Anna Dello Russo – she came, she saw, she danced and she conquered Toronto through her multiple outfit changes over a two day visit hosted at The Room, inside the Bay’s flagship store. ADR was in town to celebrate the launch of a photography exhibit titled “When Tommy Met Anna.”

The exhibit (which runs until April 29) features photos taken by Canadian photographer and blogger, Tommy Ton of ADR, his muse and Vogue Japan’s Editor-at-Large, in her most memorable fashion moments.

The instant word hit the street several weeks ago, via @TheHudsonsBayCo’s Twitter feed, that ADR was coming to Toronto the city’s fashion set was buzzing with her pending arrival, which was quickly followed up by paper invitations to an invite only reception outlining the dress code was “á la Anna.”

The reception held last week was a night that didn’t disappoint; The Room rolled out the leopard print carpet, ushered in six foot tall drag queens dressed to the nines and had wait staff decked out in t-shirts reading “When Tommy Met Anna.” The city’s fashion crowd arrived en masse in bold and colourful attire, some of which would be deemed as very interesting to say the least.

I counted approximately three outfit changes by ADR the night of the soiree which consisted of a Giles Deacon bandage print dress and a lamp shade dress and skirt from Mary Katrantzou’s spring 2011 collection. I opted to dress up for the occasion and wore a Jonathan Saunders jersey dress.

Throughout the night ADR and Ton was surrounded by scores of admirers jostling to get a shot with the pair; I made two weak attempts to have my Anna moment but was unsuccessful. I still had a really great time at the event and have to say the fashions on display and people watching were thoroughly enjoyable.

The wait is over for all of those fashionable Canucks who have been counting down to the arrival of Vogue Japan's Edtior-at-Large, Anna Dello Russo. ADR has officially touched down in Toronto to launch a photography exhibit at the Bay's Queen Street store titled, "When Tommy met Anna." The exhibit features 81 images highlighting Dello Russo's unforgettable fashion moments and outfits captured by Canadian photographer and blogger, Tommy Ton.

Nicholas Mellamphy, creative director of The Room, presented ADR with a one-of-a-kind Hudson's Bay Company striped cape designed by Erdem.

Ton and Dello Russo will be at The Room at the Bay on Thursday, April 21 for a public autograph signing session starting at 12:00 p.m. The photography exhibit runs until April 29.

Fashion in the News is a collection of articles and blog posts found online that catches my attention, and is in my humble opinion worth reading. Enjoy!

Todd Lynn, fall/winter 2010 collection

Candid Cameraman (BiLT magazine) – Canadian fashion blogger, Tommy Ton answers a series of Q&As discussing how he got his start and the state of fashion blogging – article via Final Fashion.

Gareth Pugh Denies Talks to Succeed Alexander McQueen (The Cut) – Rumours of Gareth Pugh taking over the reins as Creative Director at Alexander McQueen circulated over the weekend... and then were quickly stopped.

The 10 best... fashion bloggers (Guardian UK) – In their opinion, the Guardian UK has published a list of the 10 best fashion bloggers. It’s not an earth shattering list nor does it provide you with any epiphanies within the blogosphere.  What do you think? Thumbs up or thumbs down on this one.

Stop getting low balled as a blogger (IFB) – Fellow IFB member, Ashe Mischief provides insightful advice and a guide on how to stop getting low balled as a blogger and how to begin monetizing your blog. 

Fashion guest bloggers Great Constantine: Tales from New York Fashion Week (National Post) – Canadian design duo, Kirk Pickersgill and Stephen Wong of Greta Constantine, blog about their trip to New York during fashion week as they present their label to industry buyers for a guest blogger series for the National Post.

London calling: Canuck designers take centre stage during London fashion week (Toronto Life) – So far, the year 2010 has been packed full of momentous occasions for Canada, such as winning 14 gold medals at the Vancouver Olympic Games. Overseas, in the U.K., we are making waves in the form of three upcoming Canuck designers. They are: Erdem Moralioglu, Todd Lynn and Mark Fast.

Images from Style.com

Here's a Fashion Television clip from 2007 that explores the beginnings of fashion blogging in the mainstream.

Just a Thought – four posts about fashion blogging (Final Fashion) – Danielle Meder uses excerpts from four articles that discuss the status and development of fashion bloggers seen attending the S/S 2010 runway shows and provides her take on this subject.

Fashion a Year in Review: It’s all about the size (of you) (Lifestylists, Yahoo! Canada) –Yahoo! Canada’s lifestyle blog provides a fashion year-in-review; commenting on Canadian knitwear designer Mark Fast’s use of plus-sized models in his S/S 2010 runway show, the accessibility of fashion online in 2009 and Lady Gaga as this year’s style influencer.

State of Play: Blogging vs. Fashion Heavy Weights (Lady Melbourne) – Phoebe of Lady Melbourne interviews Scott Schuman, The Sartorialist, and discusses 13 year old blogger Tavi Gevinson (Style Rookie) who was recently given a writing position with Harper’s Bazaar. The following quote by Schuman echoes my thoughts on this topic exactly, “The thing with teenage fashion bloggers, is that they’re little girls trying to be 30 year old fashion editors.”

5 Ways Social Media Changed Fashion in 2009 (Mashable) – Macala Wright Lee, CEO of FashionablyMarketing.Me, lists five ways fashion brands and retailers are using social media to engage customers, drive sales and store traffic. This is quite an interesting read and a great way to see how our consumption of fashion has taken on the digital realm.

Year In Review: Ins and outs of Fashion & Design in 2009 (NOW Toronto) – Andrew Sardone provides a brief overview of memorable Canadian fashion trends and moments in 2009, such as the opening of two Anthropologie stores in Toronto, the invasion of Canadian designers on the Shopping Channel and the revitalization of the Bay’s fashion boutique, The Room.

Cavalli Charm... Vogue's Blogger Shoot... Google's Achilles Heel... (WWD) – WWD reports Vogue will feature fashion bloggers in its March 2010 issue. It is said Tommy Ton of Jak & Jil, Bryanboy, Garance Doré, Face Hunter and Scott Schuman of The Satorialist will be selected – there were many changes in the fashion world in 2009 and I’m confident 2010 will be just as interesting.

Video from Final Fashion on YouTube.

I didn’t make it to the tents for day five of LG Fashion Week. After four days of back-to-back travelling, writing and analyzing designers' S2010 collections my brain was full and my body was calling for rest.

Therefore, for your reading pleasure, here is a roundup of articles by fashion editors and journalists reviewing LG Fashion Week:

• Inside Flare: Advice For New Designers On Maximizing Their Impact On The Runway by Lisa Tant, editor-in-chief of FLARE magazine
• Why so many runway runaways? by David Livingstone, The Toronto Star
• All this party needs is a few more A-listers by David Graham, fashion editor of The Toronto Star
• LG Fashion Week: vogue • cab • u • lary by Nathalie Atkinson, National Post
• LG Fashion Week report #7: St. Lucian by Sarah Nicole Prickett, Eyeweekly.com
• Toronto Fashion Week Spring/Summer ‘10: Checklist by TC, Corduroymagazine.com

Photo by Tommy Ton of Jak & Jil.

The images below are very inspiring to budding fashion bloggers. Seeing Bryan Boy, Tommy Ton, Garance Doré and Scott Schuman, the top four fashion bloggers (let’s call them the Fab Four) in the world sitting in the front row of the Dolce & Gabbana (D&G) show at Milan fashion week is a sight that has never been seen before.

Laptops and tables were provided for the Fab Four by D&G and as you can see from their smiling faces they are having a fabulous time together. This gives a lot of hope to many hard working fashion bloggers – yours truly included. Every time I look at these images I can’t help but feel in awe and immensely happy for their successes and the recognition fashion bloggers are slowly gaining. Huge kudos goes to D&G for venturing into uncharted territory.

More details in this article by WWD, Bricks Versus Clicks: Front Row at D&G.

P.S.: I was very tempted to Photoshop my head into the picture! ;)

Images by Stephane Feugere, WWD.