My best friend Virginia Abramovich is directing a short film for the Canadian Film Centre called Lunchbox Loser about an immigrant girl named Natasha, who has stand-up comedy aspirations and is forced to move her act from the sanctity of the bathroom to the cafeteria where her Russian borcht is regaled with great concern. 

The film takes place in the mid 90's, (NOTE: it's been altered to be the early 90's now) and I wasn't terribly inspired by what's available online (other than the flashback sequences of Being Erica, costume designed by friend Luis Sequeira). 
I started flipping through my scrap books and albums of me and my friends to see and to share what we wore.

Please note: We were a theatrical lot.

Junior Prom and the Valentine's Dance. I was totally happy wearing the same pink 1960's lace dress I got from the Marché aux Puces de Montreuil for both events.

This was Sarah. She was the Costumiere at our high school when I arrived. She was the coolest girl in all of Paris to me.

My wardrobe mainstays were vintage mens pjs pants from the 40's, a wool 20's tuxedo vest,  70's suede jacket (that boys on the street in Rome threw raw eggs at), peasant scarves and patchwork maxi skirts, bodysuits, overalls and a black felt porkpie hat.
It wasn't really that pretty in retrospect and yet crazy enough, teens of today are wearing it and somehow making it look way cooler than I could at that time.

A hilarious film with a kick ass cast and wonderful crew that I had the immense amusement of working with a little while back.

It plays this weekend at the AMC Dundas Square on
Friday January 25, 10 pm
Sunday January 26, 9:30pm
Tuesday January at 7: 30pm
 
Hope you can come out and support an Indie Canadian
comedy directed by the very talented Brett Heard!

See the Trailer on Vimeo

Jewel Staite (in crumpled gorgeous gown cut from episode), dapper Ennis Esmer (leisure suit from my 70's collection), Jonathan Patrick Moore (yes, we dropped the pant hem & made him a new shirt as I didn't want a real 40's one to go through the wear & tear of the episode), lovely Jewel again.

The Fitting room in any costume department is the place where the characters come alive.
Where actors begin to see what their character looks like, and countless times in fitting rooms across the land have winked in the mirror and said, 'Now I see'.
They can also be in the writers office, (do you mind if I just store a couple of racks of wardrobe in here?), in the bathroom, or in the middle of a studio (as I use my long cardigan sweater to
shield the actress). Ultimately you'd much rather a private, quiet, un-interrupted space where you can ignore the pounding of A.D's on the door or someone who just wants to talk motivation while the actor is in their knickers. Oh, and decent lighting for photos.

On The L.A. Complex II, it was between two emergency exits and no matter how many signs we posted "FITTING IN PROCESS", well, we were interrupted. We also would sometimes leave the laundry there (as you can see above). The above pics were for the finale episode, for Cam and Kevin's movie trailer that they show at the Lux. No one was quite sure what the movie was about and I harassed the story guys a whole lot, but they gave me the freedom to do something different so I decided Raquel charmed/slept her way into a Hollywood costume rental house or vintage store.
Thanks again to that entire amazing, talented crew. I miss you already.

More pics from the second season of The L.A Complex 

When I do my next Vampire show I'm going to need this crocodile jacket from Balmain.

Ever been on a film set? Technicians from grips, hair & make up, electrics and wardrobe spend hours and hours waiting, watching, standing by for their moment to contribute to the vision that whomever is signing their paycheck desires. So it's wonderful to attend the Nabet 700 Film Technicians Art Show currently running until February 3rd at the Gerrard Art Space. It's filled with the various creative outlets that these talented people make solely for themselves when off the clock. Yes, I did also display my Vintage Button Necklaces (pictured below) that keep me highly entertained in my off times.
What I love about gallery openings is seeing the people in the same space as the art and how they compliment or enhance each other. Hmm, maybe like the cohesion of production and costume design...

GAS Gallery, Gerrard Art Space
1390 Gerrard Street East
gerrardartspace.blogspot.ca
twitter @GerrardArtSpace

As I've got time off right now between projects (never knowing what the next one will bring!) I love to sit in my cozy little house on my orange couch and look through the piles of books I've been so lucky to collect over the years. 

For my last birthday the amazing BB gave me a book on Japanese Fashion entitled 'Style Deficit Disorder'. She had seen the band The Plastics play in a punk bar in the 1980's that was featured in this book. The book led me to remembering the Japanese Street Style magazine FRUiTS which has showcased for over 15  years the stylings of young people in Japan.

So in celebration of BB and her love of Harajuku fashion here are some of my favourite FRUiTS pics. Thank you Shoichi Aoki for capturing and inspiring this fashion time.

Just about the press 'Publish'. It's been a great time tracking down all these images from the various productions I've designed in my career so far. I enjoy seeing the acumilation after a busy year I've had from buying for 'The Colony' to costume designing season 2 of 'The L.A. Complex' (RIP), a pilot called 'Satisfaction' for Bell Media and ending off with another season of 'Space Janitors'.

Funny that my first picture here in my blog will actually be for Costume Designer April Ferry, known for 'Rome', 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles', 'Terminator 3', and currently shooting in Toronto 'RoboCop'. CAFTCAD will be hosting a Milestones evening, listening to her speak on Saturday January 12th, 7 pm at Camera, 1028 Queen St. West, Toronto.
Tickets available here