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WEEKEND POST
WE LOVE
This new format for the Snap Judgments column! So much more room to share our feelings with the world in three sentences or fewer. And pictures!

NATIONAL POST, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

JUDGMENTS

SNAP

WERE NOT SO SURE

About the Amy Winehouse biography to be written by her father. The proceeds go to children who are disadvantaged through illness and substance addiction but his goal of writing it to help with my personal recovery seems a bit off.

WE LOVED
The season finale of Breaking Bad, which somehow gets better with each passing season. The long-anticipated showdown between Walter White and Gustavo Fring was as, er, explosive as we hoped. There is only one season left, though thankfully it will be a longer-than-usual 16 episodes.

WERE NOT SOLD ON

Bacardi Oakheart smooth spiced rum. While were hardly experts in all the manifestations of the venerated Caribbean spirit, the stylized bat logo and promise of a rum straight from the heart of a charred oak barrel had us thinking more about our Halloween party costume than hints of cinnamon, dates and burnt molasses. In that case, the Oakheart might make for the perfect pirate prop.

SPOILER

ISSUING A

REPORT
The high costs of having a friend who lives in the moment
J O N AT H A N G O L D S T E I N My Week

WEATHER

ALERT
FOR THE

Mark Fast. Not only for his experimentation with knitwear but for his gutsy approach to making his voice heard on the world stage.

Host of CTV s Fashion Television, picks

JEANNE BEKER,

London-based knitwear designer

MARK FAST

Mark Fast. Everything is one-of-a-kind. And Eran Elfassy and Elisa Dahan of Mackage. They took winter coats to a new level.

MICHELLE WATSON of Michi picks

DSquared2. Dean and Dan love displaying their Canadian heritage.

ERAN ELFASSY AND ELISA DAHAN of Mackage pick

Shes an artist first of all. I love her work. And Rad Hourani: If you see his work, you will understand everything.

DENIS GAGNON picks Renata Morales

Its amazing that hes one of the older designers and that hes the most edgy.

STEPHEN WONG of Greta Constantine picks Denis Gagnon.

DSquared2 have their finger on the pulse of the fashion world. Also, Greta Constantine. The way they wield fabric, one gets a sense of pure, feminine sensuality.

TV personality, picks

JAY MANUEL,

DSQUARED2 Dean and Dan Caten

THURSDAY I show up to Jackies tea party with a box of Mae Wests under my arm. I guess with PETA having made its crackdown, I say, its now up to us humans to reclaim the tea party from circus chimpanzees. PETA wouldnt let you serve this crap to a monkey, she says, taking the snack cakes and chucking them onto the kitchen counter. The guests children ransack them and run upstairs. Kids are lucky. They get to explore the whole house and find out what the hosts are really about. They tear through drawers and search under beds, while we poor adults are chained to the living room with only the occasional trip to the bathroom for a quick rummage through the medicine cabinet to learn whats what. I sit on the couch, eavesdropping on a conversation about annuities, and wishing I had a Mae West. FRIDAY I call up Howard to tell him Saturdays picnic is on. The weathers going to be gorgeous, I say. Spoiler alert! Howard yells. When giving away whats going to happen, have the decency to first say spoiler alert. I thought that was only for movie plots, I say. Not the weather. From now on I want to keep everything a surprise, he says. I dont want to live my life with one foot in the future, because thatll mean having only one foot in the present. And that would leave you without a foot in the nut house? I ask. Im so committed to this, he says, unimpeded, that Im not even going to use the future tense. You just did. Did I? he asks. Well, maybe I dont know what the future tense is. Good luck with it, I say. I have to go shopping for the picnic, so Ill see you later. Please, he says before hanging up, dont tell me that! Personally, I love thinking about the future. I dont think Ive ever thrown out a single fortune cookie fortune. I dont go so far as to fold them into my wallet, but I do usually hang on to them in some way, maybe tossing them into a sock drawer or placing them in the pages of a book Im reading. Theres something about throwing one out that feels like an act of bad faith, because all prophecies about the future should be taken seriously even if theyre prophecies that come in cookies at the end of a meal of moo goo gai pan. I also love the idea of serendipitously re-discovering these predictions of the future in the future holding them in my hands and thinking about what once could have been, but never was, yet might, one day, still be. The future often feels larger, more boundless, than the past, or the present. Perhaps it needs to be because it is where we store our hopes. At the grocery store, the first thing I throw into my cart is a box of Mae Wests. The second is a bag of fortune cookies. Spoiler alerts ahead, Ill tell Howard, slipping a few into his hands. Jonathan Goldstein is the host of WireTap on CBC Radio One, airing Saturdays at 3:30 p.m. and Thursdays at 11:30 p.m. Follow him on Twitter @J_Goldstein.
Weekend Post

forward
Complexgeometries. Hes always innovating with new cuts, new fabrics and hes using new technology.

PAY IT

RENATA MORALES picks Clayton Evans of

Our new monthly chart begins with a search for the most innovative fashion designers in Canada
By Melissa Leong

Douglas Coupland displays a certain fearlessness in his evolution as an artist. He boldly takes on new mediums and takes it to another level

MICHAEL BUDMAN, Roots co-founder, says

Her discerning eye guarantees that the final product looks elegant, effortless and perfectly balanced.

CLAYTON EVANS of Complexgeometries picks Renata Morales.

Budman. The personal intricate marketing story that the boys built around the [EARTHnegativeshoe], forever instilled a style of branding that was as yet unheard of in Canada.

ROBIN KAY, president of the Fashion Design Council of Canada, picks Don Green and Michael

DSquared2. Dan and Dean continually evolve season-to-season, all the while staying true to their Canadian roots.

DON GREEN, Roots co-founder, picks

DOUG COUPLAND, author and artist, picks Evan Biddell

He seems to really enjoy being alive and living in the world.

What hes doing reflects himself and his own visions and not necessarily following what other people are doing.

JENNIFER WATERS of House of Groves picks Denis Gagnon.

RAD HOURANI declines to pick, saying

The choice of the most innovative can only belong to a certain illusion that each one may believe in.

His design aesthetic has matured amazingly over the seasons and his presence in the global fashion market is stronger than ever.

CRISTINA SABAIDUC picks Jeremy Laing.

I met Cristina a couple years ago where she was showing dresses that had these coral reef looking flower like embellishments all over them. It ended up being lead shards she had thrown on to the dresses with magnets sewn inside.

EVAN BIDDELL picks Cristina Sabaiduc.

THE WEEK IN PEAKS OUR FIVE-DAY CULTURAL MOOD SWING

Classy fellow Michael Ondaatje decides hes won enough GGs and takes The Cats Table out of the running for the prize. Dont worry, Drakes new album is coming, eventually. Can we get you a coffee and some Shatner while you wait? Samuel L. Jackson joins Twitter, and then, for symmetrys sake, Jonathan Taylor Thomas does, too. The movie Drive inspires man to throw hot dog at Tiger Woods. Steve Martin, Jack Black, birds ... what, do you have something better to do this weekend?

World celebrates Michael Jackson the only way it knows how: by listening to Cee Lo and wishing the Black Eyed Peas were there.

Michael Douglas to play Liberace.

Does it involve Owen Wilson?

Can Tim Allens new show be the next Playboy Club?

121 years in jail for the creep who forced world to look at nude pictures of ScarJo? Seems fair.

Whitney Houston refuses to buckle up on an airplane. If you did it, itd be dumb. For her, the operative four-letter d-word is diva. Sorry, thems the rules.