interview by Victoria Rumi
Laural Raine, crafty as a child, has graduated from making clothes for Barbie to sewing for herself instead. Laural’s popular blog, thimble.ca was her starting point three years ago and now she has partnered with Jen Anisef of Toronto Craft Alert, to create an online craft store. goodEGG Industries, (not to be mistaken with the Good Egg cookbook store in Kensington market) supports the Canadian independent craft community and features the works of emerging crafty talents.

How do the garments on your website relate to goodEGG Industries?
We have a few clothing designers on our website and we’re always looking to add more. Like everything that we sell, we choose clothing designs that offer an original approach, are really well-made, and would be things that we would want to wear ourselves!

What do you think the differences are between handmade and manufactured clothing?
A lot of people buy handmade to have something that’s a bit more unique - something you know only a few dozen people are going to have, or in some cases maybe only you will have that particular piece in a certain colour combination. When you wear something handmade you also know that someone has spent a lot of time thinking about the design and constructing each aspect so you’re getting something that’s well-made and has a lot of care that went into it.

Has the recent fall of the economy forced your customers to stop buying your online handmade sellers?
I think that when there are difficulties in the economy it becomes even more important to support local and independent businesses, so I think people who would be inclined to buy handmade would continue to do so in an economic downturn.

What is your favourite item of clothing in your closet?
My most worn item would probably be a favorite hoodie or pair of jeans, but one of my most prized items of clothing is the dress I wore at my wedding - it’s from the Anne Hung Boutique. I keep waiting for an opportunity to wear it again because it’s a really pretty three-quarter length dress that doesn’t look particularly bridal except for the fact that it’s white. I’ve been thinking about trying to dye it another colour so no one would even know I wore it at my wedding - but I’m too scared to try it!

If you could be reincarnated into an item of clothing, what would it be?
I don’t think I would want to be reincarnated as an inanimate object at all! But, I guess I would say a hat? Because you’d have a good view of the world…

Laural’s Top 10 Fashion Blogs
1 - Coquette
2 - Burda Style
3 - Wardrobe Refashion
4 - Oh Joy
5 - Modish
6 - My love for you
7 - Penguin and Fish
8 - Creature Comforts
9 - The Vintage Society
10-Clothes Pin

interview and photography by Zorianna Zurba
Toronto’s Leslieville neighbourhood is home to The Doll House, a boutique filled with sassy and smart dresses by the Damzels, accessories, and even some baby attire. Worn pays a visit to the delightful design duo behind Damzels in this Dress Rory Lindo and Kelly Freeman at their store.

What does the dress mean to you?
Rory: The dress is a staple.
Kelly: It is everything is our world. Its a way to instantly look put together and stand out in a crowd.
Rory: Its great if you’re lazy. You can put on a Damzels dress and look pretty cute instantly.
Kelly: We’re fans of vintage and the ultimate hunt and putting together the ultimate outfit. But the perfect dress for everyday is easy, and doesn’t need to compromise your style.

Any comments on the re-emergence of the dress in fashion this year?
Rory: Everything is cyclical. We saw that huge boom in the 1990s, so it was time.
Kelly: Fashion got lazy. It went extremely casual. We have new fabrics that are so comfortable like bamboo. So, you can feel like you’re wearing sweats when you’re not.
Rory: And you can wear comfortable things without having a quote on your ass.

I’ve had my Damzels in This Dress Roller Dress for nearly six years and it has really stood the test of time. What makes a dress stand the test of time?
Kelly: We get that a lot. The store was a chance for us to connect with customers and hears stories about our dresses.
Rory: We’re never out of style, because we’re never really in style. Our merchandise doesn’t really follow style.
Kelly: We don’t believe in style with an expiration date.
Rory: We want people to have a real chuck for their buck.
Kelly: We want people to adopt the flavor of the season without making it rule their world.
Rory: Our girls have style. They know how to do that.

How was your participation in Toronto Fashion Week?
Kelly: Not our first year, but a hiatus. Our first in three years.
Rory: Three-four.
Kelly: We did it a few years back when it was at the Liberty Grand. That was our swan song for a while. We made a zombie film when we did [the show] at the Carlu.
Rory: ..leaving everyone with a good taste in their mouth.
Kelly: But, we wanted to focus our energies on a retail store. A lot of people we’ve talked to said that [the zombie show] was the first show they went to, and it turned them around.

Zombie film?
Kelly: Yeah, we’ve shot two films. Rise of the Damzel Swamp Zombie in 2003, which was the last time that we did Fashion week. It was a film about flesh eating zombie girls.
Rory: We were the first people to put zombies back into popular culture.
Kelly: We brought that back again this past fashion week. We ended with a film and started back with a film Day of the Dolls, Dawn of the Damzels (2007). Its a kind of Pinocchio story about a couple of zombies who find a home in our boutique here in Leslieville.
Rory: But, there is a little bit of killing along the way.

We often hear about Parisian-women, but what about Toronto women? Do you think that there is a Toronto-woman?
Rory: Toronto women are more vintage inspired. We have a lot of good vintage available, which why they like our line because we have a lot of vintage-like stuff.
Kelly: People tend to say that we’re so New York or so L.A. But, people from Toronto are not really from Toronto. Its more that…
Rory:attitude
Kelly: yeah… they’re adventurous. Livin’ large. They want to make the most of it
Rory: Women here have good hair cuts.

Who are your top 10 damsels to put in Damzels?
1 - Ginger from Gilligan’s Island
2 - Kelly Ripa 

3 - Tura Satana

4 - Liz Phair
5 - Maggie Gyllenhaal
6 - Betsey Johnson
7 - Ann & Nancy Wilson
8 - Sophia Loren
9 - Dita Von Teese
10- Sarah Silverman

interview by Julia Mahon
Mado Lamotte, the flamboyant alter ego of Montreal francophone Luc Provost has been active in the gay community for 20 years. Starting as an UQAM student and worker at Lezard, Lamotte’s over-the-top drag queen persona has earned her recognition. Lamotte is a magazine contributor, an entrepreneur, club co-owner and local celebrity. Her sharp tongue and wit spills into everything from her interviews to her role as an emcee during Saturday night cabaret evenings. Lamotte was also kind enough to sit down with me for a dressing room interview prior to her cabaret performance.

Why did you open Cabaret Mado?
I started in the nightlife scene as a gogo girl and a cigarette girl. I also did bingo. It all led me here [Cabaret Mado]. I wanted to create something different for the village. Mado has become a “neighborhood bar” where people can go and have fun. We have regulars here. We have heterosexual women, men, lesbians, gays; everyone is welcome. We recently celebrated our sixth anniversary.

I understand you have a personal stylist. How did that happen?
Daniel Serrurier is my stylist. When I started out as a drag queen, I had to search for things at Village des Valeurs. There are only so many prom dresses that you can wear onstage. I knew a couple who did costumes and that is how I met Daniel, he’s been making my costumes for three years. Hopefully that makes me eligible for a discount on some dresses sometime soon.

What challenges do you and your stylist face when dressing your character “Mado” for a performance?
It’s not much of a challenge, in fact it’s easier than dressing a regular woman. With women, they need clothes that fit perfectly, clothes that flatter, clothes that beautify. With drag queens, the clothes need to be ridiculous. They are supposed to be too long, unflattering and outrageous. Mado’s clothes are like haute couture, people look at them and think it’s outrageous and impossible for an ordinary person to wear.

You’ve said that drag queens are like clowns, what do you mean by that?
Drag queens are like clowns because they are ridiculous. They are extreme and they are eccentric. They are comedians. Drag queens aren’t trying to satirize a woman, but rather create a character.

Mado’s top 10 drag queen accessories…
1 - a swarovski crystal microphone
2 - Dior’s plastic electric red lip gloss
3 - Timbuktu perfume from “L’Artisan Parfumeur”
4 - a Hello Kitty fan
5 - glitter, glitter and more glitter
6 - pink Sally Hansen Nail Polish
7 - the longest false eyelashes possible
8 - light almond oil makeup remover
9 - black stockings
10- my 50 pairs of shoes

interview and photography by Tracie LeBlanc
Katie and Regine are co-owners of Victoire, a sweet shop on Ottawa’s independently fashionable street, Dalhousie.

Why did you decide to open up a boutique in Ottawa?
It’s a city that has the best of both worlds - a big city, but with small town charms. It’s got the large population and tourist industry of a big city, but it’s also small enough that it’s easy to build a community around any project/business/idea you have. Everyone in Ottawa is connected somehow…so it means it’s really only a matter of time before you’re friends…which often leads to partnerships. This is how we love to do business, with friends!

What are your plans for the future?
Our new, bigger space allows us to expand into areas we’ve wanted to for a while, but just didn’t have the space for. We’re excited to be doing men’s wear, and doing more accessories for women, including shoes. We’re also dabbling in a house line, Steel Magnolias, which is primarily jewelry for now - but who knows where that could lead. And we’re also doing more art shows, and are thinking about hosting other types of events (bands, dance parties, etc.)

What do you think about Ottawa’s fashion scene?
A lot of people in Ottawa have full days, and they need outfits that can take them from the desk job, to “5 � 7″ drinks, to a dance party in a stinky basement. That makes for some very innovative (and resourceful!) dressing. Fashion scenes in other cities are more tied to their city’s fashion industry, but since Ottawa has a very small fashion industry, our “fashion scene” interlaps more with the music scene, the art scene, the club scene, the queer scene, etc. This makes things quite eclectic and harder to pin down.

Régine and Katie’s top 10 favourite Canadian designers…
1 - Clayton Evans for complexgeometries

2 - Dace Moore for Dace

3 - Valerie Dumaine 

4 - Nokomis

5 - Maryanne Mathias for Hastings & Main
6 - Melissa Matos & Lenny Pier-Ramos for Powerhaus
7 - Arielle de Pinto
8 - Renata Morales
9 - Denis Gagnon
10-Common Cloth