Many wouldn’t consider leaving their jobs during a recession, but brothers Mike and Dave Radparvar did, and then student, Fabian Pfortmueller, contributed time to the building of a company that sought to do more than just sell clothing. With consumer, producer, and Earth in mind, Holstee delivers socially conscious designs to the public, as well as donates 10% of all revenue to empower third world entrepreneurs through micro lending.

I caught up with Dave at the Holstee office to get an exclusive on the company and its endeavors. Check out the video below:

For more information, be sure to visit http://www.holstee.com

Downtown Toronto is rich in street-wear boutiques, but with so many, how do you pick the best ones?

In my small school located miles away from the city, people dressed the exact same way. My fellow school mates would buy clothes for the same brand names, expecting themselves to be unique even though everyone else had the same clothes on. Hollister, Aeropostale, Abercombie and H&M. The four apocalyptic disasters that were sent down to this earth to prevent people from having a unique and personal style. I always thought the people with the most up-to-date styles and the newest clothes were always the coolest people.  I wanted to be apart of that group, one of the cool kids who were known for their sense of style and trend-setting abilities. The one trip to downtown Toronto’s fashion district changed my life, every store there was so unique, so fresh and so hip. If I could name all of the stores I would, but out of all of them, five stores stick out:

Over The Rainbow:

Opened in 1975 as a premium denim retailer, Over the Rainbow sold jeans and apparel  from many different countries. As time passed,  Over The Rainbow increased it’s reputation and by 2007, the store was known as one of the go-to denim stores of the Country.

Over The Rainbow now sells over 250 styles of denim (largest selection in Canada) and carries over 100 different brands like 1921 and PRPS.

http://rainbowjeans.com/home.htm

Due West/Next Door:

Roughed up and edgy are the thoughts that come to my mind when I think of the ambiance of the store. Established in 1973, Due West is a mid-end retailer that has a very relaxed and chilled out vibe. When I first entered this store, I saw brands like Dom Rebel and G-Star, (which I personally don’t wear) and a lot of more street-ish and more urban styles of clothing. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is into the more graphic aspect of design.

www.duewestclothing.com

Next Door:

Next Door is probably my favourite stores out of the five. Located right beside Due West, Next Door sells higher end brands such as D&G, McQ by Alexander McQueen, DSquared and J.Lindeberg. You definitely get a more up-scale feel when entering this retail store, along with the simple and straight forward design of the interior. There is also a great contrast between the exposed plywood walls and the simple yet noticeable clothing showcase.

http://nextdoorclothing.posterous.com/

Show Room:

The first time I went into Show Room was during the 2009 boxing day sale. At first I thought it was going to be impossible to find something that I would actually like but I was surprised to see such a wide variety of clothes to choose from. After 20 minutes in the store, I had over $350 worth of clothes in my arms and I was walking towards the cash register. This two-floor store is filled with higher priced garments on the second floor and plenty of hip and up and coming brands on the first floor. From brands and labels that would get anyone spending every penny they have, including: Diesel, Cheap Monday, Miss Sixty,  Naked and Famous, Levis, True Religion and Lucky 7.

http://www.theshow-room.com/

Got Style Menswear:

Voted as the top menswear store by in Toronto by Now Magazine, Got Style is the leading menswear store when it comes to casual or business attire. The aesthetics of the store is what every man would want to see while shopping; flat-screen TVs, comfortable furnishings and a sleek interior. Got Style also has it’s very own male only spa which provides haircuts and hot-towel shaves.

http://www.gsmen.com/

Most people believe that a real fashion photo shoot requires tonnes of equipment, an amazing camera and lots of money. Lee Morris, from F Stoppers proves that you can do just as much with something as simple as an iPhone 3G.

If you have an iPhone, your true dreams of becoming a professional photographer are now so much closer. All you need now is $20,000 worth of lighting and a sexy model…

The great designer Tom Dixon collaborates with Lacorste to design the techno polo. The concept behind it is to minimize the packaging and make it as eco as possible. This was achieve by embossing instead of the printing on the box. I think the air tight sealed shirt packing looks cool, did it minimize the packaging? I think more could have been done.

In less than two weeks, FUZE will be throwing a pool party at Polson Piers to sweat off the heat and raise funds for Look Good Feel Better, a charity aiding women with their battles against cancer. All attendees will enjoy a complimentary beachwear fashion consultation by fashion stylist and Stylehog.com founder Julia Siedl, while rocking to the beats of DJ Big Jacks.

We will be giving away four tickets to our lucky readers. All you have to do is to retweet this post (one entry per person) and mention our username “@FSFashionBlog,” and you will be entered into our contest. We will randomly select our readers on July 15th, so get on tweeting!

But if you just can’t wait, you can purchase your tickets online at http://fuzepoolparty.eventbrite.com/

After the video I made which showed me washing my selvage jeans after over 18 months of not a single wash people always provide helpful feedback such as “that’s disgusting!” and “gross”!

(It’s got over 6000 views in less than 6 months!)

That was the issue I had with the jeans too. It did not have a fresh smell but if you want great fades that’s the only way. The smell took over the closet and even my room once when I leave the closet door open. But a very effective solution I found was to use Fabreeze. Just spray it once every few weeks and you are good. Kills the smell and bacteria.

Another solution is to throw it in the freezer. I have not tried this before, but if you have please let me know how it is.