Second Time's A Charm

The Chloë Sevigny for Opening Ceremony Fall 2009 Collection is Sevigny’s second collection with the boutique and her first foray into menswear. During London Fashion Week, Sevigny unveiled her line which was a “slight homage” to one of her favourite designers, Miguel Adrover. The collection highlights included “skinny moleskin trousers, Fair Isle, tiger and leopard-patterned knits, little tweed blazers, dyed thermals and oversize jackets that fall past the hip.” Lots of bold print, voluminous silhouettes, high waists, and even a modern-day James Dean-esque red jacket. The line is a unisex venture, made for guys but scaled down to fit girls. Chloë's own effortlessly cool and idiosyncratic style is one that I have admired for as long as I can remember.


The leopard speckled cardigans, high waisted leather shorts, thick strap and buckle wedges. I need it all.

Photos by James Mountford

Shine Your Light Now

Another year and a wealth of brilliant movies and performances to celebrate. I really wasn't sure what to think when I heard that Hugh Jackman would be hosting the show. But I have to say, within seconds of his opening performance, I realized that it didn't matter what else happened from that point on, because Jackman's opening was that good. He saved the Oscars. I had no idea that he was so talented and hilarious. For her part, Anne Hathaway was also delightful.

Many of my favourite performances were recognized last night: underdog Slumdog Millionaire (which I thought was just fantastic), Penelope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona (which as you all know is one of my favourite films of the year), Sean Penn for Milk (which Keira and I saw on Saturday and both agreed was absolutely brilliant- Penn is truly a genius) and of course, the absolutely darling Kate Winslet for her role in The Reader. I found myself bawling through more of the show than I care to admit. I also quite liked the format of the show this year. It had a more intimate feeling with the nominees all being seated in the front and I thought it was really special (and coincidentally, more emotional) the way that they mentioned each nominee individually and spoke about their performance.

One other note, while we're on the topic of the films: I saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button yesterday and I absolutely loved it. I really didn't expect to, but I was thoroughly entertained by this film from start to finish. Its bittersweet reverse angle on the aging process is inescapably moving. Performances by Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Taraji P. Henson were beautifully honest.

So besides the films, the other reason to watch the awards is, of course, for the fashion.

Here's a quick rundown of my favourite looks of the night:



Kate Winslet in Atelier Yves Saint Laurent by Stefano Pilati. Her gown was grey degrade satin and embroidered black silk tulle. This lady is all class. I couldn't take my eyes off her. I've been a huge fan since she played Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility in 1995. She is truly a brilliant actress and after several nominations over the years, I was pleased as punch to see her finally take a statue home.



Halle Berry in a strapless black and gold tulle Marchesa gown. Halle always seems to get it just right. She never looks like she's trying too hard, she always looks absolutely stunning. Last night was no exception.


Angelina Jolie in an Elie Saab gown, Lorraine Schwartz jewelry, Ferragamo shoes and a Lana Marks bag. Although I consider myself to be a member of Team Aniston, I have to admit that Angie looked beautiful last night. Her gown is elegant and I am in love with her emerald jewels.


Jennifer Aniston in a silver Valentino gown. I thought it was refreshing to see Jen in something other than black. Her silver gown was flattering and gorgeous. Perhaps I'm biased because I often wear my hair the same way that she did (hat tip to JR), but I think it looks adorable. I like that she's taking a risk- while I always think she looks great, Jen often looks the same to me. I give her points for trying something different this year.


Marion Cotillard looked exquisite in Haute Couture Dior and Chopard jewels. Although sequins and tulle can be frightening together, somehow she made this work to perfection. Maybe it's because she's French.


Who were your red carpet favourites? Total misses? What are your thoughts on the show? The winners?

Photos courtesy of Celebuzz

Oh, Thunder In My Heart

Life has been a little crazy over the last couple weeks. I realized this morning that I hadn't even posted an entry about the Lykke Li concert, which was back on February 11th. On that Wednesday night my lovely date Angela and I made our way to The Commodore Ballroom (she walked, I limped). We were two giddy girls, so excited to see this woman perform live. After we checked out coats, it was drink time. Since the highballs that we'd planned on drinking cost upwards of a zillion dollars each, we decided to switch to cheap draft beer- which did us just fine.


While we were waiting for Lykke to take the stage (and talking through the opening band, which we weren't fond of), we met up with my friend Leah. Leah's always entertaining and definitely kept us laughing right up until the show started.

Then Lykke appeared on stage. Shrouded in loose, filmy black with a cowbell in hand for the melodic opener Dance Dance Dance – which she can, bouncing about with hip-hop-informed, shoulder-centric moves for much of the night. The 22-year old is charming, confident, and sings disarmingly pretty songs.


For her encore, Lykke performed, with genuine emotion, an exceptionally amazing live version of Tonight and an awesome cover of A Tribe Called Quest's CanI Kick It? (which is one of my favourite songs in the world...so I was stoked!)


Such an effortless combination of talent and wiles are hard to come by, and easy to fall for.

Falling Ahead Of My Dreams

Photo: Source

We looked like penguins
in the early morning
drifting to and from
that part of sleep
that still feels comfortable.
Curled close-
warm breath on my temple

The longest eyelashes,
the longest lingering looks
how your lips hit the tip of my ear
(like someone familiar)

And I find some kind of happy in all this.
I smile to myself.

I just read about ache being the feeling
that something vital is disintegrating...
that loving all the way might ache and sting,
but loving only half way leaves us with a hope
that could never live out loud.

Kiki Cool

"Being fun is way better than being beautiful. I would rather entertain people." -Kirsten Dunst

I've pretty much been meaning to feature Kirsten Dunst in one of my personal style entries since I started doing them. I know there are a lot of haters out there, but I am a huge fan. She keeps things simple, but adds her own quirky touch. Kirsten's innate and unfussy sensibility is a blend of sophistication and 70s panache, which creates a very modern look. She wears lots slouchy pieces- large tees and over sized sweaters and cardigans, dresses and adorable little high waisted skirts. She has been wearing these things far longer than they've been trendy. She adds to her look by wearing accessories like sunglasses (more often than not), scarves, cute beanies, belts and bags. There isn't an ensemble on this page that I wouldn't personally rock. In my opinion, she comes across chic in an "I'm not trying too hard" kind of way, which is my favourite way there is.





I'm kind of obsessed with the way that her red bag matches her nails, which match her lips to perfection in these next two photos:


**Photos are not property of Work In Progress. They have been taken from various websites. If your photo has not been credited and you would like it to be, please e-mail me.**

48 Hours Of Awesomeness- Day Three

Photo: Push.ca

The contest was all wrapped up as of 9am this morning. Here's a final photo of all the teams (amazingly, still standing) after enjoying the ride for 48 hours.

The winning team will be announced on Monday night. The judges have a tough job ahead of them, that's for sure. Take a look at the final blog posts here:

Boardroom
The Circle
Evolution
Showcase

*****

UPDATE: Congratulations to contest winners from The Circle! Dave Chamberlain and Colton Showers, representing The Circle snowboard shop in Whistler, showed DC, Push.ca and Grouse Mountain that they truly "Enjoyed The Ride More." When asked about what he thought of their blog (before he knew they had won), Dave said that he felt that despite their amateur photography and blogging, they "probably had more fun than anyone else."

48 Hours Of Awesomeness- Day Two

Happy Valentine's Day! I have been up at the top of Grouse with the four teams trying to enjoy the ride most for 48 hours. The boys are certainly tired today, but still in great spirits- shredding, taking unreal photos, and documenting all the fun they're having on Push.ca! The blog posts they've been turning out are fantastic and soooo funny (especially considering that they're all running on very, very minimal sleep, if any). The lodge was pretty much crazy packed all day today- and it seems like there are many people jumping on the "48 Hour" bandwagon, even outside of our contest. I answered more questions than I knew the answers to, and gave out a gazillion stickers.


Let me just say, I'd hate to be one of the judges because all of these guys are so awesome and are doing an absolutely amazing job up here. The creativity that continues to flow from them, even after being on the mountain for more than 24 hours absolutely astounds me. Very impressive. It's definitely going to be very tough to choose a winner. They are all super fun guys with hearts of gold and it has been a pleasure to kick it with them over the last couple days.

This afternoon, the kitchen was abuzz with the sound of chopping carrots and cheering as the guys competed to see which team could chop the most carrots in 30 seconds using a DC snowboard (why carrots? click here, and watch the Ikka commercial). Team Showcase was the big winner, chopping 11 carrots. Their prize? A brand new DC snowboard for each of them. Josh also wins the "sweetest gesture of the day" award for giving his old board away to a kid who had his board stolen at the mountain today. The kid, of course, was beyond stoked and we were beyond impressed with Josh's stellar kindness.


We're down to just about 11 hours left in the contest. You can bet that the guys will be pulling out all the stops in the final hours.

Make sure to keep reading the entertaining blog posts filled with epic footage and incredible photos:

Boardroom
The Circle
Evolution
Showcase

48 Hours Of Awesomeness- Day One

It's Friday the 13th. 9am today marked the start of the "Enjoy The Ride More for 48 Hours" challenge that DC is running up at Grouse Mountain as part of the 48 Hours of Winter weekend.


The teams have been hitting the slopes, shredding the gnar, blogging on iMacs about their adventures and chilling out at DC's Billy Mays kitchen in the chalet all day and will continue doing so right through until 9am on Sunday morning.

This evening was super fun times at the top of the mountain for those of us enjoying some eats and drinks at Altitudes Bistro, while loving the incredible view, and then hanging out in the kitchen, giving out stickers and dog leashes and od'ing on the crazy amounts of caffeine coming out of the espresso machine.

You can check in on what the teams are up to as they document all the highlights and fun they're having right here on Push.ca!