Bridal Shower & Father's Day

It was my gf's bridal shower a few weekends back and her mom held it at Oliver & Bonacini at Bayview Village. They recently did a renovation so they have this perfect sized room for events. It was such a treat to see Denise and her mom together hosting a shower for her mom's friends and family. Above is a photo of Denise and the bridesmaids. I'm so excited for Denise's wedding in August!

That same night was father's day so we took my dad to Lee's Garden in Chinatown, a restaurant my dad has been going to since he was a teenager, living down the street and going to high school at Harbord. It's crazy how the same waiter still recognises my dad! The queue is pretty ridiculous for a chinese restaurant but still really tasty; I recommend a visit if you're in the Toronto area!

My sister and I. I was wearing a Pucci dress all day. Perfect breathable dress for a hot day and air conditioning!

iPhone clippet from TO

As my resident photographer, aka Mass, he's not obliged to follow me around everywhere :P Therefore, one must find alternative methods to capturing their blog photos. Bring on...the mirror. I was in Toronto this time around on my own as Mass has been ridiculously busy with work (I barely have had more then 2 dinners with him in the last month!) so I made do at my parents place.

Quick shot of the hair! I think it's TO water, but my hair always has more volume there. If it looked like this 24/7, I wouldn't have gotten a perm yesterday! (photos to follow...)

Wearing heels is always so much easier at home. In / out of cars, no walking to tubes, then walking to a bus, then hopping in a cab because your feet hurt too much. I also wore these amazingly stylish pants that were my mom's in the 70's! My mom had a serious walk down memory lane when she saw me in them. She proceeded to find about a dozen other outfits for me in a matching silk blazer and shorts / skirts / trousers. Ahhhh the 70's. Paired with an Equipment silk shirt, Helmut Lang blazer, Kurt Geiger pumps, BCBG necklace

Long weekend here in the UK! Hope everyone's enjoying it. I'll be prepping the house / finishing up work in anticipation for my bf to come next week. What are you up to?

Jen and Oli's wedding

Warning: Picture heavy post

Over the weekend I went back home to Toronto for the wedding of one of my very good friends, Jen. It was a fabulous evening with my gfs celebrating one of the best couples I know. Here are some photos from the evening.

Jen in Vera Wang, me in Missoni s/s '09

Bel the MOH, Winnie and myself. We have all been friends since HS so it was a truly special evening when the first amongst us gets married

Jo my date, Winnie, and the happy couple. Yes, we know, they're tall.

The partying begins

Lol, Jen's face. I love love love how the couple didn't care about maintaining etiquette and totally got drunk with the rest of us.

A photo of my girls...<3

I have so many photos of Bi's varying facial expressions

Vic and Jon

Haha, Rob

This photo is primarily for Winnie

Still a good pic, despite Bel sleeping

Vic and James

Jen, one of the most beautiful brides I have ever seen...inside and out. Congratulations to Oli for snagging her up :)

And my absolute favourite part of the wedding: when Jen walked down the aisle to Oli serenading her with his guitar. Love.

Hope you had a great weekend too! (even though its almost the next weekend, haha)

Mom

I loved what my mom was wearing when we went out for dim sum! She definitely has her own style. She has about 30 leather jackets at least and many of them are one-offs from Danier (her absolute favourite brand). She still dresses up for the plane, something I am hugely advocating to bring back!

Burberry trench, See by Chloe sweater, COS pants, Prada bag

Profile

If you've seen my facebook you will have seen this as my profile pic, so nothing new here. My parents went gaga over this photo (with only minimal criticism about our shiny foreheads).

Taken on my very early birthday celebration with my Toronto friends aka some of my favourite people in the world. That's my sister. Some people say we look alike, do you agree? She's 6 years younger than me and is sometimes mistaken for the older one. Grrr!

Helmut Lang shirt, J Crew skirt, gifted earrings

Oops, sorry didn't realise the photo is so big!

Gung Hei Fat Choi!

BURBERRY PRORSUM shearling coat, DANIER leather pants, RALPH LAUREN sweater, FRATELLI ROSETTI boots, PRADA bag, CARTIER scarf, VINTAGE ROLEX watch

Happy Chinese New Year! It's the year of rabbit this year. My mom is quite superstitious and an avid follower of Chinese traditions so her advice would be to stay away from hair washing on this day as it washes away your good luck. I don't see any harm in not following it, so why not.

Anyway, took the above shots in chinatown this past weekend after a dim sum session. I don't know why, but every chinatown in every city always smells the same. Either way, the food always tastes delicious. I swear I could eat Chinese food everyday all day (but I think Mass would have a heart attack).

I am IN LOVE with the leather pants above. Bought on sale from tried and tested leather goods store in Canada: Danier for CAD $99! It was such a good deal I bought two pairs, one in black and another in brown (though above is brown and you can barely tell the difference). In addition, the Rolex was given to me by my mom for Christmas and graduation. She bought it back in the early 80's and I love it; I love everything about it, from the sentiment to the mechanics.

Wishing you a healthy, successful, and prosperous new year.

HAPPY belated NEW YEAR

GIAMBATTISTA VALLI dress, KURT GEIGER shoes, WOLFORD tights, BCBG necklaces, VINTAGE ROLEX watch

Back from my week long hiatus induced solely by a crappy internet connection at home. Anyway, I wore this dress to ring in 2011. I absolutely LOVE the balloon sleeves and I will definitely be wearing this again to show in more detail later. The designer is the unbelievable Italian artist Giambattista Valli, whom I love for his wedding designs especially. I got this dress at Holt Renfrew Last Call for only $268! What an absolute steal. It went down from an original retail price of $3000! It's actually supposed to be a shirt but at size 8 it fits me like a dress.

We went to a cheesy Italian restaurant in Toronto, Sotto Sotto, for dinner with the family and then off to a party with some friends. Don't my sister and I look alike?

Hope you're enjoying your weekend!

Bohmer

FOREVER 21 shirt (stolen from sis), GUESS trousers (my first GUESS item in years and I must admit I was slightly apprehensive about buying them, but for $30 CAD, it was worth the risk), ASOS belt, ELIZABETH AND JAMES booties (unseen), VINTAGE ROLEX and VINTAGE JADE ring (both given to me by my loving mom for graduation and Christmas), SNAKE bracelet (gifted by a best friend), FILIPPO CATARZI hat (best hat ever to travel with; it never creases no matter what position it is held in)

A few weeks ago my exceptionally talented foodie friend, Scott chose a restaurant in Toronto for me to taste while I was back home (well, he chose one, then was overruled by other exceptionally creative friend Ivy, and we ended up at Bohmer).

Bohmer Restaurant was opened by Paul Bohmer (formerly accredited with Rosewater and Scaramouche to name a few) and I think one word sums it up: local. Organic and homegrown, most of the produce comes from our backyard in Ontario. I don't know if Canadian cuisine has a real identity yet, but if it doesn't, Bohmer might just be creating the definition.

Above are some of the pics we flooded the place with while we were there. I especially love the one of us three.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Are you ready?

...because here we go with the pre-holiday, holiday, post ny pictures. Bear with me and I hope this isn't torture!








LISA: ANDY THE-ANH dress, DANIER rabbit fur shawl, CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN shoes, WOLFORD tights

MASS: ITALIAN suit, DUCHAMP bowtie and pocket square

A couple weeks before the holidays started, our friend threw a little soiree for our friends at a club in London. Incredibly detailed and an eye for fine wines and foods, the organiser KS, created a lovely environment for all of us to dress up and enjoy each others company.

This dress was bought in 2009 during the summer from Toronto at a Canadian designer's boutique - Andy The-Anh. Unfortunately his Toronto boutique is closed, however the flagship store in Montreal still houses some exquisitely hand-crafted gowns. Similar to the one I wore in Paris here, Andy's designs are incredibly form fitting, even for a petite girl like myself (who barely fits anything like a glove!)

Since this evening, Mass has become obsessed with bow ties, wearing them at every opportunity. Watch out for them gracing this blog frequently.

Happy almost weekend!

FUR and WINTER

LISA: DANIER rabbit fur shawl, NICO DIDONNA vest, STEFANEL trousers, INDEPENDENT STORE shirt from HK, TOPSHOP shoes, AA belt (stolen from sister)

MASS: NICO DIDONNA coat

I love fur. I can't help it. I know some of you will go all animal-cruelty on me and I completely agree with you on most points but fur is warm. Even though I come from Canada where we have one distinct season relatively longer than the rest, London is also cold - a wet cold. And I walk...a lot. So I need something to keep me warm and fur does the trick (so does goose down...but can you wear that to work? Arguably you shouldn't wear fur to work either but let's not get off base here). Anyway, the point is, I grow more and more like my mother everyday and she brought me up wearing fur coats (she also got paint thrown on her by activists in dt TO during the late 80's...but again, different story).

Wednesday in London is 7 degrees. Time for fur, a super soft one like above.