| EVENT REPORT 04.09.08 11:25 AM |
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Stars Scramble to Play Scrabble at Arts Fund-Raiser
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With several benefits and galas happening in the city each week, attracting attendees and luring celebrity guests can be a hard sell. Not so for Vivienne Muhling. When Muhling, a board member at Performing Arts Lodges (PAL), began planning Monday's Scrabble With the Stars benefit she was not only swamped with requests for tickets, she was inundated with requests from local celebrities who wanted to take part in the tournament. "Every year I get more and more requests for invitations," Muhling said.
The event, now in its fourth year, has more than doubled in size. "Our first one was just 20 little tables in our own green room at PAL Place," Muhling said. "Then last year we were at St. Lawrence Hall and now we've been given this great Grand Banking Hall in the Suites at 1 King West." A total of 160 guests, including 40 celebrities, attended the event, hosted by comic Colin Mochrie and his wife, Deb McGrath. Jeanne Beker, Gordon Pinsent, and Sarah Polley were among those who went word for word with patrons at the fund-raiser, which also included a buffet dinner and a silent auction.
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Performing Arts Lodges, Scrabble, Colin Mochrie, Deb McGrath, Jeanne Beker, Cara Pifko, Gordon Pinsent, Sarah Polley |
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| EVENT REPORT 03.25.08 10:51 AM |
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Designers Use Street Lamps, Casino Tables to Set the Stage at Fashion Week
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 | Casino Royale
Photo: George Pimentel |
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With only one runway and shows scheduled on the hour every hour, there wasn't much time for designers to construct a set or dress the runway room for the presentation of their collections at L’Oréal Fashion Week, which wrapped up with a brunch at the Drake Hotel on Saturday. For most designers last week, creating ambience involved lighting, projections, and music. However, a few went for more elaborate setups in an effort to set the tone for their collections.
For his show (sponsored by the Bay) entitled "The Long Way Home," David Dixon projected a black-and-white scene of a road leading through a snowy park on the upstage wall. The show, dedicated to "women on the go," began with a narrative on the screen, asking why one would bother to take the long way home: To ponder, to pray, to cry, to reflect, and to be at peace were among the answers offered. Two lit-up old-fashioned street lamps flanked the runway, and models entered as snow fell on the catwalk.
You could say Shawn Hewson and Ruth Promislow took a gamble in presenting their menswear collection for Bustle. The casino-themed show began with a sound clip from a 1954 television production of Casino Royale—"It's made beggars of many and millionaires of a few." Dollar bills lay scattered along the runway, champagne bubbles floated across the backdrop, and a baccarat table surrounded by three stools was positioned at the top of runway. Each model took at seat at the table to play a hand dealt by Stacey McKenzie of Canada's Next Top Model before walking the runway.
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Fashion Week, David Dixon, Bustle Clothing, Zoran Dobric, Nada Yousif, Jeanne Beker, Bratz, Diesel Kids |
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| NEWS 03.19.08 2:08 PM |
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Sponsors Fill Fashion Week Tents With Product Displays, Guest Lounges, and a Cocktail Bar
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 | L'Oréal posters at Fashion Week
Photo: George Pimentel |
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With all the product giveaways and eye-catching displays, it's hard not to notice who's backing L’Oréal Fashion Week—which kicked off Monday and runs until Saturday—at Nathan Phillips Square. Makeup artists roaming through the main tent offer lip touchups courtesy of L’Oréal, servers dressed in orange wigs hand out bottles of Orangina at mobile soda carts, and guests can stop to shop at a jewelry stand featuring designs from Foxy Originals.
Additional displays include a Travel Alberta exhibit promoting tourism in the province, Fashion Television's booth—where Jeanne Beker conducts postshow interviews with each designer—and a display from the Italian Chamber of Commerce, which sponsored the Talenti Moda Milano show, featuring designs by students from four fashion schools in Milan. In support of Rethink Breast Cancer, Schick Quattro is offering women the opportunity to have a photo taken of their breasts for display on the Booby Wall, a virtual, interactive exhibit created to educate women about early breast cancer detection.
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Fashion Week, Travel Alberta, Schick Quattro, Lincoln, Hush Puppies, The Liberty Group, Orangina, Foxy Originals, Pink Tartan, Fashion Television, Jeanne Beker, Italian Chamber of Commerce |
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| NEWS 03.13.08 5:45 PM |
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Larger Tents, Celebrity Models, and On-Site Parties Planned for Fashion Week
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 | The tents in Nathan Phillips Square
Photo: BizBash |
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Preparations for L’Oréal Fashion Week are well under way in Nathan Phillips Square, with a crew of 30 people working to erect a series of tents in time for Monday's opening show. The build began on March 6 and will wrap up Friday, with the installation of the black-and-white decor—provided by Rob Dittmer of Three Event Planning and Design—slated for completion on Sunday. The runway, hair and makeup, storage, and catering tents encompass 30,000 square feet this year—10,000 square feet larger than the tents used for the spring 2008 collections last fall.
Fashion Week, featuring a mix of Canada's best-known designers and several Project Runway Canada participants, will see 33 shows and 69 designers take part in the "Wear in the World!" fall 2008 collections next week. The event is also marking several firsts this year, one of which is an on-site party scheduled to follow the opening-night show being presented by Joe Mimran, the creative director behind the Joe Fresh label and chairman of the Fashion Design Council of Canada. "We haven't done that before in the tents," said Kim Graham of Kim Graham and Associates, one of four companies handling media inquiries for the event.
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Fashion Week, Fashion Design Council of Canada, Joe Mimran, Joe Fresh Style, Italian Chamber of Commerce, Heart and Stroke Foundation, F-List.ca, Fashion Television, Jeanne Beker, Lincoln, Pink Tartan |
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| EVENT REPORT 02.18.08 10:17 AM |
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Film Gala Pays Tribute to Italian Cinema With Vintage Posters, Props
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 | A vintage poster and film props
Photo: Gary Beechey for BizBash |
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From the outset, the creation of the Canadian Film Centre’s “Luci, Camera, Azione!” gala was truly a collaborative effort. The event, held Wednesday at the KoolHaus, is the organization’s primary fund-raiser, and the gala—which paid tribute to vintage Italian cinema this year—is viewed as a way to thank the film centre’s donors, said Mark Fellion, one of six CFC planners who worked on the benefit. “This event is always a challenge. It’s very time consuming,” said Fellion. “We have a huge committee, and really they’re the ones who pulled this whole thing together.”
Committee co-chairs Pat DiBratto and Kate Alexander Daniels created the vision for the evening. “We sat and talked about what was that thing that Italy does best,” Daniels said, adding the committee couldn’t come up with just one thing. So, the evening became a celebration of La Dolce Vita, showcasing Italy’s history, culture, food, wine, designers, and music. “It’s everything that’s wonderful about Italy,” DiBratto said.
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Canadian Film Centre, Holt Renfrew, Rick Mercer, Jeanne Beker, Jay Mandarino |
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