Back alley bombshell

Meet Riel, my long time muse and former lunch buddy. Back in high school we used hide out at her mom’s house, eating five-minute fries and escaping awkward cafeteria interaction. She agreed to vamp for me at Julia’s photo shoot, all dark lips and bang curl.

The first few were taken on a back alley break outside the salon. The second set I’ve named Stealing Screech from Tori Spelling and/or She claims to know Monica Lewinsky only as a handbag. Enjoy.

As per, hair by Julia Dyck and make-up by Aimee Cardinell. To book an appointment with Julia dial Vault at nine five seven eleven hundred.

Car rides and waterslides

At first, the thought came in passing: Fun Mountain. Rows of green slides snaking down the man-made hillside, concession stand hot dogs wet with ketchup, and bathing suit bottoms ripped sliding too fast across the ridges of the Dragon.

We decided to take a car full. Soon plans snowball, counting in friends and co-workers until the outing warps into a summer staff Christmas party.

Come Monday we meet under the canopy, then charge up the sweltering black ashfelt path towards the wood towers, bare feet burning. Our bodies shoot back down hard plastic into tiny landing strips of piss and chlorine.

Water fills the nostrils and chokes the throat. I whip into a curve, drop down, slip further and fly out, fully submerged and eyes burning. Shake wet hair, eye a two-person tube, and rush back up the mountain to ride again.

Out with the old, in with the Andrea

It took ten minutes to drive the golf cart from her home to mine. Over the train tracks and down a gravel road, pull left onto the highway and right into my driveway. We didn’t have licenses or cars or anywhere to be, just cameras and time to kill in basements.

She dressed up in a furs and feather boas, I in ties and blazers. We poured slurpees into cocktail glasses and marched into town to rent movies. Pulled on ponchos to canoe in rainy rivers, explored junkyards and garbage dumps and boarded up schoolhouses.

We’ve long left Carman to find new cities, countries, and continents to play on. But after six years of bouncing back and forth between opposing spaces, we’re spending a summer in one place, together.

The car keys light the engine, time for one more adventure.

The sidewalk cycle

The job sounded easy enough. Each week I’d hit the streets and wait for stylish pedestrians. Once spotted, I’d snap a photo and ask a few questions about the subject’s style.

Turns out the fashion forward are few and far between. Hours would tick by with eyes glued to foot traffic, counting track pants and dog leashes like sheep before bed. Logo tee-shirt after logo tee-shirt would pass, followed by floral dress after floral dress.

The lot of them didn’t look bad, just casual and indifferent, anonymous in whatever was standard issue for wherever they were going. But now and then something a block away would catch my eye and I’d quicken my pace, dart between cars and people towards them, reach out and tap their shoulder. “Excuse me…”

Here are a few of my favourties.

*The full series can be seen on Canada.com. Click here to view the final installment. All content copyright Canwest twenty-ten.

Chris Seldon
Spotted: Queen St. W, outside Clafouti

Chris Seldon smiles when he hears his outfit called a “Canadian tuxedo.” Seldon, a marketing consultant in the music business, laughs and says he toned down his outfit today, but usually adheres to the “farmer look,” which explains all the denim. A pair of classic black Ray-ban sunglasses, brown boots and a helmet for riding motorcycle completes the ensemble.

Angelo Amante
Spotted: Beaches boardwalk

Angelo Amante’s look is straight out the Hamptons, but he is seen here strolling down the boardwalk in Toronto’s Beaches neighbourhood. Amante, an aspiring fashion designer, paired his white Uniqlo jeans with a sweater tee bought on vacation in London and boat shoes to create a classic summer look.

Darina Escobar
Spotted: Augusta and Naussa

Darina Escobar’s bag is for both function and for fashion. The Ottawa-based student used the oversized weekender bag—a vintage piece given to her by a friend—to carry everything she needed for her trip to Toronto. Escobar’s Dollhouse brand shoes were purchased at Winners, her denim shorts are from H&M, and gold and white tied blouse was found second hand.

Elise Gatschene
Spotted: Queen and Yonge

Elise Gatschene had been looking for something to pair with these loud, high-waisted printed pants on a recent shopping trip. She came across a rack of Alexander Wang and inspiration hit. Gatschene purchased a dress by the hot young New York designer, but realized his signature black tube top was the perfect piece to wear with her printed pants. She finishes the look with a vest from Urban Outfitters, worn here outside the Eaton Centre where Gatschene was taking in another day of shopping.

Frank
Spotted: Yonge and Shuter

His name is Frank, but he goes by Fingers. Like Prince, Frank deems the surname an unnecessary accessory. On his breast Frank wears two pins; one from the 1992 American election (reading “I want Ross Perot for President”) and another with a Truman-era Republican slogan, “I Like Ike.” The tweed suit was purchased online and shipped from France. “You don’t find riding pants like these in North America,” Frank says.

Andrew Chipman
Spotted: Osborne and River

Andrew Chipman is the blogger behind the popular Winnipeg-based fashion and DIY blog Pull Teeth. He is seen here in Osborne Village wearing pleated shorts recently purchased from a thrift shop and a Converse cotton tee from Target. The accessories: thrifted sunglasses, a Yves Saint Laurent canvas bag, and a necklace Chipman put together himself—featuring three pendants, including a tiny tooth from Marc by Marc Jacobs.

Chanelle Salnikowski
Spotted: Albert and McDermot

Chanelle Salnikowski is pictured here pausing as she puts up posters for a local metal show in Winnipeg featuring the band Nuclear Assault. Salniko wore an outfit appropriate for the occasion: a studded leather motorcycle jacket by Miss Sixty, paired with a silver spiked bracelet and an acid wash skirt, both by H&M. Salnikowski is an aspiring stylist and has an upcoming spread in the Winnipeg-based fashion and culture magazine Sandbox.

Meghan Kinita
Spotted: Albert and Bannatyne

Meghan Kinita is seen here on her bicycle under a canopy of trees in Winnipeg’s historic Exchange District. Kinita is wearing a dress from Rodarte’s capsule collection for Target and shoes by Steve Madden. In hand is a red jacket covered in rosettes from H&M’s organic garden collection. What is Kinita’s style? “It’s based on colours and fabrics that remind me of people I love,” she says. “This dress reminds me of being in New Orleans with my boyfriend Dave.”

Meaghan Waller
Spotted: Winnipeg Folk Festival, main entrance

Canada’s Next Top Model cycle three winner Meaghan Waller is seen here in her menswear style blouse over a black bathing suit top, with exposed leopard print bottoms under denim cutoffs.

Meg and Erin Kroeker
Spotted: Winnipeg Folk Festival, in the food village

Meg and Erin Kroeker are well known in Winnipeg as a pair of stylish sisters. Erin, seen here in a re-worked graphic tee and bright red skirt, is the manager of Para Mix, the Osborne Village based boutique where many of her outfits are from. Meg wears a floppy oversized hat, perfect for creating a spot of shade during a long, sunny day at a music festival.

Saturdays and sister time

Etched into what’s left of the wood panels above the door is white writing: “The old barn is gone and so am I.” Return to four walls forgotten, no roof, just crumbling bricks and rubble.

Spotted from the highway, a house and barn abandoned is the perfect pit stop on the two-hour too long drive home. The barn is fading fast, walls drooping into soil littered with axes, tires, and lanterns left long ago for field mice to play on.

Out front the lane the mailbox sits empty, no letters sent or crews to clean the lot up. Find found art out of the left-behinds, use as props in photos. Watch cars whip by the yellow lines, climb on bales and jump towards the heavens.

Smoking in the girls room

I like to call these 'Emily enters the third dimension' and/or 'Quality time with Miss Moaning Myrtle.' Shot in a scuzzy bathroom hidden in a beautiful building, the lovely Emily models hair by Julia Dyck in the first of many sets of photos I shot earlier this week.

More photos showcasing hair by Julia and make-up by Aimee Cardinell very, very soon.

*To book in with Julia give Vault a call