of 2010,

topping the list just above Coach, Tiffany's, Louboutins, and sports jerseys.

• cease and desist campaigns against the cottage industry boot companies that showed fledgling international sales (most famously, the McDougall family 'Uggs-n-Rugs' which lives on here!) 

Uggs is in the news again, with the recent filing of a trademark infringement lawsuit against Emu Australia.  The Wall Street Journal reports that the California suit alleges Emu is misleading consumers:  In response, Emu Australia's Dave Porter:

• “The... law suit makes us laugh down here in Australia. What does the word “Australia” convey to consumers as part of the Ugg® Australia trademark?  Customers do care about trust and true brand heritage...they are also smart! Eventually the truth about these brands that try to leverage off Australia will become widely known; that they are not in fact genuinely Australian.”

According to the same Wall Street Journal article, Deckers reported a 25% third-quarter profit, record international sales, and an improved margin.  The brass claims this is due to "more compelling products and a wider consumer audience".  I have to balk at this, since Ugg boots are as recognizable as the Christian Louboutin red sole, and their appeal has little to do with expanding product lines or converting untapped markets.  They are a one-note brand.  In my opinion, Uggs owes their meteoric rise and freakish staying power to the cult of celebrity.  They have been long-favored by stylists and their big-name clients as in-between takes footwear:

Pammy Anderson, on the set of Baywatch

Of course, teenagers mimic their idols, especially if the slippers being sported have an inaccessible $175 price tag... then they MUST be good!  Oprah's gave them her regal seal of approval when she chose them as one of her Favorite Things in 2000.  Kate Moss wears them at Glastonbury, SJP drops her kids off at school in them.  It's impossible to open a People Magazine and NOT see them nowadays.

Uggs is now the high school mean girl, so popular and powerful that she doesn't need your approval anymore.  But... I'm sensing the inevitable backlash, cafeteria revolt, and regime change.  Uggs corporate stance presumes there are only two kinds of people who don't do the sheepskin shuffle: those who can't afford $180 boots and those who just haven't bought a pair... YET.  This we-don't-need-your-business-but-we'll-take-your-money attitude is particularly dangerous for a company that proffers a utilitarian item, steeped in heritage.  Suing Australian companies for manufacturing their traditional footwear looks ugly on an American company that does all their work in Economic Processing Zones like China.  This Goliath just keeps kicking David while he's down, and it's distasteful enough to turn non-Ugg wearers like myself into Ugg-boycotters.

So good luck in court, Emu.

I can't imagine Emu Australia's advocates needing to say anything other than this:

Take a look inside, not even the company, but the boot itself.

Emu Australia, Made in Australia

Uggs, Made in China.

Find great AUSTRALIAN brands at NatureShop: Love From Australia, Emu