Heads up on the hands-down coolest things at the Interior Design Show: most of them spring from our own backyard. And literally, too. There is a flourishing trend toward the incorporation of nature in contemporary design—a welcome wandering off from the hard lines and materials often associated with modernism—and local designers are embracing it wholeheartedly. Toronto installation artist Rob Southcott's "United We Stand" (pictured at right) is actually a seat of sorts, a grouping......

A project by architect Johnson Chou and distributor Sound Solutions, part of IDS 08 Collaborations exhibit. Three days, over three hundred exhibitors: Toronto's Interior Design Show moves into the Exhibition Place this weekend, and holy mother of invention, where do you start? Well, there's the opening night gala, of course. Promisingly titled "Decadence," the party takes place this Thursday, February 21, from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. at the Direct Energy Centre; $50 in......

Starting today and going until Sunday November 11 is the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair at The Direct Energy Centre at Exhibition Place. Tickets are $18, but $14 for seniors and youth (5-17) and free for kids under 5. It's a great place to take your kids to see horses and cows, and they can learn all about corporate sponsorship—I mean, agriculture!—with activities including the Toyota Dealers Royal Rodeo, the Toronto Star horse demonstrations, and the......

Everybody’s talking about the weather—now’s your chance to get out and do something about it. Mayor David Miller is inviting everyone in the city to attend the Climate Change Action Forum this Sunday, April 29 at Exhibition Place. The Forum is a venue to discuss and shape Toronto’s plan for tackling the related menaces of air pollution and global warming. Participants will have the opportunity to learn more about greenhouse gases and climate change,......

In a time when Al Gore is predicting that global warming is the coming of the apocalypse, people are looking for creative ways to maintain a sustainable ecosystem without giving up their consumerist lifestyles. Toronto’s first Green Living Show will inspire ways to do just that. The Green Living Show is this weekend, April 27-29, at the Direct Energy Centre at the Exhibition grounds. It boasts eco-fashion shows, organic cooking demonstrations, a wildflower garden, the......

Design seems to be Toronto’s buzz word this weekend. Besides Come Up To My Room at the Gladstone, there’s that event that all Toronto designers with an asymmetrical haircut and a closet full of black clothing wait for like Christmas day: The Interior Design Show. IDS07 began Thursday night with a bang. Their kick-off party, the White Gala, was a fete complete with acrobats and fire breathers that roamed the many design kiosks which housed......

In the window of Rita di Cesare's Toronto studio, there's a naked mannequin. For a first-time visitor, it's a temporary shock: You avert your eyes, looking at the studio's teal walls while thinking that someone in front of you is undressing. But it's apropos for the local headquarters of fashion label Nude Clothes. Designer di Cesare hit the scene a few years ago, her label the happy byproduct of an industrial design internship. Her......