Otiena Ellwand is a second-year journalism student at Ryerson University and an intern at CHEEK Magazine. She loves all kinds of design - from fashion to architecture - and she thirsts for adventure and seeks it not only in her own home of Toronto, but around the world. She has a unique, colourful, and inspiring sense of style. Otiena certainly doesn’t blend in, but that’s okay - she doesn’t want to.

How did you dress in elementary school? How about in high school?
In grade 4, I had an awesome pair of lime green platform shoes that I wore everyday… The Spice Girls influenced that decision! In high school my best friend and I paired odd combinations of things together. We tried to be creative with our clothes because it was fun and we wanted to stand out. A lot of the girls we went to high school with wore Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister so we sort of did it as a rebellion.

I have this bright yellow dress with little blue owls on it that I bought in Kensington Market. I wore it a lot in my teenage years; on dates, to school, to Greece, and I was made fun of mercilessly, but I didn’t care because it so perfectly represented my personality. I still wear it today and I still get made fun of although now it’s a little bit “cooler” to be seen sporting a vintage dress like that one.

You do a lot of traveling. Has this affected the way you see fashion?
I love traveling and every time I do, I try to pick up a few pieces that I feel either really represent the place, will remind me of it, or are just unique pieces that I won’t be able to find back home.

Last year I lived in Indonesia and dressing was tricky. It was extremely hot and I needed clothes that were comfortable, durable, that I was willing to get dirty, and most importantly, that covered me up because the majority of Indonesians are Muslim. I didn’t really care how I looked so I opted for baggy shirts and capris. I did get some beautifully patterned cloths, one of which I got made into a mermaid-shaped skirt. It isn’t really something I would wear in Canada, but in Indonesia I got a lot of compliments on it. It’s funny how the clothes that were fashionable there would never be fashionable here. They really like patterns and baubles. They have this traditional dyeing technique that makes a pattern called Batik and that’s what they wear for formal occasions. It is really something to see all of the men in these intricately patterned shirts instead of black dress suits.

Sometimes I have a lot of difficulty with having a fashionable image. I want to dress nicely, look and feel good, and indulge in fashion, but I also feel like I only feel those ways when I am ‘dressed up’ in makeup and nice clothes. Shouldn’t we feel all of those things even when we’re just looking exactly like ourselves without any of that stuff? As I adapt to where I am, so does my sense of fashion. Each scene differs from the next; I guess that’s the fun of fashion, after all.

Colour is a huge part of your personal style. Why do you think it’s important to wear colourful clothing and accessories?
I can’t help it, I’m just addicted to colour. Colour has always been apart of my wardrobe. I had a fascination with the colour turquoise and wanted that to be the colour of my wedding dress (hopefully my future partner won’t mind!). I have tried to put more black into my wardrobe because I hear that it is sophisticated, but really, black isn’t me. I’m an outgoing and positive person and colour is just another way I reflect that. If I’m going to live in a cold, sometimes ugly and grey place like Toronto, I best amuse myself with the colourful outfits I put together.

Oteina’s top ten favorite clothing stores in the world:
* The market in the city of Bengkalis, Indonesia where you can find everything you’d ever want for small change.

* The (Up)Market in London England’s Brick Lane area has crafty and creative knickknacks.

* All Saints, London. Great quality with a Brick Lane edge.

* There’s a store called PerModoDiDire in Florence that sells ‘funny saying’ shirts in Italian and each purchase comes with a pocket-sized comic book.

* I love Tina Kalivas’s designs because they are so colourful and geometric.

* Sitka is the name of a surf store and also of a tree that can be found in British Columbia, where I stayed last summer. I like supporting Canadian labels, and this one comes with a lot of memories.

* Young Janes: Treat yourself to some earrings made by the owner.

* If there’s one department store I like to make a point of visiting it’s Simon’s in Quebec. The store has all of the staples and then some.

* Going to Mountain Equipment Co-Op means adventure.

* Happie Loves It: This store appeals to my happy outlook on life and my addiction to colour. Cute!

- Stephanie Fereiro

Victoire Boutique

After spending nine months of the year going to school in Toronto, coming home to the significantly smaller Ottawa for the summer can be a little dull at times. Sure, we may have the best bagels in the world (shout out to Kettelmans!) but at the end of the day it’s a city with no subway system, no CN tower and no H&M (seriously though, what is up with that? Mississauga has three). But as hard as I may be on my city at times (okay, most of the time), I have to give credit where credit is due — as I’ve written before, we are home to an eclectic variety of independent and vintage clothing stores. So when Isabel, the brains behind the style blog Hipster Musings, announced she was coming to town to visit, I immediately began mapping out all the best places to go shopping in downtown Ottawa without stepping foot in the Rideau Centre.

Stop #1: Aunt Olive’s Vintage (209 Gilmour Street)

Aunt Olive’s is a café/vintage clothing hybrid of a shop, packed with lots of crazy old clothes. This is a good place to shop if you seek the unconventional and are willing to get creative with your clothes — in other words, if you are the typical Worn reader. I figured I am probably too practical for some of the wilder pieces (”How exactly does one wash a gold sequined tube top?” “Uh… Febreze?”), but for the fearless Susie Bubble types among you, you will be pleased to know that Aunt Olive’s is currently in the middle of a bag sale, this weekend only.

Stop #2: Mags and Fags (254 Elgin St.)

I have a love/hate relationship with this place. Love it because it’s one of the few places in the city where you can buy international magazines, hate it because without it I’d probably be a lot richer (did I really need to spend 17 dollars on an Australian fashion magazine? Yes. Yes, I did). Plus, I always get a huge kick when I see Worn in stores, especially when it’s stuck amongst giant airbrushed faces of Lara Stone and Cameron Diaz. We spent some time here, flipping through various glossies neither of us could really afford before settling on copies of Teen Vogue; laugh all you want, but I could never hate on a magazine that named Isabel as the most stylish girl of the week. What can I say? They have taste.

Stop #3: Victoire Boutique (246 Dalhousie St.)

This is actually a bit of a trek from the last stop, but it was totally worth the trip. We learned some pretty valuable lessons at this store, including:

1. It is completely necessary that I own a pair of custom-painted heels by Tyson Bodnarchuk.
2. There really are about 14 different ways to wear a complexgeometries tank top, and about twice as many ways to get tangled up in one.
3. Even if the store isn’t that busy, that does not mean that all the fitting rooms will be empty. Opening a change room door without checking to see if anybody is in it first can lead to awkward results.

As I’ve mentioned before, Victoire also happens to be the place where I bought my first issue of Worn while still in high school. It is, as Isabel calls it, the “mother of all independent boutiques.”

Stop #4: Workshop Boutique (242 1/2 Dalhousie St.)

Workshop is a sizable store that sells an array of dresses, skirts, blouses, slacks, bags, jewelery, and underwear — all made by Canadian designers. Wearable things aside, what really caught our attention were the “action figure dolls” crafted by Winnipeg artist Suzie Smith. The dolls included the above pictured John and Yoko, Missy Elliott, the Guerrilla Girls , and Courtney Love, who happens to be one of Isabel’s biggest idols. This is of course referring more to early-90s-Kurt-Cobain-dating-baby-doll-dress-wearing-Sassy-covering Courtney Love, and less to 2009’s angry Twitter updating Courtney Love — although both get points for originality.

Stop #5: Young Janes (203 Dalhouse St.)

I always figured that if Aunt Olive’s was like a crazy older relative passing on her funky hand-me-downs, then Young Janes would be like your cool best friend who lets you raid their closet — you know, in exchange for money. Still, the store always has a calm atmosphere: owner Mika (pictured above) is always very friendly, and the clothes (second hand) are versatile enough to cover many different styles. In other words, there are enough floral dresses to satisfy both a love of girlish whimsy and Isabel’s aforementioned obsession with the 90s. Young Janes is also home to a cushy couch and a stack of various fashion books, so it’s a good place to hit up at the end of the day when you need a bit of a rest. If I was the type of person who used expressions like “shop ’til you drop,” I would find it’s quite applicable here.

-Anna Fitz

*Title chosen in reference to this movie. To the late John Hughes, may you rest in peace.