Claws Out, Kitty..

Fashion Finds..

www.saboskirt.com

SABO SKIRT is our latest fashion find and what a find it is. We were at a party in Toronto on Sunday when a girl walked in with high-waisted, acid-washed studded shorts (paired with black over-the-knee socks, chunky suede black heels, a crop top, and a Chanel quilted black leather bag). It was a stunning look and the shorts were the trump card. She told us about Sabo Skirt,  an Australian website launched in 2010 with some gorgeous pieces, and their own line launching next month.  

Though it's not an extensive collection yet, and though with shipping costs the prices are a bit higher than ideal,  we highly advise you to check this up-and-coming site out. We love the use of color (the seafoam green wrap shorts reminiscent of Tiffany's, the 60s inspired colored prints of the tops, the edgy gold metallics), the unique twist on classic pieces (check out the leopard cuffs on the white blouse) and especially the breezy, effortless feel that transports you right back to summer..

 

Cover of the Week: Adele x The Cure

In honor of her six Grammy's and 2 BRITs, this week's cover goes to our favorite feisty finger-flipper Adele.

Lovesong

The Original by The Cure

x

The Cover by Adele

Toews vs. Mercer

"The state has no business in the hard drives of the nation." 

Mercer gives a nod to Trudeau in his rant about Safety Minister Vic Toews' controversial online surveillance bill. Toews is quickly learning how fast the intrusive hounds can turn as social media force Anonymous threatens to unleash videos of Toews' own rather messy personal life...

Do unto others as you would have them do to you, Toewsie!

Telling it like it is, Mercer. 

Read more about the impending surveillance bill here. 

Chris Brown x Rihanna

Sherri Shepherd of The View recently defended Chris Brown as being a "role model" for second chances. 

Like many others, she argues that he is reformed. He did his community service work picking up trash. He is also a victim of domestic abuse: as a child he watched his mother being beaten by his father. He deserves the warm welcome at the Grammys because he is a role model to others trying to combat violent, aggressive, and abusive tendencies. 

People argue that it was a long time ago, and that if Rihanna's gotten over it so should we. And gotten over it she has, as she stepped out with him after the Grammys and at her birthday party, and the pair have since released two remixes together. 

I'm sorry, but there is no excuse for what is occurring here. Shame on those who decided Brown was deserving of a Grammy a mere three years after a brutal beatdown. Shame on those who have the audacity to blame young women who tweeted about him rather than the aggressor himself.  For any woman, going back to an abusive relationship is a horrible and disappointing thing, but Rihanna is letting down thousands of young women who want to emulate everything she does. Thousands of teenage girls want to be edgy and tattooed like her, want to dress like her, and now they'll think this idea of a "violent, stormy" relationship is somehow romantic. They'll give their own abusive relationships second chances because Rihanna did. They'll see it as a strength. We've seen this a hundred times - it's the bad-boy winning over the nice guy, magnified and distorted. It's this idea girls get of 'helping' a rough guy, into saving him from himself. Yeah, he's bad news and your family hates him, but you can change him if you stick with him through thick and thin, you can be the only one who believes in him and in return you'll have his undying love. Ride or die, right?

Yes, I believe in second chances. I believe in giving chances to former addicts, former alcoholics. I believe in giving responsibility to those who used to be irresponsible, or lazy, or incompetent, or trusting someone who used to sleep around. However, the difference is that second chances are usually given to those who hurt themselves, not others. Sure, a girl with a DUI is indirectly putting the lives of others in danger. I'm not downplaying the dangers of drug use or alcoholism. However, a warm welcome to someone who set out to aggressively  hurt another - his own girlfriend no less - is not something I agree with. This was not a drunken fist-fight with another dude at a bar. This was an attack on his girlfriend in an enclosed space that she couldn't escape. This was his fists pummeling her face as he spewed out death threats and choked her almost until she lost consciousness. Further, he didn't stop on his own. She got away. There's no telling how far he could have taken it.

Joe Paterno recently died having lost his entire life's work at Penn State. After being at Penn State for 61 years, he was fired for his role in the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal. Paterno was first notified of the alleged abuse in 2002. He reported it to his superiors, and did nothing else. Let's be clear: Paterno was not in any way directly involved in harming or abusing others. He knew this was occurring and when he saw nothing being done about it, he failed to act. Yes, this is a wrong and terrible thing. However, he didn't directly beat someone's face in. Sixty-one years of love, commitment, and dedication, gone in an instant. Yet Chris Brown can directly beat the hell out of a young woman and three years later is receiving the most coveted award in modern music??

Something is very wrong here, and I feel very sorry for you if you can't see that. 

Our Mountain x Abbey Lee

We love our girl Abbey Lee Kershaw both on the catwalks and on the street...

Now we can love her on stage, too.

Check out her band Our Mountain.

On the Rise: The Audition

Ah, the audition. The moment of make or break, do or die. All eyes on you, critiquing, judging, whispers behind hands, head nods, head shakes. You are a specimen under a lens, vying for your fifteen minutes against hundreds of other hopefuls. 

And the best part? It's all on tape. 

Audition tapes are one of my favorite things to watch because you see actors in an environment you aren't used to seeing them in. We're familiar with these faces only once they've become celebrities - the red-carpet gowns, the aviators and five o'clock shadows as the paparazzi catches them jaunting around NYC or cruising through LA. The audition tape shows you prepubescent faces wracked with nerves, vulnerable and anxious to impress. You see butchered haircuts (yes, Rachel McAdams, we're looking at you). You see awkward outfits (sorry, Ellen). But most of all, you see who can really act (Natalie), who falls flat (Scarlet...) and who hasn't developed at all (Blake......)

Blake Lively's audition for Gossip Girl. 

She IS Serena - Serena in Season 5 is not an eye-roll different from Blake in her original audition. 

 

Ed Westwick auditions to be the infamous Chuck Bass. While his hair has certainly changed for the better, it's his acting that gets our praise. Here we see the shallow, spoiled playboy private school kid from Season One - compare that to the Chuck Bass of Season Five, who has developed a darkness, vulnerability, and complexity far superior to Serena's character. Give this kid a real script post-GG and I think he'll bring something to the table. 

Rachel McAdams auditions for The Notebook. Despite the very 90s haircut, she shines. Compare this to Blake Lively's tape above and you see one blonde bombshell and one blonde bomb...

Ah, ScarJo. A 9 year old Scarlet auditions for Jumanji. Pretty girl, but not surprised that Kirsten Dunst beat her out for the role. 

Natalie. Need we say more? 

My main man De Niro!

Aaaand last but not least, Ellen Page looking a tad dumpy but ever so talented...

Kate Upton: the Less is More Lesson

The only thing I have to say about Kate Upton is that less is more. Her headshot on the left - white tee, messy hair, very little make-up - is absolutely stunning. The shot on the right - tits out, make-up galore, sexy pout - sure, still a pretty girl, but she immediately looks less interesting. 
I'm not one to argue that a girl with make-up and a sexy dress looks slutty. I believe that a girl should be able to dress and look however she pleases and be free from judgment. However, to me, the girl on the right literally looks less nice and approachable than the girl on the left. The Left-Kate is someone I immediately respect and want to get to know. She looks confident, smart, and beautiful. The girl on the right is a girl I'd roll my eyes at. She looks somehow meaner, smuttier, more common, a girl I'd expect to get too drunk at a party and see stumbling around outside screeching loudly by the end of the night. 
This is not necessarily a sexist thing. For both men and women, first impressions are important. That's simply a reality of life: we process one's looks and immediately form an unconscious opinion or impression of them. Women complain that men use them for sex or only hire them for their looks. We complain that we aren't taken seriously. We complain that the media sexually objectifies us. Perhaps in idealizing women like Kate (a 19 year old, no less), we are objectifying ourselves.

Fashion is important because it forms our identities. It is how we choose to present ourselves to the world and in turn dictates how the world treats us. 


The series of images above are courtesy of The Sartorialist. To me, those women are just as sexy as Upton yet not one is baring cleavage or a skin-tight dress. These women look creative, interesting, capable and most importantly, they look like individuals. Not as sexy? Any man who prefers you with tits to your chin is more animal than man, anyway.


Our skin is beautiful and deserves to be shown off and displayed, yes. I'm not telling you that anything cut above the knee is unholy - however, there is a way to enhance your sexiness and there's a way to undermine it. 


Kate, you're a fox au naturale. Put your girls away for a while.

Bend, Don't Break...

Visionary, Vision It's Scary...

Top Ten Intellectual Rappers

Classic x Cover of the Week: Damn Your Eyes

This week's classic: 

Etta James - Damn Your Eyes 

This week's cover: 

Alex Clare 

Heard a wicked cover of a classic lately? Covered a classic yourself?
 Send in your suggestions to the.studio@hotmail.com 

The Studio's T-SHIRT DESIGN Contest!

Artist to Watch Out For..

Lowell.

Apparently Lowell just flew off to record with Adele's people, so you know it's just a matter of time before she's  everywhere...

Gaga x Bennett...

Check out Lady Gaga kickin' it old school with Tony Bennett...

Drake Throws It Down for Toronto...

What do you guys think of the Headlines music video?

Lindsay x Terry...

Generations who grew up watching the 1998 remake of The Parent Trap and then cult classic Mean Girls still have love for Lindsay Lohan. Despite her floundering career, infamous shoplifting and DUI episodes, and straggly platinum blonde extensions, many of us still harbor some little ember of hope that she'll return to her redheaded glory days. It's kind of like the way some little part of us hopes that one day Britney and Justin will get back together. After all, Lindsay is still young, and at one point she was a bright young thing with stardom at her fingertips. Perhaps she can still salvage that - Emma Stone just doesn't have quite the same appeal, and Hollywood is in need of its token fiery redhead.

Anyway, Terry Richardson caught up with Lindsay on West Broadway and the impromptu photo sesh that resulted reeks of that poor-celebrity-grittiness. Sharp and intense, with black jackets and cigarettes, his photos perfectly capture that sad duality of raw toughness and complete vulnerability that epitomizes Lindsay Lohan.

 

 

 

Find the rest here...

The Studio's T-SHIRT DESIGN Contest!

Into fashion, art, or design? Got an idea for a t-shirt? If you have an idea for a T-SHIRT DESIGN you think could sell, enter THE STUDIO's T-Shirt Design Contest now! Looking for eye-catching designs for both male and female apparel; can be a sketch, photograph, or computer generated design - you have free rein! Be creative and send us your designs at the.studio@hotmail.com.. Winning design will have their T-SHIRT's made courtesy of THE STUDIO and sold across UofT campus, with winner 

receiving 50% of the profits!

Details: You can submit a maximum of five designs.  Tentative deadline for all submissions to be received is  Friday, October 7th.  Email them to the.studio@hotmail.com and indicate what color T-Shirt you'd like your design printed on.

Why We Love the Sartorialist

The Five Reasons We Love the Sartorialist 

#1. He Appreciates Natural Beauty

From pale skin to small breasts and freckled faces, the Sartorialist captures an entirely different type of woman than we're used to in North American media.USWeekly, People, and especially MTV give us many females to choose from, but from the celebrities in Street Style snapshots in People to the reality darlings from MTV - think Desperate Housewives, The Hills and the obvious example of Jersey Shore - many of these women are the total opposite of Sart's choices. Big-breasted and bronzed, long-haired and painted with luxury labels, these women often reek of consumerism and  unoriginality.

The turn towards voluptuousness and fuller-figured women is great. However, why must it always be one or the other? The editor of a prominent fashion magazine recently wrote something like, "The age of the all-american blonde, blue eyed, pale skinned woman are over." Curvier, darker-skinned and exotic looking is wonderful, but we have to be careful not to downplay its opposite. Pale girls now think pale skin is unattractive and give themselves skin cancer in tanning beds. Naturally slender girls are made to feel less a woman than those with bigger curves. Balance is key, and the Sartorialist does a wonderful job of capturing the female in all her many types of beauty.

n 

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

Need a fashionable accessory for the rainy season?


If you happen to be from Toronto, you sure do. Raindrops gives us a clever little way to brighten up the downpour with its witty take on the classic umbrella:

In French...

and in English...

Get yours here

Acid Trip: Vice @ LFW

Vice sends a reporter to London Fashion Week on acid. What? We know. Check it out here.

Gymnophobia: The Fear of Nudity

The fashion world is abuzz with the latest nude "scandal" featuring fashion darling Karlie Kloss. At only 19-years-old, people are "uncomfortable" with her implied nudes in the October issue of Allure, as shot by Mario Testino.


First off, she's a legal adult and has every right to pose however she wants. Second, there are racier images of women all over the internet, all over Hollywood blockbusters, and French and Italian Vogue are stuffed with images of lithe naked bodies and nipples galore. In a culture where 14 year old girls are prone to posting sexually suggestive photos in barely-there dresses and skirts on Facebook, the photos of Kloss hardly qualify as a scandal.


To be frank, John at Fashion Copious said it best: "...Testino is a lazy photographer that lacks a point of view at this stage of his life. And hence am surprised that he’s being hired and paid handsomely for his [currently] shitty work. That’s the only things i’m outraged at. I could care less if Karlie poses nude; she’s 19 and can do whatever she wants.” 

The issue with these images, if any, is not at all that Karlie is essentially nude. The issue is that they're sub-par and not what one would expect from the collaboration of a caliber model and famed photographer. The issue is the same issue that haunts sites for amateur photographers like Model Mayhem - a photographer without a vision just gets a gorgeous girl naked and assumes it'll make magic. These images are forgettable and depend entirely on Kloss's beauty, completely lacking any artistic vision. 


The real question this controversy begs, though, is why North America has such a phobia towards nudity. Women have breasts. Karlie Kloss, as a 19-year-old woman, has breasts. Personally I don't see how a nipple differentiates between nude and not-nude, but apparently in North America showing a woman's full breast is cause for concern. The less you see of something, the more you want it, and the more tantalizing it becomes - so by restricting sexuality and the female body in apparatuses of creativity, we in turn add to the problem. Perhaps if we accepted the female body for the beautiful thing that it is, and allowed nudity in innocent and artistic forms like this to flourish without making such a fuss (is it shameful to be nude? Wrong? Are we not sending all the wrong messages by restricting it?), we would begin to eliminate the hypersexualization of women and appreciate natural bodies of all shapes and sizes. When a teacher in Sex Ed. says the word "penis", we're told to stop giggling and be mature. Shouldn't we likewise be mature about a half exposed breast in a fashion magazine?

The New Year..

Get ready. 

Hip-Hop's Young Kings

Hip-hop caught a bad rap - no pun intended - throughout the late 90s and the early 2000s for being all about cash, cars, and hoes. Music videos were an endless parade of stacked women in skimpy clothing dancing around pools or in hotels (think Chingy's Holiday Inn.. countless Nelly, P. Diddy and Ja Rule videos.. need I say more..) while men with 42 lb necklaces, blinding earrings, sunglasses (inside..?) and occasionally diamond encrusted teeth (grills whaddup) clustered around the camera, mean mugging and throwing money around just for the hell of it. (Did the janitors have to clean that up? I hope they pocketed some of it.) This gave birth to the anti-rap crusades, with endless publications critiquing rap music as misogynist, demeaning, violent, and a celebration of excess and greed. Black critics argued that the genre portrays the African community badly and creates horrific role models for black youth to emulate. White critics, too, argued that the music does nothing for society as a whole but sends the wrong messages and glorifies all the wrong things.

Whether or not you agree with these sentiments is irrelevant now, as those days are long over. The transition arguably came with Toronto's very own Drake, who ushered in the new era with the drop of his 2009 mixtape So Far Gone. 

Keep Mum - She's Not So Dumb!

My sister brought this back from England for my mum for Mother's Day and I loved it. This poster was released by the Brits during World War II to caution citizens about spies infiltrating the country. The men shouldn't assume she knows nothing - she might be a spy intending to loosen their tongues with brandy and cigars...

The look of it is great. Very Bond-girl esque. Thought you might like as much as I did.

The Green Room