M-ONE-11, Toronto

M-ONE-11‘s lone store outside Australia and New Zealand is located in Toronto’s hip Queen Street West district. The store is definitely one of my favorite stores to shop in the city. The store offers clothing labels you wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else in the area.

Brands such as Australian-based Mooks streetwear, FEIT sneakers as well as the surfboard company, INSIGHT. In addition to providing Australian-based brands, the store offers a great clothing line under their own label which is a leading Australian streetwear company. M-ONE-11’s mens and womens apparel features a quality collection of tees, jackets, shirts and other accessories such as hats and bags. The style of its clothing line is skater streetwear meets modern Bohemian with a Pacific influence.

M-ONE-11’s retail space is also used as an exhibition/gallery space on occasion. M-ONE-11 is very involved in Toronto’s art community and does a great job promoting local talent and artists. They are currently hosting an art auction featuring local artists benefiting Sketch, an organization creating opportunities for street involved and homeless people ages 15-29. If you’re in the neighbourhood next Thursday, M-ONE-11 is hosting an Auction Closing Party at 7pm. Thursday December 21st, 2006 7PM-9PM (Auction closes at 9pm) Definitely check this store out if you happen to be in downtown Toronto area.

M-ONE-11, 561 Queen Street West. Toronto, Canada

InquiringMind Magazine – Revamped

The guys at InquiringMind and the whole Goodfoot/Nomad group have really blown up lately and we definitely give them respect representing our hometown of Toronto and the rest of Canada.

For those who have checked out the InquiringMind website lately, you might notice a complete revamped layout and webpage. The online street culture magazine has decided with a clean, minimal look compared to their previous website. The new presentation allows users easy access to their articles, gallery and event information. Check out the new look at InquiringMind.

[InquiringMind]

– Jon

Royal Ontario Museum – The Crystal

For those of you who are waiting on the renovations transformation project for the Royal Ontario Museum, Renaissance ROM, it looks as though it will be 6 months behind schedule. Designed by Studio Daniel Libeskind, this is intended to be one of several projects leading Toronto’s Cultural Renaissance, changing the image that the city is presented to the rest of the world. The Renaissance ROM is a $211 million project (estimated to be more now after the delay) which encompasses a 14,500-square-foot space known as The Crystal. This new expansion will be ‘a structure of organically interlocking prismatic forms, asserting the primacy of participatory space and public choreography’. The ROM hopes that they will not have to further delay their planned $50,000-a-table gala for June 1st, 2007.

-phil

Reset, Toronto

Situated on Toronto’s hip and trendy Queen Street West, Reset has always been one of my favorite stores to check out whenever I take a stroll around the city. Although the store is far west from the much popular and commercial area of Queen St. (between University and Spadina, more particularly the district where Muchmusic headquarters and all the other commercial shit is located), Reset is (like many trendy stores have) located towards the Trinity Bellwoods Park area (between Bathurst and Dufferin). Currently, the area has rejuvenating due to the high volume of artists and designers residing in the area. The area has converted from a run down, bare district to a very stylish and cool neighbourhood which is home to various art galleries as well as unique and distinctive shops.

Zeeshan and Osman Chaudhary set up their Queen West store about two years ago and the store has become one of the best establishments for high end street fashion in Toronto. Reset offers an exclusive collection of the best in local and international street brands and currently offers merchandise from Obey, Creative Recreation, Freshjive, Boxfresh and Criminal. I find that these brands are difficult to find in the city already and to have them available in one place just makes it so much easier for the avid shopper. What I like about Reset is the fact they don’t stick to the same brands all the time as they change their collection ever so often. The store also offers a selection of collectors’ toys, books and magazines. What differentiates Reset from other stores is they are committed to the “fusion of aggressive visual culture” and art appreciation. Reset has often hosted art events in their shop and this past month have presented guests such as acclaimed photographer Jon Naar.

If you happen to be in Toronto, definitely take some time and check out Reset on Queen Street West.

Reset
803 Queen St. W
Toronto
www.resetclothing.com

Click below to view more photos of the Reset Clothing shop in Toronto, Canada

New Tribe Tattoos & Piercings

[Official Site]

New Tribe has finally launched their new website by changing everything to a flash interface. Still, I’m pretty dissappointed though,

Sneaker Pimps Toronto 2006

Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and A Tribe Called Quest blasted in the background while a huge crowd of people gathered around the artists for a live painting. For many, one eye was focused on the artists as they skillfully painted, while another eye suspiciously and discreetly checking out everyone else’s shoes. With hundreds upon hundreds of customized Dunks, Air Force Ones, Chuck Taylors, and Superstars, a cold and shitty October Friday night in Toronto seemed like Christmas for any avid sneakerhead in the city.

Withdrawn on a very quiet street, 99 Sudbury was the perfect venue for Sneaker Pimps, the largest worldwide Sneaker tour. It was a vast improvement from the much smaller location last year at the Spin Gallery on Queen West. Although the legendary Pete Rock cancelled last minute, I must say it was a huge success and the huge crowd signified the large streetwear/sneaker fan base Toronto has. Dave White and Jordan English impressed the crowd with their live art installations. Apparently even Samuel L Jackson (yes, Samuel L. “Royale-With-Cheese”, “Get these motherfuckin’ snakes off the motherfuckin’ plane” Jackson) came to take a look at the exhibition.

And then there was the shoes. Well… I won’t explain any of them. I’ll let the pictures I took describe them.

Here are some of the pics I took at Sneaker Pimps:

Sneaker Pimps Toronto Photos Will Be Up Soon

Speakeasy is off to Sneaker Pimps at 99 Sudbury. Check back here tomorrow or Sunday (at the latest) for photos of the worldwide sneaker show.

TBG – Too Black Guys Fall ’06 Collection

It is not very often that a fashion label out of Toronto, Canada makes so much noise in the streetwear scene but Too Black Guys or better known as TBG deserves every bit of the attention. To be honest, I haven’t heard of this line much till recently although rappers such as Ice Cube and Leaders of the New School have been reppin the brand since the 90’s. It was the interview with Inquiringmind that first caught my attention, and so I went to their site to take a look at their clothing. I was pleasantly surprised with what they had to offer in terms of design as the colours they used were fresh and the designs were clever.

However, TBG touches on an extremely sensitive subject in the context of race, as many of their satirical designs play on the theme of slavery. This will definately be one of those things where people hate it or love it depending on how they perceive TBG’s message. To see more of the collection, go to High Snobiety or visit TBG’s website.

-phil

Circa Nightclub – One of a Kind…

Aug -11 2007 : New Updated Information on CiRCA. (CLICK HERE)
Here’s a sneak peek of the much anticipated CiRCA. Check out the updated pictures and video of the inside.

The hype over this venue has been ridculious and there is a certain amount of buzz over a new nightclub that hasn’t existed in the city of Toronto. The nightclubs located around “Richmond (St.)”, or otherwise known as “clubland”, have been very generic and boring. The spoiled suburban kids who exile to this clubbing district every weekend don’t seem to mind. But nightclub pioneer Peter Gatien (who owned several hip nightclubs in New York City such as Tunnel, The Limelight and the Palladium, only to be deported back to his native land due to a tax felony) looks to change the face of Toronto clubbing by opening a very unique venue called Circa. Gatien is planing to convert a 53,000- square-foot, four-floor mega-complex in the heart of Toronto’s Entertainment District which was once Lucid nightclub which had little success after taking the space from Playdium, an interactive arcade.

What is so unique about Circa is the fact that Gatien has been working with several artists, designers and architects to make sure Circa does not fail at any account and become the talk of the town.

Here’s a summary of what you can expect from Circa: