Capoeria: another reason why Brazil is the Sh*t

Capoeria is an Afro-Brazilian art form which is a combination of dance, music and martial arts. 3 of my favourite forms of exercise! I tried it here in Ecuador for the first time last night and it was really challenging and really fun! Although it is Brazilian it is still pretty popular in other parts of South America, which is why I managed to find it. The intructor was definetely Brazilian, he had a prominent Portuguese accent when he was speaking Spanish which sounded really nice. During the class I learned the basic steps, and watched the more advanced people do crazy cartwheels and hand stands combined with kicks and ducking all in a sort of dance routine. It was so cool to watch, one of the coolest things i´ve seen in a while. So on top of beautiful women, fashion, and beaches, Brazil also has Capoeira as a claim to fame, its not fair. Capoeira was created in Brazil by slaves from Africa, some time after the 16th century, so this isn´t a new trend people! In capoeira, music sets the rhythym and the style of play. Because it´s routes are African, the music has an awesome afro-latino vibe to it. It combines many of the things in life that i consider beautiful, and you get a work out at the same time, i´ll definetely be keeping this up while im still here.

Let me just start off by saying how challenging it has been to find wireless that works on my computer. AND even when there is wireless something always goes wrong while im trying to make these posts and thats why they have been few and far between. Nonetheless Ive been looking forward to posting this one for a while and its taken me a few tries at a few different places. These photos are from a parade that I had the priveledge to attend in Bolivia. It was a national parade that happens once a year to commemorate traditional Bolivian culture. Its a huge deal and there were thousands upon thousands of people in attendance as the parade ran throughout the entire city of La Paz. All of the seats were packed! it was hard for us to find a place to watch but when theres a will theres a way, and we eventually did manage to get our way in. The parade was an authentic cultural experience, and the costumes were absolutely stunning! so intricate and detailed! i could tell how much labour had gone into making them, and how proud the people in the parade were to be wearing them. The indigenous people in attendance at the parade were wearing clothes that they only wear once for that specific occasion, and put a lot of time and money into them. The ultimate purpose of the parade is as a competition. The parade consists of seperate groups of people, who design their costumes and coordinate their own music and dancing in order to impress the president of the country, in attendace at the parade, who ultimately chooses the winner. This is why when they go past him they dance the hardest and sing the loudest! All in all it really was unbelievable, i've never seen such a rich cultural parade so full of gorgeous costumes.

Bolivian Cholas

Because Bolivia is a country with extreme traditional indigenous influence, the style that stands out is obviously just that traditional ingigenous. So heres more alternate fashion for you guys. The indigenous women have a very distinct look. To me, it seemed, as if the majority of the women i saw were dressed traditionally. These women are proud of their outfits, which cost them a lot of money! Usually about one month of pay for a complete outfit. The fancy versions are especially expensive, which they usually wear only once, for a special occasion, and then never again. Apprently these outfits can cost up to a few thousand dollars American. There are three signature items to their outfits: the bowler hat, the skirt, and their "manta", a.k.a shawl. You will also often see them using a traditional hand made blanket over their back to carry children or other goods, such as food, wood, etc. Under their skirt, they wear many other skirts to make them look wider and emphazie their child-bearing hips. They almost look as wide as they are tall, and this is what their community considers beautiful! Its an extremely interesting look. There are many Bolivan parades and festivals where they flaunt these women flaunt fancier more colorful versions of these outfits adorned with gold and silver and sequins and tassles! I went to a parade, and it was stunning to see all the elaborate variations! Being there got definetely got me into liking shawls. They look really nice and are really conformtable, not to mention that in Bolivia they are georgous and hand made. I think they are a wonderful accesory for every culture. Another part of their style that isn´t is obvious is the alpaca wool leg warmers that they wear under their skirts. These are the coolest leg warmers i have ever seen! so i bought four pairs! By the way the picutres i posted arent mine, becuase im not using my laptop right now. I just posted them to give you an idea, i might post mine later.

Poncho Obsessed...Written Component

sorry guys...again blogger was giving me problems with uploading pictures and writting in the same post so heres the written part to the pictures below:

Indigenous style is the best style! in my opnion at least! bolivia has such a strong indigenous culture that I am absolutely in love with. To me, their style is the ultimate in what we (north americans) can consider alternate fashion, which is also my favourite kind of fashion. go eff yourself haute couture. just kidding, i love couture too. But this stuff really pushes fashion boundaries because its so traditional yet unique and different to us at the same time. There are many tribes here in bolivia, and they all have their own variations on traditional indigenous style. the three main tribes in bolivia are the aymara, the quetchua, and the guarani. some other tribes include the tarabuco and the jalq'a, famous across Bolivia for their textiles. one trend that transcends pretty much all tribes is the poncho, also my new favourite item. Although ponchos are the focus of this article, don’t think that they are the only thing worth writing about indigenous style, there is much more that i am going to write about in due time. (the internet is extremely slow here, and so are the computers) up to this point, ive bought three ponchos. actually one is more like a shawl. traditionally, the indigenous women wear shawls called "mantas" and the men wear ponchos. the reason these items of clothing are so amazing is because they are made out of the most stunning, hand made textiles. mine are made out of alpaca and llama wool (i am vegetarian so i obviously investigated the fact they don't kill the animals to get their wool, its merely giving them a haircut, which happens once a year), however traditional textiles are also made out of other materials, and are died with natural dies from insects, plants and flowers. My dad also caught the poncho bug, and bought two for himself. His however, are the ultimate in authenticity, and were much more expensive. we met an indigenous man, who sold us one that his mother made by hand! he also let me try on his whole outfit! Hence the second photo from the top. the other poncho that my dad bought is one that i picked out for him in Sucre, which you can see in the first picture. I think that ponchos can work just as well in our advanced culture as they work here in traditional culture. For example, I would wear one of my mine as an alternative to a fall jacket or maybe one of the lighter ones as a sweater over a t-shirt or tank top. Actually the beauty of ponchos is that they can practically be worn over anything. To me, they are the silver lining on the grey cloud that is cold canadian weather!

Poncho Obsessed in Bolivia

last post before SOUTH AMERICA!!!

get ready yallz this site is about to go on a very South American spin for the next two and a half months. hopefully i'll be able to post all of the pictures i'm taking, but if not, i'll definitely be able to write and write write about all of the things i'm seeing. im leaving thursday to Bolivia, the country with the most indigenous blood in South America right now; something like 80% of the population is indigenous. i'm there for a week, so the blog will have to pause for that week because i don't think i will really have any internet access at that point, seeing as i will be in the mountains and at lake Titicaca for most of the time. but indigenous style is amazing and i cannot wait to write about it. Any ways i just wanted to post one more time before the blog takes on a different perspective. So this weekend I hit up a psy-trance party, and met a ton of wicked people with wicked style. i am in love with the hippie aesthetic, so i was obviously in heaven. i met one really cool chic in particular, Krista, who was wearing a wicked skirt. It was a purple, sort of lacey, poufy, crinolin. but it wasn't too poufy, it was just poufy enough, with black detailing. not to mention the little black bats that were sewn on at the bottom! it looked like they were made out of pattened leather, stuffed with a little bit of cotton or something...so cool! those were definetly the best part! giving a girly skirt a dark-side twist is an awesome contrast. she said she got it at a store on queen street, and that its an imitation of a japanese design. we all know how rad Japanese style is. Props to her on the outfit as a whole. her top was black and lacey, and looked like a corset, but much more cozy and flexible. the stockings were a nice touch too. I need to get myself one of those wild skrits!

aaaaaaand lets not forget...the (in)famous naked shower

So, one of the most talked about occurrences from Sao Paulo Fashion Week this year was the naked shower which started off the first ever Rosa Cha men's show. The guy was model Rodrigo Rothen. While doing research for the blog, i stumbled across a video of this event, and the crowd was going wild, I would say it was definitely a crowd pleaser, and it got the crowd amped up for the rest of the show. Only in Brazil would this happen...Viva Brazil! I would post the video, but the quality is pretty bad, and its only like 15 seconds long. But if you guys are interested, i'm sure if you youtube Rosa Cha naked shower, you wont have any trouble finding something. However, despite the hype, there has been a lot of accusations that the show borrowed a lot from other desginers' shows. The naked shower, for example, has already been done by DSquared2. It seems to be popular belief that many elements from the show were in fact borrowed from DSquared2 and Dolce&Gabbana, including the sleek black runway, the oily muscle men wearing tiny swimsuits (Rosa Cha is a swimwear line), the blasting dance music, and even the four female models thrown on the runway to balance out the testorone, and perhaps make the show a little bit more enjoyable for the straight men present. Nonetheless, the show garnered a lot of press, and whether some elements were borrowed or not, they made the show one of the most talked about shows of the week. What I admire is having entertainment thrown into a fashion show to make it more interesting...and I defininetly think that a naked man showering is entertainment.

better late then never...more from Sao Paulo Fashion Week 09

Sorry its taken me so long to post more on the incredibleness (i know, not a word, whatevs) that is the Sao Paulo Fashion Week 09. I have been mad busy blah blah. So anyways, heres more. The pictures i posted are from the brilliant Animale show. I love the colours; the deep reds, dark turqoises, yellows, greens... its all fabulous. I also love the fabrics, and the flowiness of most of the pieces. Many of the pieces are one-pieces which are extremely sexy, and have a sort of femme fatale vibe to them. Onsies are defininetly very hot this season. The vibrant and unique patterns also stand out. The line as a whole is very unique and creative, AND very distinctly Brazilian, seeing crazy patterns and cuts like that screams Brazil to me, and I adore it.

Video Clip of the Ellus show

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6D84rfcx-o&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fmadeinbrazil.typepad.com%2Fmadeinbrazil%2F2008%2F06%2Fspfw-best-set-d.html&feature=player_embedded

more pictures from Ellus show, cuz blogger wouldn't let me upload more than three pictures in my last post for some reason.

Sao Paulo Fashion Week: Ellus Underwater

As some of you might know, I am heading to south America for a couple of months this summer. I’m planning on updating the blog regularly about all of the latest styles and trends that I see while I’m there. Sadly, I’m not venturing to Brazil, a country well-known for being fashion forward. Regardless, I’ll be writing about Sao Paulo fashion week because it was absolutely brilliant. I want to help expose the fashion scene in South America. I personally think that people are too busy obsessing about European and American designers, and aren’t giving SA fashion enough love! Sao Paulo fashion week is known for being distinctly Brazilian, and the shows are unique and intriguing. Props to the creative directors of all the shows because they really took it to another level of creativity. This year, there was an infiltration of international journalists, which is good news for Brazilian designers, increasing their exposure in the international fashion market. I’m going to give you guys MY version of the highlights. I decided that I should do it in segments because there is so much to say. I’m going to start off with Ellus, because many have dubbed the show as having the best set design. Why? Because of the huge aquarium with models swimming around in it in jeans. This is why I love Brazil; you would only see something edgy like that in a show over there. The main colours used in the collection were black, white, coral and beige. There were also a lot of silver and metallic pieces. Leather jackets and vests of various shapes and sizes were a recurring theme in the show as well. But these were not your typical leather jackets, they were cut in untraditional ways, my favourite style of leather jacket from the show were the ones that seemed kind of flowy and drapy. I liked the twist on the typical, rigid leather jacket. There were also a lot of high wasted shorts, many of them were made out of a kind of washed out, faded denim. Stripes also made an appearance in many of ensembles mostly in the form of shorts and scarves. My favourite piece of the entire show was a white long flowy dress with huge sleeves. The dress had a coral pattern on it that sort of looked like a tree. The accessories that it was paired up with made for perfection. I’ve posted some pictures of my favourite looks from the show, including the dress, enjoy!

drum circle style

last night i went to the drum circle, a weekly event. this week it was at cherry beach in Toronto, right on the water, with three bonfires going. needless to say it was brilliant. what was also brilliant, in my opinion, was what people were wearing. i was in awe of some of ensembles i saw. along with the whole atmosphere, the style had a hippie aesthetic to it. I saw a lot of amazing long lace-y skirts, often worn over loose linen or cotton pants. I also saw a lot of fine, loosely knitted wool scarves, shirts, sweaters and headbands, paired up with the lace made for an amazing look. My favourite item of the night was a wreath of flowers that this beautiful hippie chick was wearing on her head (above). It had ribbons flowing from the back. I also saw a lot of awesome wool/alpaca sweaters, which had that South American mountain range vibe. I tried to take pictures, but it was dark, and it wasn't really a picture-taking atmosphere, but I did what i could. I'll be going next week, and I will definietely show up early this time to take some pictures while its still light out.

Viva Brazil! ....Gnarley Shoes

I don't speak Portuguese, but I do speak Spanish, which helped me to understand that these shoes are by Christophe Decarnin. I am not familiar with him, but judging by the looks of these shoes I will have to do some serious research on him, because they are f*cking wicked. I love the punk studded vibe, and the black tassels. ASLO! stay tuned, I am writting a long article on Sao Paulo fashion week, hopefully I can get that up soon.

angie style

Here are some photos from my friend Angie Csercsa’s shoot for her styling course at Ryerson. She is also the assistant manager at NYLA, a trendy boutique in Rosedale, carrying all the latest styles from New York and Los Angeles. NYLA is where many of the pieces from the shoot come from. The theme of the shoot was plaid. According to Angie, designers have usually used plaid for the fall season, but now designers are using plaid in their spring/summer lines. Plaid is no longer only a fall look, with lighter pastel colours and/or lighter fabrics it is a summer necessity. The designers that inspired the shoot were Marc Jacobs, Micheal Kors and Vivienne Westwood, along with Diesel and William Rast. Going from top to bottom: in the first look, the head band is Rachel Weisman (which I think ties the whole look up beautifully), the necklace is hand made from Costa Rica, the bracelets are from H&M, which are also a nice touch, I love that look of pilling on an excessive amount of bracelets. The tank is YaYa Alfalo, and the belt is vintage Italian. In the second look, the shoes are Hypnotic, the ‘gladiator heel’, which are Dior look-a-like from Sex and the City, the denim vest and the top hat are from H&M, the shirt is from the Gap, the necklaces are from Aldo, the tapered trousers, another trend for the season, are Cynthia Vincent, and the bracelets are Chan Luu. In the third look we see the Hypnotic Gladiator Heel, along with a studded belt from Zara, which is a Balmain look-a-like. The tunic is from Zara as well, the skull necklace is from Aldo, and the bracelets are Chan Luu, and Links of London. The fourth look is my personal favourite, because of the stunning black leather jacket by Yaya Alfalo in contrast with the light colored skirt from H&M, with the matching bow tied on the neck. The top is from Marciano. In the final look, the edgy studded shoes are from Aldo, and so are the bracelets, the lace gloves are from Arden, the dress is Bryan Reyes, the blazer is Michael Kors, and the necklace is from H&M. As you can probably tell I love whole studded, dark gladiator-esque look, and I think that it contrasts nicely with the plaid, and lighter colours for the spring/summer.

Obey love

Although fashion is an art form in itself, i love the combination of other kinds of art and fashion. This is why i love and appreciate Obey. Obey was founded by street artist, Shepard Fairey, in 2001, when Fairey saw clothing as another outlet for his creativity, using t-shirts as a canvas for his graphics. Before Obey was founded, Fairey came across screen printing, which is how he came about creating the Obey logo (this hits home for me because i silk screen t-shirts as well) Any ways, the Obey spring/summer 2009 line is now avaiable online, and it is hot. The women's line is filled with colorful patterns, and simple yet sexy designs. I love the dresses and the shorts. The men's line is more traditional Obey style, with simple shirts and sweaters with unique graphics. Theres also some plaid thrown in there, and is done very nicely, for both the men and women. I've posted some of my favourite looks. The tank top with the crazy dragon on it is actually a mens shirt, but I would for sure rock it.

Lace Gallore

I am, and always have been, a huge fan of lace. Lace everything, no matter if its in style at the time or not. So, I was thrilled to see gorgeous red lace stockings on each and every model on the runway for Pink Tartan's collection during LG Fashion week in Toronto. Co-founder and head designer, Kimberly Newport-Mimran said that Grace Jones was the inspiration for this line. The line as a whole is very androgynous, yet sexy, elegant and feminine at the same time. Basically, girls look sexy when they look like boys. I'm really into it. Especially the lace. She matched up the red lace stockings with skirts, pants, dresses, everything, and it all looked absolutely amazing. After I saw the show i spent time looking for my own pair of red lace stockings. Unfortunately, I didn't find any red ones, but i did find black ones with stirrups, from Urban Behavior, causing me to become only $30 poorer. I also found a white, $12 pair at Aldo Accesories. You can find Pink Tartan at Fisher and Company in London (ON), Holts and TNT in Toronto, and Simons and Rivet Laundry in MTL. I'm not sure if any of these places are selling the red lace stockings from the show, but if you guys happen to find out let me know ;).