AllyG: So, my Friday mornings have changed a little. I am currently boycotting McDonalds (McDonalds, if you are reading this, be prepared to lose a lot of money over the next three months of my pregnancy. Yah, that’s right, I ain’t coming back no more). Last Friday they burnt my husband’s egg mcmuffin. Mine was fine, but that’s not the point. I had to hear about said burnt egg mcmuffin ALL THE LIVE LONG WEEKEND. So, this Friday, I have shifted my allegiance to Tim Horton’s. Whole wheat bagel with light strawberry cream cheese. I share this with you because I know you care. And I care about you too. Unless you work at McDonalds.
So, I guess first on my list for Favorite Friday is Tim Horton’s. Woo.
But here’s what I’m sure you came for – Favorite Friday English Socialites. Brilliant, non? How DO we come up with these topics?
It all starts with their names. Their names are so much better than their Canadian/American counterparts (aside: do we even have Canadian socialites?).
Exhibit A:
Meet Peaches Geldof fashion icon, model and contributor to one of our favorite magazines, Nylon. I was iffy on Peaches during the whole Pete Doherty debaucle (she was accused of making a “suggestive” comment to him prior to his performance somewhere at sometime. Anyone who would make a suggestive comment to Pete Doherty is barfy in my books. I have chosen the path of doubt on this claim. You’re in the clear, Geldof), however her style has won me over.
Now, I get that this is either love or hate. I love. It’s a lot of everything, and I have never been accused of flying under the radar. To Peaches I say, “well played”.
Exhibit B:
Now, our Tara (Palmer-Tomkinson) hit a “walking down Lilo Blvd.” stage in her life (if ya get what I’m sayin’). TPT hit a rough patch when her “septum nasi separating her two nostrils collapsed due to her former £400-a-day addiction to cocaine” (thanks Wikipedia!). To her credit, she seems to have pulled it together.
Well. She’s clean at least. The outfit is horrific. Riddle me this, Watson (or whatever the saying is), why do women insist on wearing skirts that are this short? If the skirt had been down to the knees, and she lost the shoes (perferably in the English Channel), I would maybe acknowledge her in public. Like, are those SATIN shoes?? Is she going to Prom? In 1980?
The reason I love English Socialists (totally keeping the typo) is that they do everything up LARGE School (as opposed to old school).
Keeping with the Brit theme, my last favorite this Friday is Harry. Hot, hot Harry. I’m suspicious of anyone who prefers William over Harry. The same people like Oatmeal and reading War and Peace before bed. Snore. Ladies who love Harry like to eat tequila for breakfast and shut ‘er down with a bourbon and a US Magazine (Hi, Mom! Kidding! Kidding!).
And yes, this is the best picture I could find. You know you love me. xoxo.
Over to you, L-A.
L-A: Before we get started: I agree on the Harry and almost agree on the tequila for breakfast (unfortunate tequila incidents in my undergrad prevent me from tequilaing in the AM). I mean, those abs are illegal. Or they almost are, considering the age difference between Harry and I. Anyway. I digress. Are there socialites in Canada? I took that question as a CHALLENGE! (Like that episode of the Cosby show, where Cliff and some old guy tap dance and at the end of each dance the old dude says: CHALLENGE!). I totally spent an hour trying to google up some socialites. I wasn’t looking for TMZ style photos or anything. If we have socialites, they are hiding. Or they are not internet savvy. Your call. But it seems that it’s easier to find Canadian socialists than socialites. Americans have their Tinsley Mortimers, Brits have their Peaches Geldofs and then some (I bet the British upper crust are AGHAST that Peaches is a socialite. All six Mitford sisters are probably rolling in their collective graves. But at least one of them was a Nazi-sympathizer, so I think we can safely ignore the zombie-Mitfords). But what do we have?
I shudder to include this photo, but sadly, I believe les enfants Mulroney fall into our social elite. I mean, Caroline married into the upper bits of American society when she married a Lapham (Wikipedia is totally our friend today). Sadly for us, Ben is the Mulroney we must endure (the only one with an entry on Wikipedia). I don’t care if you do love Canadian Idol (I do not), this guy strikes me as an oily variety bohunk (oh dear. Google tells me bohunk is not a very nice thing to call someone. I only knew it from Sixteen Candles. The oily variety remains). But I will make it up to you dear reader avec un Trudeau:
Et voila! Justin Trudeau. No need to thank me. The Trudeau boys are le sexy enough to almost make me consider joining the Liberal Party.
Moving along. Meet some of our lady socialites:
Alexandra Weston and Suzanne Cohon, “principals of ASC PR and professional socialites”. How does one become a professional socialite? Does this go on your resume? According to the National Post, Weston is married to Galen – you know, the dude from the President’s Choice ads (hee…I kid. That’s not actually Galen. But who doesn’t love a bit of Gavin Crawford on a Friday?). Judging by all the exclamation marks used in that National Post article, I’m guessing the author is not a fan of our country’s/Toronto’s social elite. That’s okay, these ladies are getting enough love from Toronto Life, who deemed them and their Greta Constantine dresses to be some of the best dressed in the T Dot. I’m not loving the dresses, but props to Alexandra on rocking the formal pregnancy wear. That’s not an easy feat, even if you are a socialite.
Toronto Life also recently hailed developer/socialite Dina Pantalone as one of the city’s best dressed:
But what’s a socialite without un petit peu de scandal? It’s not terribly shocking or of the LiLo variety, but Dina claimed this dress to be something vintage/of her own design and was outed by Toronto Life readers and the designer of the dress. Oopsie. In case you want to dress like a socialite, you can pick up Dina’s dress ($159) from the charming Queen West store Champagne and Cupcakes, which is owned by Caroline Lim, designer of the dress in question. As for the Louboutins on Dina? They’re real. For the rest of us, well, we can rob a bank or paint the soles of our shoes red.
And finally, the adorable Beckerman sisters:
I can’t tell you which one is which, but the Beckerman sisters are Samantha and Caillianne (twins) and Chloe. I am not sure if they are actually professional socialites (remember, Canadian socialites are hard to find on the internets), but they are, at the very least, Canadian celebutantes because of their success. I want to hate them because they are wealthy, beautiful, living in an NYC loft, graduates of FIT, and wildly successful (dear god. that sounds like the plot of a CW show! Dear CW: have your people call my people. We’ll do lunch). But I cannot. They are just too adorable and too talented. I mean, seriously. Check out these necklaces:
(pic found via the World According to Jessica Claire)
First person to buy me that anchor ($75 USD) is my new BFF for life. I kid you not. (okay, maybe I kid you just a little bit. But I would love to own it). I would also buy a glass of mid-range wine for the buyer/shop owner who brings Beckerman goodies to a Halifax based store. Their jewelry line is only the tip of their talented iceberg, but I’ll save the rest for another post. In the meantime, you can check out their blog, where they mix it up with everything from Chanel to Gap to Value Village to YSL. I can’t say I love every look, but I do love their chutzpah.
Now go enjoy your weekend! Drinks on a patio, anyone? xoxo.
