420 Fantasy

After I read the interview with Claire Boucher / Grimes (below) in which she mentions that she had a 4:20 Mariah Fantasy and that MC is her favourite singer, I couldn’t be skeptical any longer. And I mean about what? The Montreal native has just released a gay-impact video to the pop hit single Oblivion featuring her naturally high-pitched voice.

There is only one wish: In the last scene of the video, where Claire is wearing a hoodie and then turning around, facing the camera, wouldn’t it been cute if she wore a skull mask – as a reference to the Visions album cover?

SUCH FUN!

On a side note: What is happening to me? I’m listening to more and more Canadian music. First The Weeknd, now Grimes. What’s next? Bieber?

Claire Boucher: (…) Mariah Carey is my favorite singer because her voice sounds utterly groundless. It’s not even a human voice; it almost sounds mechanical.

Pitchfork: How did you first get into Mariah?

Claire Boucher: In 2007 or 2008, I started listening to R&B on this road trip with my dad because we couldn’t agree on anything else. I smoked weed and listened to “Fantasy” and felt something I’d never felt before [laughs]– yeah, that makes me sound so ignorant. But then I slowly started gravitating more toward female singers, because I was able to relate. In medieval Christian thought, it was assumed that the better you were as a singer, the purer your heart was. I don’t necessarily think that’s true, but Mariah Carey has the voice of someone who has never done evil. (source)

Proddy’s ABC of Online Shopping

As you may or may not know, living in Canada sometimes feels a little bit like living in a fashion desert. After 3 years in Toronto, I have turned it into a virtue. After hours, days, months on the interwebz, I have found my favourite online stores. Of course, I had to select the shops based on their Bernhard Willhelm and Martin Margiela availability.

The list below will give you an unparalleled view on the websites I spend most of my time at. Click. Click. Click. Shopping Cart. Cart. Cart. Buy. Bought. Bought.
And when you find yourself buying from the stores, just think of it as your own personal economy stimulus plan.
Pump the money back into the financial system!

# B Store
Mary introduced me to b-store. We met up in London and paid the b a visit. It was such a pleasurable experience, because the Bernhard truck had just unloaded a couple of Muumuus (pictured above & below). After leaving London, I called Kirk & Matthew a week later and ordered another BW fix. Brilliant service & always some hot shit to look at.

# Corner, The
A sister site to yoox.com, The Corner sells the most recent menswear collections. I’m still not sure why they don’t ship to Canada (yoox.com does). I sent them an email once a month asking about shipment to Toronto but to no avail. I hate them a little bit. What I usually do is get my order shipped to Germany and a friend has to FedEx it to my place.
Another weird thing is that some of the labels are available in European countries but not in the US, for instance Bernhard. So make sure you select different countries to get the whole experience. Make it work.
It looks like they will be getting Walter van Beirendonck for summer. Bernhard, Margiela, Raf Simons, Viktor & Rolf are already there.

# Doshaburi
One of my favourites. Doshaburi is from Japan and they have a shop in Barcelona, where they ship from. When I went to the store last summer, there was always a very friendly Japanese woman working there, helping me with my hysterical questions. One of the best Bernhard Willhelm (men’s only) sites, they carry so many more exciting designers, it would take me months to list them all. Last time I ordered, I got a Bernhard poster / look book thing with my sweater. Amazing. Buy something now!

# Far Fetched
One stop for 20 shops in old Europe. Haven’t gotten anything fetched yet. Can’t be long. B Store is part of Far Fetch, too, so you can actually shop with them twice. Neat.

# Fatal
I love Fatal, based in Minneapolis of all places, but have to say their sale is not the best. Most of the clothing gets reduced by 30% only. But who cares? I got my beautiful & humongous Bernhard pot scarf (picture above & below), that I wore as a dress from them.

# Good Hood
I haven’t personally ordered anything from Good Hood, but I like their site and selections. That’s easy, because there are a couple of Bernhard women’s dresses that I would like to get my mittens on.

# Kron Kron
From Reykjavik. In the summer, they had wonderful dip dye Bernhard dresses. They are sold out now & I can’t wait for the new deliveries. Click them daily.

# Oki Ni
They have some Margiela, Raf Simons etc. The current specialty is the Opening Ceremony Collection by Wong Kar Wai. Get yourself some film shirts.

# Reborn
Based in the old town of Montreal, this is the only Canadian store on the list. Birgit and myself stopped by the lovely store last year & threw some serious dough at the welcoming sales people. My favourites lines here are Bless & Zibskov. Mary loves herself some Complex Geometries. Reborn also has the Six Scents perfume collection; therefore they are the only place in Canada where you can get Wicken 3000.

# Seven
The Bernhard usually sells out pretty quick at this New York store. If you want a specific piece, you need to call them around the time when the new collections arrive and get pictures sent BEFORE they post them to the website. Otherwise, the best stuff is already gone. You snooze, you loose.

# 10 Corso Como
I can’t wait from 10 Corso Como to open their online boutique. Comme des Garcons galore. Went to their shop a couple of years ago, when I was in Tokyo. I want to go again, right NOW.

I haven’t included eluxury.com in the list above as they only ship within the US and you have to use an US credit card. Thank you very much. However, I have to admit, that I ordered a MMM necklace from them last year, and had to use a service company from Florida that bought it on my behalf and forwarded the precious metal to me. There is always a way to get the item you need!

Apart from all the online stores, I can recommend randomly calling Margiela boutiques around the world to ask about products you really need. For instance, my dear friend Mary Messhausen loves the diamond necklace, bracelet and ring (pictured below)! Call them NOW.
I personally like to chat with Colin from the NYC Margiela boutique. He is very friendly and last time I was at the store, his arm was broken, which added some extra cute clumsiness.

Back when I lived in Germany, I only shopped at Heimat. If you’re ever in Cologne, you have to pay them a visit. Andy and Andreas are in charge of my favourite store in Germany & they publish the amazing Mode Depesche, for whom I did an interview with Jean-Paul Lespagnard and other articles.

So now, keep the economy going and buy. bought. bought.

YSL

Before heading back to Germany, I spent the last couple of days in Montreal. The musée des beaux-arts de Montreal had just opened their retrospective to span 40 years of creation of Yves Saint Laurent. I was especially impressed by the 1965 wedding dress which still looks very modern today.
Below are pictures from the show, click to enlarge.

By now you have probably heard that the designer passed away this weekend.

Wedding dress, 1965

Tom Wesselmann inspired dresses

Moroccan collection

Montreal Nights

Toffi and me crawled out of the Sommerloch by taking a trip to Montreal. After the long party weekend I think that maybe Montreal is Canada’s Ibiza. Although, I have never been to Ibiza.

Our days on the island started with a bit of sightseeing, followed by a disco nap and in the evenings we went to the Gay Pride festivities (they call it “Divers/Cité” over there, please excuse my french). On Saturday, we saw Amanda Lepore and Lady Miss Kier perform at Sexgarage 2. Amanda sang 2 songs. And a third one as an a cappella.

Next up was Lady Miss Kier, who I am still in love with. She sang some Deee-lite hits and a few new demos, of which I liked her cover of George Clinton’s Bullet Proof best. I was just a little sad, that she didn’t sing I Had A Dream I Was Falling Through A Hole In The Ozone Layer. But I loved it when she changed the lyrics to What Is Love to How do you say – disgusting?

After their shows, we had the chance to say hi to the Ladies.
We were smitten.

Montreal is a little bit smaller than Toronto, but not when it comes to male strip clubs. There are 5 or 6 or more. Our favourite one was Stock Bar, which just re-opened after a fire 3 months ago. The place was packed on Sunday night. They had a catwalk stage with a pole at the front and a second stage, consisting of a shower with psychedelic light effects. Phil Collins sang I can feel it coming in the air tonight when the stripper got wet under the shower.