The Kit Compact Holiday 2017

HOLIDAY 2017

REVAMPING THE LADY The new elegance is all about being joyfully, unapologetically you. This holiday season, indulge your singular self with wish-list-worthy gifts, modern party dresses and rebel spirit to burn

Healthy-looking, beautiful smiles for life.

UNVEIL YOUR WHITER SMILE WITH AN AT-HOME PROFESSIONAL LEVEL TREATMENT.

ca.crest.com/en-ca

© Procter & Gamble, Inc. 2018 ORAL–22213

EDITOR’S LETTER

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Laura deCarufel @LauradeCarufel

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Jessica Hotson @jesshotson EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Kathryn Hudson (on leave) @hudsonkat BEAUTY DIRECTOR

Rani Sheen @ranisheen

A NEW IDEAL

FASHION EDITOR

An exhibition opening November 25 at the Royal Ontario Museum celebrates Christian Dior, the designer who gave the world the “New Look,” the classically feminine hourglass silhouette.

Jillian Vieira @JillianVieira

DIGITAL EDITOR

Caitlin Kenny @caitlinken_insta MANAGING EDITOR

Eden Boileau @lilyedenface

ASSISTANT EDITOR

Veronica Saroli @vsaroli

ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTORS

Sonya van Heyningen @svanh7 Kristy Wright (on leave) @creativewithak Aimee Nishitoba @studio.aimee

PUBLISHER

Giorgina Bigioni PROJECT DIRECTOR, DIGITAL MEDIA

Kelly Matthews COLLAB DIRECTOR

HAPPILY EVER AFTER

Evie Begy eb@thekit.ca

I’m delighted to report that I’ve found the world’s most perfect winter wedding guest dress: This Erdem x H&M frock ($299, hm.com) fits like a floaty dream.

COLLAB COORDINATOR

Sarah Chan

PHOTOGRAPHY: LUIS MORA (DECARUFEL); HAIR AND MAKEUP: ASHLEY READINGS (DECARUFEL)

MARKETING COORDINATOR

Nikki Lewis

CONTRIBUTORS

Britta B., Veronica Chu, Julia Cooper, Nathan Cyprys, Tami El Sombati, Gemma Files, Lora Grady, Jane & Jane, Kirsten Klontz, Hamin Lee, Lauren Mckeon, Julia Monson, Luis Mora, Ashley Readings, Olivia Stren, Ronnie Tremblay, Halli Villegas, Gemma Warren, Jiaqing Wilson-Yang, Jenn Woodall, Romy Zack INTERNS

McKenzie Bohn, Sarit Cohen, Natalie Puch, Alexandria Regis, Madina Yar The Kit is Canada’s beauty and style leader © 2017, The Kit, a division of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited.

PRESIDENT AND CEO, TORSTAR, AND PUBLISHER, TORONTO STAR

John Boynton

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, TORONTO STAR

Michael Cooke

THEKIT.CA | HOLIDAY 2017 |

A FEW MORE WEDDING GUEST ESSENTIALS, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: GIGI HADID X MAYBELLINE NEW YORK SENSATIONAL MATTE LIPSTICK IN LANI, $12, DRUGSTORES. SOPHIA WEBSTER SHOES, $840, SOPHIAWEBSTER.COM. HILLIER BARTLEY BROOCH, $320, NET-APORTER.COM. EDIE PARKER BAG, $2,050, EDIE-PARKER.COM. CHLOÉ ABSOLU DE PARFUM, $170 (75 ML), HUDSON’S BAY. INSTITUT ESTHEDERM CELLULAR WATER SPRAY, $29, ESTHEDERM.CA.

WHAT IS A LADY? Every year, every men’s magazine worth its single malt ponders, “What is a man now?”

(Reverential Hemingway refs ensue.) I’ve long liked the idea of flipping it and asking, “Well, what is a woman now?” As 2017 draws to a close, the question feels particularly relevant. The recent wave of #metoo stories—enraging accounts of harassment and assault—have unleashed a flood of welcome sympathy, unwelcome skepticism and, for me, the uncomfortable trickle of memory, as I relive what it felt like when it happened to me. I often picture a walking doll, frozen mute with unblinking eyes, forced to fumble with a new way of seeing the world. Powerlessness is the worst.

This issue is all about reclaiming that power. We’re exploring what it means to be a woman now by playing with the idea of the

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“lady” and the narrow notions of femininity that are conjured by that very loaded word.

In the traditional definition, a lady is a walking doll, defined by what other people think of her—she’s demure; she’s docile; she’s mute. In our definition, a lady is whoever she wants to be. How do you like them apples?

Three writers set the freewheeling tone of the issue with pieces about learning how to own their voices, including the spoken word poet Britta B., who redefined the power of words—and discovered her craft—as a way of escaping her verbally abusive family. Managing editor Eden Boileau spotlights the new “ladies who lunch”; cool creatives who are creating unconventional careers on their terms. Julia Cooper reports on the next wave of horror—women filmmakers who are challenging the scream

FIGHTING SPIRIT

Sylvia Plath captured the agony and ecstasy of the female experience like no poet before or since. This new volume collects letters from 1940 to 1956, when her talent was blossoming into greatness.

queen narrative—and Olivia Stren profiles elegant dreamer Maryam Keyhani, who, in her art and on her person, challenges conformity at every turn. And, because being strong doesn’t cancel out caring about style, beauty and presents, a sumptuous gift guide caps off the holiday feast. Dig in, and let me know what you think @lauradecarufel with #thekitcompact.

LAURA DE CARUFEL, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF @thekitca

@thekit

thekitca

ON THE COVER PHOTOGRAPHY BY JANE & JANE. HAIR AND MAKEUP: RONNIE TREMBLAY FOR TEAMM/M.A.C/ KEVIN MURPHY. CREATIVE DIRECTION: JESSICA HOTSON

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I YELLED OUT INTO THE WATER, MY WORDS SWALLOWED BY THE WIND. Jiaqing Wilson-Yang on finding her voice as a trans woman When I was a teenager, I used to drive to the lakeshore and stand in the compass rose, a stone circle on the ground marking north, south, east and west. I yelled out into the water, my words swallowed by the wind, except in one spot where they echoed back to me in the open air. My voice surrounded me like a force field.

Finding my voice as a woman is like standing in that compass rose, with the stories of other trans women converging and diverging, running through me from multiple directions.

To the east, in the 1990s, a group of sexShe takes the centre to a human rights tribunal working trans women refuse to leave a Toronto and wins, later losing on an appeal. Despite the women’s shelter. It’s mid-winter and they are verdict, the case shines a light on a needed contired of being kicked out because they aren’t versation about trans women and gender-based seen as women. After persisting, they’re allowed violence. Because of her work, I am more able to stay. As a result, trans women to work as a sexual violence counstart being allowed in some womsellor, which I continue to do today. en’s shelters. This evolves into a To the south, this past summer, program in which trans people work I am refused entry into a women’s with shelters to improve access, one Jiaqing Wilson-Yang’s first spa because of my genitals during novel, Small Beauty, won a of the handful of programs that hire the same week when I win an interLambda Literary Award for them. Because of this, it is possible national literary prize. My inbox is Best Transgender Fiction. for me to do social service work in flooded with media requests, none Wilson-Yang’s work has Toronto in 2011. of them about my writing, all of been published in Room To the north, in 2013, I am on a them about my genitals. The story Magazine, Poetry Is Dead, bus with an older Anishnabeg trans runs in national newspapers and I Carte Blanche, Ricepaper woman. A man behind us notices get Twitter comments from people our beauty and starts threatening us. Magazine and Maisonneuve. in Texas. My body, not my voice, She sighs and smiles at me, slowly becomes national news. Another pulling a small rope with a padlock woman, judged by her looks alone. tied to it out of her purse. She wraps the rope We live in a world in which women’s voices in around her hand. In the end, she doesn’t use it general are not valued, let alone the voices of but it’s clear this isn’t the first time she’s done women who have to prove, day in and day out, this, and it won’t be the last. This moment makes that we are women. the seemingly unending gaslighting, harassment Again to the north, a couple of years ago, I am and general day-to-day grind-your-teeth-to-dust walking into an apartment building with a trans transphobia much easier to handle. woman old enough to be my mother. We look To the west, in Vancouver in the 2000s, a trans similar enough that my friend’s neighbour, seeing woman fights to be allowed to work with survius approach, asks, “Is that your daughter?” My vors of sexual violence. She’s told because she is friend looks at me, then back at her neighbour trans, she’s not qualified to provide this support. and says, “Yes. She was a difficult labour.” n

LADIES SHOULD BE SEEN AND UNDERNEATH MY FEIGNED NONCHALANCE, THE EXCHANGE WAS LIKE AN EARTHQUAKE. Britta B. on taking back her voice from her verbally abusive family My mom and dad served as a prime example of a toxic love affair. Like most of my friends, I had parents who expected me to babysit, do chores, treat everyone in the community with respect and excel at schoolwork. Unlike my friends, I had parents who would frequently erupt into an emotionally and physically abusive choreography.

The cycle of violence is a bit like contemporary dance: it’s jarred by 4

unpredictable movement; there are intervals of intense confusion and shortness of breath; you can vividly sense the tension that builds and the aftermath of its release; if there’s an audience present, it is frozen with awe.

I had extreme anxiety when I was living at home. I didn’t know how to handle the arguments or how to avoid getting in the way. Whether I was a target or

a bystander, I internalized the anger. On bad days, a self-critical voice provided a verbally abusive soundtrack and I became depressed. On really bad days, the voice coaxed me to self-harm or eat to the point of vomiting. My coping methods didn’t hurt anyone, I thought, until I slowly began to accept the truth of my own destructive patterns: the person I was hurting was myself.

Tell your truth, I heard a tiny voice encouraging. If you can’t say it out loud, write it down instead.

One day, I listened to that voice.

A few words appeared on a solitary

page of the pink-and-green hardcover journal I hid in my bedroom closet. Eventually, words filled dozens of secret notebooks. At first, the quality of writing was insignificant to me—the sheer movement of my hand guiding a pen across paper gave me something to focus on apart from the realities of living in my unhappy home.

On the day my dad read my poetry for the first time, I was sitting on the pastel blue velveteen chair in our living room. My dad came in, noticed my notebook and asked, “What are you so busy writing about?” “Poetry,” I said. “Want to read what I’ve got so far?” and without waiting for him to respond,

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| HOLIDAY 2017 | THEKIT.CA

VOICES

I WAS AFRAID THAT ONCE I HAD THAT ATTENTION, I HAD TO PROVE THAT I DESERVED IT. Lauren McKeon on using her voice by learning how to scream I’ve always hated raising my voice.

It makes me feel uncomfortable, like I’m wearing a shirt with a too-tight collar. As a child, my quietness was often considered cute: I’d sit silently, often wearing tulip dresses and pristine tights, and watch, as still and silent as a photograph. As an adult, I’ve been told that I’m too sof tspoken—that my voice disappears at the end, not alarmingly, as if I’ve hurtled over a cliff, but slowly, like a sunset. My words melt and dip. They fade. And, at first, rather than rebel against this, I only made my voice smaller, softer, disappearing over the horizon into nothingness.

There is a lingering perception that women who command attention are distressing. We’re labelled as loud, outspoken, feisty; we hear the implied message that these are not good things. There’s a reason Lindy West named her memoir Shrill,

and why Anne Helen Petersen called her book on unruly women Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud. Whenever we subvert these stereotypes, we’re reclaiming our voices. But it often takes us a while to get there: First we take these labels and whisper them to ourselves at night, then we stitch them tight against our skin. It’s how we absorb that even when we’re not screaming, people think we are.

This is how I learned to speak like someone treading lightly. Speaking above normal volume was done for the express purpose of calling attention. That was the last thing I wanted, even when it was also exactly my aim: trying to get the attention of a colleague across the cubicle, a person who had dropped a five-dollar bill, a server at a bar. I think I was afraid that once I had that attention, I had to prove I deserved it. Or, rather, I was afraid that someone would tell me that I did not. No matter how innocuous it was, whenever I used my voice loudly, I felt like an intruder.

As I entered my late 20s, I began to realize, though, that I had things I

NOT HEARD*

*Three writers bust that myth

I offered my book to him. Before little, the act of writing changed the he reached the end of the poem, destructive tone of my inner voice to he lifted his head, as small puddles a creative one, crumbling the walls gathered under his dark brown that I had built around myself. eyes. “Is this how Now, years later, I you really feel?” he refuse to leave home asked. Suddenly, a without something flash of memories to write in; I proudly overwhelmed me: Award-winning spoken word carry my notebooks poet Britta B. also works as an moments when his with me everywhere arts educator—she helps mentor eyes were so darkI go like a soldier’s students from more than 250 ened with anger that badge of honour, like schools across Canada. Last year, I’d forget to breathe. a paramedic’s stethoI gulped, shrugged it she was an artist-in-residence for scope. Writing poetry the Power Plant’s Youth Program. is how I stay true to off and said, “It’s just poetry.” Underneath myself without needmy feigned nonchai n g a n y o n e e l s e ’s lance, the exchange was like an approval. Every time I open my book earthquake. I realized that little by to write, I reclaim my voice. n

wanted to say: things about feminism, inequality and all the reasons why so many of us feel our voices aren’t heard. I wanted to vault over what people so charitably called my “shyness.” I started to force myself to say yes to speaking engagements; I even began to offer. Slowly, I began to find my voice.

Still, there was one thing I couldn’t get over. I’d taken martial Lauren McKeon, the digital arts since I was 14 and, editor of The Walrus, has decades later, at 33, I written for Hazlitt, Toronto had, never, ever been Life and This Magazine, able to kiai—the quick shout when at tackwhere she was the editor ing—when asked. I did, for five years. Her first book, howeve r, p e r fe c t th e F-Bomb: Dispatches from appearance of yelling. the War on Feminism, Whenever we were told was released this fall. to g r u n t o r s h o u t o r intimidate, I would contort my mouth yet emit only silence. I would pantomime power. Even in the din, I was afraid of being too loud. And so I stayed quiet while the (often) male-dominated classes shouted around me. I was so twisted up in the trappings of this uniquely gendered selfconsciousness, that even as I was learning how to defend my body, I was hurting my own self-worth.

It wasn’t until I joined an allwomen and transgender boxing club this year that I found my “argghhh!”

Our instructor coaches us not just on punching, but on being loud and embracing it. She makes it a safe space to let it out, but she also connects our wordless yelling to a larger consciousness. Think, she says, about all the times you wanted to yell but didn’t. Think about all those times that you wanted to be a beast, that you wanted to stand up to aggressive and dismissive men, that you simply wanted to talk. And think about how it made you feel. I can’t think of a woman who hasn’t experienced these things.

At the start of my time there, I still had the smallest peep; I’d never raised my voice in public. But there’s something different about hearing women collectively yell, bursting forth in righteous, raw energy. Different because I’d never heard it before; different because I knew immediately what I’d been missing. Slowly, slowly, I began to make noise when we were asked. I’d inhale loudly, smelling the perfume of salty sweat, and exhale as my damp hair made snaking rivulets against my forehead, sprung free from my bun. And when I finally yelled with them, I felt alive. n

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A FRAGRANCE COLLECTION

CREATED BY ASHLEY OLSEN AND MARY-KATE OLSEN

Find Your Nirvana: available at: Sephora and The Hudson’s Bay Company Amethyst and French grey is exclusive to Sephora

NOW TRENDING

Ice Princess (2005) This Disney-fied take on the nerdto-hero trope includes all your fave mid-2000s teen stars and plenty of lessons in pseudo physics.

Ice Castles (1978) Not even newly acquired blindness can stop Lexie’s skating dreams. Extra points for all its teachable moments—even if you’ve never laced up.

THE LADY IS A CHAMP

Skating movies rank highest in the will-watch-if-it’s-on-TV genre. Here, three iconic flicks that have triple Salchowed into our hearts

I, Tonya (2017) Our girl Margot Robbie stars as Tonya Harding in the ultimate fall-fromgrace story where jealousy cuts deeper than skate blades.

Being an elite athlete is often more about guts than glory. Figure skater Jamie Knoblauch talks training and poses in the season’s glammed-up sporty style

Jamie Knoblauch has twinkly blue eyes, a girlish lilt and the college aspirations of your average 10th-grader. The only difference is her full-time job as a champion pairs figure skater.

The Milton, Ont., native’s training sched is so rigorous, she works on an abridged school schedule to accommodate six hours at the rink each day. But despite her fast track from ice-dancing toddler to repping Canada on the world stage, Knoblauch is still experiencing the growing pains that come with being a teenager. She’s partnerless this season because of a mega growth spurt—about six inches in one year—that left her lifts and tricks with her former long-term partner off-kilter. “You have to get used to the longer legs underneath you,” Knoblauch says of her new reality. In the meantime, she’s focused on reaching the junior levels, then stepping back to pursue post-secondary studies to become a kindergarten teacher. “I’ll miss tapping into my competitive drive,” she muses. “But I’m not out of it yet.” —Jillian Vieira

ALPHA INDUSTRIES X TNA JACKET, $240, ARITZIA.COM. HILFIGER COLLECTION PANTS, $330, TOMMY.COM. CUCHARA EARRINGS, $104, CUCHARA. CA. PHOTOGRAPHY: NATHAN CYPRYS. HAIR AND MAKEUP: TAMI EL SOMBATI FOR PLUTINO GROUP. HAIR AND MAKEUP ASSISTANT: ROMY ZACK.

DE D IF FG R E E O IC F

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OF REE T Y D E GF F I C U L DI

ADIDAS JACKET, $140, ADIDAS.CA. ZARA SKIRT, $70, ZARA.COM. JEFFREY CAMPBELL BOOTS, $275, JEFFREYCAMPBELLSHOES.COM. REBECCA MINKOFF BAG, $260, REBECCAMINKOFF.COM. OAK + FORT RING, $18, OAKANDFORT.CA

TEAM SPIRIT

Three Olympic hopefuls get real about being a woman in sport

RUGBY SHIRT + FUR CHUBBY GUCCI

TRACK JACKET + FEMME SKIRT

OFF-WHITE C/O VIRGIL ABLOH

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JIMMY CHOO SHOES, $1,150, THESEPTEMBER. COM. J. CREW TOP, $280, NET-A-PORTER.COM. TOPSHOP JACKET, $130, TOPSHOP.COM. MARNI EARRINGS, $440, MARNI.COM. SHRIMPS PANTS, $650, SHRIMPS.CO.UK

Yuki Tsubota, 23, freestyle skiing

Kaylin Irvine, 27, speed skater

Taylor Henrich, 21, ski jumping

“Freestyle skiing is a really fair discipline. Men and women have the same prize money. But I hear about other sports where women make a fraction of what the guys do. I think it needs to change, and it will encourage more girls to pursue being professional athletes.”

“A lot of things have to come together to have a personalbest race. I try to think ‘What’s something I can do better today than I did yesterday?’ That might not always be my time; it could be how I prepare for a race mentally or a component of the race, like the first lap.”

“When I was young, boys would say, ‘Oh, wow, Taylor has bigger legs than me.’ Well, these legs can kick your ass. [laughs] For a girl that does multiple sports and has yet to have an injury, my legs are good for that. I’m lean, I’m fit and that’s all I can ask for.”

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Go full femme with a sweet setting of powder puffs, furry footwear and heart-shaped crystals.

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1. NADÈGE MARIE-ANTOINETTE CAKE, $38, NADEGE-PATISSERIE.COM. 2. CHERRY BOMBE: THE COOKBOOK BY KERRY DIAMOND AND CLAUDIA WU, $38, INDIGO.CA. 3. CHÂTEAU LA TOUR DE L’ÉVÊQUE ROSÉ 2016, $19, LIQUOR STORES. 4. ALDO SHOES, $90, ALDOSHOES.COM. 5. COACH 1941 TOP, $565, COACH.COM. 6. RAHUA ENCHANTED ISLAND SALT SPRAY, $45, CLEMENTINEFIELDS.COM. 7. FENDI SUNGLASSES, $685, HOLT RENFREW. 8. VOLUSPA CANDLE IN BALTIC AMBER, $30, INDIGO.CA. 9. DIOR DIORIFIC MATTE FLUID LIP AND CHEEK VELVET COLOUR IN CHARM, $47, THEBAY.COM. 10. SEPHORA COLLECTION PUFF & SHINE SHIMMERY BODY POWDER, $16, SEPHORA.CA. 11. MARCELLE REVIVAL+ ANTI-AGING SMOOTHING EYE CONTOUR CARE, $34, MARCELLE.COM. 12. ILA ROSE QUARTZ HEALING HEART FACIAL KIT (2 CRYSTALS AND FACE OIL), $48, PETALANDPOST.COM. 13. CARDEA AUSET SEA MINERAL SOAK, $40, CARDEAAUSET.COM. 14. FRANK AND OAK X SOKOLOFF BRA, $60, UNDERWEAR, $30, FRANK AND OAK

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PHOTOGRAPHY:

Who needs manners when the spread is this sensational? Gorge on all the gifty gorgeousness with a smorgasbord of wish list essentials, perfect for every taste Photography by Hamin Lee | Creative direction by Jessica Hotson and Sonya Van Heyningen

LADIES FIRST

VICTORIAN TEA TIME

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GIFT GUIDE

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ART NOUVEAU NIBBLES

Rich jewel tones and curved lines for the decorative arts aficionado who would eat up an illuminated expletive.

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L’ORÉAL PARIS X BALMAIN COLOR RICHE LIPSTICK IN URBAN SAFARI AND BALMAIN INSTINCT, $20 EACH, LOREALPARIS.CA. 11. AUTUMN BY KARL OVE KNAUSGAARD, $27, BOOKSTORES. 12. LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE BY CELESTE NG, $27, BOOKSTORES. 13. OUT OF PRINT NOVEL MATCHBOOK SET, $8, ANTHROPOLOGIE. COM. 14. FUJI FILM INSTAX MINI 9, $100, THE SOURCE. 15. HAPPY SOUL CRYSTAL CARDS GUIDANCE ORACLE DECK (IN POUCH), $30, HAPPYSOULTORONTO.CA

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GIFT GUIDE

HIPPIE POTLUCK

An eclectic banquet of wooden accessories, foodie tomes and warm rust beauty treats are anything but crunchy.

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THE KIT X MARSHALLS

HAUTE HOLIDAY

Master the art of holiday dressing with expert fashion tips from street style star Tee What pieces should every woman have in her holiday wardrobe? “A cozy knit, an oversized scarf, and an LBD for those chic holiday parties.”

What do you look for when buying a holiday party dress? “Simplicity with a bit of edgy glamour!”

What’s the best way to transition an outfit from day to evening? “Change into a pair of statement heels to kick up your daytime look then add statement accessories and a bold red lippie to complete it!”

What is the modern way to wear sparkle? “I like to wear sparkle as an accessory.

So I would do a statement earring or necklace or even a pair of shimmery shoes.”

The holidays are packed with parties.

What would you wear to these favourite holiday events?

1. Family brunch: “A black biker jacket, cozy sweater, black denim and black boots.”

2. Office party: “An LBD with a blazer, statement jewellery and fun heels.”

3. Swish cocktail soiree: “Winter white from head to toe: blazer, cami, trousers, and nude pumps.”

What is your #1 holiday styling tip? “The little black dress is a classic for a reason— it’s so versatile! You can wear it to work with a blazer, then switch it up with a great bag after work to hit the holiday party circuit.”

Tee, snapped on the street in Toronto. Her top go-to holiday fashion piece? “Black boots. They should be a staple in every woman’s wardrobe.”

HAT, $14.99, DRESS, $49.99, BAG, $99.99, GLOVES, $24.99, BOOTS, $179.99, ALL AVAILABLE AT MARSHALLS, MARSHALLS.CA. *STYLES ARE REPRESENTATIVE OF PRODUCT AVAILABLE IN STORES. STYLES VARY BY STORE.

What do you find most exciting about shopping at Marshalls? “I love Marshalls because I can find surprising designers and brands that make my wallet sigh with relief.

They also happen to have a great selection of fashion, footwear and home decor.”

For this story, Maryam Keyhani wears her own clothes—and chapeaux—in a classic black-and-white palette.

She considers her hats (like this one, crafted from intricate folds of felt) to be part of her family. She also cares deeply about her clothes: The sharp-shouldered look to the right features a detachable panel, worn on trousers, that functions as a dashing abbreviated cape.

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PROFILE

Artist Maryam Keyhani sculpts, draws and paints, but her greatest work of art is herself.

S h e l i v e s h e r l i f e l i k e a g r e a t p o e m r i c h i n j o y, w o n d e r a n d h a t s

portrait of a lady Photography by Jane & Jane |

Story by Olivia Stren

Maryam Keyhani opens the door wearing a blush-coloured linen robe—costume of languor and indolence—with all the noblesse she might suggest in a silk gown. “It takes me a long time to get out of bed and start real life,” she says. “I’m in dreamland most of the time. When I have to switch over to practical reality, it can be harsh.”

The housecoat, the cape of the dreamer, eases her sojourns in reality.

If Keyhani is not a creature of reality, neither does she belong to the present. “I love the idea of living in another era, the romance and the drama,” she says. Appropriately, Marcel Proust is among her heroes; his oeuvre In Search of Lost Time explores the pursuit of the irretrievable. As she adjusts the brim of her jaunty straw hat, I feel suddenly that we are in Proust’s France, at the kind of gathering where bons mots flowed like Armagnac and women lounged about like odalisques nibbling on ether-soaked strawberries. “What I choose to wear comes from another place,” she says. “I’m sure that there are times that I walk down the street and look completely ridiculous.

I’m sure I scare children,” she says, laughing. But the opposite is likely true: Children live in fantasy; it’s reality, constrained and flattened as it is by rules and consequence, that is for them, as it is for Keyhani, a foreign land. This brings to mind a quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of The Little Prince: “All grown-ups were once children. But only few of them remember it.”

About her own childhood in Iran (her father was a famous oil painter, and she was forever surrounded by his art), she says that she was shy and not very expressive. “I always felt that I was the strange one, but I didn’t have any way to express it.” And as an only child, she spent a lot of time alone, afloat in fantasy. “The time that I spent being bored was so precious,” she says, “It was lonely to grow up by yourself, but in my case, it was crucial.”

After high school, she attended OCAD University in Toronto, where she studied drawing and painting. “At art school, I realized, there’s a place for my people!”

She is currently sculpting, painting and working on illustrating a children’s storybook about a little girl and her hat. Her own hat story began when she moved to Florence as an exchange student when she was 21. “I had an obsession with chandeliers for an entire school year,” she says, as if that was the most ordinary phase. She spent a year painting > 00

chandeliers, collecting antique chandelier pieces and making her own chandeliers. “Chandeliers represented this elegant woman who is also awkward and strange and complex but really glamorous,” she says, as if describing herself. It was during this time that she began wearing hats. Like the chandeliers, the hats seemed alive to her, each a character, a friend. “Of course, I think they’re beautiful, but that’s not why I can’t live without them,” she says.

“They are my armour. You know how children have doodoos? That’s what they are for me.” She has hats she wears only when she’s sad. The sole time she is hatless is when she sleeps or showers.

“I feel like life is a dress-up party,” she says, “but that doesn’t mean that it needs to be happy all the time.” But if she doesn’t dress to go unseen, she also doesn’t dress to be noticed: “I feel I must dress like this because in my mind, I am this.”

Being a woman, to Keyhani, is precisely about this fidelity to one’s inner life. “What I find very inspiring about women these days is that they are finding their own particular ways of living, they are not following any formulas—we’re over that,” she says. “On the one hand, these are terrible times.

But on the other, it makes it even more important to come through with individuality and character.”

I wonder what she thinks about what it means to be a “lady,” a loaded word, to be sure, and one girdled with all manner of (outdated) notions of feminine propriety. “I don’t think of myself as a lady,” Keyhani says, as she adjusts her hat and tenderly scoops up her five-month-old baby, Dali, from the vintage Italian pram, where she is slowly waking up from her nap, still adrift in her own baby dream world.

“I could be a strange lady or a kooky lady. But I’m not just a lady. There’s an old gentleman in me.” n

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PROFILE

Maryam’s closet is rich in creative clothes, but she prefers a pared back approach to decor. In her living room, a bowler hat and a top hat dangle—a surrealist chandelier—above the antique mirrored dining table she has paired with concrete benches.

The room, otherwise, is spare of adornment. Her inner life, she explains, is so busy and well-peopled, that a simple home feels soothing.

HAIR AND MAKEUP: RONNIE TREMBLAY FOR TEAMM/M.A.C/KEVIN MURPHY. CREATIVE DIRECTION: JESSICA HOTSON.

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THE NEW LADIES WHO LUNCH Call them freelance and fancy-free: The next gen of creatives is opting out of the 9-to-5

By Eden Boileau Photography by Gemma Warren

“I sometimes call myself a professional plate spinner because I’m very much the typical millennial multi-hyphenate,” says Mirian Njoh, a fashion communications grad. “I’m involved in all kinds of content creation—I love styling, writing, blogging and working with brands. It’s very fluid.”

That fluidity is the cornerstone of the exploding gig economy. (A 2017 Randstad put the figure of temporary workers at up to 30 percent of the current workplace— and growing.) Its worst incarnation, dubbed “precarious employment” means scrambling to make ends meet with zero benefits or financial security. An ever-expanding group of young creatives, though, is finding freedom in eschewing the typical office job and demanding more from their freelance life than a cramped table at a crowded café. Enter the budding trend of shared workspaces, which are cropping up across the country.

Former freelancer Rachel Kelly opened her co-working office Make Lemonade in Toronto earlier this year. “I loved the freedom of my freelance lifestyle, but I was frustrated with working >

“I SOMETIMES CALL MYSELF A PROFESSIONAL PLATE SPINNER”

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ON ILONA: TIBI TOP, $705, SKIRT, $700, TIBI.COM. JENNY BIRD EARRINGS, $65, JENNY-BIRD.CA. CALL IT SPRING SHOES, $50, CALLITSPRING. COM. DEFINED AND FLUTTERY LASHES CREATED USING COVERGIRL PEACOCK FLARE MASCARA IN EXTREME BLACK, $14, DRUGSTORES ON OLIVIA: REBECCA TAYLOR DRESS, $835, REBECCATAYLOR. COM. CUCHARA BELT, $145, CUCHARA.CA. CALVIN KLEIN SHOES, $208, THEBAY.COM. GLOWY, EVEN SKIN PERFECTED WITH COVERGIRL VITALIST ELIXIR FOUNDATION IN GOLDEN TAN, $18, DRUGSTORES ON MIRIAN: MICHAEL KORS COLLECTION DRESS, $2,480, MICHAELKORS.COM. UNIQLO TOP, $30, UNIQLO, TORONTO. H HALSTON SHOES, $259, HUDSON’S BAY. ULTRA-GLOSSY LIPS SLICKED WITH COVERGIRL KATY KAT LIP GLOSS IN CATELOUPE, $11, AVAILABLE IN DECEMBER, DRUGSTORES MAKEUP: VERONICA CHU FOR COVERGIRL. HAIR: KIRSTEN KLONTZ FOR P1M.CA USING JOICO.

at coffee shops,” she says. When a full-time job opportunity fell through at the last minute last year, Kelly re-evaluated: “The thought of creating another cover letter—I just couldn’t do it.” So she I’M GOING TO NEED YOU TO KICK THAT took a lemon of a situation and, well, you get it.

GUY IN THE NUTS, M-KAY? Olivia Seally happily acknowledges that she has drunk the lemonade of shared office spaces.

A photographer by training, Seally currently pays the bills through photography, writing If it happens to you and event planning projects.

As the #metoo movement has made painfully clear, sexual harassment on “The hardest thing about freethe job is crazily common. If you’re lance is a sense of accountabila freelancer without an HR departity—you’re the only person who ment, contact your provincial human you’re answering to,” she says. rights tribunal for help—as Toronto “It’s really nice to have other employment lawyer Katherine E. people around even if they’re Ford explains, as an independent not directly involved with your contractor, you’re entitled to the project. If you don’t come in for same protection as people with a few days they’re like, ‘Hey, how steady gigs . (If the harassment verges on assault, contact the police.) are you? What’s going on?’”

Njoh agrees. “Co-working spaces foster a sense of community,” she says. “It’s hard to work alone. Sometimes you need a balance of other people; you want to exchange ideas or even just be social. They give you an opportunity to still be on a team.”

Illustrator and tattoo artist Ilona Fiddy has been freelancing off and on for 10 years. “It’s definitely hard to be the only person responsible for making my living,” she says about the insecurity of being self-employed.” But she wouldn’t trade it. “It’s hard to manage my own time, but once I got that down, it’s such a blessing. I love being able to make my own schedule. I’m not really a morning person, so I’m able to give that to myself.” Fiddy, Kelly, Seally and Njoh—who voluntarily returned to freelance after a year of steady employment—say they wouldn’t go back. As Njoh puts it, “I love not knowing what the next day is going to hold.” n

HARDW0RKING HAIR

Clockwise from left: Ilona Fiddy, Olivia Seally and Mirian Njoh, shot on location at Make Lemonade, a shared office space in Toronto.

We asked Toronto hairstylist Jason Lee of Jason Lee Saloniere to concoct cool—yet practical—styles to keep your hair off your face, when you’re dashing from hot desk sesh to midday spin and back again

SPOTLIGHT

Save for a rainy day, from a drizzle to a downpour during project dry spells. Employment Insurance isn’t available for freelancers, unless you sign up to pay Employment Insurance premiums with the Canadian Revenue Agency.

Wear it wet-look.

Use a cream-gel-oil hybrid with good hold so the style stays when you rake hair back off your face.

BUMBLE AND BUMBLE ANTI-HUMIDITY GEL-OIL, $39, SEPHORA.CA

Tight curls

Define curls with styling cream and divide into three sections along the centre top of the head. Anchor with double elastics.

SEBASTIAN TWISTED CURL MAGNIFIER CREAM, $23, SALONS

Mid-length hair

Prep hair with a light hydrating mist; section into three vertical parts and secure in equal increments with elastics. The bigger the sections, the less time this will take.

INFUSIUM 23 MOISTURE REPLENISHER LEAVE IN TREATMENT, $8, SHOPPERS DRUG MART

SHOW YOURSELF THE MONEY!

YOU’VE GIVEN YOUR “WHO’S COMING WITH ME” SPEECH—NOW WHAT? If you make more than $30,000 a year, register yourself as a business and charge GST/HST on every invoice. Put that money in a separate, don’t-touch-’til-tax-time account so you’re not tempted to blow it on Fenty Beauty.

The bob

Keep, and tally, your receipts for literally every biz expense— Ubers, lunches, powergifting blowouts.

Extra-long

Try a double pony (one half up high, the other at ear level) with the tails braided neatly together. Apply texturizing powder first so it stays put through to happy hour.

CAKE THE HAIR RAISER, $19, CAKEBEAUTY.COM ILLUSTRATIONS: JULIA MONSON

FIND ME THAT PIECE OF PAPER I HAD IN MY HAND YESTERDAY MORNING.

B O S S B A G G A G E A carry-all for your laptop and lunch, whether you’re sticking to a start-up budget or making that big cheese coin

The top beautifyingon-the-go essentials to tote around.

RAINS, $95, RAINS.COM.MATT & NAT, $220, MATTANDNAT.COM.TAIKAN, $530, TAIKANEVERYTHING.COM.KARA, $765, KARASTORE.COM.MULBERRY, $1,895, MULBERRY. COM. TANGLE TEEZER COMPACT STYLER, $25, SEPHORA.CA. NIU BODY AWAKE ROSE TONING MIST, $15, NIUBODY.COM. MARC ANTHONY MINI CLEAR DRY SHAMPOO, $4, DRUGSTORES. COVERGIRL PEACOCK FLARE MASCARA, $14, DRUGSTORES. ELIZABETH ARDEN WHITE TEA CREAM DEODORANT, $15, THEBAY.COM

THEKIT.CA | HOLIDAY 2017 |

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| MONTH 201X | THEKIT.CA

THE KIT IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PANDORA JEWELLERY

SPARKLE & SHINE

Just in time for the glitziest season, four fashionsavvy influencers across Canada share their holiday style secrets, and the see-and-be-seen hot spots in their cities. Plus: Discover perfect presents for everyone on your list with our ultimate gift guide.

THE CITY SOPHISTICATE: JODI BLACK, TORONTO While still a high-school student in Nova Scotia, Jodi Black landed a gig as a movie extra and had an epiphany watching the fashion stylist on set: She realized she wanted to work with clothes too.

At 18, she moved to Toronto with aspirations of breaking into the fashion industry. Since starting her style blog three years ago, she has earned a fast-growing following for her “classic with an edge” aesthetic.

JODI BLACK SHOWS OFF HER REFINED STYLE. HER SECRET? MIXING CLASSIC NEUTRALS WITH ELEGANT JEWELLERY IN A MONOCHROMATIC PALETTE.

WINK, WINK

What is your top tip for hinting to your partner what you’d like to receive for the holidays?

“I’ve done this in years past: If I want something special, I’ll save the picture as a screensaver on my shared laptop.

I don’t know how subtle that is!”

PHOTOGRAPHY: NORMAN WONG (MAIN IMAGE), ALL OTHERS BY JOSE LOPEZ

Which style icons helped shape your own approach? “I really looked up to Victoria Beckham’s strong but feminine look. My other style icons were Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen! They were everything, and they still are.”

How would you describe your holiday style?

“My outfits stay the same—I like a leather skirt with a chunky knit—but I’d add a bit of bling with earrings or rings. If it’s Christmas dinner with my family, I want to look more put together because it’s a special time.”

Who is your favourite person to buy gifts for and why? “My husband, Jose, because he supports me in everything I do—he learned to be a photographer so he could take pictures for my blog! He’s so selfless, so I like to spoil him when possible.”

What is your favourite place to go for holiday brunch? “There’s nothing better than throwing on a cozy knit and heading to a nearby brunch place during the break because you don’t have to wait in line for two hours to get a good table.

The avocado toast with poached eggs at La Palma is so good and their interior is Pinterest goals.”

What is your favourite piece of PANDORA Jewellery in your current collection? “I’m loving the Classic Elegance collection, especially the necklace. It’s very elegant and understated and just enough bling for holiday.”

1. CLASSIC ELEGANCE CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA NECKLACE $75. 2. GEOMETRIC LINES CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA NECKLACE, $100. 3. CASCADING GLAMOUR CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA EARRINGS, $275. 4. GEOMETRIC LINES CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA RING, $100. 5. LAVISH SPARKLE CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA RING, $140. 6. STERLING SILVER MESH BRACELET, $70, WITH RADIANT HEARTS CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA CHARM, $90. 7. STERLING SILVER MESH BRACELET, $70, WITH SNOW FLURRY CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA CHARM, $70.

ON JODI’S WISH LIST

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3 What is your favourite place to go for holiday cocktails? “I love trying new hot spots with my husband and friends during the holidays. I can’t get enough of the cozy vibes at the Broadview Hotel right now. My favourite cocktail is ‘The French’—anything with bubbles is a must during the holidays.”

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THE ELEGANT ROMANTIC: VICTORIA HUI, TORONTO An early adopter to digital, Victoria Hui was a beauty blogger back when she was in Grade 7 (back when blogging wasn’t yet cool). By high school, she was making beauty YouTube videos. Then she took a slight detour: The Ottawa native studied science at university, but she knew she didn’t want to continue on to med school. Instead, she moved to Toronto, got an internship at a digital agency, launched The Lust Listt as a side project—and the rest is stylish history.

VICTORIA EXUDES ASPIRATIONAL EURO CHIC WITH A FEMININE FASHION APPROACH EDGED UP WITH COOL JEWELLERY.

How would you describe your style? “It’s mainly romantic but ever-evolving. When I think about how I shoot my photos and style my outfits, I like to relate it back to a European or Paris vibe.”

What is your favourite jewellery to wear during the holidays? “I love to layer to create a rich, decadent effect, like stacking necklaces of varying lengths together and playing with different chains—for example, a thicker choker with daintier pieces below it.”

What is your favourite place to go for holiday cocktails? “The gin sours at Rose and Sons are so deliciously smooth. I could spend all night there.”

What is your favourite place to go for holiday brunch? “Baddies because I’m a huge fan of açaí smoothie bowls, and Australians totally do coffee justice.”

What is your favourite place to spend a holiday Sunday? “Any cof-

fee shop with my BFFs @melhwang and @allureofsimplicity, and then exploring Yorkville. Since we’re all bloggers, our favourite thing to do together is take photos.”

What is your favourite place to unwind over the holidays? “At home with my dog and boyfriend, watching Netflix. I probably sound like such a grandma, but I love curling up on the couch for a good scary movie after a busy day!”

What is your favourite piece of PANDORA Jewellery in your current collection? “I love the Droplets Stackable Ring. It has in-laid gemstones spaced out, which signifies to me that each one is special and unique in itself. It calls out to me.”

ON VICTORIA’S WISH LIST

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WINK, WINK

What is your top tip for hinting to your partner what you’d like to receive for the holidays? “My boyfriend and I are practical, so we do something we call an ‘unsurprise surprise.’ We put together a list of 10 things we have our eye on, and then slip it to the other person, who can choose from there.”

PHOTOGRAPHY OF VICTORIA BY PETER TRAN @THEDUNKLISTT

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1. LOVING HEARTS OF PANDORA CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA NECKLACE, $110. 2. NECKLACE CHAIN STERLING SILVER, $35, WITH DAZZLING DROPLET 14-KARAT GOLD AND CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA CHARM, $330.

3. CELEBRATION HEARTS CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA NECKLACE, $100. 4. SPARKLING BOW STACKABLE CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA RING (LEFT AND RIGHT), $70 EACH. SPARKLING BOW PANDORA ROSE™ AND CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA RING (CENTRE), $85. 5. STERLING SILVER MESH BRACELET, $70, WITH GEOMETRIC RADIANCE 14-KARAT GOLD AND CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA CHARMS, $440 EACH. 6. STERLING SILVER MESH BRACELET, $70, WITH PAVÉ LIGHTS 14-KARAT GOLD AND CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA CHARMS (LEFT AND RIGHT), $440 EACH, AND PAVÉ LIGHTS CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA CHARM (CENTRE), $80. 7. STERLING SILVER MESH BRACELET, $70, WITH SHINING ELEGANCE CLIP CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA CHARMS (LEFT AND RIGHT), $50 EACH, AND GEOMETRIC RADIANCE 14-KARAT GOLD AND CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA CHARM (CENTRE), $440. 8.

SPARKLING STRAND CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA BRACELET, $55. 9. SPARKLING BOW CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA STACKABLE BRACELET, $140.

10. TWINKLING FOREVER BANGLE BRACELET, $110.

THE KIT IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PANDORA JEWELLERY

THE SPORTY STAR: NAVPREET BANGA, VANCOUVER Today, being a millennial multi-hyphenate is increasingly common, but Navpreet Banga’s particular combo—style influencer, hardcore gym buff and YouTube actor/ comedienne—is one of a kind. Check out the Vancouverite’s Instagram for beauty inspo (her mega lashes and beestung lips) next to clips of her barbell bench presses (pain face and all), then click over to BrownGirlLifts TV to watch her cheeky skits, which often poke fun at her Punjabi heritage. When you’re this multi-talented, doing it all is no sweat.

I throw on a big T-shirt and tuck it into ripped jeans, with Adidas sneakers.

Another day, it could be a tight dress and boots. It’s always a mix of sporty and comfortable, so I can do anything throughout the day.”

How would you describe your style?

“I’ve never been a girly-girl. Sometimes

What is your favourite place to go for holiday cocktails? “The Flying Pig

What do you love about living in Vancouver? “When you come here, you feel the nature vibe. There are tons of lakes and mountains. No matter what time of year it is, we like to go hiking. It’s such a peaceful way to get your workout in.”

ON NAVPREET’S WISH LIST

in Gastown. The dim lights and atmosphere are great for having a conversation with a friend.”

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What is your favourite place to go for holiday brunch? “The line-up for Café Medina is insane, but it has the most amazing hot chocolate. The waffles with their terrific sauces are a must-try!”

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What is your favourite place to spend a holiday Sunday? “Stanley Park is beautiful in every way. The scenery and views are a must to experience if you’re a tourist.”

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What is your favourite place to unwind over the holidays? “I love English Bay. It’s a great place to view the sunset, with lots of incredible restaurants, so you can grab some food and enjoy the beautiful scenery with friends.”

What is your favourite piece of PANDORA Jewellery in your current collection? “The Hearts of PANDORA necklace is very beautiful and stands alone. I love things that are very minimal, but add so much to your look.”

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1. CLASSIC ELEGANCE, PANDORA ROSE™ AND CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA RING (LEFT AND RIGHT), $100, AND VINTAGE ELEGANCE, CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA RING (CENTRE), $90. 2. HEARTS OF PANDORA, CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA NECKLACE, $110. 3. SMOOTH PANDORA ROSE™ BRACELET, $165, WITH CHARMS (FROM LEFT): GEOMETRIC RADIANCE, PANDORA ROSE™ AND CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA, $100, SHINING ELEGANCE, PANDORA ROSE™ AND PINK CUBIC ZIRCONIA, $70, PAVÉ LIGHTS, PANDORA ROSE™ AND CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA, $100, RADIANT HEARTS, PANDORA ROSE™ AND BLUSH PINK CRYSTAL, $105. 4. STERLING SILVER BANGLE WITH PANDORA ROSE™ CLASP, $90, AND INTERTWINING RADIANCE, PANDORA ROSE™ AND PINK CUBIC ZIRCONIA CHARM, $85. 5. CLASSIC ELEGANCE, PANDORA ROSE™ AND CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA EARRINGS, $110. 6. HEARTS OF PANDORA HALO CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA RING, $100. 7. CLASSIC HEARTS OF PANDORA, PANDORA ROSE™ RING (LEFT AND RIGHT), $55, AND CLASSIC HEARTS OF PANDORA 14-KARAT GOLD RING (CENTRE), $385.

NAVPREET BANGA EMBODIES ELEVATED ATHLEISURE WITH HITS OF ON-TREND SPARKLE. PHOTOGRAPHY OF NAVPREET BY PRABH DHALIWALV

WINK, WINK

What is your top tip for hinting to your partner what you’d like to receive for the holidays? “I don’t hint—I just tell people! I’m so straight-up, I don’t waste my time. When I want something, I just want to engrave it in their mind that I need this.”

GIFT GUIDE

Everyone loves a little sparkle, especially during the holidays. Brighten up the festive season with gorgeous, guaranteed-to-delight gifts for everyone on your list

FOR YOUR SIGNIFICANT OTHER

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Give your sweet one jewellery so special that she’ll immediately fall in love with it.

Heart-shaped pendants and rings are a lovely classic choice, or opt for a standout piece that’s as multi-layered as she is.

Under $150!

Under $150!

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FOR YOUR SISTER

Real talk: The best gift you could give your sis is to tell her that she’s your parents’ favourite. But these stunning sparklers are a very close second. Your only decision: Does she prefer silver or rose gold?

6 1. PANDORA SIGNATURE, PANDORA ROSE™ AND CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA EARRINGS, $80. 2. HEART TO HEART CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA NECKLACE, $140. 3. HEART OF WINTER CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA NECKLACE, $140.

4. PANDORA ROSE™ SMOOTH PANDORA ROSE CLASP BRACELET, $165. 5. ENTWINED, PANDORA ROSE™ AND CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA RING, $195. 6. HEART OF WINTER RING, $70. 7. PANDORA ROSE™ SPARKLING SNOWFLAKE, CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA PENDANT, $110.

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1. PAVÉ HEART BRACELET CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA, $90. 2. HEARTS OF PANDORA, PANDORA ROSE™ AND CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA EARRINGS, $110. 3. RADIANT TEARDROP CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA RING, $110.

4. PANDORA ROSE™ CLASSIC ELEGANCE, CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA NECKLACE, $140. 5. SNOWFLAKE HEART CHARM, $50. 6. TEARDROP SILHOUETTE CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA RING, $75.

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FOR YOUR DAUGHTER

Gift that grown-up feeling of unwrapping something shiny under the tree with pretty pieces that range from playful (cute seasonal charms) to full-on glam (those rings!).

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FOR YOUR MOTHER

Treat mom right with sweet sparkle that rivals the delighted twinkle in her eye when you tell her you’re spending the night after Christmas dinner.

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Under $100!

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1. PUZZLE HEART FRAME CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA RING, $60. 2. PUZZLE HEART RING, $85. 3. SNOWFLAKE CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA EARRINGS, $80. 4. SPARKLING PANDORA FLOATING LOCKET, $155. 5. HEART OF WINTER CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA CHARM, $70. 6. ABSTRACT ELEGANCE CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA RING, $105. 7. STERLING SILVER HEART CLASP BRACELET, $70. 8. PANDORA ROSE™ SHIMMERING SNOWFLAKE PETITE CHARMS*, CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA, $30 9. PANDORA ROSE™ TWINKLING CHRISTMAS TREE PETITE CHARMS*, CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA, $30. 10. PANDORA ROSE™ ALL WRAPPED UP PETITE CHARMS*, CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA, $30. *PLEASE NOTE: PETITE CHARMS ARE DESIGNED EXCLUSIVELY TO BE WORN INSIDE PANDORA FLOATING LOCKETS.

1. STERLING SILVER BRACELET WITH PANDORA ROSE™ PAVÉ HEART CLASP, $110. 2. HEARTS OF PANDORA CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA EARRINGS, $110. 3. TIMELESS ELEGANCE, PANDORA ROSE™ AND CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA RING, $100. 4. FAMILY TREE CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA NECKLACE, $140. 5. CAPTURED HEARTS, PANDORA ROSE™ AND CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA EARRINGS, $70. 6. BEADED WISH RING (LEFT) $40, SHINING WISH RING (CENTRE) $40, SHIMMERING WISH RING IN CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA (RIGHT) $50. 7. GLACIAL BEAUTY SWISS BLUE CRYSTALS AND CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA CHARM, $100. 8. WINTRY DELIGHT MIDNIGHT BLUE ENAMEL CHARM, $55.

THE KIT IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PANDORA JEWELLERY

HINT HINT

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Get the gifts you really want this holiday season, with expert hinting tips

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Women need to take their wish lists into their own hands. That’s the takeaway from a recent global study of 7,000 women which found that over 60 per cent of them believe they need to provide their partner with hints in order to ensure they receive the gift they want. The sweet spot number of hints?

Three to four, according to the survey. (Seems like the gents often don’t see a hint for what it is: a very specific gift request.) The study’s silver lining?

When women hinted successfully, 99 per cent of them were delighted with their presents. Dropping the right hint at the right time, then, is essential.

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THE FIVE RULES OF HINTING

Under $100!

Maximize your gift-getting this festive season with these expert tips.

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START EARLY. Begin your hinting a full month before the big day. Drop at least one hint a week.

TIMING IS KEY. There’s no point oohing and aahing by the jewellery counter if your partner is staring at his smart phone. Make sure you have his full attention before you go into action.

FOR YOUR BESTIE

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You’ve been there for each other during the good times and the tough times. Mark the moment with an elegant piece of jewellery that shows how much she means to you— and which (bonus!) you can borrow on your next girls’ trip.

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PROVIDE REAL-WORLD CONTEXT. Gush about a gift that your friend was given on a recent special occasion, one that just happens to be what you’re hoping to receive. Specifics always help.

SUBTLETY IS OVERRATED. If you suspect your significant other of being a little on the clueless side, point out your favourite boutique and say something like, “If you want to get me something nice, I love this store!”

1. CELEBRATION STARS NECKLACE, CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA, $100. 2. FOREVER FRIENDS CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA CHARM, $60. 3. ABSTRACT ELEGANCE CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA EARRINGS, $80. 4. DAZZLING SNOWFLAKE TWILIGHT BLUE CRYSTALS AND CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA CHARM, $100. 5. MESH BRACELET, $70. 6. SHOOTING STARS RING, CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA, $80. 7. COSMIC LINES CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA RING, $130.

Why should your loved ones have all the fun? Put these star items—stackable rings and a delicate necklace you can wear with everything—on your own wish list.

2 Under $50!

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6 1. DAINTY DROPLETS CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA NECKLACE, $110. 2. CHOKER NECKLACE, $30. 3. RADIANT HEARTS CHARM, $90. 4. HEARTS SIGNET CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA RING, $55. 5. STERLING SILVER WITH 14-KARAT GOLD CLASP BANGLE, $395. 6. DROPLETS RING IN 14-KARAT POLISHED GOLD AND CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA (LEFT AND RIGHT), $385 EACH, AND DROPLETS CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA RING (CENTRE), $60.

7. RADIANT TEARDROPS CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA EARRINGS, $60.

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. OPEN TO CANADIAN RESIDENTS, 18 AND OLDER. CONTEST LAUNCHES AT 12:01 AM NOVEMBER 16 AND CLOSES AT 11:59 PM NOVEMBER 29. ODDS OF WINNING DEPEND ON TOTAL NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE ENTRIES RECEIVED. ENTRANTS MUST ENTER A SKILL TESTING QUESTION. APPROXIMATE VALUE OF PRIZE: $500. COMPLETE CONTEST RULES AVAILABLE AT WWW.THEKIT.CA/CONTESTS/PANDORA-JEWELLERY/

FOR YOU

SEND A DIGITAL HINT. PANDORA Jewellery recently launched a new “hint” feature on their eStore (pandora.net). Once a woman finds her gift of choice on the eStore, she selects the “send a hint” option to direct an email, SMS or social media message to her chosen gift giver, accompanied by a personalized message and a link to purchase or to discover the nearest PANDORA Jewellery store. That’s about as foolproof as you can get!

WIN YOUR PANDORA JEWELLERY WISH LIST ENTER TO WIN WHAT YOU WISH FOR The holiday are a time for giving, so what better way to celebrate the season than with a gift for yourself? The Kit and PANDORA Jewellery have teamed up to give lucky readers the chance to win one of three $500 PANDORA Jewellery gift cards. The sparkly season starts here.

VISIT THEKIT.CA/CONTESTS FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN. © 2017 PANDORA JEWELRY, LLC • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

THE KIT IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PANDORA JEWELLERY WINK, WINK

What is your top tip for hinting to your partner what you’d like to receive for the holidays? “I’d suggest mentioning it casually, so the person doesn’t feel they have to buy it, but they might pick up on the idea. I did this once at a jewellery store. I kept saying, ‘Oh, I’ve always wanted to have that kind of piece.’ It worked!”

THE FASHION ADVENTURESS: LOLITTA DANDOY, MONTREAL As a teen growing up in Montreal, Lolitta Dandoy had her heart set on becoming a fashion journalist, so it was a dream come true when she landed a job as an editor at Clin d’œil magazine. From there, she fell in love with writing for online—particularly the instant feedback and conversations with readers. Since then, the awardwinning editor has defined her own vision with her blog, Fashion Is Everywhere, where she expresses her eclectic, “try everything” point-of-view.

How would you describe your holiday style? “Very feminine—a lot of sequins, ruffles. I love an opportunity to dress up, and end-of-year parties are always a celebration, so I think it should show in your look.”

What is your favourite type of jewellery to wear?

“All types. I love a big statement necklace, but I also like more delicate jewellery. It has to make an impact, so if the pieces are smaller, I would stack them—like three rings and lots of bracelets.”

What is your favourite place to go for holiday cocktails? “The Cloakroom Bar. It’s a speakeasy hidden inside a men’s clothing store, so not a lot of people know about

LOLITTA DANDOY’S FASHION MOTTO: BE FEARLESS. SHE MIXES PRINTS, TEXTURES AND HER METALS WITH VERVE.

it. They don’t have an official menu; you tell them what you like, and they make something for you.”

What is your favourite place to go for holiday brunch? “Foiegwa in the heart of St-Henri, which is a neighbourhood I love. They make classic brunch dishes, but always with a little twist.”

What is your favourite place to spend a holiday Sunday? “The Musée des Beaux-Arts is beautiful inside and out. There’s a garden and a great boutique for holiday gifts, so it’s not just a museum; you can spend a few hours there.”

What is your favourite place to unwind over the holidays? “Spa Bota Bota. It’s located on a boat in Old Montreal, so you feel like you’re in a hidden place that’s completely quiet.”

What is your favourite piece of PANDORA Jewellery in your current collection? “The Pavé Drops Stud Earrings are beautiful. They’re two-sided, with a big stud behind the ear and a smaller stud in front. It has a classic look I can wear every day, but also has a bit of a rock edge.”

PHOTOGRAPHY OF LOLITTA BY AB ANABEL BURIN WITH HAIR BY ANTOINE VADACCHINO AND MAKEUP BY HONEY HASHEMPOUR

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ON LOLITTA’S WISH LIST

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1. TIMELESS ELEGANCE GREEN AND CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA RINGS, $85 EACH. 2. SHOOTING STARS CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA EARRINGS, $85. 3. PANDORA ESSENCE SIGNATURE CLASP BANGLE, $70, WITH CHARMS (FROM LEFT): OPTIMISM ESSENCE CHARM, ROYAL GREEN CRYSTAL AND CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA $80, BALANCE ESSENCE CHARM, CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA, $50, PASSION ESSENCE CHARM, SYNTHETIC RUBY AND CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA $80, BALANCE ESSENCE CHARM, CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA, $50, PEACE ESSENCE CHARM, ROYAL BLUE CRYSTAL AND CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA, $80. 4. STERLING SILVER BRACELET WITH SIGNATURE CLASP, CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA, $90, WITH CHARMS (FROM LEFT): PAVÉ INSPIRATION SAFETY CHAIN, CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA, $85, DAZZLING SNOWFLAKE CHARM, TWILIGHT BLUE CRYSTALS AND CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA, $100, RADIANT HEARTS CHARM, CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA, $90, RADIANT HEARTS, SEA GREEN CRYSTALS AND CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA, $90.

5. CLASSIC ELEGANCE NECKLACE, CUBIC ZIRCONIA, $100. 6. SHOOTING STARS NECKLACE, CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA, $110. 7. TIMELESS ELEGANCE SYNTHETIC RUBY AND CLEAR CUBIC ZIRCONIA RINGS, $85 EACH.

Combined with an oversized old-man blazer and ’80s-era heels, a not-so-simple black slip shines in the spotlight.

LADIES NIGHT

MO&CO. JACKET, $740, DRESS (WORN THROUGHOUT), $310, GUESS SHOES, $125, HUDSON’S BAY. LEFT: LAMARQUE JACKET, $295, KATE SPADE EARRINGS, $44, HUDSON’S BAY

PHOTOGRAPHY:

If there’s one time of year to be your most extra self, it’s the holidays. Suit up in a body-con tuxedo or a Factory-esque feather jacket and go until dawn Photography by Nathan Cyprys Fashion direction by Jillian Vieira

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FASHION Jewel-toned velvet in an extra-easy wrap dress is the epitome of laid-back glamour.

L’ACADEMIE DRESS, $238, HUDSON’S BAY

A slick tuxedo cranks up its party vibe with fancy-meets-fun mules.

DIANE VON FURSTENBERG JACKET (WORN THROUGHOUT), $648, PANTS, $448, LOEFFLER RANDALL SHOES, $595, HUDSON’S BAY

Serve up some smoulder with a smear of rust shadow—start at the dead centre of the lid and spread outward for graphic appeal.

TOM FORD BEAUTY PRIVATE SHADOW IN IRIS BRONZE, $44, TOMFORD.COM. 3.1 PHILLIP LIM TOP, $655, MAX MARA STUDIO COAT, $1,795, HUDSON’S BAY

The new party makeup: Take acid lime eyeshadow to VIP status with a glossy topcoat.

NYX FULL THROTTLE SHADOW STICK IN POISON PROPER, $10, NYXCOSMETICS. CA. YSL BEAUTY EYE GLOSS SMUDGER, $32, YSLBEAUTY.CA

Go for girly with a frothy, ultra-frilly throwback combo.

LEFT: MSGM DRESS, $865.

KATE SPADE NECKLACE, $228. LOEFFLER RANDALL SHOES, $450, HUDSON’S BAY. BELOW: MO&CO. DRESS (LEFT), $388. GANNI TOP (WORN UNDERNEATH), $150, TOP, $412, HUDSON’S BAY

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FASHION

A sexy swath of textural brocade clinches the notice-me vibe with a curving, negative-space metallic liner look.

LEFT: LPA TOP, $230, PANTS, $285, HUDSON’S BAY. MAYBELLINE MASTER PRECISE INK METALLIC LIQUID LINER IN STELLAR SAND, $12, DRUGSTORES. BELOW: NICOLE MILLER DRESS, $199, HUDSON’S BAY HAIR AND MAKEUP: TAMI EL SOMBATI FOR PLUTINO GROUP. HAIR AND MAKEUP ASSISTANT: ROMY ZACK. MODELS: JASPER, JESSICA, MEGAN AND SIERRA. BEAUTY DIRECTION: RANI SHEEN. CREATIVE DIRECTION: JESSICA HOTSON. SHOT ON LOCATION AT MAHJONG BAR, TORONTO

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LATER, LADY KILLERS

Seeing women depicted as helpless victims displaying endless skin and zero agency makes us want to run for our lives. The new wave of women-helmed horror offers a fresh way to fright the power Portrait photography by Jane & Jane

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THE VICTIM We asked Toronto actor Rebecca Amzallag to embody two silver screen archetypes: the victim and the monster (next page; she nailed it).

An indie film stalwart, Amzallag stars in horror movies, but she doesn’t watch them. “I can’t handle it,” she says, although Beetlejuice (1988), a childhood favourite, made an impression. “I looked under my bed for a very long time, until I was far too old. Like, 18.” When she gets scary scripts, she reads her scenes backwards and during the day.

PHOTOGRAPHY:

Some folks assume that “women don’t like horror,” but you could say that the genre began with a teenage girl sitting in the dark, telling stories with her pals. Nineteen-year-old Mary Shelley came up with the idea for Frankenstein during a lightning storm while vacationing in Switzerland in 1818. A ghost story about a scientist whose greatest creation becomes monstrous, the tale of the unloved beast came to its author after dark, like a vision. (Bram Stoker’s Dracula came almost 80 years later, if you like to keep track of that sort of thing.)

Not only do we owe horror’s origins to a young woman, but its present golden era can be credited to an unprecedented number of female directors unafraid of a slash here and a decapitation there. At the movies—in the dark, naturally—is where we see the greatest number of women rewriting predictable plot and problematic victimhood, remaking horror in their own badass image.

While heroines have always existed in horror, there are now more women behind the camera, producing and editing, and penning film scripts than ever, which means more complex and layered stories of fight, flight and fright. In the words of filmmaker Rémy Bennett: “If you want to be offended as a female viewer, then watch a mainstream romantic comedy.

If you want to be inspired…watch a horror movie.”

At its bloodied heart, horror is the place where fantasies of revenge play out and anxieties take gruesome shape. Both are cathartic. There have been women taking charge in horror films for decades, as in Meir Zarchi’s classic rape revenge movie I Spit on Your Grave (1978) and The Entity (1983), starring Barbara Hershey, who fights back against an invisible bump in the night. Think too of the iconic bloodied face of Carrie getting payback in the 1976 film, or The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) and its sequels—three darkly comic slasher flicks with girls fighting back against deranged murderers wielding power-drill weapons. >

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SPOTLIGHT

PHOTOGRAPHY: PETER STIGTER (BROWN, VUITTON, KLEIN), GETTY IMAGES (UNDERCOVER), IMAX TREE (VAQUERA)

PHOTOGRAPHY:

STORY HOUR: COPPERPLATE Original flash fiction by Gemma Files “It was a dark and stormy night,” Sophia writes over and over, in SCIENCE OF FEAR: NATURE VS. NURTURE copperplate, to block out the noise. Under the calligraphic paper, EUROPEAN RESEARCHERS SHOWED IMAGES OF SPIDERS AND SNAKES TO BABIES IN AN ATTEMPT TO DETERMINE IF BEING SCARED OF CREEPY the light box bangs like an unfilled cavity, keeping time with her CRAWLIES IS SOMETHING WE’RE BORN WITH OR SOMETHING WE pen nib’s steady scratch. Sometimes she’ll substitute another LEARN. THE BABIES’ PUPILS DILATED, AN INDICATOR OF FEAR (BECAUSE, phrase instead, just for variety: quick brown fox versus lazy dog; OBVIOUSLY), LEADING SCIENTISTS TO BELIEVE, YEP, THAT SHIT IS INTRINSIC. thrusts, fists, posts, ghosts. And now the paper’s filling up, fillm i n i h o r r o r r e a d e r ing in, lines running both forwards and backwards, up, down and on the diagonal—no Scary short stories, perfect for the length of a point in wasting more than one sheet, right? Considering this is how she makes her living. subway ride, as selected by Canadian authors Gemma Files and Halli Villegas “Shut up,” she can’t quite stop herself from telling nobody at all, nevertheless, throughout.

1 “Intertropical Convergence Zone” by Nadia Bulkin “Stop crying, just stop it. Or I’ll give you something to—” “Nadia is one of the best young female horror writers out there. This story is poetic, political, unsparing, Outside, a real night falls early, along with sheeting rain. Clive doesn’t come home until ruthless—fiction for a harsh new world.” —Gemma Files the paper’s almost solidly black, nib digging hard at the light box’s screen. “Productive day?” he 2 “Stone Animals” by Kelly Link “A couple and their two kids move to their dream house asks, dropping a perfunctory kiss on her hair, and she wants to punch him so hard he shits teeth. in the country. Everything gradually becomes haunted, from the soap to the toilets. Meanwhile the rabbits on the “Not so much,” she replies, through gritted teeth. Meanwhile, behind the wall they share with lawn are up to something very strange.” —Halli Villegas the next apartment—empty since that woman whose name she never learned no matter how 3 “Near Zennor” by Elizabeth Hand “Three girls try to visit their favourite portal fantasy many times they nodded at each other in the hallway killed her baby, then herself—the crying author, and wander into someplace liminal. It perfectly she damn well knows he can’t hear goes on and on and on. captures the transfiguring moments where terror and the numinous occasionally intersect.” —G.F. Sophia wonders how long it’s been since she slept, how long a person can go without sleep; 4 “The Museum of Dr. Moses” by Joyce Carol Oates she knew once, she’s almost sure, but can’t remember. Then she’s only mildly surprised to find her“This story of an estranged mother and daughter reuniting after the mother’s marriage to Dr. Moses is self thinking about how exactly far down her ear she’d have to drive a skewer in order to pierce her truly horrifying. Joyce Carol Oates’s stories always involve suppressed emotions, blighted relationships own eardrum, followed by exactly how far down his ear she’d have to drive one, to reach his brain. and the bleakness of so much of life.” —H.V. Maybe tonight, for both.

5 “The Road of Pins” by Caitlin R. Kiernan “Kiernan has a gift for cobbling nightmarish details together into a mood of ever-increasing dread, like a cobweb laid gently across an unsuspecting sleeper’s face.” —G.F.

Gemma Files’s latest novel, Experimental Film (ChiZine Publications), won the 2015 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel and the 2016 Sunburst Award for adult fiction.

This horror franchise was exclusively directed by women, which made it the first of its kind.

These days, female characters are more than just making it out alive—they are in total control. Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook (2014) toys with the figure of the damned single mother, who in the history of horror films has been picked on enough to warrant an entire sub-genre known as “maternal horror.” In movies like Rosemary’s Baby (1968) or The Others (2001), dysfunctional moms are depicted as monstrous and hysterical—ultimately the ones to beware. Lily Amirpour’s 2014 critically hailed vampire western A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, meanwhile, is one of the few horror movies in which a woman of colour actually survives. By and large, the racial politics of horror films are, well, disgusting, with people of colour being either the first to die or the people who die most brutally. It’s one of the reasons that Jordan Peele’s Get Out was such a hit this year—it brought together America’s dark fantasy of colour-blindness and the whitewashing so common to horror movies.

Yet if we look at two of the most popular horror blockbusters of the past 20 years, we won’t find too much in the way of feminine grit or progressive scripts. Like Drew Barrymore at the beginning >

THEKIT.CA | HOLIDAY 2017 |

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SCARY GOOD Ranking the horror refs on the Spring 2018 runways

EMBROIDERED STRANDS STAND IN FOR BLOOD SPATTERS

TRICK OR TREAT

SHOE INSPIRED

BY THE HOCKEY MASK IN FRIDAY THE 13TH!

Thom Browne’s super-literal skeleton take.

A Stranger Things tee delighted the Eleven diehards at Louis Vuitton.

At Undercover, the finale was inspired

by The Shining’s doomed Grady twins.

Vaquera’s luxe white robe recalls Michelle Pfeiffer in What Lies Beneath.

Raf Simons described his Calvin Klein inspo as “American horror and American beauty”: Think Carrie-like swaths of blood red and fabric reminiscent of body bags.

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of Scream (1996), who is just trying to make a little stovetop popcorn for herself and likely doesn’t deserve to be strung up on a tree by a psycho. Or Jennifer Love Hewitt, who got locked in that tanning bed in 1998’s I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (though she did try to cover up a hit-and-run, so maybe that was more warranted?). Fingers crossed that gone are the days of the “Final Girl”—a recycled trope that lets the chaste and virtuous girl survive while her slutty friends are picked off by the killer, one by one.

Newer horror films, like It Follows (2014) and Raw (2016), are revamping the scripts of female sexuality and agency in the genre, and we are here for it. Even more feminist horror is on the horizon, too. A division of Magnolia Pictures is releasing an all-female horror anthology, XX, with instalments from four women directors: Roxanne Benjamin, Karyn Kusama, Anne Clark (a.k.a. St. Vincent) and Canadian Jovanka Vuckovic, who is the former editor of the Toronto-based horror magazine Rue Morgue. The ’90s cult classic The Craft is also getting a remake, with horror filmmaker Leigh Janiak in the director’s chair. We are still the weirdos, mister.

So, yeah, it’s safe to say that women like horror.

They like it so much that they’re changing the very rules of the game. More blood, less slut-shaming.

Vampires, yes; torture porn, no. Periods, pregnancies and feminist heroes, you bet. Dumb blondes “asking for it,” afraid not.

Shelley really did get it right nearly 200 years ago.

In the words of her monster, an outcast finally aware of his own strength: “Beware, for I am fearless and therefore powerful.” —Julia Cooper

u n b o t t l i n g h i t c h c o c k

Joan Harrison (far left) had shiny blonde hair she pushed back in rippling waves; she wore tailored suits and worked closely with Alfred Hitchcock on early film scripts like Rebecca and Suspicion. Joan Fontaine (center left), who plays the title role in Rebecca, ha d shiny blonde hair and wore neat cardigans. It doesn’t take a Daphn e -D u-Maurier-like sleuth to conclude that Harrison was the starting point for Hitchcock’s steely brilliant blondes of the ’50s and ’60s.

Joan Juliet Buck, the former e d i to r- i n - c h i ef o f Fre n c h Vogue, confirmed the suspicion when she wrote: “Joan Harrison was a crisp British blonde in a top hat who wrote scripts for Alfred Hitchcock and was the original model

t h e

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for every one of Hitchcock’s crisp, mysterious blondes.”

Harrison’s path to indelible musedom began like a movie: She responded to a 1933 ad for a secretary position for the famous director. “Do you speak German?” he reportedly asked. She didn’t, and she got the job. Harrison avoided the notoriously abusive relationship with Hitchcock that befell iconic blondes Tippi Hedren (center right) and Grace Kelly (right), and struck out on her own in the 1940s, becoming one of the few female feature film producers at the time. She later produced the beloved series Alfred Hitchcock Presents. “Blondes make the best victims,” Hitchcock famously said—well, not Joan Harrison.

—Veronica Saroli

Three flicks prove that the bathroom is the scariest room in the house

Movie: Psycho Setting: The shower In the most iconic slasher scene, Marion Crane is stabbed to death after the shadow of a butcher knife comes into frame. Blood (chocolate syrup) circles the drain.

Movie: Nightmare on Elm Street Setting: The tub As Nancy Thompson falls asleep in the tub, Freddy Krueger’s claw rises from the bubbles, between her legs, like the world’s most terrifying Brazilian implement.

Movie: Arachnophobia Setting: Near drains Spiders.

Crawling.

Everywhere.

And is that water dripping down your wrist or the whispery trail of eight legs?

It was a dark and stormy night somewhere in the world, but not in Elysium Estates. Here the stars are like Tiffany engagement solitaires sprinkled across the black velvet sky. A warm breeze whispers along the streets, bending in its brief embrace the newly blossomed trees. In the house at the end of the block she is moving through the day of her death, just like every other night. She steps into the shower where the tiles are cracked and black with mould. The water has long since been turned off, and there is nothing more than a rusted pipe where the faucets once were. Finished, she dries herself and then carefully places the slip of a towel back where the hook once hung. In the few splinters of glass in the mirror’s frame over the sink, she takes her time with her hair, working at it until it is shiny and smooth. She has always been told that she has pretty hair. From her closet she selects the outfit she will wear for the rest of her days. Is it what she would have chosen if she had somehow guessed? If she had known?

She walks down the stairs. Her foot doesn’t fall through the rotted wood. Instead she steps with purpose as she always has and always will.

This is her house—nothing can touch her here. The doorbell rings. Sometimes in the night the neighbours hear the doorbell. If they look out, they will see only an empty doorstep; no one is there. So they turn the television up and talk loudly about nothing, anything. It doesn’t matter. The bell rings again, and again, cutting through unremarkable life like a knife.

Still in charge, still at home, she strides down the ruined hallway and opens her front door.

“What are you doing here? I told you we are finished. I don’t want to see you again, ever. What part of that don’t you understand?”

Every night her final words float away unheard as she speaks to the uninhabited dark.

Halli Villegas is an author and poet. Her short story “Road Kill” won the Emerging Author prize at the 2017 Carter V. Cooper Awards.

T O U G H A S T H E Y C O M E WE ASKED THREE WOMEN IN FILM TO SHARE THEIR TOP ON-SCREEN HORROR HEROINES “Jay in It Follows (2014).

She doesn’t give up and she does not die, even though she is stalked unrelentingly throughout— which is typical for any teen girl in a horror film.”

—Jenny Reeder, director of the short horror film All Small Bodies (2017), a feminist, sci-fi retelling of “Hansel and Gretel”

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STORY HOUR: THE DOORBELL Original flash fiction by Halli Villegas

PLAYING DIRTY

“Sigourney Weaver as Ripley in Alien: She’s so tough! She’s such a well-rounded character who breaks every female stereotype. As a child she made me feel like I could kick ass, too.” —Tatum Lee, Toronto actress who played Judith in the 2017 remake of It

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“Ginger from Ginger Snaps (2000), written by Karen Walton. Having the female protagonist turn into a werewolf as a metaphor for puberty and female sexual awakening is everything the werewolf genre needed.”

—Alyson Richards, producer and writer currently working on The Retreat, a lesbian horror film

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SPOTLIGHT

SCIENCE OF FEAR: REAL VS. IMAGINED THE AMYGDALA IN THE BRAIN QUICKLY RESPONDS TO STIMULI TO DETERMINE FEAR, WHILE THE HIPPOCAMPUS, WHICH CONSOLIDATES INFO AND STORES SPATIAL MEMORY, REORIENTS YOU BASED ON WHAT’S ACTUALLY GOING ON. SO, HEARING SOMETHING GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT IS TERRIFYING—UNTIL YOU REALIZE IT’S JUST THE FRIDGE. IN SEARCH OF A FAT FINAL GIRL Why badass plus-size actresses should be taking down more of the bad guys

THE MONSTER Amzallag says she wearies of playing stereotypical female roles—the mistress, the stripper: “I don’t want to shit on any of the lovely work I’ve done, but this idea of being the victim, the sexual ‘being slept with’ person, is very annoying.”

This year, Amzallag stars in The Man in the Shadows as a spectral threat of “the other woman” in a nightmare. “I’m a CGI face, but it’s very terrifyinglooking.” She was recently on set for a slasher film, a rare example of a horror movie she’ll allow herself to watch. “It’s just a murderer, and that’s fine with me. Also I die pretty quick, so it’s all good.”

HAIR AND MAKEUP: RONNIE TREMBLAY FOR TEAMM/M.A.C/KEVIN MURPHY. CREATIVE DIRECTION: JESSICA HOTSON.

“Dorothy McGuire in the role of Helen in the 1945 classic The Spiral Staircase.

Her character cannot speak, so her performance relies solely on her eyes and body language. What I love about this character is how her shortcomings in no way inhibit her ability to outsmart the killer in the final round.

She doesn’t fall for the stupid tricks and is portrayed as a highly intelligent woman—which for the time period has always stood out for me.” —T.L

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“Sissy Spacek as the titular Carrie in the 1976 film: Even though she ends up bloodied and dead, the way she enacts her revenge is pretty brilliant.

There is something super powerful to me about her covered in blood at the end and how she is teased for menstruating at the beginning.” —J.R

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“I loved the heroine Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz in the new French horror film Revenge, written and directed by Coralie Fargeat. She’s an unexpectedly strong character who goes from ‘piece of fluff’ to kicking ass. Plus the whole movie is wrapped up in a bloody bubble gum pink feminist package.”

—A.R

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I grew up on slasher flicks. In grade seven, I spent almost every Friday night huddled under a blanket in someone’s basement with my three best friends as we watched Nightmare on Elm Street or Scream, half covering our eyes and yelping at every make-you-jump moment. We gleefully left our own preteen world and entered the macabre underworld where girls always came out on top: sweaty, rain-soaked and blood-streaked, victorious after taking down the murderous dude. But as much as we rooted for the Neve Campbells and the Jennifer Love Hewitts, self-conscious 12-year-old me never saw herself in their slim, hard-bodied heroines.

Then, in 1998, when I was 12, I saw Urban Legend. The inimitable Loretta Devine plays Reese Wilson, a security guard determined to take down a serial killer hunting film students (including Jared Leto). She’s stabbed at the end, but (spoiler alert!) wakes up just in time to attack the killer. I watched it over and over, grinning every time Reese showed up. I was even more thrilled when she survived the 2000 sequel. She wasn’t supposed to be the main heroine, but she was to me.

Still, Devine is an outlier in the horror universe. Almost 20 years later, I’m still waiting for another box-office horror hit where a big girl comes out on top.

Size, after all, doesn’t have anything to do with ability to kick ass. Look at Leslie Jones, Gabourey Sidibe and Chrissy Metz; all three have taken on roles where they’ve proved their strength physically and mentally. Yet in American Horror Story: Coven, Sidibe (who was set to be the ultimate supreme witch) was brought down by a seductive beast. (Her character was also killed in season five, AHS: Hotel.) Fat women are rarely seen as heroines in pop culture, especially in scary movies, where plus-size characters are often used to disgust audiences. When Metz was cast in AHS: Freak Show, she donned a prosthetic bodysuit to play Ima Wiggles, the fat lady who was constantly eating or being called a pig.

The idea that fat women are weak or useless because we are the size we are is an outdated stereotype that needs to be tipped onto its head. And that’s exactly why I want to see a woman like Sidibe or Metz still standing at the end of a murderous plot: sweaty and blood-streaked, standing in the rain in all her glory. —Lora Grady

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LAST WORD

LADIES IN (CALL) WAITING

What would happen if Lady Gaga, Lady Macbeth, a Cat Lady and Lady (sans Tramp) got on the line?

By Veronica Saroli | Illustration by Jenn Woodall

Dahling, how are you holding up?

Hey girl That I may pour my spirits in thine ear, Gaga.

Same old: Netflix & chillin’ with the whiskers crew.

Puss and Boots is on!

You know what I always say…

I was born this way?

Well, yes. But don’t bottle up all your emotions all the time—hold on, the Cat Lady is on the other line.

DON’T ANSWER!

Laaadies!

I said out damned spot!

I told you—my name isn’t Spot!

That’s it, I’m taking myself for a walk.

What art thou up to tonight?

Sounds...fun. I’m, uh, cleaning.

Hold on, Lady’s calling to yap about the Tramp.

Well, you must come out later for ladies night! I’ll perform, it’ll be dazzling.

I can’t go out… cough, cough …I’m sick.

I’m going to exit stage left, as well.

Wait, who is this?

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| HOLIDAY 2017 | THEKIT.CA

1 STREET

• 5 STORIES • 5 FRAGRANCES

DRUNK ON YOUTH

RAIN DAY

2 AM KISS

SILENT ST.

BLACKOUT

Available at: Sephora & The Hudson’s Bay Company