Always In Style...

Pictured below: Me and my friend Annie with Project Runway (Season 1) Winner Jay McCarroll at the Toronto Hot Docs screening of the film '11 Minutes' made about his first runway show.
MmmmHmmm.

So I've been thinking a lot lately about style, and two of it's inherent accomplices: grace and character. Because it suddennly hit me, almost out of nowhere, the other day as I was driving around the city, that kindness, grace, and compassion never go out of style. Perhaps this realisation came to me in sharp contrast to my recent experiences with a handful of female, middle-aged, Canadian film & television actresses with whom I have intermittently come into contact with recently (through a temporary job that I have been workding); And though I don't enjoy having to be negative about this, I must say, there is no other word to describe their behaviour towards me other than B-I-T-C-H-Y. To be fair, it was really only three quarters of these women that deserve that word as a descriptor, the other quarter should be described as delightfully opinionated and even FRIENDLY! (Alas, she just proves that it is in fact possible to be part of this particular demographic and not be Cruella DeVille's twin!)

In any case, I've found myself further ruminating on the notion that true style has so much to do with the grace of your character. I've come to the conclusion that adopting compassionate and respectful habits will ultimately give you way more style cred (in my books at least) and probably staying power... Or at least, it oughtta.

One 'style icon' who gets major cred in my books is Jay McCarroll, who won the first season's competition on the reality T.V. series 'Project Runway', which pits emerging fashion designers against one another in creative, time and market-sensitive fashion design tasks. I have oft been heard announcing that among my 'top ten best memories of my life' are the few weeks in Spring (2006?) when my friend Annie and I used to wake early on Saturday mornings and go to dance class, only to then spend the rest of the day lounging in her apartment watching the first season of 'Project Runway', while drinking beer! Counter-productive? Maybe. Totally fun? Absolutely.

Both Annie and I seriously fell in love with the show as well as Jay McCarroll - not only was he a totally fun and funny character to watch, he was a totally delectable designer too! So you can imagine what a thrill it was when we found out that an entire documentary film had been made about Mr. McCarroll and his first runway show post-Project Runway. We went to its first screening in Toronto, during the Hot Docs festival last week, and actually got to meet and chat with Jay a little. He was lovely. And he referred to me as 'the next Miss America', after I asked him a question in front of the entire film audience during the post-screening Q & A! I think he meant it in the best possible way... whatever that is.

The long and short of all these anecdotes and reflections is this: I love fashion and all that glitters, but the kind of style that I really admire is the kind that balances the "pretty" with the "please" (as in, the ability to be respectful, polite and kind.)