THIS BLOG HAS NOW MOVED TO:

WWW.WHATEVEREUROTRASH.COM

CHECK OUT THE NEW SITE, IT'S PRETTY GREAT.

MUCH LOVE,

EUROTRASH

Do you Lilac it?

Check out the new post featuring all things lilac. From Harold Robbins' paperback sensation, 79 Park Avenue, to my nail polish.

http://whatevereurotrash.com/2010/04/28/do-you-lilac-it/

xo

eurotrash

GTL, and how i lost 10 lbs watching Jersey Shore

So, eurotrash is definitely addicted to Jersey Shore on demand. Even though she's already seen all the episodes, twice, it continues to draw her in.

Find out why:

http://whatevereurotrash.com/2010/04/12/gtl-and-how-i-lost-10-lbs-watching-jersey-shore/

xo

Eurotrash

Les Plumes Partout!

If you read about the nonna's bag, you're gonna want to read about this fall trend: FEATHERS!

http://whatevereurotrash.com/2010/04/05/lg-fashion-week-habits-ii-feathers/

love,

eurotrash

The Nonna's Bag

This weekend my best friend wore her grandmother's old purse to a club where way too many guys were wearing jesus pieces in full view. Check out eurotrash's post about why wearing your nonna's purse is cool and why wearing jesus on the cross when trying to pick up a girl is not.

http://whatevereurotrash.com/2010/04/05/the-nonnas-bag/

LG Fashion Week!

Check out the latest posts on LG fashion week days 2 & 3. More to come from your front row girl after Pink Tartan and Joe Fresh tonight!

http://whatevereurotrash.com/2010/03/30/lg-fashion-week-day-2/

http://whatevereurotrash.com/2010/03/31/lg-fashion-week-behind-the-scenes/

xo

eurotrash

Interview with fashion designer, Salem Moussallam

Check out eurotrash's interview with HIBEBE designer, Salem Moussallam. She attended his show last week that took place in the dingy underground Bay station. The clothes were edgy, provocative and everything we'd expect from this fashion bad boy. Enjoy!

http://whatevereurotrash.com/2010/03/30/interview-with-hibebe-designer-salem-moussallam/

xo

eurotrash

And so fashion week begins with lots of fur...

To all my dear readers, please note that eurotrash has moved to a new site, her own site and will now be writing from there. The blogspot address will stay in operation for the lazy and I will link all my new posts here until we figure out how to do a re-direct.

Here's the latest from LG fashion week where eurotrash will be bringing you all the updates from the runway.

http://whatevereurotrash.com/2010/03/29/and-so-fashion-week-begins-with-lots-of-fur/

much love,

eurotrash girl.

The Timi's Run: Always Fresh.

Often people ask me what the eurotrash lifestyle is; too often people think it's about living a baller life, throwing 100 dollar bills at homeless people and wearing gucci in the shower; even more often, people think it's about gold digging on a guy to fly you to some jet-set getaway, handing you a diamond ring and black AMEX with your boarding pass.

That's why today's post might surprise some of you. Sure, last week eurotrash was prancing around town with fashion designer, Salem Moussallam, in fur and her jackie bag, stopping afterwards to have a coffee at Bar Mercurio with the owner and long-time friend, Albino. Yet, those glamourous, this-is-not-MY-life? days where you feel like a total fraud have slowly become just as normal as timi's run days - and the timi's run days have become just as glamourous!

The timi's run has become an institutionalized eurotrash activity and can take place up to four or five times a week! It all started with the grand opening of Home Depot on caledonia with a tim horton's on the side and a supersized parking lot. No one could have really predicted what occurred afterwards; the closest I can come to conveying the general atmosphere that strikes you when pulling up to the complex is a cross between Gone in 60 seconds and the Fast & the Furious, mixed with a little Jersey Shore and a touch of Quentin Tarantino kitsch. Hanging in the air sometimes is the distant smell of gang violence; hanging on the light posts sometimes are a dead man's shoes. In the summertime our timi's turns into a tailgate and people bring out their illegal cars and fold-up lawn chairs to sit on; the drive-thru becomes an amusement park ride that you line up to go on again when it comes to an end.

Last night we did the timi's run and it was especially reminiscent of summer days because the 15 degree weather brought everyone out to play (not that a snow storm has ever curbed our willingness to leave the house for double-doubles and french crullers). And now with the famed ROLL UP THE RIM TO WIN contest on, the faint prospect of a free donut has become a commonplace reality.

The authorities have tried to crack down on timi's runs (I truly believe it's because they're just angry that civilians have successfully usurped this long-standing police tradition) and many a times a cruiser or a cop-on-a-bike has jack-in-the-boxed eurotrash with a surprise attack, pulling up to her window to ask if her or her friends had any illegal substances on them or sometimes ordering them to leave as they blitz the parking lot.

Last night was especially fun; eurotrash was just sitting on a curb towards the back of the lot chatting away when another car drives by her group, rolls down the window and a girl cries out: "THEY'RE CLOSING THE GATES!!!". Before eurotrash was able to decipher the cryptic, quasi-biblical beckoning, her close friend and timi's run veteran, Elisa, went into action mode, turned to her and said: "JUST GET IN YOUR CAR AND FOLLOW ME, FAST".

Our convoy ripped down the parking lot, adrenaline pumping through my veins, I kept thinking about these gates and the new measures being taken to smoke us out. Suddenly, a slew of cars were lined up all trying to make it out of the parking lot gates lest they be locked inside forever; it was like an evacuation for the apocalypse. I lost track of my friends car; all I thought about was survival.

A few minutes later I received a bbm letting me know the new location everyone had reconvened at. I joined my friends again and we were spared a good half hour before the cops came to run all our plates, but hey, at least they didn't ask us to leave. Sigh, maybe I need to stop reading about Alexander Roy Gumballing across continents in The Driver, or maybe all of you should read it and then come to timi's to discuss and if you're lucky, get to reenact.

Candid Eurotrash:

As the new site is under construction and fashion week is fast-approaching, the face of eurotrash is on the cusp of a new moon. Don't panic just yet! The new site will still feature the witty writings of a eurotrash girl and in addition the site will also have a section for real fashion photography (unlike what you usually see here). This way, I won't have to waste quality posts to show you all things that I love and that we should be able to buy in CDN dollars some day like this you-don't-need-a-savings-account Balenciaga leather jacket. Here's an idea for spring: this jacket, a light neon t-shirt, faded jeans and neutral beige or grey sandal boots. The bag of choice... a vintage seafoam first bag from '04.

Balenciaga leather jacket

Balenciaga; vintage 2004 seafoam first bag

forever 21 peep toe workman booties

Summer jeans make me feel fine...

It's currently 10 degrees out, the sun is shinning and it honestly feels like summer: the recipe for a eurotrash hiatus. Today is the kind of day the new denim trend was made for; too cold for linen and too hot for wool. So, I leave you all with a few pictures from this month's FASHION magazine showcasing NEW BLUES to inspire while I go out and get sun-kissed.

A Fuschia Deal

Friday night was our annual games night; a night where us girls get together, drink cheap zinfandel and play stellar games such as Headbandz Jr. and Marry, Date or Dump. This year we had the zin, we had all girls in attendance, we even had the board games, but all we did was gossip! Typical, right? Well, once we got over who's been dumped, who's been to paris, who back-stabbed who, etc., we moved on, thankfully, to fashion... then the real games began.

First, I need to preface this with a brief description of what class of girls I was with. If you're picturing 5 girls dressed to the nines, hair done, lipstick pretty, trying to out-do each other by wearing all their designer pieces at once and bragging about the new tiffany bracelet their boyfriend just bought them for their yet-another-week-together anniversary - scratch that nauseating vision out of your minds, immediately. In fact, we were mostly in tights and sweats, barely wearing that morning's make-up, jewellery consisted of a beaded bracelet given to one of us girls by her student earlier that day, and we were all sitting around an ashtray inside my friend's garage on a wooden staircase when this particular topic came up.

We began to exchange stories and details about our latest finds and how little we paid for them. Eurotrash came quite close with her Jackie bag story and how she managed to cop it for $1000 less in Italy, even after converting back to CDN dollars, than what it's listed for on Gucci's site (albeit, smuggling was involved). But the girl who took the cake, a big fuschia cake, was my girl, Jor. She found a 2008 Valentino cocktail dress in her size at Holt's Last Call just a few weeks earlier. It wasn't just that the dress was drop dead gorgeous, because it is, or that it fit her like a glove, because it does, or even that its cut is so classic that I could have easily convinced all of you it was a vintage find; the dress was on sale. Big time.

Jordana's Valentino dress

So now for a eurotrash math lesson: the original price tag read $4,500, reduced to outlet price tag read $1,900, reduced to the 90% off outlet price tag read $190.00. You can't even buy two pairs of TNA pants for that price. Jor, I don't know what gods were shinning on you that day, girl, but next time I go shopping I'm taking you with me.

Rain, Rain... Don't Go Away!

It's been raining for three days straight in Toronto and eurotrash has got the blues. In spite of the dreariness the constant pitter-patter keeps time as she writes away. Naturally, there's only a handful of things that go well with this rainy rhythm so she's put on Beach House's latest album, Teen Dream, to drown it out and stop this sappy introduction from going any further.

The best way, however, to ward off the blues in the course of what seems to be an unceasing downpour, is to set aside a rainy day wardrobe. Yes, this is more absurd investment advice from the people who brought you the thousand dollar winter jacket and the Hermes belt fund. Yet, one thing is for sure, she already feels so glum on a day like today that the prospect of going out in the rain and letting the water damage her leather, soak through her denim and resurrect her cowlick seems to be the end of the world.

1-4 Moschino; 5-6 Burberry; 7 Hermes

Well, all of those things are apocalyptic (especially the cowlick) but rest-assured, the rainy day wardrobe can provisionally incite palpable excitement when it comes to getting dressed for the weather. So go out, spend some serious cash on conspicuous rain boots, a smart trench coat and an umbrella that you'd risk 7 years bad luck for just to open inside and admire. Once you've accumulated these basics you'll soon find yourself doing a rain dance just to get the chance to wear them all together! I mean, in an era where fashion models can flounce down the runway wearing wool bikinis, fur boots and ski goggles (see D&G fall 2010), sometimes dressing for the weather can be that much-needed, temporary, throwback to practicality.

Eurotrash won't be caught dead in the rain without her two rainy day staples:

Peuterey Trench

Pucci Boots

This is NOT a post about the Oscars.

Like Avatar, you don't need to actually watch the Oscars to feel as though you have. The front page of the newspaper, your iGoogle homepage and friend's facebook statuses all provided bits and pieces that by 10am this morning merged into your own personal version of last night's ceremony. As a self-proclaimed hater of over-hyping topical events, so much so that her two failed attempts to watch Avatar instantly became negligible after it lost best picture, eurotrash only wants to engrave into your minds two things from last night: Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin sharing a snuggie (this one's optional) and more importantly, Sarah Jessica Parker in Chanel couture.

Return to Sender

Although eurotrash is admittedly attached to her macbook by intravenous, she will never stop being a pen and paper kinda girl at heart. Her collection of stationary lies unemployed atop her desk and the few postcards she's received hang on the wall and stare at her every time she sits down to compose an email. What joy it brings her to get real mail! (Albeit, not her VISA statement... that one brings her a monthly dose of chest pains). But there are so few instances left that grant her the thrill of slicing open the back of an envelope upon which her name has been neatly penned, to reveal a wonderful little piece of paper that either invites her to a wedding or wishes her a Merry Christmas.

There is one other instance, however, when the postman can brighten up her day: CATALOGUES - and not magazines. If you subscribe to magazines you are only denying yourself the sweet pleasure of newsstand shopping - grabbing the latest VOGUE and a black coffee is only $8 to feel like you're in New York City.

Back to the mail, eurotrash adores getting her catalogues from various stores and boutiques around town (except HOLTS - we don't talk anymore; we had a falling out in October. I'm over it). Obnoxious salesclerks aside, yesterday I found Anthropologie's Spring/Summer catalogue in my mailbox and I was so delighted that I had to share some of its better moments with you here:

(remember, click on the images to enlarge and see what I see!)

Nice tie, dude! Harry Rosen? You're hired!

Trussardi 1911, fall RTW 2010

Today eurotrash had an interview for a summer job in Spain. Full disclosure: she is ostensibly signing up for a position at a summer camp where she'll be teaching dance lessons and english to 10 year old spaniards that just so happens to pay for her roundtrip airfare and just so happens to allow her to extend her trip past snack times and organized rec...

In preparation for the interview this morning eurotrash was faced with the dreaded task of picking out an outfit, which she most certainly left 'til the last minute. In her mind it went a little something like this: dress trendy and don't get the job; dress like you don't know how to dress and you're hired! Why is it that proper interview wear is so banana republic? A pinstripe shirt, pencil skirt, pointy-toe pumps, A-line button down jacket and a Life brand handbag actually crossed my mind this morning. I knew that outfit would be the safest bet; I also knew that I would probably jump the subway tracks on the way there when I saw my reflection in every other person standing on the platform... So, against my better judgment, I put on a grungy pair of PINKO leather boots and my jeggings.

Why is it that once people see you know how to dress they write you off as incapable of anything else? I'll never forget the time one of my professors tried to make an analogy between Immanuel Kant and Kate Spade when I met with him to discuss a thesis proposal, as if I would better understand if he broke it down in terms of the fashion industry. The only reason I actually didn't understand was because, well frankly, who gives a rat's ass about Kate Spade anyway? I don't know her collection from Adam and I certainly didn't know about the polka-dot reference he was making to her aesthetic.

Now, if he had used Trussardi 1911, well then maybe I would've benefitted from such protean didacticism. Speaking of which, ever since its comeback this September, eurotrash has sort of fallen in love with the line's quasi-Chanel handbags. They've got that I-would-jump-the-subway-tracks-if-I-was-wearing-the-same-thing-as-you chic. Come to think of it, other than the big price tag, that's probably why I haven't made the back to back C plunge yet. But unlike the pinstripe shirt, a Chanel bag is definitely something you don't want to wear to an interview, because c'mon, you at least want to look as though you need a job.

Blame it on the O-O-Olympics!

The Olympics have come to an end and with that, I have finally tossed my black hudson's bay CANADA t-shirt in the wash. These past two weeks eurotrash has oscillated between heineken and amaretto, rewarded her sober willpower to order healthier choice menu items with late-night supersize me's, and slept in past her alarm. First, we can blame the 3 hour time difference. Should she really have to miss Brian Williams sign off at 2am every night? What started as a quick T.V. surf after a late night clubbing became a nightly requisite. And the hockey games! She's dedicated more shooters to Crosby and Luongo in the past week than her little liver can handle.

However it wasn't until she found herself inebriated, scrolling through entire fashion shows at 4am in bed last night that she realized the Olympics have done her in. So, as they do in Hollywood, she has signed up for a large-scale detox. Can eurotrash actually go 3 weeks without a drop of alcohol? Besides, isn't detox really just a pretence for what is in reality a gearing up to drink and party again? I mean, sure at the end of every detox tunnel is a new and healthier you, which you celebrate obviously, with a few drinks. But when detox is over the intoxication slowly begins again until you find yourself once more on the first day of unfortunately, not your first detox.

A friend of mine who lives in Sicily partially inspired this post as I chatted with him about my new lows today. He suggested that I write about the detox-drink-detox cycle that we all voraciously subscribe to. But before I could even begin asking him about his own proclivities, thanks to another time difference, we had to end our convo short because he was late for his quotidian, evening aperitivo; I think I have my answer...

Here Comes the Dress!

Vera Wang

I always think I'm way too young to be talking about weddings but with the sound of new engagements buzzing every few weeks and an unhealthy daily dose of TLC's Say Yes to the Dress, age is obviously no longer an issue. Just the other day one of eurotrash's #1 fans said yes to the man who asked for her hand and eurotrash said yes to dedicating this post to her.

Amasale

Ever watch one of those episodes of Rich Bride, Poor Bride where the bride-to-be throws a temper tantrum and takes a sledge hammer to her bathroom vanity because her fiance' refuses to put up 30Gs for the centrepieces? Well, when it comes to weddings, eurotrash has one piece of advice: spend on the dress, and cheap out on the rest! Flowers will wilt, guests will be too drunk by the first course to notice the difference between sea bass and salmon, and let's face it, the more people at the reception, the bigger the chances of someone looking better than the bride! (For those who don't know, that is the cardinal sin of all weddings).

Vera Wang

Whenever talk of tying the knot comes up, eurotrash can be heard saying: "a limo? Screw that! Listen, I'd drive my mother's car to the church just to have a drop dead gown". Unless you're some duchess or Lady Gaga, chances are, a ball gown is not one of the items you keep neatly tucked away in your closet. However, no matter how ordinary your life may be the day after, on your wedding day nobody is going to take away your divine right to wear couture. The eurotrash wedding is void of helicopters, a busting guest list, and bridal party. Instead, the maximum capacity is set to 50, food will be quality not quantity, decor will be simple - candles and a flower or two, the bride will arrive in her mother's car as planned and there will be no porchetta table at midnight. There will be a dress however; the most beautifully lavish assemblage of fabric with all the niceties of a runway piece and all the glory of a first kiss.

Christian Dior

So say yes to the dress because another even bigger and better wedding reception will just replace yours the next year and sometimes, sadly, even love fades. But your wedding dress, that will always be yours; to have and to hold, til debt do you part.

Congrats, Alexis!

Waste Not, Want Not!

ICEBERG S/S 2010; courtesy of style.com

Everyone knows that eurotrash is obsessed with Mickey Mouse and as one of the original muses for the eurotrash look she really can say: it was all started by a mouse. So amidst all the fall fashion hullabaloo, eurotrash wants to pull in the reins just a bit and talk about the fast approaching SPRING! This is the time when stores flaunt all their pretty spring collections as soon as you walk in and the thought of trying on a frilly pink dress over pale skin and unshaven legs always deters any happiness this marketing move could bring us. Not to mention the inevitable waste factor that no matter how seasoned a shopper you are, always manages to rear its ugly head. The waste factor is the group of clothing purchased, precariously, from the section at the front of the store in between february and april, in anticipation of spring, and which you never end up wearing when the weather is spring, your skin is brighter and your gillette venus has revealed the goddess in you.

It happens to eurotrash too, but this year she has sworn to have patience and if that fails, she'll wear blinders when entering all clothing stores. In the meantime, the editing begins. She's making a list, checking it twice, and in a few months she'll know exactly what she needs in order to have a fabulous wardrobe this summer and finally, dodge the waste factor. Back to Mickey, she knows he's always on her side and he has never even set a yellow foot in that pile of waste (green h&m shorts, rainbow french connection skirt, flavio castellani navy shirt dress...) left over from previous february shopping sprees. This year, the most astute eurotrash girl turns to the leaders in Mickey Mouse fashion, ICEBERG. Those black mouse ears always seem to pop up in their collection, time and time again, and this year is no exception. The black, mouse-studded duffle bag is on eurotrash's spring list, in permanent ink. Yes, she's that sure.

Dial E for Eurotrash.

Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief

Badgley Mischka, fall 2010

I remember sitting on the terrace of our student residence in Florence that muggy pomeriggio in July, chain-smoking and passionately discussing our latest creation: eurotrash. OK, we obviously didn't invent the word, but we slaved night and day on that terrace to wrest it from the derogatory connotations of kitschy Brünos who listen to euro beats and whatever comes up when you enter the search term "eurotrash" on Google Images. Yeehaw!

Although the prospect of ever fully disclosing the secret to being OUR definition of eurotrash is an unlikely one, considering it's taken us over six years to hone, once in a while we like to let our readers in on some of the things that were said on that terrace.

For this eurotrash girl, being eurotrash meant envisioning her life like a huge book of pictures in which various scenarios called for a certain type of sunlight, a certain street, and a certain outfit. It didn't matter what was happening in the pictures; what mattered was how it looked when it happened. How her black scarf contrasted the hints of blonde in her hair picked up by the sun reflecting off the shop windows along Bloor St or how at 6pm her crisp white juicy hoodie transformed a long day out at sea into a tan as she stepped onto the dock.

Tippi Hedren in The Birds

This fall, it seems that some designers have taken their inspiration from the 'how it looked when it happened' handbook: Alfred Hitchcock movies. Sure, it definitely mattered what happened in these famous murder mysteries, but every time I try to remember the plot of The Birds I first picture Tippi Hedren's pea green suit and bleach blonde hair, and only then does it all come back to me. Here are some Hitchcockian leading ladies and the fall ready-to-wear designers who know a thing or two about the eurotrash subconscious:

Eva Marie Saint in NXNW

Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief

ibid

Grace Kelly in Rear Window

Tippi Hedren in Marnie

Zac Posen, fall 2010

Chris Benz, Fall 2010

Zac Posen, fall 2010

Carolina Herrera, fall 2010

ibid.

ibid.

Dennis Basso, fall 2010.