My Date With Jonathan

Montreal, Canada

Last week I had the immense pleasure of meeting my favourite CFDA/Vogue nominee Jonathan Simkhai days before the verdict dropped and the winners of the fund were announced.  Today, I am so very glad to post about our time together, because as predicted, he very deservingly took home a win last night at the awards. As one does when meeting someone who’s work you respect and admire, I was a tad anxious heading into Holt Renfrew for my fitting with the infamous creator of the “Inseparable Separates”. His work had been so prominent in celebrity culture and well received by the fashion community that I couldn’t help but fear that his current relevance and recent acclaims might make him too cool to handle. Thankfully I couldn’t have been more wrong. Jonathan is the kind of calming, warmhearted presence you need on every bad day. His smile is infectious and even his shy boy persona cannot conceal his kind spirit . His character alone would be deserving of all of his recent praise…but then I met the clothes.

As Jonathan picked Fall looks for me, I couldn’t help but be hypnotized by pieces I had recently seen in Vogue from his recent Spring collection. The romantic technical lace, and embroidered macramé, in figure-skimming silhouettes had me dreaming of being in Lake Como, where the designer had researched fabrics for his collection. Having seen them presented on the runway with low top sneakers, made me feel that perhaps Jonathan and I were kindred spirits. As I cuddled up in his floor length soft lambswool cardigan, our conversations went from the recent tasks the fund had him execute, to his everyday muses, to our common styling goal of never letting an outfit take itself too seriously. After trying on almost everything the store was carrying, we settled on 2 inseparable separates parings, one of the Spring looks pictured in Vogue’s CFDA spread, and since I refused to remove the impossibly soft cardigan off my body, we figured I’d have to take that home too. I am so thrilled to have had a chance to spend time with, let alone be styled by this incredibly talented designer and his wonderful team. I was right when predicting his win, so I’m not going out on much of a limb here by saying that  Jonathan Simkhai will join the ranks of the great CFDA winners of the past, and be the household name he deserves to become.

Dior "Abstract" sunglasses, Nasty Gal Kozmic Ribbed knit maxi dress, Louis-Vuitton bag embellished with  Anya Hindmarsh stickers, and Stella McCartney platform oxfords.

Jonathan's Fall collection and pre-order for his Spring collection are available here