then

While I was home last week at my mom’s house in Halifax, I came across a goldmine of a photo album of me between the ages of 8 and 12.

It’s an odd window. Before then, most of my clothes arrived in a housefort-sized cardboard box that would come in the mail twice a year from my bubbie and zaidie (mostly my bubbie) in Toronto. The box would be packed to the flaps with toys and department store clothes that always formed the basis for my back-to-school outfits. Every possible nook was filled with pickled herring, mixed nuts, crumbled kosher cookies, and trays of smoked salmon. My brothers and I would joke that we needed to shake out all our clothes before wearing them in case one last can of tuna was hiding in the pockets.

During that time, my family had a string of live-in nannies who, being in their late twenties and early thirties, had themselves been teenagers in the 80s, and all shared a love of its music, hairstyles, and fashion. At the start of the photo album, I’m still being dressed by my nannies in bubbie’s care package clothing. There are strong 80s currents in my top and bottom sets of clashing florals and layered prints. One of my nannies introduced me to wearing tshirts over turtlenecks, which quickly became a staple of my elementary school wardrobe.

By the end of the album, I’m starting to dress myself. That marked the beginning of my new consumerism, my headlong dive into nineties trendiness and mall culture, and my (relatively short-lived) obsession with shopping. Here came the baby tees, the ballchain chokers and friendship necklaces, the sparkly plastic rings, and the 120 bottles-strong nail polish collection.

Since then, I’ve left behind the Disney franchise, Delia’s catalogs, and posing with my stuffed animals. I’ve moved from a pre-braces, pre-puberty, pre-dressing-for-a-bodyshape me to some sort of adult who not only dresses herself, but sometimes even considers outfits in advance of wearing them. Yet, flipping through the old album, I was struck by how similar my style is today. Sure, “The 90s are back!” But even more than individual items, it seems like it’s the way I dress that’s stayed pretty much the same.

now

Back then, I had my flower-printed Blossom hat, Curious George tshirt, and patterned canvas shoes with fabric paint doodles that I wore with everything. These days, it might be a forest green wool scarf, a faded band tshirt, or a pair of velvet sunglasses, and it’ll probably be different stuff a year from now. But I’m always rotating a few main pieces, grabbing some loud, ugly accessories, and putting it all together with the colours and patterns mashing up against each other. Having the evidence in front of me in these photos, it’s easy to see how much that early environment affected my style.

By high school, it was a new millennium and my clothes had gone off in a different direction. I don’t know if I’m ready to go back there yet. Maybe next time I visit my mom I’ll come across photos from that period and it’ll be far enough in the past for me to remember.

- Tessa Smith

We’re totally charmed by the stills for A Miniature Frolic, a visual cupcake of a film by frequent creative collaborators (and occasional WORN contributors), photographer Martin Reisch (*safesolvent), designer Lara Kaluza (Lalouka), and musician Tessa Smith (Brave Radar and Fixture Records - though you might remember her as the lady with the awesome haircut).

The film is competing in the Talenthouse video competition for A Shaded View on Fashion Film Festival, hosted by Diane Pernet and Tavi Gevinson and based in Paris.

You can view and vote for A Miniature Frolic over here.

A Miniature Frolic:
Video by *safesolvent
Clothing by Lalouka
Music by Brave Radar, courtesy of Fixture Records

I got a call from my friend Lara while at work on Wednesday saying she had an extra ticket to Montreal Fashion Week. After closing the store and throwing together an outfit I hopped on my bike and gunned it down to the Old Port to catch two collections: the nautical-inspired romantic looks of Eve Gravel and the jackets and coats of Soia & Kyo.

I loved Eve Gravel’s combination of harem khakis and loose tops with girlie details like lace, sheer fabrics, and some of the models’ flouncy long curls. The relaxed pant styles were very wearable and came across as incredibly stylish in contrast to just about every fit and fabric of pants you see on the street. Standouts for me in this collection were the mid-thigh length shorts in black khaki paired with a baggy off-the-shoulder sweater and the leather zip-up bodysuit worn with low-rise khakis and exposed hips. I definitely could have done without the seventies hipster cord headbands since they’re such a played out touchstone at this point, but the rest of the styling was well done.

I was a bit less wowed by Soia & Kyo’s collection of jackets, which included some very covetable takes on the classic leather jacket in colours like black, purple, grey, and orange. They featured nice details like oversized studs and belts and looked great worn over babydoll dresses, though at times the undergarments outshone the jackets themselves, like in the case of an amazing pair of sheer beige harem pants. The trench coats were incredibly boring and the feathered flower hairpieces brought the whole collection down, along with Keds sneakers that made the models walk really awkwardly. But I appreciated some of the other accessories like knee-high leather boots, white socks with heels, and a few pairs of cute fingerless leather motorcycle gloves.

- text by Tessa Smith, photos by Lara Kaluza and Tessa Smith

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.