Style – Prairie Dog

Saskatchewan Fashion Week

Saskatchewan Fashion Week happens only once a year for a single weekend. But in 2015, organizers have you covered for the whole year. That’s because during SFW 2015 local retailers will be showcasing spring/summer style trends, while 23 Canadian designers will be debuting their fall/winter collections.

Saskatchewan Fashion Week is being held May 7-9 in expanded facilities at the Canada Saskatchewan Sound Stage on the corner of Broad St. and College Ave. For ticket information on the runway shows, and details on who the participating designers and retailers are, visit the SFW website.

As you can see if check out the website, if you can’t make it to the actual event, the runway shows will be live-streamed. The host this year is former Regina resident Ryan Massel who has carved out a reputation for himself in the fashion world as a Calgary-based blogger under the tag Mr. Fabulous.

Here’s a short promo video where Massel introduces himself as SFW 2015 host

Busted!

As regular Dog Blog readers have known for some months now, and the rest of Prairie Dog readers found out in our Dec. 26 issue (via this cover story), our city hall reporter Paul Dechene is currently in Malta with his family while his math prof wife is on sabbatical.

During his time away, Dechene has begged off doing much writing for Prairie Dog, claiming that he’s too busy keeping an eye on his two children and checking out all the sights and sounds of his new Mediterranean island home. Certainly, we were prepared to cut him some slack. I mean, how many times does an opportunity like this to travel with your family and soak up some island culture (and weather) come along?

Turns out, though, Dechene has been doing some writing after all. In fact, he had a feature article in the Leader-Post’s Travel section on Friday (see photo above, double click to enlarge). He probably thought he could trick us by publishing under the name “Lucy Hyslop”, but we’re too smart to fall for the old gender switcheroo pseudonym trick Paul.

You can read Dechene’s Prairie Dog story via the above link. And for comparison purposes, you can read his sorry-ass Postmedia story, in which he doesn’t once — not once! — bitch about Malta being overrun with cars and having crap transit service, here.

Observations Of An Outsider

My annual Regina trip is in full swing. Here is what I have discovered thus far.

When the Riders have a bye week, people actually think of other things! Normally, during my week-long July visit, I note Rider clothing adorning 19.2% of adults and 24.7% of youth/children/toddlers/babies. This week however, the numbers are drastically reduced to 11.8% and 9.3% respectively. 9.3! That is outrageous! I assume the week off for the team partly explains the absence of Kelly Green (of course you knew that Kelly Green is the specific colour tone of the Roughriders) but as I pointed out to a new friend at O’Hanlon’s, the team also sucks. Shame should not be ruled out as a contributing factor. The positive here is that folks have headspace for things other than football, so I hope to see a big crowd at the Red Sox game tonight.

My second observation; the traffic lights on Arcola Avenue heading South East are horribly synchronized. Fix it. Why am I stopping so much on what is practically a highway? Do you have city councillors that are invested in brake repair shops? Fix it.

Observation 3. The Knotted Thistle serves beer in great big test tube things they call “yards”. It’s funny to look at and ridiculously inconvenient to drink from and of course completely compromises the taste of your beer. Even so, part of me wants to try it. The same part of me that wants to post a teaser on facebook about what an incredible day I am having just to see if I can suck anybody into caring. Fortunately, 47 years has taught me to supress that urge. I will have a pint of Rogue Farms Seven Hops please. Jesus, that’s a lot of hops in one beer.

Finally, there are fewer “gingers” in Regina than Saskatoon. Are they banished at adulthood? Saskatoon is flush with these fascinating mutants and dare I say Regina, you are missing out on something special. Speckly orangey reddishness goes brilliantly with Kelly Green! Observe…

Beautiful colours. — Beautiful colouring.

Meanwhile, In Saskatoon

So, this happened yesterday. More here.

Get Dressed: Don’t Dress Your Age

Jean-in-Fabulous-Fashionistas

Thought I’d share this wonderful and inspiring British TV documentary about six mature fashionistas. The doc explores these women’s convention-defying sartorial choices as well as their anti-ageist lifestyles. It’s a pretty delightful watch no matter what age or gender you are. Enjoy, and enjoy getting dressed!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb1YI2CKSyo

More info can be found right over here on Senior Planet.

Get Dressed: Business Casual

Gothic lolita meets business casual (via PheonixPinion)

Dressing appropriately business casual for professional activities makes me want to let a boob hang out. However, the impulse is lessened by a) pretending that it’s a costume! and b) that I’ve got all kinds of pseudo-dressed up bits and bobs in my closet that are pretty easy to adapt to the look. Lately, I’ve been gravitating toward the buttoned down, armour-like elements that I own anyway, and they work pretty well in business contexts – but holy man do I abhor total and complete submission to tastefulness.

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Get Dressed: Pagan Style

Screen Shot 2013-09-19 at 12.15.22 PM

Can we skip this whole end of summer thing, jump past autumn, do not pass Go/ do not collect $200, and head straight over to winter please? Because this photo series over on Bad Panda is giving me a serious case of wintery fashion inspiration. From the website:

“For two years, French photographer Charles Fréger has been traveling throughout 19 European countries and trying to capture the spirit of what he calls “tribal Europe” in his “Wilder Mann” series. What he found was a huge array of pagan rituals, mainly related to the winter solstice and spring renewal, focusing on the common myth of the “wild man.” Read more/ogle amazing photos here!

*They’ve some how super protected the photos from downloading (with pagan powers??), so forgive the shoddy screen cap above.

Get Dressed: QCC Steeze (Day 2)

Hurrah, Queer City Cinema is still on today and the festival is definitely cause to get dressed with fun and intention. The programming theme this year is ‘Whatchulookinat?!’, which urges viewers to use a critical lens when gazing and interpreting representations of gender and sexuality.

A few years ago the queer community seemed lit up with excitement about reviving/reinterpreting the old school “hanky code”, a covert sartorial system where one would wear hankies of different colours in one’s left or righ back pocket, signaling the wearer’s sexual preferences. Nowadays the hanky code has become more elaborate. Have a look at the attached charts and pics to see if there’s a hanky code in there for you. Enjoy, and enjoy getting dressed!

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Get Dressed: QCC Steeze (Day 1)

Hurrah, Queer City Cinema starts today! And as with even lesser calendar dates (like Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday), this festival is cause to get dressed with fun and intention. The programming theme this year is ‘Whatchulookinat?!’, which urges viewers to use a critical lens when gazing and interpreting representations of gender and sexuality.

Interestingly, two pieces came out about the changing reality of butch-dom in the media this week: “The Disappearing Butch?” on CBC Radio One’s The Current and “Suit Up: The Boom In Butch Fashion” by Keph Senett for Bitch Magazine. I’d recently been thinking about what it means to present as butch in times when ‘transmasculine’ is an increasingly popular term for queer gender performance, especially since it doesn’t reinforce the gender binary. Fascinating reads/listens! Now, let’s have a look at some glorious vintage (and vinatge inspired) butches and get inspired; enjoy, and enjoy getting dressed.

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Get Dressed: Every Which Way And Loose

I’ve been noticing lots of street wear type style blogs including photos of gents in spring-like layers that suggest dress lengths…and I love it! Gender play is so much fun. The fellows in these pix are definitely playing with the hard/soft dichotomy by contrasting the flow-y silhouettes with beards and sporty footwear. You can look elsewhere around the world for examples of men in soft lines: Scotland’s kilts, West Africa’s dashikis, Morrocco’s dishdashas. All photos courtesy of Ullisses Carrhilo. Enjoy, and enjoy getting dressed!

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Get Dressed: Riding The Second Wave (On I.W.D.)

Crack open your first edition copies of Our Bodies, Ourselves and pass around the stuffed celery, button makers and cigarettes, cuz I suggest celebrating International Women’s Day (today) by going Second Wave! Psst! Check out the new issue of PD for the Equity Report et plus!

While Second Wave Feminism (basically the 60s to 80s) has evolved, its ideas and ideals helped shape our future feminist imaginations and helped to pave the way for further dialogue on gender and oppression. I’m going to go all third wave and suggest we celebrate those struggles by dressing the part, cuz as first waver Emma Goldman said, ‘I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody’s right to beautiful, radiant things.’ More after the jump!

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Get Dressed: Enter The Crone

Hark! Old is new again, y’all. Now one can be vintage down to the roots. Out with traditional interpretations of advanced age signifiers (ill health, grouchiness, frailty) and in with the celebration of wisdom, self-knowledge and freedom – and grey hair! According to articles like this one in American Vogue, grey (and white) hair is in. But here on the Dog Blog, we’re not into trend-watching cuz we recognize that there are as many ways to get dressed as there are to grow old, whether one chooses to “age with grace” or decidedly without, or fake advanced age until you make it a little further along your mortal coil. With this in mind, I’ve decided to take this trend and amplify it by suggesting going Full Crone. More after the jump!

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Get Dressed: Brace Yourself!

I have to tell you, I was planning a very different post about menswear this morning: I was going to argue in favour of belted high-waisted denim on gents/gender-queer/transmasculine folks (looks awesome, trust, + that post will happen, promise)…however I was quickly led astray by all the saucy images of dudes in suspenders, have mercy. Suspenders, or more specifically, braces, are a highly butch sartorial trope that folks often use to play up or contrast their gendered self-presentation. Or to simplify, the body-framing lines are sexy because they’re associated with traditional masculinity, which is fun to play up or subvert. Suspenders and braces look work-ready and tough as well as ready for a quick and easy deshabillement…so go to! Here are some styling tips for ya (here are some more), if you’re feeling a little timid about strapping these on for size. Most photos in this post are linked to further sources and inspiration. Enjoy, and enjoy getting dressed! More images after the jump!

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Get Dressed: Videos VS. Runways

So, fashion videos are starting to become a popular option for brands and independent designers who want to skip the expense of a runway show. That’s awesome, however many of those videos somehow end up being annoyingly twee. Enter Vena Cava and their latest video, which sends all of that up. Watch it to the end!

(click the image to check out the video)

Get Dressed: What’s Black, White And Red All Over?

Answer: A newspaper! Or a Prairie Dog magazine. Or this blog post, whichever…the riddle works best read aloud.

I came across these photos of model Edie Campbell photographed by Allisdair McLellan for the UK magazine 032c floating around the internet and thought that the simple colour palette and warm looking threads would translate nicely for many citizens in our permafrosted city. Nevermind that the model is a dead ringer for a young Jane Birkin (hair cut and all); what’s important here are the strong hues, graphic prints, warm sweaters and calf-length skirts. In particular, the natural fibers and notable lack of jersey make the simple pairings seem more luxe than casual. I’m also totally loving the creeper style platform shoes that bring just enough weird to the equations to keep them thrilling.

Something that struck me about the pants pictured in the the photo below are how differently slim cut pants (stovepipe or cigarette pants, for example) read as compared to leggings. Love ’em or hate ’em, leggings are increasingly popular these days and have a distinctly sporty/causal/comfort-focused feel to them which can change the whole way an outfit fits together. For lots of folks, the stretchiness of the leggings fabric is a major plus especially when it’s becoming harder to find well made pants in larger sizes. There’s a couple of interesting articles I found about this subject from last week, xojane.com’s I KNOW THE LINE BETWEEN STRAIGHT AND PLUS SIZE IS FICTIONAL, BUT CROSSING IT FEELS SUPER-REAL and jezebel.com’s Leggings, Leggings Everywhere — and It’s Just Going to Get Worse. Anyhow, if you’re looking for a change of pace from leggings but still want pants you can tug boots over top of, then stovepipes might be an option to explore.

So that’s that for my first style-related blog post. Enjoy, and enjoy getting dressed! – A

* Recommended listening: Kitty Pryde’s D.A.I.S.Y. rage mixtape!

A Century Of Fashion In 100 Seconds

That’s what the title implies though I note the run time is 1:41. I found this link on BoingBoing who got it from Laughing Squid, which is obviously one of the best kinds of squid.

Stewed, Screwed And Tattooed: Pile O’ Bones Tattoo Convention 2011

Show me a man with a tattoo and I'll show you a man with an interesting past- Jack London

This looks like it hurts and yes, yes it does. Pain is temporary and being badass is forever. This weekends Pile o’ Bones tattoo convention attracted artists, collectors, looky-lous and law enforcement to the Highland curling club. They came to check portfolios, eye the pin-up girls and take-in a weekends worth of ink-tertainment.

As I walked around the show, a favourite Yeats quote echoed in my ears: “There are two kinds of people in the world: people with tattoos and those who fear people with tattoos.” It may be dated, but it still has some truth to it. Why? I’m not sure. I’ve worked in shops for many years and everyday I am amazed by who, what and where ends up inked. A decade ago, having a sleeve could stop traffic and now every teenage bottle-rocket is sporting huge pieces.

The stigma is gone for most but the revolution takes time. What’s the genesis of tattoo-phobia? Call it puritanism, suspicion or just finding it yucky. Cops, border guards and the unenlightened often equate tattoos with criminality. These folks overlook an art-form with a history predating civilization. People have been getting tattoos for thousands of years and the “trend” is showing no sign of slowing. Tattoos are a legitimate billion-dollar industry and conventions like Pile O’ Bones, are where the pros come to show their work and their ink.

Coming Soon: Prairie Dog Limited Edition Shirts

We’re ordering them this week! Here’s a sneek peek at the draft artwork (pending colour tweaks). The shirt’s an indie-rock-style effort by News Quirks illustrator Myron Campbell that ties in with our upcoming Back To School feature. The plan is to print this on premium American Apparel 50/50 shirts. More than one colour will be available–right now we’re thinking gold, sand and orchid (kind of a mauve), which you can see in shirt-form here.

Cost isn’t set but $20 seems a safe bet.

If you’re tentatively interested, let me know in the comments below or on prairie dog’s Facebook page. This will help me determine how many shirts to print. If this scheme works, i.e. if it doesn’t actually lose money, we’ll do more arty, limited edition shirts in the future. We’re also thinking about a non-limited edition, somewhat more conventionally-designed prairie dog tee, to be available in the next few months.

Regina Latin Festival

The Latin Festival finishes off this weekend at Wascana Park, in the shadow of the Legislature. It’s an interesting juxtaposition: Saskatchewan governance was built on the traditional stiff-up-lip of the British Edwardians, as formal and as stiff as a Royal funeral. A Latin festival means music, and dancing, and fun — and a loosening of those social mores (not to mention a beer garden.)

Their website is here.

I don’t know much about the performers, in particular, or about Latin music in general. To me, it seems to be a strange thing that peoples from different nations in Central and South America — each with their own histories and cultures — get lumped together in the same genre (Going up to a Chilean and cheering for Brazil at the most recent World Cup would have been worth your life). But what they do share is a common language — for the most part, unlike the rest of Central and South America, Brazil’s first language is not Spanish but Portuguese — and the desire to have a good time.

As my wife said as we left the area Saturday night, “this is a good lead into the Regina Folk Festival. It sets the party mood.” And in this day (especially during the Rider’s loss last night) Reginanas need all the reasons to party they can get. Go: you won’t be disappointed, even if you can’t dance.

Elliott To Go Beardless

Jim Elliott, former mayoral candidate and all-round activist and educator, will be shaving off his ample beard as part of a fundraiser for Carmichael Outreach on Friday, June 11. You can read about it on his Facebook page.

I got to wondering what should be done with all that shorn facial hair and I’m thinking he could get it fashioned into mullet extensions. That should boost his chances next election by 15-20 per cent because you know the Regina voter can’t resist a man with a mullet.