Been working at the pharmacy all week and haven’t even had time to respond to emails on my down time, let alone blog. This is also quite possibly because I spent the past 2 nights reading 50 Shades of Grey. It’s lame, so lame… but also very sexy – if I may say that here. I’m hoping to finish the book on my ride to work, which should be starting in 5 minutes.

But first, a quick blog post! I adore Bianca Balti’s style in this photo. She is wearing fancy fancy Chucks and looks so effortlessly eurotrash. Incidentally, fancy studded Chucks are staples in any Eurotrash look. It just adds that “I really don’t give a flying fuck” quality to any outfit. One of my eurotrash inspirations, a girl I know in Italy who is super fucking cool who will also remain unnamed, wears Chucks with a white CHINCHILLA fur coat. Italians just know how to make sneakers look classy. I’m not being biased at all – take a trip to Milan and lemme know how many haute couture runners you encounter.

Here are one of my faves from Luisa Via Roma in Florence this summer:

In light of Coachella’s 2013 tickets on sale Thursday for about 20 minutes, and my Coachellian outfit Saturday night – DIY cut-off shorts and an Ashley Rowe oversized sweater – today on Eurotrash, it’s all about how fashion made Coachella famous. And maybe Dr. Dre.

Every April, the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California hosts Coachella, a seemingly spontaneous indie music and arts festival that is anything but. The festival’s website contains links to purchase festival passes, download the conspicuous line-up poster and FAQs on surviving Coachella “alive,” but little about the festival’s history or objectives. Without an “official” objective, an ad-hoc definition of the festival has been engendered by magazines and the cooler blogs, painting a picture of Coachella as a neo-Woodstock, an image that is as equivocally authentic as Tupac Shakur’s Coachella 2012 hologram performance.

Read more of the article posted officially on The Genteel.

An unlikely post this morning, I saw this amazing photo by Helmut Newton of two girls just swimming in the sky. We think it’s Rio? We know it’s Eurotrash. Toronto’s own Thompson hotel rooftop pool proffers one of the best views of our city, despite the pool’s modest dimensions, I wouldn’t mind having to get cozy in there. Drinks by the pool (almost always not allowed), infinity pools off Antibes or the Amalfi Coast are where I could spend the rest of my summer. There’s a decadence in swimming pools, always on the threshold of decay, they can be a symbol of luxury when kept pristine, and a harbinger of everything filthy when left unattended, the algae come out to play. What are some of your favourite pool pictures?

Richard Bernardin, one of my favourite Canadian photographers.

Gisele for Versace SS2012 ad campaign

Gucci Cruise campaign

Fashion Gone Rogue. Taylor Warren shot by Colin Angus.

Marion Cotillard for Dior

Check out this Pinterest board of everything pools.

I love sharing amazing fashion with my readers. I’m so happy to announce that until May 14th, you can get 20% off  Adrienne Butikofer’s super comfortable, Skinny Sweats. They are made in Canada!  I’m wearing the navy blue yoga pant in the photos. Buy them here and type in SKINNYEURO to get the discount and show your support for Eurotrash! I only rep products that I’m already in love with and I gotta say, I’ve been wearing them since Sunday. The only thing I’d warn is that the waistband rides a bit high, so you may want to go one size BIGGER if you’re hippy like me. If you’ve got narrow hips, then the sweats run true to size. Keep eating cupcakes no matter what anyone tells you. xo Eurotrash

I’m wearing Skinny Sweats in Navy blue size S. Thanks to the Skinny Sweats team
Panda Mononium Pink nailpolish by OPI
Victoria’s Secret PINK tank top
Vintage headscarf from my mom’s closet

Desperate times call for DIY. My old denim shorts don’t fit me anymore and guess what, summer is upon us. Time for ‘minding the gap’ as I was recently introduced to on The Chive. Yay, a site that objectifies women by allowing us to voluntarily objectify ourselves! Need more of these opportunities in our post-Mulveyian landscape, that’s for sure. But back to my shorts, and how short I cut them so that if you wanted to, you could actually mind my gap, which is not what I want at all. #laserhairremovalisexpensive

Assuming, or hoping, that my readership is predominantly fashion chicks and not perverts, let’s talk about how-to make these cut-off shorts. First, you need mom jeans. The way my mom hoards her 1998 Calvin Klein jeans, there is no shortage of these around my place. Second, you need to watch this video. Lastly, take the drier instructions quite literally. I let mine go for 40 minutes instead of 20 and that’s why I will now be flashing my gap and cheeks in the most self-effacing way on the 63 Ossington bus route. Hide your kids.

Anna Dello Russo. Vuitton and an espresso. Can you say, Eurotrash? 

Just last week I got news of ADR’s accessory line collabo with H&M thanks to a Fashionights.com post. The promo paraphernalia includes a video interview of ADR as she shows and tells her dollhouse apartment, complete with a fashion ‘biblioteque’ (a false friend in Italian-to-English: biblioteca = library; libreria = bookstore). Her literal translations made me lol a few times, especially her self-professed mission statement, “I am the guardian of the fashion”, which she clearly just freetranslations.com’d in her head from the Italian, “sono la guardia della moda” – which is much more dignified and actually means, ‘a fashion gatekeeper’ IRL, ADR. See for yourself in the video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

ADR by Hanneli Mustaparta

I took the time out of my busy day to set the record straight not to poke fun at her grasp of the English language, but to communicate what ADR would have said, or meant to say, had she translated better. That she’s Charles-in-charge of a Japanese magazine adds a whole other dimension to this – but I won’t go there. I’ve always wondered about my Sanrio stationary sets, the ‘Weie in Romantic Night, But Kemushikun in always sleepy… I hope to looking up the twinkle star’ text on every envelope in a cute pastel pink. Not that there’s any correlation between ADR and Hello Kitty, at least syntactically.

ADR is Eurotrash. The video elucidates a latent hunch I’ve had about her all along, I just never said anything until now.

ADR in Gareth Pugh

I’ve shied away from baptizing my site in her honour because she really is a fixture of contemporary fashion discourse – and sadly, overexposed. I mean, we never tire of ADR, but if I blogged about her day in and day out this would just become another one of those ADR shrines joining the masses of banal blogs that can’t see past street style and polyvore sets. Yawn.

Everything about her encapsulates a modern-day definition of Eurotrash. Sure, she’s probably a hyperbolic version of the term. Eurotrash to the nth degree, if you will. Yet, her dedication to looking good is so patently European I can’t help but make an idol out of her. She’s an aesthete. She understands the importance of not only looking good, but fitting in by standing out. She adds something intangible to her surroundings, be it the Tuileries or Via Veneto. ADR enhances the beauty of the world around her through an eclectic, and artistic, fashion sensibility that cannot be imitated. Her essence is Eurotrash. Her clothes, proving Reitman’s commercials wrong since Tommy Ton. All hail.

The Givenchy Lizard Skin Obsedia Clutch;   $1975 CAD; ssense.com

HOT OFF THE FUCKING PRESS. The lizard could very well be the same lizard Jackie Siegel killed in Wednesday night’s hot doc presentation of The Queen of Versailles. This bag is fresh. Just added to SSense.com 2 days ago – I was like, whaaat? Oh no you di’int.

How am I ever going to afford this clutch is beyond me. This afternoon I took off work to try my hand at panhandling down on Queen Street. I’ll pull at those strung out hipsters’ heartstrings. They got money. They own shit like motorcycles, pop-up shops and commensals. I’m actually going to visit the girl who has basically dressed me every fashion event this past year, Ashley Rowe, she’s having a sale!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dreams of Givenchy are close to me and there isn’t an eel-trimmed blazer I wouldn’t wear the lizzy-lizard purse with. If I was jazz.fm I’d start a fundraiser, but I’m just a Eurotrash girl trying to look FTD (fresh to death, not fuck to down). Donate now?

September 2011: the first time I heard about Pinterest. I scrolled through the site for about 2.5 seconds, then dismissed it as just another, you know, high-res photos of brides, cupcakes, and everything nice sort of site.

Boy, was I ever wrong.

April 2012: there are whispers that Pinterest might become even bigger than – gulp – Google. And yet, the alleged genius of this so-called digital juggernaut remains mostly undefined. Nir Eyal writes in The Globe & Mail that Pinterest’s success resides in an obvious secret: “Pinterest wants its uses to do three things: consume, create and share content.”

Read the rest of this article on Toronto Standard here.

Photography by JR Bernstein

So a few weeks ago I was asked to participate in a trend challenge for FLARE Magazine. Check out my entry here! Being Eurotrash and all, I spiced up the run of the mill sporty look with some luxe accessories. Ipso facto, the luxe sport trend everyone is trying to emulate with their high heels and mesh on mesh on mesh. What I found out in putting together my look for the shoot was um, 90% of my wardrobe falls under the luxe sport aesthetic. Tailored jackets, zipper hoodies, harem pants, mesh tops and shoes, designer sweats, vests, tights.

So I really have to thank FLARE for helping me discover the true luxe sporty girl within….

Check out the rest of the photos we shot that afternoon for the trend challenge. A huge thank you to photographer, JR Bernstein, for collaborating with me and making me look good. You can find more of his captures of life on his website www.jrbernstein.com 

Here I am modelling for The SWAP Team’s upcoming Toronto clothing swap. It’s the biggest clothing swap in North America and I am reallllyyyy looking forward to finding some gems this year. Giving back to the community through fashion is super cool because my life revolves around fashion so much. It’s innovative, familiar and after meeting everyone at the photo shoot, the fruits of which you see in this flyer, totally fun. I’ve got my eye on the CRYWOLF tee I’m modelling in the photo, so don’t even think about it. (Lucky for you they’re a sponsor, there will be more than one of these gorgeous tees at the SWAP).

To follow The SWAP Team on twitter for updates, more lookbook photos of yours truly and your other favourite bloggers @swap_team