Photo by Arline Malakian. Courtesy of Lucian Matis. Lucian Matis's Fall 2008 line premieres at L'Oréal Fashion Week on March 18, but the designer is oddly calm: "I’m not nervous at all," he says in his Bloorcourt Village studio. "It's almost like I don't know the show's coming." It’s a surprising response from a designer who will be watched closely after having broken through into Canadian consciousness: his work has been showcased on Canada's......

Photo by David Spigolon. Just over a decade ago in the basement of a SoHo café, playwright Eve Ensler began performing a series of moving and celebratory monologues dealing with the shame many women have over their physiology and sexuality. Since then, The Vagina Monologues has evolved to legendary fame, so far staged in 120 countries and translated into 45 languages. Ensler's success also inspired her to create V-Day, a non-profit, worldwide movement opposing......

Toronto native Lucian Matis, 28, landed in second place behind Evan Biddell, a 24-year-old designer from Saskatoon, on the finale of Project Runway Canada last night. Matis, Biddell, and third-placer Marie Genevieve Cyr showed ten-piece collections at Toronto's L'Oréal Fashion Week in October as the final challenge of the reality show. The runway shows were performed in front of an audience and evaluated by the Runway judges: supermodel Iman, Elle Canada Editor Rita Silvan, and......

It's the week where the Canadian broadcasters announce their upcoming season (known as an "upfront" because advertisers are then able to buy commercial airtime ahead of time or "up front"), and ACTRA isn't very happy. The Canadian actors' union is angry that domestic networks are spending a record $688-million on foreign programming (2006) instead of investing in new Canadian dramatic programming. Currently, the most successful Canadian shows are expensive franchises like Canadian Idol, Entertainment......

So, last season—sorry, cycle—of Canada's Next Top Model was kinda "meh" compared to the Tyra-shoutin', model-faintin', drag-walkin' original. Host Tricia Helfer seemed to be reprising her other role as a robot Cylon, but one with consistently dwindling batteries, and the season one production values were also a bit low-wattage. The new host CHUM has whisked-in to save the day is ANTM fan favourite and Toronto-bred Jay Manuel, who dashingly wears shirts for promo shots......

Starting September 1, the Hamilton television station known as CH will be rebranded as E! Entertainment Television. E! is an American entertainment and lifestyle cable broadcaster best known for its wildly successful E! True Hollywood Story series. CH corporate parent CanWest MediaWorks will license the E! trademark and manage Canadian content programming, including online, mobile, satellite radio and video-on-demand platforms. There are also CH-branded stations in Montreal, Victoria, Kelowna and Red Deer which are included......

L’Oréal Fashion Week officially ends today, but for all intents and purposes it's already over. While work commitments kept us from attending most events, we've been following news coverage keenly and have assembled the following recap. Clap Your Hands, Say "Meh" Fall/Winter 2007, as a whole, left buyers happy as there was plenty of "wearable" (also known as sellable), yet less-than-visionary clothes. As a result, the fashion media was underwhelmed. Off-the-record, journalists covering the event......

Torontoist is eagerly awaiting celebrity season—aka TIFF season—and this weekend we got a teeny preview of the many sightings to come. Spotted entering her brand-new apartment on Queen West was Canada's Next Top Model winner Andrea. The finalist was looking much more polished than when we last saw her on-air, wearing cute turquoise sweats and carrying a new duvet from Sears. Her residence, if you're interested, is extremely close to the CityTV-mothership. No word on......

Sorry George, but the reviews are in and the One just plain sucks. The ABC produced, CBC simulcasted Idol/Next Top Model/Big Brother mashup sucks so much that the National (which was actually bumped forward an hour) managed to get almost three times the number of viewers. The One just managed to pull 236,000 viewers compared to the National which pulled in a respectable 550,000+ viewers. Antonia Zerbisias goes on at length at the show's shortcomings.......

It was inevitable - as Paula and Kelly begot Sass and Ryan (this isn't the time for Ross Petty jokes, but don't worry, we're cooking something up), so Tyra, Janice, and all those hoards of wonderfully bitch-faced girls will beget Alberta's Tricia Helfer and a politer, gentler legacy of wannabe models. City TV has announced that the search for Canada's Next Top Model is on. Any ladies over five foot seven (and between the ages......

Let the cattiness begin! Wednesday marks the new season of America’s Next Top Model over on CityTV. And producers are promising this season will be the bitchiest one yet. Super model turned drag queen Tyra Banks is back as host, along with a gaggle of "celebrity" judges. This time around the girls are a more varied bunch. At least job wise that is. We have a janitor, a 22-year-old mother and a wrestler. But of......

In an effort to promote the new season of America’s Next Top Model on City TV, CityLine are running a model search of their own called Toronto’s Next Top Model. The winner gets an ‘opportunity’ to model on CityLine, be in a photo shot for FASHION Magazine, and even get represented by Elmer Olsen Modeling Management but with “no guarantee of term of contract or work.” Sure it’s mostly just a marketing gimmick but that......