Yo guy, fashion fans. This is MoVernie! How’s it going yo? Did you enjoy my first ever fashion video blog with designer Meghan Erin? If you like what you are seeing, keep on following. This week, we are showcasing our second episode of our fashion video blog with designer/singer-songwriter, Jay Manara and along with his crew at the Ryerson Fashion Show.

During the show, Jay got to get up the stage to share his stories to his success as a designer/singer, sharing his experiences with other up and coming designers who are chasing their dreams and goals. It was a very inspirational and motivational speech. He placed emphasis on being creative, continue to believe and chasing the dreams but at the same time, being able and willing to listen to feedback and constructive criticism to get better with the work and be able to listen and improve on the collection. Being able to balance the financial budget while carrying the passion for designing clothes are key. Designing is an important element but also being able to run the business with profit and being able to bring food to the table are also important in a day-to-day operation.

During the show, Jay also showcased his collection. In his collection, you will see a heavy influence of tattoo art and rock music culture. The brand is owned, operated and run by people who have lived and breathed the tattoo and rock music lifestyle for many years.
Rock Parlor believes in the individuality of people and design, and strives to deliver unique pieces that will make you want to rock (and I truly believe his collection is definitely make you rock!)

Until next time, MoVernie is outta here! Stay tuned for more fashion video blogs and be sure to check out FashionStyleBlog.com often.

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/

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.

We’ve done a shoot before and it was the idea of my then Marketing Director and good friend Amy Lan to do another. She was a publisher for a couple of magazines so I left it in her hands but with her gone and the stage we are in – a high fidelity vision of JUZD -the creative was in my hands.

The great thing about Igor is that he has a lot of experience. I really don’t know what to expect or what the exact vision is. I called up my sexy friend Deniz Reno and we went cruising around town. We met at 8pm but we have to burn quite a bit of time before any shots because it was still bright outside.

Our first stop is a parkade in Chinatown. This photo has a very nice dramatic feel to it. Igor wanted a greenish glow in the background. He wanted a longer lot for a more dramatic feel. I really didn’t know what to expect. The only thought that came to my mind is that the picture looks good and Deniz has nice legs.

Then we went to this part of town where all the ‘famous’ walls of nice graffiti are. Not really a big fan of graffiti. It’s too ghetto and cliché’ish. “But they are really nice” says Deniz and Igor. We drove by it. It looked good but I’m still not a fan. Plus the look of the place would be too typical. So I suggested making it kind of surreal by bringing a really high end couch to the place. Igor loves the idea no photos were taken and we kept driving.

Next stop was an alley way I always go through and thought it was a very interesting spot. Photo above. Igor saw potential there. With the wooden platform you can make some interesting poses. It looks exotic and doesn’t look like Toronto but it does look like the alley of any city.

Tried some street paparazzi style shoots but it didn’t turn out well.

We stopped by for burritos which was, in retrospect, a bad idea. Deniz has been very sick from it for a few days now. I hope she gets well soon.

We returned to a spot that we drove by earlier, now it was dark enough for what we wanted to do. It was in the back alley of some stores. I really liked this because of the strong classic architecture. The vertical lines made it very dramatic and powerful. I’m beginning to realize the creative vision I wanted for JUZD photos.

Then we went back to the area where we initially met and I left my car. This is kind of an American Apparel style photo with the natural lighting, no make up, just pure rawness of the street. I wasn’t a big fan of this but it started to grow on me.

At the end of the day there were two spots I really liked and I thought they were the perfect locations. It was a great experience because now I know the creative direction I want to go with JUZD photoshoots. Igor was amazing with his perspective of the options and his creative vision. To find out the location and theme, stay tuned…

Finally! Here’s the video footage from the JUZD by-invite-only Private Party in February. For those that didn’t get a chance to go, watch out for the next JUZD event.

More photos from the JUZD Private Party. 24 hand selected of the best from each of the 3 photographers, Krist Papas, Vivian Hui, and Daniel Merhar. Check it out in the new JUZD Fashion & Style Photo Gallery. Also take a glimpse of the beautiful and sexy crowd that showed up to the party. Below is a sneak peek of a few of photos. See gallery for full collection.