Fashion Monday with JJ Lee

Contexture brings new life to dying technologies, all the while, finding ways to accessorize your paper coffee cups. The Vancouver designers behind Contexture, Trevor Coghill and Nathan Lee, have been getting the star treatment with a New York Times style magazine spotlight. Here's VBD's visit with Lee and Coghill.

It's either the snow or the rain. It just keeps coming. That's why JJ met Jeff Crook and Spring Harrison of Mountain Equipment Co-op. Jeff and Spring are responsible for the design and production of MEC's wet weather gear. They gave JJ tour and it started with a stop in front of a super-secret door boasting a "keep out" sign. Listen .

Some sweaters are ugly. Others are just too big. And then there are the ones that are simply out of style and doomed to hang on the racks of your local Sally Ann or Value Village for ETERNITY. Unless, Michelle Bergon-Mok finds them. Michelle recycles and redesigns sweaters under her label, Mod to Modern . Based in Vancouver, she finds a way to give new life to old wool. You'll find Mod to Modern's sweaters at the Green Christmas Market in Vancouver. It happens this Saturday at Blim . JJ Lee visited Michelle's studio today and the first thing they talked about was German literary philosphy. Listen to it through Google Video .

Tailor Made: Chinatown's Last Tailors makes its screen premier at the Whistler Film Festival. Story developed by yours truly and Leonard Lee, and directed by Len Lee and Marsha Newberry. It documents the final year of Modernize Tailors at 511 Carrall Street and Bill Wong's journey. Bill is 85 and looking for a way to sustain the legacy of his father tailoring business. Will he find someone to take over, JJ perhaps? If you can't go to Whistler, look out for the Newsworld TV premier in February.

My take on the noir on the hills in this winter's Straight Style. "There's a breed of boarder on the hills who doesn't give a damn. This species toils on the night shift at the Boston Pizza, but in the day on a slope can land tricks good enough to make the cover of any snowboarding magazine." Read it in the Straight .

Every week, I do my best to keep you up-to-date on the latest fashions. So I go to fashion shows. But this weekend, the women on the catwalk strutted looks that were definitely dated. The Vancouver Museum mounted a runway show with clothes from a hundred years ago as part of its La Belle Epoque fashion exhibition on now. Clothing historian Ivan Sayers was the master of ceremonies and the show was packed. Some of the audience even wore period pieces. JJ had a lot of questions about it all, including: "Would you ever wear a whale-bone corset?" Or listen to it through Google Video .

Disco and glam were the themes and the word was designer Jason Matlo - the brilliant maker of glorious black jersey evening wear - had the hottest show of BC Fashion Week. Too bad he wasn't part of BC Fashion Week. He went instead the way of the Impressionist by creating his own Salon des Refuses with a spectacle at The Modern nightclub in Gastown. I attended the brilliant Evan and Dean show that night. Luckily, I had a chance to catch up with Jason Matlo this morning in his Beatty Street studio. Listen - to the interview .

There was Fiona Garden at the THEY Representation party after Christina Culver's trippy show at BC Fashion Week , Christina Culver of Christina Darling, boots galore, leggy women in the lineup and an interview with the designers of Evan and Dean . For more coverage on BC Fashion, check out the designers I spoke with who didn't show at Fashion Week. Read the Straight . Listen .

I'm happy to announce my Ideas documentary on the history of tailoring is now a podcast. Right click to Download The Measure of a Man [mp3 file: runs 53:06] The Measure of a Man features interviews with sartorial authorities such as Alan Flusser, author of Dressing the Man and costume designer for the Oscar-winning film, Wall Street. The documentary includes visits with Anne Hollander, Slate.com fashion commentarist and author of Sex and Suits, and Andrew Bolton, curator of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum.

No. I'm not refering to my site. But I am talking about the hot labour market and the potential effect it has had on the design industries in Vancouver. VBD knew something was up when designers across the board - architects to fashion designers - were complaining about how difficult it was to staff all their projects. That was the topic On The Coast with CBC Radio host Belle Puri. Listen to today's column: The Design Deficit featuring communication designer Todd Smith , Stephen Webster of the Vancouver Film School , and Stantec Vice President Brian Johnson .

Had a chance to visit Marianne and Melissa of Hum Clothing on Main Street and Tiffany and Brenda of Shop Cocoon on Cambie Street about their favourites looks for Fall 2007 from local and Canadian fashion designers. Marianne pointed out frocks and plaid were the trend as demonstrated by the Body Bag dress by Montreal's Jude (left). But here's what they really had to say on Vancouver's fall trends .

from cbc.ca To hear from the first designer behind the Canucks original hockey jersey, check out my interview with Joe Borovich which aired on Monday. Now, for my perspective, I listened to the Team 1040 last night. Talked to John Horn subbing for Blake Price about the hottest design topic in the city - THE NEW CANUCKS JERSEY. Things to dislike...making the players wear the words, "Vancouver," during home games. Hello, we know what city we're in. Why not put "Canucks"...oh yeah, it would make the Orca C logo redundant. Also, I thought the new design rules stressed a more vertical look, so why the big horizontal trim on the bottom of the jersey? Then there's the Orca. I like Fin, the mascot. But the logo, hate it. The fact that it's called the Birthing Orca is enough to tell you it fails. Pseudo First Nations elements really makes for unfettered cultural appropriation. If you want a whale, go for it, but don't pretend to be First Nations. Unless, of...

How is one of the world's most ancient building materials getting a high-tech makeover? VBD found out with a visit the Architectural Centre Gallery in Vancouver and the exhibition, " Future Wood ". The exhibition features building designs and concepts that use wood with a high-tech treatment. Whether it involves laser cutting or computer-aided wood routing, the projects are intended to show off wood as a material of the 21st century. Oliver Neumann curated the show. He's a professor of architecture at the University of British Columbia and practices architecture in Vancouver. And he gave VBD a tour .

VBD hasn't bothered to mention Helvetica, the film, because it was sold out in Vancouver. Even more depressing, Helvetica director, Gary Hustwit, above, will be taking questions at the screening that you aren't going to be able to attend. Awww - but wait, despair not! The Graphic Designers of Canada have just announced it, there's going to be a second screening. Hurrah. Details . How can you say no to a feature length film about typography on its 50th anniversary. That's right. You can't.

A decade ago, Jill Anholt, an instructor at Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design , Greg Boothroyd of Patkau Architects , and Alex Percy of Acton Ostry Architects graduated from architecture school in Vancouver. In a three-part interview, Vancouver By Design, spoke with these three young designers about the past, present, and future of architecture in Vancouver and the role they think they should play. VBD met them in a busy Five Acres pub at the nexus of Gastown, Chinatown, and the Downtown Eastside and bought them a few rounds and recorded Minus Ten Plus Ten .

My latest denim pronouncement in the Georgia Straight . Actually, I just cribbed advice on wide-legs from Jo Ha of Dutil and the seasoned softball catcher and Dish Denim designer Christina Yeung.

Received a nice note from Dave. A fellow architecture/design blogger: Pacific Northwest Regional Architecture . Verdict on his site: like it. Here's Dave's mission: "This is a blog about a style of architecture found in the Pacific Northwest. The style is often referred to as Westcoast Contemporary or Northwest Regionalism. My plan for this blog is to just post as many pictures and information as I can. If you have any pictures of houses or buildings that fit this style or you have any info to share about this subject, send me an email: dave@pnwra.com" But WHO is Dave?

Arthur Thomas Davis had epilepsy. In the 1920s he was committed to the Woodlands Institution, a residential hospital for the developmentally challenged and people with mental disabilities. Davis died there in the 1930s and he was buried at the Woodlands Cemetery with 3000 deceased patients from Essondale (now Riverview), the Colony Farm facility for the elderly, and Woodlands. Jump decades ahead. Woodlands became a residential school for children with mental disabilities. As determined in a 2002 report, the students were subjected to physical, mental and sexual abuse. In this period, hospital administrators decided to remove headstones. The headstones were tossed into a ravine or used to pave a picnic patio for staff. For many, the memory of the cemetery is forgotten. Then the school was shut down. An oral history project was started by Simon Fraser University. Former patients and staff talked about a lost cemetery. The information spurred a patient family and survivor group to find ou...

Chloe Angus gave VBD a tour of her studio in advance of the Leo Awards last month. Chloe's clothes would be featured on trophy bearers at the awards show. But having something to drape on the back of any models is a credit to Chloe because earlier this year things looked to be on the brink of disaster. Check out her comeback story . Mara Gottler is a designer by night but by day she is a wardrobe designer for Bard on the Beach . Things are underway but the job isn't done. Here's what Mara wrote to VBD about the latest at the Bard: "This week as we are in the homestretch for the final show at Bard and I am trapped in the wardrobe all day and some evenings too, depending on previews. We are currently working at the Observatory (at Vanier Park), in what I call, "Hobbit House," as it is the small room left of the telescope. It is all ivy-covered on the outside and set into a hill, so it's adorable. The real bonus is the air-conditioning and the flush toile...

The horizon has broadened. JJ Lee is now writing about women's fashion. The first piece is about my visit to Hajnalka Mandula's Homer Street boutique. Check it out at The Georgia Straight.

On Friday, Nick Sully and Hannah Teicher won the Cleveland Design Competition - Project 2007. The architectural designers received the nod for their proposal for the down-and-out neighbourhood of Irishtown Bend in Cleveland. Described by organizers as, "unused, overgrown, and largely inaccessible," Sully and Teicher proposed turning the abandoned riverside site into an urban agricultural wetland that would bridge two adjacent neighbourhoods with walkways. Check out their winning project . And here's Teicher beginning the interview with a d escription of the project . Note: Nick Sully recently started his own architectural practice in Vancouver. To find out more visit nicksully.com . Hannah Teicher is an architectural intern with a diverse developing practicing combining sociology and architecture.

Photograph by Yvette St. Amant Tuesday night, I moderated a discussion with interior designer Robert Ledingham at the presentation centre for Stirling House, a development near the Vancouver School of Theology at Point Grey. Ledingham designed ten suites in the luxury building, branded the Ledingham Collection. Potential buyers, Ledingham fans and former clients (I assume they are the one and the same) were in attendance. We talked about Ledingham's 40 year career and how he has epitomized west coast style with his early years of practice at Thompson Berwick and Pratt and later in his collaborations with distinguished Vancouver architects like James Cheng, Peter Busby, and Arthur Erickson. Ledingham was a delightful presenter and it was quite a novel experience for me.

The Graphic Designers of Canada awarded typographer Jim Rimmer an honourary fellowship at its general meeting in Montreal. Scott Cohen, who recently had his design for Gastropod received a silver medal by Vancouver Magazine's Restaurant Awards , is designing a new Tomato, the iconic Cambie street eatery. The location - behind Mark James on West Broadway. And word is, the time is ripe to bid adieu to the Canada Line chaos at Cambie. Erin Templeton just opened her first boutique at the location of Modernize Tailors. That's 511 Cambie. With her experience in vintage retail, design, and as a green grocer in UK, marvelous Ms. Templeton will definitely turn it into a grand success.

Last year the Vancouver Art Gallery mounted a major exhibition on the works of architect Arthur Erickson. Never thought of as a retrospective, the show focused on Erickson's continuing investigation into certain themes: light, concrete as a poetic material, and nature and the landscape. Here is show curator Nicholas Olsberg, former director of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, in conversation with Vancouver By Design (16 minutes) .

Men's hair hasn't been this well tended in a long while. With the rebirth of barbering, where unisex treatment gives way to man-centric services, a man can get a refined haircut and avoid both the fro-fro and the dogding discount do. Read about it at The Straight .

Typecasting machines spewing hot lead. Basement studio. Tons (metric?) of cast iron. What's not to like? Jim Rimmer has been working in printing and typography for the last 50 years. And the last few years his dedicated self to the letterpress and limited edition books. Now his work has caught the attention of the Graphic Designers of Canada. This week the GDC will vote on whether to bestow him their highest award - an honorary fellowship. To find out more about Jim Rimmer, VBD visits Jim's studio.

I started hearing about this guy named, Horst. A bit of a legend. Photographer and great portraitist Alex Waterhouse-Hayward had nothing but great things to say about him. If you visit, his site you can a see fine portrait of Horst. Horst's name also started popping up on all sorts of sites on photography. Alex calls him "the Merlin to his Excalibur." You see, Horst Wenzel is the FILM camera repair technician to some of the best photographers in Vancouver and even has his fans on the other side of the world. I really wanted to meet him and finally did at the Vancouver Camera Show on Sunday. Then I visited his home workshop where Horst and I had a chance to talk about his craft at a time when digital photography is dominating the profession.

A final exam - fashion style - Kwantlen University College's fashion students got a chance to show their stuff to Ruth Ho, the buyer for Canadian by Design at The Bay Downtown in Vancouver. Ten of the 34 coats will be put on display at the department store for the Fall 2007 season. To hear what the selection day was like click here .

The Surrey Art Gallery just opened The Art of the Sari. The exhibition examines one of the oldest styles of clothes still in continuous use. Fusing weaving, embroidery, and fashion, the sari is a living art. There were dozens of beautiful works but VBD wanted to find out more. VBD toured the show with some of the people who organized it. You can find out more about the show here .

I really do live in a silo. Here is a monster design blog I've only just discovered (makes me feel inadequate)that deserves a visit .

Mike Chadwick's recent book, Vancouver In Focus: The City's Built Form is an opportunity to consider the art of architectural photography. While Chadwick's images were taken with a Pentax SLR, the more common professional photographer's choice for architecture is the field camera. It's the camera with bellows and requires a tripod and makes large negatives. More importantly, field cameras have a complex structure, an architecture even, in its design that compensates for distortions which occur when one shoots with an SLR camera. And to help us understand the art of architectural photography, VBD interviewed Simon Scott. Simon Scott is one of the city's best (highly recommended by architects who know) and he agreed to join VBD in front of Arthur Erickson's MacMillan Bloedel building in Vancouver to talk about his art and craft.

Just announced in Canadian Architect , Vancouver firm Acton Ostry Architects have won two awards for their use of wood in their design. At the BC WoodWorks Awards, they received the Institutional Wood Design Award and the Architect Award. Check out, their website and also listen to my previous interview with Mark Ostry (not "Ostrey") on design and religion for CBC special series, Sacred Spaces .

LATEST - The Penny has dropped but VBD thinks her design sense is top notch. Penny's own apartment highlighted her elegant neo-classical minimalism. Her suite featured an antique Recamier chaise longe and some of her grandfather's black and white photographs of flowers. The photos reminded me of the photo studies by German master photographer, Karl Blossfeldt. Beautiful. And it looks like Penny has her grandfather's eye for composition and design. Good luck, Penny. You're VBD's Designer Superstar!!! Previous March Madness is in the Sweet 16 round but for Penelope Page it's the Final 3. The Vancouver-based interior designer is one of the trio remaining in HGTV's Designer Superstar Challenge. VBD had a chance to interview Penny at her home studio. If you want to know if she makes the Finals, tune in tonight at 10 PM to HGTV . Also check out her website .

An interview that will prick up your ears: psycho-acoustics. It's the art and science of how sound and space effect our health. A forum took place in March at UBC on the topic. It's part of the dWellbeing lecture series at Green College. VBD had a chance to speak with a presenter before the event. Murray Hodgson is a professor of engineering and an acoustic designer. Here's his interview with VBD. For more information on the next (and final) dWellbeing lecture visit http://www.dwellbeingforums.net/forum3.htm .

VBD visited Edie Orenstein of Edies Hats on Granville Island. Edie had a lot to say about the resurgence of hats and how's and what's of wearing one. And by the way, what's good hatiquette? Edie has the answers in her interview with CBC's On The Coast and Vancouver By Design.

I was surprised to learn about what's going on at Nokia's Vancouver R&D facility. The work there is not theoretical. The researchers there are actually having an impact on how we use our portable devices, or at least yours, I have none, except, of course, my mind. One inventor with a high batting average is Patrick Wong. He holds four patents and has forty pending. I visited Patrick (right) and Director of Research Brad Lowe at their secure facility. Yup. Gates, a checkpoint, a friendly but deadly receptionist and keypads which makes it the most secure facility I've visited since touring Joint Task Force Directorate Nine of Joint Forces Command in Suffolk, Virginia. At least there were no US marines...I don't think there were. Here's my interview with Patrick and Brad .

It's been crazy. A new menswear column for The Georgia Straight , a feature documentary on CBC Radio One's Ideas on the suit called, "The Measure of a Man," and a feature article on Modernize Tailors and what you need to know about ordering a made-to-measure suit in The Vancouver Sun , has caused a flood of email to Vancouver By Design and Modernize Tailors with serious sartorial questions. This Monday, VBD will present an advice segment On The Coast. I'm sure there are other important design stories to cover but if so, send me a press release! So, look for it, sartorial advice on Monday's Vancouver By Design.

In today's Georgia Straight (Thursday, February 8) you'll find my second menswear column . The topic: how to fire up the old blue suit with a few sartorial touches just in time for Valentine's Day . It's all about dressing up and dressing down for romance and a certain je ne sais quoi . My first one came out very quietly on December 28. It was hooked to New Year's Eve and out of date but check it out here and save it for next year.

On Monday, the design of newspapers was the topic. And why not, especially when there's a story as big as Robert William Pickton's trial? How do and should newspapers design headlines to get your attention when the news is as explosive and gruesome as this? The Vancouver Sun 's page-one design marking the first day of the Pickton trial was pretty dramatic. It's a page that's hard not to notice and even harder to forget. It has the words, "Day One," in bold, 2-inch, upper case letters. Under it in smaller letters, "Pickton on Trial", and below that are the pictures of the six women Pickton is accused of murdering. You could see everywhere around town (I did on my commute to the CBC) and it garnered quite a few comments from non-newspeople. Of course, there were questions about what is tasteful and what is not. Word choice, font size and the use of negative space all add up to some impression - it could be seen as salacious or, depending on who you...

PHOTO COURTESY OF JESSE READ From time to time, Vancouver by Design looks at the "other arts." Those are the skilled artisanal crafts and design traditions that are over-looked by most mainstream design journalists. And this week, my interest in the Other Arts lead me to the office and practice studio of Jesse Read. Read is a bassoonist and director of the School of Music at the University of British Columbia. Read is also a masterful reed-maker, particulary double reeds used to play oboes and bassoons. Learning to cut a reed is a mandatory skill for reed players and Jesse took the time to give me a primer on reed-making. Listen, 7 mins. 6 secs . Also check out Read's latest album with guitarist Michael Strutt, Stroll In The Cool .

(This Vancouver by Design column originally aired On The Coast on CBC Radio One in Vancouver) One of the original partners in the design company behind BC Place's roof told Vancouver By Design he left the company precisely because of a dispute over the design of such structures. Horst Berger was one half of Geiger Berger - the company which designed the stadium's air supported roof; it collapsed last week after tearing. Described by local engineers, as "daring, innovative, and pre-eminent" in the field of fabric roofs, Berger ended his partnership with David Geiger in 1983, the same year BC Place was completed. Berger, 80, spoke to VBD by phone from his residence in New York state. When told about the tear and subsequent deflation, Berger said, "I'm not surprised." "The air-supported structure depends on a mechanical system and that is it's Achilles heel." Membrane roofs like the one on BC Place require pumped in air to keep the dome inflat...

Just wrote my first menswear column for The Georgia Straight on how to dress up for New Year's Eve. Too late for this year but it contains sound advice for the other 364 days.