Pre-fall is officially last season’s news, and when it comes to cool weather dressing it’s all about the layering and mixing of pattern and texture.

For the daytime warrior, hipster plaids such as See by Chloé’s are still excellent layering tools, though pair with loos[er] R13 skinnies and a luxuriously woven boxy Anna Molinari blazer to prevent yourself from looking to played out.  Play with woolen weaves, and layer with androgynous pieces with architectural footwear like Sigerson Morrison’s wedges for a modern twist.  Top with a Burberry toque (or beanie for the Amurricans) and heavy knit See by Chloé scarf, and you’re ready to battle the chill.

For times that require more refined style, satin and lace are always a safe bet.  Flowers may be summer’s trademark, but there are many ways to wear a richly colored floral piece during fall without looking out of season, especially when the dress is See by Chloé’s.  Due to the weather, layer with a contrasting pattern Bindya scarf, a McQ brocade blazer and toss those tights in favor of Roberto Cavalli’s super sexy thigh high boots.

This thing is a bra, gas mask and won the inventor the Nobel Prize – quite the little wardrobe essential!

It’s called the EBra, and while it looks like your garden variety breast container, it could also save your life in the event of disaster.  The bra actually converts into two gas masks, so if you’re a dude you’re covered (if you happen to be with a lady wearing one of these things).

It’s cheap, too  – $29.99 for a bra is affordable anywhere; especially when you consider you’re also buying two gas masks.

Submitted ‘model’ photos are such a great way for a company to involve their fans, and American Apparel has done an excellent job of not only encouraging but promoting their goods on their customer’s bodies.

First with their free 123 Ways To Wear American Apparel lookbook and now with their Best of Submitted photo series, American Apparel is really on the mission to interact with their people on a day to day level.

Jeffrey Campbell has granted our style wishes time and time again, but with the Wishlist3 boot things have gotten all the more delicious.

These are the newest reincarnation of the Wishlist style; over the knee bike boots with an attitude and some extreme leather treatments.  This time around, we’ve got a taller boot (the shaft is 20″ tall, versus the first two Wishlist boots at 18″), a distress treated leather for that beaten around look, a little more slouch and a super soft leather feel.

It’s an excellent package for $320, and is one of the boots you could win with demiCouture x Jeffrey Campbell x Senso’s 2 free shoes giveaway! That’s so much goodness, your head may explode.

Turns out there is actually 14 ways to never pay full price for your clothing, at ‘liking’ your favorite brands and boutiques on Facebook turns out to be the new method of promotion code acquisition!

Brands are [smartly] treating their fan pages just like a fancier, more interactive mailing list and you get to reap the benefits of them promoting their FB investment.  Facebook is truly the newest craze for spreading their promotion codes like wildfire, and it’s easy to both take advantage of the savings offer.

Alternatively, ‘unliking’ a page can be your salvation – if said boutique or brand is spamming you with messages, causing you more grief than gains or you just simply don’t want them around, a simple ‘unlike’ will be the coup de grace to your worries.

If you can, it’s best to check back often even if you’re not currently ‘liking’ a brand; promotions always rotate and  methods of capturing a new fan base always improve.  An excellent example of this is Revolve Clothing, who is offering a 5 part promo code series taking place next week, each which are sent by DM to their fans.  At the end of the week, all five of the codes can be combined (just like a Power Ranger) to create a super code, worth 20% off your entire Revolve purchase.

Holy moly, folks!

Look at the images below; the left ones are Mark Fast‘s (the first being a runway shot, the second from his Faster diffusion campaign), with the right side ones being that of Stella McCartney for Adidas’ advert shots.  With other instances of ‘maybe they got a bit ‘o inspiration’ there could be debate, but by comparing images you can see the blatant torch that the McCartney collection for Adidas is to Mark Fasts’ SS10 range.

Regardless how or why this happened, make no mistake.. Mark Fast has been seriously ripped.  Check out the two outfit comparisons; the color, the loose knit style, the designs of the garments and the loose knit being placed in curiously similar spots.. it’s time to call foul, folks.

With subject lines like ‘Your private invite to the Women’s SS11 Fashion Show’, ‘See us at the Joe Fresh™ fashion show!’ and even a basic ‘Fashion Show Invitation’, some hearts may skip a beat, right? The thing is, these are titles to reel you in to the sore truth that it’s a live streaming show you’re being invited to, and you’re only as exclusive as the rest of the mailing list.

Cheap and dirty is what it is, not to mention in poor taste to some of the fashion houses these emails represent; Dolce & Gabbana and Dsquared for example.  One would think that they would not resort to this kind of cheap trickery to get interest in their live streams.. how sad!

If you’re in the market for a mid calf buckle boot that will turn heads without turning your wallet into an empty house of broke, check out Steve Madden’s Buckkie boots. These moto inspired classics are triple buckled and leather wrinkled to provide the perfect effect for an affordable price – $160 US.

They look really similar to Fiorentini & Baker’s buckle boots, only the Madden pair are $565 less.  Pretty awesome, right? The Buckkie is currently on pre-order and available in sizes 6 through 10 (halfies included!)

Due to the unforeseen hosting issues, we went down like a pro a few days ago.  Since the Solestruck x Jeffrey Campbell x Senso shoe giveaway winner was supposed to be announced during the time we were offline, it’s only fair to extend the contest life to another 3 days.

So we’re clear; the contest now closes on September 25th at 11:59 PM.

If you haven’t, enter, enter, enter!!

…and it’s all thanks to the stellar tech team [though mostly Xavier] at HostGator for setting up my borked website from scratch.  You guys are hella awesome, and deserve many hi-fives and hugs.

If you need hosting, these guys are pretty awesome – look ‘em up.

FMA Fashion Week is shaping up to be more like FML Fashion Week with the feature of Queen of Jeans.  This isn’t your average denim feature; it’s entirely worse due to the Ed Hardy worthy design fit for the trashiest bar stars on Granville Street.

Queen of Jeans tends to be the queen of overdesign, creating looks unfit for the average woman in respected modern society.  If you think this may be an overreaction, check out their glitter, ‘I rolled in cow dung’  in light and dark wash (!) and vast array of needlessly contrast stitched denim.  It seems that in addition to horrific embellishments, these dire denims seem to be only cut one way – ‘skinny’.

It’s a feast for the foul at Queen, which accounts for more than a fashion crime leads you wondering how this label even exists.

After being tipped off to the Hot Pursuit piece in October 2010′s issue of FASHION Magazine and giving it a read, I felt as though the magazine and its writer completely swung and missed on the core issue.  The topic of discussion was a debate on the ability of finding current season pieces in Canada, and how Americans appear to have it easier when it comes to shopping for current season pieces.

The fact of the matter is anyone can get key designer pieces anywhere in the world if they’re willing to spend, but that eliminates 95% of shoppers.  To lump Canada’s shopping habits into those who navigate a Holt Renfrew worthy budget is both insulting and completely off the mark.

Not only is it incredibly difficult to locate more daring pieces on this side of the 49th Parallel, but to find a look that goes beyond the typical sheath dress and ankle boots in a local boutique requires a thorough [and likely futile] search.  This isn’t entirely the fault of the boutiques; Canadians have proven over time to be conservative shoppers and make for an [overall] dull class of style citizen.

Forget citing designer pieces priced at the cost of a vehicle, a more valid comparison is that of an AllSaints leather jacket.  While the jacket is expensive, at $500 [and under] these pieces are much more likely to be closely considered and purchased than something for the extremely affluent.  By focusing on that elite group of shoppers, FASHION is not only eliminating itself from relevance to much of their readership, but could be seen by its fans as being out of touch with the Canadian buying public’s editorial tastes and boundaries.

Clearly that does not require a cleansing of all highly priced designer items from the editorial palette, though a piece on trending and styling which cites these pieces and their designers vary incredibly from one roasting itself over our lack of $25,000 jackets available North of the border.

Trickle down style may not be as haute as its original inspirations, but they are reachable and therefore more relevant to the reader.  That’s not to say original designs always have to cost your spare kidney (insert shops like AllSaints), though curiously these pieces aren’t the subject of lament for FASHION – it’s only the haute pursuit of the elite that wins the spotlight this time around.

Also quite surprising was the comment by Fashion TV’s Jeanne Beker (shown above), which was incredibly nearsighted for a well traveled professional such as herself.  We’ll give Jeanne the benefit of the doubt that if you have a massive budget you will very likely be able to acquire any piece you fancy, but what about the ladies that can’t afford the $5,000 trousers? One takes away from that comment that we must be severely handicapped or suffer from lack of effort – two items I can assure you do not apply to many of the shopperati within Canadian borders.

In the end, myself and Megan of Etceteraism disagree with FASHION’s outlook, and I would love to hear your thoughts.  Scans of the entire article can be viewed here [1] [2] [3] [4], which are thanks to the fabulous Megan.

There is an epic mass of shoppers these days willing to spill their wallets for some truly unremarkable items, namely items of fake leather and suede.

Sure fake leather is cheap, but it looks cheap.  Think about it: would you rather buy a pair of shoes that scream trash, or save up for a few weeks and get a pair that’s going to look better in a year than they did when you took them off the shelf? The answer is a no brainer, especially in Vancouver when damp weather wreaks havoc on materials that aren’t made to last.

Not only do they look like you’re wearing stiff garbage bags on your feet, but they tear instead of wear.  If you’ve ever had a favorite pair of boots that snapped instead of stretched and scuffed you’ll know what I mean; instead of molding to your foot, plastic holds tight and cracks under pressure.

Plastics are not only terrible for long term wear, but they are also brutal on the environment.  If you think veggie footwear is the way to go, you may want to re-think plastic’s effects on global landfills.  Even with noble intentions of saving an animal’s hide and using less energy to produce an item, these measures still fall short.  Even if the item does those two things, if they bust due to poor construction and end up in a garbage dump, you’ve not only slapped the environment with additional trash but pumped more money into the corporate machine when you buy a second pair.

It’s all wrong when it comes to plastics, so just buy leather and buy an item you’ll be able to wear for the next 5-15 years if taken proper care of.

It had been about 2 months since my last cut, so it was truly time for a visit to Zinc.  Check out the awesome they did to my hurr.. pink ombré effect on the slant-cut fringe, bobbed sides and some all around thinned out goodness (I was getting really poofy before).

In case you’re wanting the same awesoma powa treatment, call them up and ask for Dawn to do your color and Tricia to do the cut.. you won’t regret it.

Sarah Jessica Parker or not, Halston Heritage is looking pretty rough these days – especially when you take in the entire ripped-from-the-70s metallic lamé pieces for the current season.

These thin metallic fabric pieces look cheap without someone wearing them; when taking into account the scads that won’t be able to navigate the tricky style properly, it’s a ghastly mental image.  Studio 54 was a long time ago, and there is a reason you don’t see that kind of throwback apart from theme parties.

I’m assuming the design team (you know, the ones that actually do the designing while SJP takes all the credit) got a wee bit ‘Carried away’ with her alter ego’s style retardation.

Ladies and gents, everything has been sorted brilliantly, and all the fuss was due to a few lines being scrambled back when Steve Madden was working with a contracted individual that left the company.

It was less than 3 hours and I already had a message waiting on my phone, with a proposition for demiCouture x Steve Madden to collaborate on awesome monthly efforts.  Stay tuned for the coming awesome, and more happy kittehs.

Check out the monstrosities below – these are the newest Jimmy Choo creations by Tamara Mellon for Jimmy Choo.  That’s right.. the FUgg reign at Choo has not ended, and likely will keep going for as long as poor half wits are willing to wear them.

The studded monstrosity below is $790, while the Native-inspired fright FUgg is $695.  These are without a doubt, two of the best puns to hit the fashion industry since Manolo’s collabo with the brand.

It’s been well over six months since Steve Madden’s online brand manager and I discussed a collaboration entailing a few shoe mentions in exchange for merchandise.  Over the last half year, he has fed promises of merchandise that has failed to deliver and completely stopped returning contacts [emails and tweets] of both myself and their contracted social media manager (her tour of Madden duty has since ended).

While SM shoes appeared to be getting their act together, it is regretfully clear that the Steve Madden brand has no intention of going through with their end of the bargain despite continuation with their social media managing.

Steve Madden, if you’re going to run successful campaigns and make agreements with online resources, you should be following through.  This kind of empty promising and snubbing is very unbecoming of a brand, is entirely unprofessional and proves the Steve Madden team can’t be trusted to follow through.

Concerning the particular rep that made promises they couldn’t keep, you know who you are and I am very disappointed in you.

There has been a happy ending!! Check it out

This was so fascinating for a number of reasons; the study didn’t only look at overeating as a reason for overweight, but the naturally thin person’s physiological response to eating twice their recommended calorie intake over four weeks.

It shows how the people in the study went on gaining the weight, how they reacted to eating that much and how their bodies responded to the new food intake.  There are multiple doctor’s views on the matter, and it’s quite a fascinating watch.

This docu isn’t a new release, but it’s still incredibly relevant in today’s climate of increasing obesity and diet crazes.  There are 7 parts to this Youtube viewable vid, with part 1 being at the top and 7 at the bottom.

That’s right, Lady Gaga has signed a deal with Coty Fragrances to create her own stank for everyone to throw their bodies and dollars at.  The news of the deal itself isn’t shocking, though one has to wonder what it will be called and how she will be promoting it.

One does have to wonder what The Gaga will design her smell around, because it’s doubtful Coty would want to smell like a post coital crotch.  We’ll have to wait till 2012 to smell this stuff, though.. the suspense!