Walking into Nokomis is always a bit like stepping into a storybook for grown-ups – if you’re the kind of grown-up who lives for tea parties, fairy tales, quiet corners, and playing dress-up.

Tucked into the century-old Griffith Block in Edmonton’s Old Strathcona, the store is full of artfully arranged rows and stacks of dresses, skirts, blouses, pants, shoes, jewelry, scarves, belts, bags and oh so many things in between. (Nokomis carries WORN, too!)

The last time I visited, on a windy weekday afternoon, co-owner Jessica Kennedy greeted me warmly and encouraged me to roam around and take pictures. The soundtrack to the movie Amélie was playing on the stereo, and with a creaky wood floor underfoot and surrounded by well-crafted, Canadian-made clothing, I was convinced I had entered my own personal, dress-filled dream world. I wondered what they would say if I decided just to never, ever leave.

When I go to Nokomis, it is always with a mission. Its seductive powers are such that, without a definite goal in mind, I am at risk of leaving having purchased the whole entire store – which would be happy for my closet but sad for my wallet. The deal I have worked out with myself is this: If I need something especially wonderful – to wear to a wedding, a party, a fancy dinner – Nokomis will be one of my first stops.

Of course, sometimes I break my own rules. (Often enough that, really, they’re not actually rules so much as nice ideas.) But every decision that ends in me carrying out one of their hand-sewn, raven-printed bags is never a decision I regret.

Nokomis is the Ojibwa word for grandmother – and as a tribute to its name, the west wall of the store is covered in photos of customers’ grandmothers, each in a simple wooden frame. If you come bring in a picture of your grandmother for the wall, you get ten percent off your purchase – and if you bring in pictures of both of your grandmothers, you get twenty.

Not only is Nokomis the name of the store itself, but it is also the name of the clothing line designed by Elizabeth Hudson (who runs the studio while Jessica runs the store). Their website defines the Nokomis line as, “pretty frocks for girls who read books.” Some of my favourite dresses have been from here – when I wear them, I always feel elegant, feminine and ready for a tea party.

Recently, on the Nokomis blog, Jessica and Elizabeth have announced that they are closing production on the house line, and that Fall 2009 will be its final season. The store will remain open, and will still carry all of its other usual, independent Canadian clothing lines – readers of the WORN blog might recognize complexgeometries, Supayana, and Norwegian Wood, among others – but after this fall, their house line will cease to be. The announcement saddened me, because I’ve become a big fan of the Nokomis label and all its lovely dresses. But, then, this is definitely an occasion special enough to warrant another mission of the seek-and-dress-up variety.

- Hailey Siracky

A few weeks ago I decided (after many weeks of internal debate) to cut my ratty, peroxide-damaged hair short. Like really short.

Here’s what it looked like to begin with.

I already look like a little kid and I enjoy dressing like one, so having long uncombed hair with crooked bangs wasn’t really helping me project the maturity or togetherness that I occasionally require for things like job interviews and buying wine without getting carded (every time!). Standing around one day at work, I thought back to all the summers I had spent with thick wavy locks gathering sweat on the back of my shoulders and finally turned to my friend Tiffany who was rearranging the hangers on a rack of dresses and said, “Hey! Do you wanna cut all my hair off?”

Tiffany usually cuts my hair at her Montreal apartment. She’s a professionally trained hairstylist but became disenchanted with the salon world and went independent a few years back. “Sure! I could use some more photos for my portfolio. What do you say to doing a few different cuts along the way if I do it for free?”

Woah. Getting to try out a bunch of different hairstyles with no commitment and the whole thing would be free of charge

“My friend Liz does makeup for movies, and I’m sure she’d want some new portfolio pictures too. We could get Marilis to take the photos!” Tiffany continued. I dove straight into the bottomless sea of google image search to hunt for short haircuts and style inspirations. A week later we were sitting in Tiffany’s living room surrounded by garbage bags of clothes, chugging coffees to shake off all of our hangovers. I set up my laptop in the corner and broadcasted Day One of the Haircut/Makeover Photoshoot.

It took us five hours to cut, do makeup, style, and photograph three different outfits. We collaborated on all the looks, drawing on our professional experience and then stuff like America’s Next Top Model and icons like Twiggy, Edie Sedgwick, Agyness Deyn, and even Lady Gaga. By Day Two, we were in the swing of things and did seven different looks in about four hours. Both days felt way more like play than any kind of work and the only money exchanged was when we paid the delivery guy for Chinese food. My favourite photos are from the later looks, after I warmed up to taking photos.

I’d love to do it all again knowing what I know now and working with this awesome team, but I’ll have to wait a few years until my hair grows out again… Let us know what you think!

Makeover Team:

Tiffany Elton is originally from Newfoundland. She cuts hair out of her apartment, designs vintage-inspired clothing for her line LadyLike, does fashion illustration, and plays music.

Liz Furlong works on movies and events doing makeup with a focus on environmentally-friendly products. She recently started a holistic wedding and event planning collective called Bouquet with five other women whose skills cover catering and hospitality, custom tailoring, graphic design, event planning, photography, and of course, makeup.

Marilis Cardinal has a streetstyle and party photo website called The Pregnant Goldfish. She works for Nightlife Magazine, does freelance styling for fashion shoots, takes photos of bands, and makes delicious fluorescent cupcakes.

Tessa Smith co-runs Fixture Records, a CD-R and cassette label, and plays in the band Brave Radar. She does freelance writing for Worn and keeps a blog on tumblr.

All clothes are our own, including Supayana shoelace necklace, Preloved cowl neck sweater dress, LadyLike plaid babydoll, complexgeometries black hooded tee-shirt. Everything else is vintage.

Victoire Boutique, located on Ottawa’s Dalhousie street, is one of those places where it’s easy to spend an entire afternoon. As an Ottawa native myself, I used to visit the place at least twice a week when I was in high school, trying on garments made by some of my favourite independent Canadian labels like complexgeometries and Preloved. Victoire also happens to be the place where I bought my first issue of Worn (and, subsequently, where I bought my second, third and fourth issues of Worn).

Flashing forward a couple of years, I’m now living in Toronto (and working for WORN). While I love the shopping I have access to in my new city, I can’t help but get homesick for Ottawa stores now and then. As nice as it would be in theory, I’m not able to take a Greyhound bus home every time I feel like shopping. Imagine how stoked I was then when Victoire launched VictoireBoutique.com, an online version of their store. True, shopping the website isn’t nearly as fun as visiting the store itself, but for those of us not residing in the country’s capital it’s a pretty nice alternative. For those of you who do live in Ottawa, keep an eye open for Victoire’s 3 year anniversary party on July 11.

-Anna Fitz

It’s Fashion Week here in Worn’s hometown of Toronto. The city’s herd of style writers are strapping on their slingbacks and straightening their ties to cover all the on-schedule and off-schedule shows about town. Our own herd of Wornettes will be invading the event that I am personally most excited for: the screening of Montreal designer Clayton Evans’ complexgeometries aw 2009 collection …between good and evil.

Evans speaks of his work as an examination of the conflict and co-existence of moral ideals: “informed by the grey area that exists between right and wrong, the collection explores a diversity of references including vigilantes, religious icons, toreadors, and ghostly apparitions.” No small feat. Evans has become a fashion blogger darling as of late, with glowing posts from the epic stylin’ ladies of Kingdom of Style and the Coveted. He combines strong, durable fabrics with more delicate ones, creating pieces without a defined “front” or “back.” Dramatic collars and capes can expose the body or create a restrained silhouette.

The name of your line comes from Buckminster Fuller, the architect. Can you tell me a little about how you decided on that?
I identify with a lot of Buckminster Fuller’s ideas about design and the responsibility of designers. I searched for a name for a long time, and when I hit on complexgeometries, with its balance between form and thoughtfulness, it just made sense.
***In 1949, Buckminster Fuller completed the design for his first geodesic dome. It’s the product of one of Fuller’s greatest architectural concerns - the marriage of technology and nature. That, and the post-war housing crisis, which he hoped the dome would solve.

You’ve stated that with your previous collection, Sex of the Ancients, you came up with the title first and worked the collection around this idea. Did you follow a similar method with …between good and evil?
No, this collection was a little more organic, in that we started work on it before the theme solidified. The fashion calendar moves very quickly so we don’t always have time to wait for inspiration to hit. And because we’re a smaller line, we have more freedom to experiment; we don’t always follow the same process.
***Wish there were more hours in the day? Try polyphasic sleep, something Buck Fuller claimed he was able to do. For two years he slept a mere two hours a day.

Can you explain the film project a bit?
I wanted to present the collection in an unusual way, but video has become quite common. I thought it could be interesting to present the same collection from a few different perspectives. In an age when thoroughly conceived marketing strategies are the norm, giving five artists carte blanche seemed like a new approach. And it’s an approach that is consistent with complexgeometries values of engagement and versatility.
***Evans handed the camera over to five Montreal artists for his video, including regular Worn contributors Arianna and Stacy Lundeen.

You showed …between good and evil in New York this season, what was that event like?
OAK organized a party and offered us a venue to show the videos. The team at OAK have been big supporters, so it was great for us to be able to work with them. And they throw a great party.
***Evans collaborated with OAK in September 2008, when they opened a second store on Bond Street in Manhattan. They commissioned a bondage themed collection, and complexgeometries offered up bound jersey.

Do you take the method of presentation into account when you are designing your clothes?
No, presentation is a whole other endeavour. Complexgeometries is a fairly continuous project, and each collection, presentation or installation is an interruption that capsules the project so far.
***Buck Fuller thought much the same way, he once wrote: “I am not a thing — a noun. I seem to be a verb, an evolutionary process – an integral function of the universe.”

A little preview…

COMPLEX GEOMETRIES aw09 | TRAILER from JASON LAST on Vimeo.

Catch the screening of …between good and evil and meet the designer and some of the filmmakers in person. Friday, March 20th 2009 from 7pm-10pm at Unit, 1198 Queen St. West