Fashion Monday with JJ Lee

(A radio version of this column aired on Monday, Feb. 27) Monday morning at the airport, Jason Trotzuk is off to Quebec City. Next week it's Hong Kong and China. Global conquest in the world of denim requires logging lots of flight time. But that's the price you pay, when you design jeans that make women look, as Trotzuk says, "smoking hot." As founder and designer of the year-old company, Fidelity Denim, Jason Trotzuk has had a dizzying 2005. When women like Cameron Diaz, Lindsay Lohan, and Michelle Kwan don your dungarees, the media takes notice. Trotzuk says, "It's been a frenzy." With mentions in the New York Times, Elle, and Fashion proclaiming Fidelity "must-have" pants, Trotzuk is capitalizing on the public relations ride but he's also working hard to back the hype up with a strong product. "People in the press like to focus on the fit," he says. "But there's also the fabric and the finish." Trotzuk, who sees ...

According to the blog http://lloydkahn-ongoing.blogspot.com, Lloyd Kahn is on his way to BC. Kahn is best known for his advocacy of do-it-yourself homebuilding. He will be documenting structures for his upcoming book, Builders of the Northwest Coast . In 1973, Kahn published the iconoclastic work, Shelter . It captured the world of counter-cultural constructions of the 1960s, including yurts, sod roofs, geodesic domes, and recycled shacks, decades before "green" architecture became a catch-phrase. Along with building theorist, Christopher Alexander, Kahn exerted a powerful influence on socially-conscience architects and architecture students at the University of British Columbia. Keep visiting for updates as Vancouver By Design is working hard to bring Lloyd Kahn "On The Coast."

The Design Exchange mailed the below in its Express newsletter: Oops! We Made a Mistake! Our recent Express alert included a teaser announcing an upcoming project with Culture.ca. This project is only at the conceptual stage and no decision to proceed has been made. We apologize for any inconvenience the announcement may have caused. For further information, contact: Paola Poletto, Senior Director, DX Programs. paola@dx.org

A competition sponsored by the Department of Canadian Heritage has raised the ire of graphic designers. The contest is called My Canadian Cultural Gateway Webpage Competition. The Design Exchange, a design museum in Toronto, is running the open call to redesign the website, Culture.ca. Culture.ca is a gateway into Canadian cultural content. It provides links to Canadian architecture, film, graphics, literature, arts and culture in Canada. It also has links to the CBC archives and Radio 3. There’s design news and a listing of festivals and events across the country. The redesign contest will consider all entries. A committee will pick the top three proposals and there will be an online vote. The winning project team will receive $2500. So what’s the controversy? Mark Busse, design director of Industrial Brand Creative of Vancouver, is infuriated by the whole idea. He says, “The open competition solicits free work from anyone who cares to call themselves designers.” He says, “It’s not th...

(A radio version of this column aired "On the Coast" on February 6.) Last week, John Furlong, chief executive of the Vancouver Organising Committee (VANOC), said the cost of venue building for the 2010 Olympics has gone up by $110 from $470 million to $580 million. Furlong wants B.C. and the federal government to cover the shortfall. Furlong also added that VANOC had already cut $85 million to keep their building projects under control. They already stopped the construction of an international broadcasting centre in Richmond, B.C. Instead, it will be rolled into the press centre housed in the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre. But what impact will cost increases and project cuts have on the design of the remaining Olympic buildings to be constructed in Vancouver and Whistler? Their costs are going up. Will it lead to weaker design? It may be hard to calculate. For example, take the Richmond Olympic Oval which many consider the signature building of the Vancouver Olym...