Oh, Canada!
A furnishings-forward dispatch from Toronto.
IN THIS EDITION…
Wait, why did I come back?
Three Québécois designers to follow if you’re into that sort of thing.
This $1200 wine rack is absolutely worth it—because I said so.
At the tail end of last month (aka the blizzardy end, aka Satan’s snowy ass blast of a weekend—and not in a fun way!) I sojourned to Canada for the first time ever to check out DesignTO, a 16-year-old festival programmed as the sort of free-spirited cousin of Toronto’s Interior Design Show. It consists of over 100 exhibitions and activations spread throughout the city, though our exploration was cut mercilessly short by the weather. Nevertheless…we persisted. Ish.
A huge thank you to the team at the lovely, sexy, and graciously cozy Ace Hotel Toronto for hosting me and supporting a thought-provoking panel discussion, Queeries & Cocktails, as well as this iconic moment in figure drawing history. (20,000 views and counting. Boop!) David Michon, you will always be famous.
Shows Honey, Give Us Shows
Loved ‘Pot-au-feu’, an exhibition of Québécois designers organized by the collective Ensemble, despite the fact that they charged for wine at the bar. (Problematic?) Of particular note was this sexy demon oyster lamp by Alex Joncas, a co-founder of the lighting studio Darmes, which exhibited this Brutalist-inspired pendant light—shown initially at ICFF all the way back in 2024. My discovery funnel is as long as it is wide, honey!
HUMOR ME
A discovery funnel is the “stage of the digital marketing funnel where a potential customer first learns about you and your products.” Its girth is, notably, imagined.
Lambert et Fils showed pieces from their Kwangho Lee-designed Bolda collection (which includes a pendant light I shared here), most notable of which was the forthcoming lil’ tabletop version. I was also really into the Finn tables by Séjour Studio and spoke briefly with designer Marie-Hélène St-Jean about her design (pictured above). She wanted something “very soft, tactile, and feminine,” so the entire body, made of slatted-together aluminum pieces, is upholstered in leather or fabric. And the top is removable!
Designer Jamie Wolfond organized a show about literal tape at his workshop-adjacent gallery, 8x7. “The way a designer creates a product is by repeatedly testing ideas and reacting to the result,” Wolfond told Sight Unseen way back in 2015, and TAPE (on view through the 21st) follows that aging-like-fine-wine logic to its most conceptual end, positing the medium as “a direct translation from your brain to your body—an opportunity to understand by creating.”
I think the installation might’ve benefited from a broader swath of projects born of the same idea: creating out of necessity, living with imperfection. It was admittedly hard in such a petite gallery space to connect the dots between works and to understand how they related back to the central thesis. I almost feel like more limitations i.e. “these 7 designers were given one roll of duct tape and 36 hours to build something,” might have helped but oh shit it sounds like my brain has been 2x-speed process video-hacked by TorkTonk?? Anyway, I wouldn’t be dedicating so much time to this if I didn’t fuck with it, so—more tape! More understanding by creating! Hi Jamie!
We also stopped by the ceramics studio mi.sul, where co-owner Si walked us through an installation of pieces made from clay she harvested (i.e. literally hopped over a fence to get) from a Kensington market construction site. They soak the dirt in water, sieve out the rocks and debris, then turn the distilled clay (“slurry”) into a sort of paste that can be molded into vessels. Or something to that effect? I’m sorry, I can’t understand my own recording. Anywhoo, it was a charming and unexpected way to contextualize the neighborhood where I’d had dinner the night prior.
Queering Space Is A Group Effort
Obviously. The panel discussion for To Be Longing: Portraits of Queer Living, architect Quan Thai’s itinerant installation, on view at the Ace for DesignTO, was, for lack of a better word, deeply fruitful. We touched on inherently queer spaces, easy and affordable ways to queer your own space, and why are queers fixated on space? It was great! I might unpack some of the themes at length in a dedicated post in the near future…watch this (queer) space.
Behold, The Wine Rack
I managed to fit in a little shopping in Toronto and was most impressed by Grays. Not because of the local flax installation they’d erected for DesignTO, and not even really because of the buy, but because co-owner Connor Dudgeon is a product designer and photographer who works out of the basement concocting the world’s most intricate and fanciful display elements: hooks and hangers and hat stands that look sort of like if Galadriel designed a bespoke line of sex toys for some DTC elf-sex brand called Lady Of This Wood. (I’m sorry, I don’t know why I’m like this.) [But also, Tove Lo for the first campaign!?]
ALSO RECOMMENDED
Issues, the local magazine shop. I bought a back issue of M and a copy of the new Catflap, “smart queer writing with a disco heart.”
He also happens to make the world’s coolest wine rack. It’s dubbed “the slope” in a nod to the vineyard hills that inspired its hand-bent shelving, a jumping off point I could see going a little craft cottage but is executed here really conceptually. (Also…lady of this wood much?)
While I couldn’t haul that baby home I did buy a really yummy long-sleeved heathered jersey tee from the local label Body Of Work that I then refused to take off for the next three days. (TMI?) It’s on sale on their site now!
ATTENTION SHOPPERS
If you want more bent raw aluminum (honey, who doesn’t) might I recommend this console I really loved from Wendy Andreu’s staple series?
What I Packed
I panic-bought a Canada Goose “Chilliwack” (actual Christian name) in Sagebrush at Nordstrom the night before my flight. Good idea because the jacket is really cute and warm; bad idea because once I got to the airport (and was, obviously, wearing it) I realized there was a stain on the sleeve. You can’t return a thing you’ve worn so I’m instead publicly shaming them and also subtly dropping hints that I need a really good dry cleaner!? Also, I stained it even more a week later. I love the color but it is UNFORGIVING.
I actually did such a good job packing for this trip considering I had to be ready for a blizzard, a cocktail party, cute but unassuming dinners, a public speaking engagement and also the gym. Because that’s so much I think it might need to wait for a dedicated shopping post with pics. Do we want that? LMK!
PARTING THOUGHT
Harking back to one Mr. David Michon, I got a facial at Toula Studios at his recommendation and was very happy with the results.
What a nice rack (wine)! Also, can we get a shopping/ packing post please.