FASHION | Holiday Outfit Ideas

As soon as December 1st came around, it instantly became holiday party season. I don't know about you, but the weekends become booked up super quickly with get-togethers, work parties, family dinners, etc. Personally, I love it because I have an excuse to get dressed up.

The first holiday celebration I went to was one of my best friend's, who always knows how to throw a classy soiree. This is what I wore:

Top: Sparkle & Fade, Urban Outfitters

Skirt: Club Monaco

Tights & Socks: H&M

Boots: Old Navy

Necklace: Aldo

So in the spirit of stylish holidays, I thought I might put together a few outfits to inspire you this season when getting dressed for your fancy shindigs.

Faze Magazine Issue #53

The fall issue of Faze Magazine has hit the stands and I have a couple articles inside!

This issue features the cute guys of Degrassi—Demetrius Joyette, Luke Bilyk & Munro Chambers—on the cover. Be sure to find yours at Chapters Indigo store locations or order it online today!

You can spot me on the Hot Pix pages with Dan Godlin, Oberhofer, Frank Turner and Austin Mahone!

The Dun's Holiday Gift Guide

Christmas is one week away and if you haven't already started scrambling for the perfect gifts, here are some ideas to hopefully get the ball rolling.

Club Monaco

Courtney Headband, $69.50 | Claudia Leather Glove, $98.50

Kollar Clothing

Flaxon Toque - Charcoal Mix, $25 | Sweller - Grey Wool Button Up, $80

UPCOMING | Glenn O'Brien @ Bookmarc

FYI New Yorkers!

- Christina

Follow my adventures on Twitter: @christinaaa28

FASHION | Kollar Clothing Holiday Collection

Toronto has a great up-and-coming fashion scene and I love supporting local brands—there are tons of designers in the city who are making some really awesome clothing. One of which is Kollar Clothing, "The Black Sheep Of Garments." This week they launched their holiday collection, now available online. I wish I had a boyfriend to dress because I would definitely snag a few of these pieces for him!

Check out some shots from their killer lookbook:

CollegeFashionista Google+ Hangout Series

FYI fashion lovers - you don't want to miss this! CollegeFashionista is hosting a series of Google+ Hangouts and so far, we've tuned into some insightful industry interviews! And it only gets more exciting as the week goes on. (Hello Whitney Port!!)

- Christina
Follow my adventures on Twitter: @christinaaa28

EVENT | Men Of The Strip Hits Toronto

Photo via Facebook

My December kicked off with a great start. I had the chance to attend Men Of The Strip, a live male revue performance show hosted by Jeff Timmons (you may recognize him from a certain boy band, 98 Degrees). Gorgeous guys dancing and singing? Count me in. I got to chat with Jeff about his new venture, what it's like working with such a talented roster, and how he makes girls go crazy.

Men Of The Strip was founded by Jeff along with Glenn Douglas Packard and Mike Foland. They have been working hard to put together a killer show that is full of energy.

Check out this behind-the-scenes video from their calendar shoot:

They did not disappoint. Men Of The Strip took place at UNIUN Nightclub in Toronto and I stopped by the venue beforehand to do the interview with Jeff. I loved how sleek it was inside:

How's the tour been going so far?

Jeff Timmons: It’s been great. It’s a lot different than any of the other promo tours I’ve done before. When I originally thought about doing 98 Degrees in the beginning, although we were signed, we didn’t have a lot of label backing and support, so we wrapped a Winnebago with our picture on it and drove into Canada to get discovered. We went to all the Backstreet Boys venues and drove our RV up there and that’s how we started getting fans, by doing grass roots stuff like that. Now this is a little bit different, and now that we’ve got the experience of myself and Glenn to do this, we’re taking that model and plugging ourselves into it. So it’s different in that we have the experience behind it, but similar because we have the whole grass roots approach to it.

GIVEAWAY | Holiday Prize Packs! [CLOSED]

Hey everyone! Hope December has been treating you well so far...stay warm! This week, I've got two giveaways up for grabs: one for HER and one for HIM.

HER:

MUSIC | I65

Ever wonder what happened to the band the Stereos? You may remember this song:

Well, three of its original members have reinvented themselves as a whole new band, known as I65. We caught up with the guys—Pat, Daniel and Robb—for an interview for Faze Magazine to chat about their new sound. Check out their video for their debut single "Another Summer" -

EVENT | Just Dance 2014 Launch Party

Last week, I got the chance to attend one of the coolest events I've been to in a while! I went to the Just Dance 2014 launch event at Airship 37 in the Distillery District with Faze Magazine, where we got to get our hair done courtesy of Garnier Fructis, see the Capital Cities perform live, and try out the brand new Just Dance game for Wii. I had a blast. The event was hosted by Phoebe Dykstra, who is one awesome and energetic gal!

Phoebe Dykstra

The space was also super cool. There were dance game stations set up around the sides of the room, with a stage at one end and the bar at the other. Drinks and yummy appetizers were included as well.

The Faze team had fun at the photo booth!

INTERVIEW WITH: Dan Godlin

Photo via Facebook

New York City-based musician Dan Godlin stopped by Toronto a couple months ago for a show opening up for Tyler Hilton at the Hard Luck Bar and I had the pleasure of chatting with him about everything, from his debut album, traveling between NYC & LA, and hearing his songs on Keeping Up With The Kardashians. If you haven't heard of his music yet, get on it! 

I wrote an article for Faze Magazine and it's featured in the latest issue, featuring the boys of Degrassi on the cover! Fun fact, Degrassi was the first TV show to feature one of Dan's songs. Cool, eh?

DANCE | OUCH 2013

Amongst all the craziness of work and school last month, I was also preparing for a dance competition, the Ontario Universities Competition For Hip-Hop. My days were full of training as a new barista at Starbucks, working on a TV documentary and visual merchandising at Club Monaco, while my evenings were spent with my Urban Hip Hop Union dance team on campus at Ryerson. We practiced like crazy and it really helped us bond as a crew, becoming more like a family.

I've been dancing at Ryerson since my first year. It's kind of sad that this will be my last. I've honestly had such an amazing experience meeting and dancing with these incredibly talented and caring people. I've learned a ton.

Anyways, enough of the sappiness. Back to OUCH. Leading up to the big day, we had intense practices and worked hard to get everything ready - from cleaning choreo to deciding on costumes. We came up with some pretty sick costumes if I do say so myself. Black T-shirts with a strip of plaid fabric on the bottom, light jeans, black shoes and a black hat. Simple but effective. I spent a lot of time on those T-shirts haha, my nights looked like this:

EVENT | MYR1AD 2013

A couple weeks ago, I attended the first-ever MYR1AD fashion show and exhibit, presented by Ryerson fashion students. I was covering the event for Faze Magazine and one of my fellow contributors was actually helping to run the show! I was impressed with the final product and the pieces that were showcased. Ryerson has some very talented students, that's for sure!

Here's a screenshot from Faze.ca:

Full article - http://www.faze.ca/categories/style/2013/myr1ad.html

More pics:

UPCOMING | Mats Gustafson @ Bookmarc

FYI New Yorkers!

Such lovely fashion illustrations!

- Christina

Follow my adventures on Twitter: @christinaaa28

INTERVIEW WITH: Tyler Shaw

At the last Faze event, I got to interview one of the night's performers, Tyler Shaw. He's a fellow Vancouverite and it was nice chatting about what he's been up to since winning MuchMusic's Coca Cola Covers contest back in 2012 and his experience as a Free The Children ambassador. The full article will come out in an upcoming issue of Faze Magazine, so I won't let out too many spoilers, but here's a fun and quick lightning round from the interview.

Something you can’t leave the house without:

Guitar Pick.

If it's a rainy day outside, where would we find you?

In my house. I have a little home studio so I'm always in there.

What one item would you bring to a deserted island?

My guitar.

If you could invite 3 people (alive or dead) over for dinner, who would you choose?

Justin Timberlake, Elvis Presley and Taylor Swift.

First thing you notice in a girl:

Nose.

Most embarrassing song we’d find on your iPod:

I have Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls. I don’t know if I still have "Barbie Girl," but I may have taken it off. 

What is your spirit animal?

A wolf. 

 Keep an eye out for the article in Faze Magazine!

- Christina
Follow my adventures on Twitter: @christinaaa28
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EVENT | Rock The Boat ft. Classified

On November 8th, the Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto was turned into a ship for Rock The Boat, an event hosted by Captain Morgan featuring a concert by Canadian rapper Classified. Complete with pirate props, sailing decor and even screens on the walls projecting rough waves, it (almost) felt as if we were actually partying on a boat. It was an interesting event to say the least. Oh and we got a couple free mixed drinks made from their signature rum. It was a rocky start though, with a crowd that awkwardly stood around. But it wasn't really their fault...the DJ was horrible. We were all pretty anxious for the actual show – hello Classified!

Once he hit the stage, it got much, much better. He's actually so great live! He even brought a girl up on stage, who performed one of his songs with him. Props to her, she knew every word. My friends and I somehow made our way to the front couple rows and despite the pushing/shoving/tall people problems, it was awesome.

The DJ who played after Classified, who kept the party going, was SO much better than the one from earlier. This was when the hip hop came out and got everyone pumped.

Haha Captain Morgan IRL. He even crowd-surfed.

CLASSIFIED

 

- Christina
Follow my adventures on Twitter: @christinaaa28

MUSIC | The Paper Kites

Earlier this month, I got to see Australian indie-folk band The Paper Kites perform live in Toronto during their first-ever headlining tour. They played at the Horseshoe Tavern and it was packed. I got the chance to interview the band's leading lady Christina Lacy and we chatted about their debut album, their group dynamic and what it was like touring in the US with Canada's own City and Colour.

If you haven't heard of their music yet, you should. Here's one of my favourites, "Bloom"

Check out some of my pics from the show:

Christina Lacy on touring with City and Colour:

"It almost felt like we were cheating. Usually you start off with these really small venues and work your way up, but we kind of just got shoved into these huge venues and getting to play for his crowds, which were much bigger than ours. So that was a really cool first experience of playing in America. And Dallas Green was just lovely and his whole crew was really cool and took care of us. I think it was the perfect start to playing shows overseas."

"It's always fun to perform the favourites that people seem like they're excited to hear. When they hear the intro, they know the song. I don't think I'll ever get sick of that. It's so cool when you start playing a song and people's faces light up because they recognize it and for us, it's so weird. It's strange." - Christina Lacy

"My advice is to do music for yourself. You need to be able to write for yourself and write about things you want to write about. My attitude is like write and play for yourself and if other people like it, and therefore that makes you successful, then that’s kind of a bonus. We never ever thought we’d be playing here in Toronto. That was never our intention. We were playing songs and writing songs that we thought were good and that we enjoyed, and the fact that other people got on board was a really big bonus and something that you could ever plan for. You can never start into music with the aim to be successful." - Christina Lacy

I love their music video for "Young," a track off their album States.

Keep an eye out for the full article in the next issue of Faze Magazine!

- Christina
Follow my adventures on Twitter: @christinaaa28