Oakridge Mall Holiday Extended Hours

You know it's Christmas when the mall hours change to extended hours for the holidays. Personally, I think Oakridge Center has the sanest holiday hours of all malls in Vancouver.

These hours of course apply to Kris + Cris Shoes as well as Tru Drama.

Holiday Extended hours:

Dec. 1: 9:30am – 9pm

Dec. 2: 11am – 7pm

Dec. 3-8: 9:30am – 9pm

Dec. 9: 11am – 7pm

Dec. 10-15: 9:30am – 9pm

Dec. 16: 11am – 7pm

Dec. 17-22: 9:30am – 10pm

Dec. 23: 9:30am – 9pm

Dec. 24: 9:30am – 5pm

Dec. 25: CLOSED

Dec. 26: 8:30am – 7pm

Jan. 1: 11am – 6pm

The Hills Parody

Oh man, I'm such a reality junkie. Another favourite show of mine is The Hills. Spencer makes it so easy to hate him and Heidi is so clueless I find myself shouting at the screen all the time. I think my favourite person on the show is Whitney. She's like a best friend anyone would be happy to have. Audrina looks like she's gonna be finally free of Justin Bobby's weird rambling incoherent clutches. Serves him right for kissing that chick at the club in front of everyone!

Here's a vid of James Franco (Spider-Man) and Mila Kunis (That 70s show) doing a decent impersonation of Justin Bobby and Audrina. This just proves that you can't fake The Hills!

Vancouver Olympic Mascots are very Tokidoki

Vancouver recently unveiled it's Olympic mascots. There's a bear (I swear it was an eagle), Sasquatch and an orca. There was a poll immediately done and over half the respondents didn't like them. I saw the designer on TV and thought she was young. She was really nervous being interviewed. Can you imagine working so hard on something and immediately after showing your work being told that more than 50% of people didn't like your designs? I felt bad for her.

Many of the respondents thought they looked like Japanese anime. They do have a cuteness about them that doesn't seem to originate from Vancouver. My experience with the Tokidoki frenzy of last year immediately made me think of their designs. You can probably pick out a few characters on the right that look similar to the mascots.

I like our mascots! When you look at some of the previous Olympic mascots you'll even appreciate ours even more. On the left is the 2006 Torino mascots... a snowball and a block of ice.

All this mascot talk is making me think that the store should get one too. Perhaps it should be a dog, plush toy, Britney... Something fun!

Project Runways compared

Sitting on a plane for 12 hours does weird things to people. Finding that I couldn't sleep well at all I started thinking of things to make me drowsy. Most people count sheep, but for me I decided to think about the differences between Project Runways. The American, British and Canadian versions.

Instead of making me drowsy my mind started organizing the variations in my mind and in no time I created a table showing the differences. Did I mention to you it was a 12 hour flight?

Here it is. The best of the 3 shows attributes I highlighted in yellow.

	Project Runway	Project Runway Canada	Project Catwalk
Music	Frenetic and foreboding the music mixes well with the visuals	Slow and often sparse, the music doesn’t do anything but make things seem slow.	Contemporary top UK tunes mixed with the visuals make the show enjoyable and topical.
Prod- uction	Nothing to complain about. It's slick production values make it the best	Oddly, there isn’t enough editing. A budget issue? Not enough cameras? Lighting is also an issue. There’s no mood, it’s just bright all the time	Everything is always oversaturated. The editing is frustrating as they don’t always show everyone’s creations. Omitting styles, only to see them on the catwalk
City	New York. The contestants never seem to go to far since everything seemingly is within walking distance from Parsons.	Toronto. The city’s only landmark apparently is the CN Tower. It’s in every open air background shot.	The city of London is beautifully showcased in the show. They get to go to clubs, bars, horse races, garden parties and even the London Eye
Work Space	Parsons, stark and in Season 1 a hideously coloured building.	Some warehouse in the suburbs	Instituto Marangoni, the great open workspace and the Skylights make it a dramatic space for the competition.
Living Space	Atlas and Gotham Apartments. Maybe because it’s in NYC but the spaces are so cramped that it makes my washroom look big.	The Rosemont is in Toronto’s Theatre district. The suites are large and the furniture is stylishly contemporary. Definitely the most civilized	4 storey Georgian flat in Central London. A nice space in a great location but the bunk beds and Ikea inspired furnishings are horrible.
Casting	The best mix and certainly the most talented The 3 past winners couldn’t be more different.	The mix is actually not bad at all with only a dash of stereotypes.	The contestants are actually too young. Most are students and the garments they make are reflective of their skills. Even PRC contestants could make a better dress!
Hosts	Heidi Klum makes a great host and judge. I love her comments and zingers when they're accentuated by her Teutonic accent.	Iman. Her halting enunciation and constant posing is distracting. All that aside Iman is one beautiful lady!	Elizabeth Hurley Season 1, Kelly Osbourne Season 2. Osbourne lacks gravitas to be the host of Project Catwalk. It’s hard to take her seriously when she’s had so many fashion disasters herself.
Mentors	Tim Gunn, a true mentor with opinions that are dead on that no one ever listens to. His delivery of his advice is just as entertaining as his advice.	Brian Bailey, super nice guy but his personality is not weird or flamboyant enough to really make him in the same league as the other two mentors.	Ben de Lisi, more attitude then Tim and he likes to get his hands and mouth dirty.
Judges	The same team for all 4 seasons and still the best. Michael Kors and Nina Garcia	Shawn Hewson (Bustle Clothing) and Rita Silvan (Elle)…	Julien MacDonald and Lorrain Candy (Elle), Jean Reed (Grazia) Season 2
Guest Judges	Diane von Furstenberg, Vera Wang, Sarah Jessica Parker... 'nuff said.	A bunch of people I’ve never heard of.	Also a bunch of people I’ve never heard of but they have cool British accents.
Phrases	In fashion one day you’re in and the next day you’re out. Make it work! Auf Wiedersehen!	You don’t measure up.	Fashion has no mercy. You’re the next fashion victim

While doing my research for my table I found out that there's a Project Runway Malaysia! If it's in english I'm gonna watch it!

Christmas Decorations in Hong Kong

I've just came back from Asia. There's less than a month before Christmas and while over there they had their Christmas decorations up. In HK the Christmas decorations are crazy spectacular but it's really just a commercial excercise. Certainly they don't have the same holiday traditions we have here in Canada. However, they have us beat in Christmas decorations. Oakridge mall has a nice spread but like all the other malls in Vancouver, they reuse the same decorations year after year. In Asia, it seems like all the decorations are new every year. Here are some of the great X-Mas displays I've seen.

A tree made of Chinese long dresses, jeans and red envelopes.

Cool spiral ornaments.

I'm not sure if this is a Poinsettia or Christmas Palm tree. Either way it's pretty.

This is a tree made of hanging ornaments suspended from the ceiling. Beautiful!

Britney and Primp, did the stars just align?

I'm up early to catch the (stupid) early train to China. No one's awake yet to take me to the train station, so I'm killing some time surfing.

I noticed that my blog posts meanders around a bit and seems to have bursts of like topic clusters. Take this post. I saw this recent picture of Britney Spears covering herself with what looks like a Primp hoodie.

Hmmm... I just posted separately entries on both of those topics. Coincidence? I think not, I think she wants to make it onto the Tru Drama blog! She is after all a master of media manipulation. Well I bow down to her. All hail Britney!

Britney not LVed

Louis Vuitton apparently is suing everyone. Last week at TNA, they tried to sue me for looking at a Speedy knockoff! They've gone after dogs and now Britney! I love all things French but this is getting... oh how do the french say it... "Stupide!"

The French luxury company won a court injunction in Paris to keep the pop star’s 2005 “Do Something” video — in which Spears, 25, drives a pink Hummer with a counterfeit Vuitton “cherry blossom”- monogrammed dashboard — from airing on European TV stations, Women’s Wear Daily reports.

The civil court ruling also ordered the video’s producer to pay $117,600 for damages to Vuitton’s image, and $1,470 per day until the video is removed from the Internet.

That's the official reason! They probably just don't want to have any association with the mess that is her life now.

Chewy Vuitton

I saw this on the net last night. Cute eh? Apparently LV had tried to sue the company making these cute parodies of their bags. Fortunately, they lost the case!

Project Runway spoof

I was surfing around youtube and I stumbled on this parody of Project Runway. Considering it's a year old I'm surprised I've never come across it.



Best line of the spoof: "Sometimes in fashion as well as in sex, sometimes you in, sometimes you're out"

Lululemon clothes fights the effects of jetlag

I'm at the lounge at YVR right now, surfing around for news. I've got a quick trip to Asia and back within this week. My title if you're confused is in jest/reference to last weeks big ruckus with Lululemon.

I didn't realize that Lululemon was having all these problems with some claims about their clothing. The story caught my attention as I have a friend who has been a long time manufacturer of theirs. Tru Drama and Kris + Cris also shares space in Oakridge Mall with a Lululemon and I've enjoyed some of their active wear in the past. It's a bit too casual for me these days though. I don't feel right without a huge tattoo tiger on my sweatpants.

The big deal was sparked by an article in the New York Times. The paper disputes their claims of therapeutic or performance benefits from its seaweed-infused line of clothing. Tests conducted for the paper showed that the material was no different than common cotton. So their stock prices dived and had the Canada's Competition Bureau asked them to remove any claims from their tags and advertisements. Lululemon did their own tests but I couldn't tell from another article if their tests were conclusive. They said their tests showed evidence of seaweed but yet they still pulled all their product from their stores.

I can't really see how seaweed unless it's wet would provide any benefit to your body. If it was wet would you really want to wear it? If it was infused in the material... well that sounds interesting and it would be nice to think it does something for you. I'd also believe that after a few washes just how effective could it really be? It's not really a feature that would lock me into purchasing it. For me all this stuff isn't a big deal.

I do find it weird (even stupid) that a big paper like the New York Times would investigate Lululemon. Which for the most part is still a Canadian chain of yoga stores. Is it because the claims are so outrageous? It didn't seem like such a big deal when I saw some of those claims myself a few weeks back. I just thought it was neat and didn't give it a second thought.

Lonnies are better

We've probably had some inquiries about what we're doing about about the strength of our dollar. I haven't been asked till today though. Other retailers have tried to address it but realistically most of those efforts are nothing more than a public relations exercise. Here's our situation:

• Many of the items we get from the US are actually bought from agents and wholesalers out of Eastern Canada. Those guys in Toronto/Montreal purchased the goods months before we ever get it. We pay them in Canadian currency and have asked them to have the exchange rate for future orders be reflective of the current situation.
  
• Items that we buy for immediates from the LA and NYC show markets have the most current exchange rate and is already reflected in the price.
• European goods, the Euro has risen in step with our currency. So no effect.
  
• Items we paid for already... well the rate would be as of when we paid for it. So if we bought it 3 months ago (I hope we don't have too much of that stock left!) then that's the rate. Even so, 6-7 months ago the exchange rate was $0.93 cdn to 1.00 usd vs. now of $1.03 cdn to 1.00 usd. New items ordered recently will have the current rate applied.
  

The items where you'll get the best deals are on cars, flat screen TVs or any other big ticket item. Items that would have been manufactured when the US dollar was highest 9 months ago. Fashion may be designed far in advanced but production is just weeks before a delivery date. There are many variables but ultimately it's not the kind of differences that you would see in other products. Unless you're the GAP, their business is about production efficiencies and not really fashion, so it's different.

We've done our best to pass the rate difference savings where we can. I guess with the few inquiries we've had, probably most people understand. Mind you the customer I was talking to today wasn't doing a fair comparison. I'd like to see her get that same Ed Hardy Sweater cheaper anywhere else in this city.

What's interesting is how some retailers are dealing with the situation. I was in a store today (starts and ends in an "A") and they were making a point of showing that they were reacting to the exchange rate difference by offering a 20% discount on certain items. This was an obvious gimmick, since most of their items are Asian made and have never passed thru the US. Their business model would also make it that they paid for it before our strong dollar had happened.

So how or maybe more importantly why are they offering this discount? Looking at the items, I can tell right away the discounted items were their poor performers. They were probably getting discounted anyways since it's about the right time for markdowns. It does sound better to say that they're offering you a break on the exchange rate. I've got some sale items too, you can receive the benefits of a strong loonie in my store too! hahaha

Creativity needs direction, Runway's contestants not making it big yet

In a previous post I wrote about how designers after winning Project Runway had not found success. The show is geared to getting a designer to become the next Michael Kors. Certainly some of them have found good jobs in the industry but none of them are on their way to the dream the show proposes. It's not easy, certainly the fame you get will be helpful. Realistically the $100K cash prize is not enough money to get one of those ugly G Class Mercedes let alone launch a fashion label.

I believe the lack of money isn't the major reason why we haven't seen anyone go anywhere. Like most fields, in the Fashion industry being creative won't guarantee success.

Tru Drama had a line called Primp last year. It was a line of all over print thermal tops. They had cute silhouettes of things like clovers, bunny rabbits and Bambi printed in a tone on tone fashion all over the garment. One of silhouettes would be highlighted with stones. They gained massive popularity when celebrities like Paris and Nicole made it their daily uniform.

There were huge issues with their ability to deliver on time. Our longest wait was 7 months and never sooner than 4 months past their cancel dates. Producing the product shouldn't have been hard as knockoffs came into the marketplace within weeks. The line despite all this was super hot. We'd get daily calls for the tops and to see if they'd arrive. Like anything in fashion the trend was fleeting. We dropped the line when we ran out of patience.

Primp's reps in LA, talked about the designer being this creative force but sadly had no ability to run a business. The kind of success that Primp gained is what many designers hope to achieve. Sadly, it was just a shooting star and not something that lasted longer.

Like a fashion blog sweatshop

Okay I recognize I have a Project Runway problem. I really should be writing about the fashion that's going on at the store. A lot of items have arrived in the store this week. So without further ado, here's a big picture post of what's in the Tru Drama store now!

The first reorder of Christian Audigier has already come in and sold out. The velour tunic and panther hoodie have just arrived today. These are new to the store and not a reorder, they won't stay long.
The Panther hoodie was an early season favourite. This reorder was very hard to come by.
I don't get much chance to talk about Lady Dutch clothing but the picture on the right clearly shows that it really doesn't need any help. Satin straight leg pants paired with a satin trimmed cap sleeve jersey top with a chain detail in the back. It's one of my favourite lines.

My test order of Akademiks came this week. The zip jackets are examples of what this fun line is all about.
Despite poor lighting, horrible backgrounds and my sad camera skills, Ed Hardy Intimates can do no wrong. They look fab on the mannequins. I had tried to convince one of the girls to model them but modesty (and their good sense) won out in the end. We did manage to put them in the window though. I hope to scandalize my frumpy neighbors! An ideal gift for yourself or smart suggestion for your companion during these holiday times!
Sweatpants! This is something I should have mentioned sooner. Ed Hardy Sweatpants is the first part of our holiday order. They'll give you that edgy look while doing yoga next to those Lulu soccer moms. The rest of the holiday order should be arriving shortly.

Life is too short to have on a bad outfit

Unlike toilet paper that's stuck to your heel, the train on this dress won't come off by using the other foot.

Project Runway season 4 premiered last night. The wait has been worth it! Pacing, contestants, judges, format and bickering was as good or better than the previous season. Tim Gunn is now the Chief Creative Officer at Liz Claiborne Inc. last year he was a director at Parsons but of course Liz Claiborne probably pays better.

This episode's challenge was to make an outfit that expresses who you are as a designer. Which is like asking someone to define what their soul is. Of course the designers being who they are tend to make it hard for themselves. They're on this show after all, so it's part of their DNA to enjoy self inflicted pain.

I am amazed when people still don't listen to Tim. He's pretty much dead on with his comments. Contestant Elisa dress problems were immediately addressed by Tim but you could tell that she really doesn't like hearing any sort of comments about her work. She nearly went home for ignoring the advice.

The one liners were really strong in this episode. Here are a some of my favourites:

• "Life is too short to have on a bad outfit." Kit Pistol
• "Don't go into the fear box people!" Christian Siriano
• "Her model look like she was pooing fabric." Heidi Klum
• "I know women willing to bleed if the dress is fabulous enough." Michael Kors

The best scene in the whole show was watching Jack in his boxer briefs (the buffed active wear designer) self moisterizing his back in the soft light of the morning. Hubba Hubba! That was pure magic! Is it me or could he be Reichen's brother(Amazing Race 4 and former boytoy of Lance Bass)?

Make it Work! The Real Project Runway

Dang, I'm anxious. I'm just waiting for the first episode of Project Runway Season 4 to hit the net. Since it's not airing in Canada I don't have much choice. The recent episodes of Project Canada have been dissapointing and I need my real fix of Tim Gunn and Heidi's funny German accented, "You're Oooooooooooooout."

I've been reading all sorts of net articles about past contestants not instantly becoming rich after winning. It's obvious that just being creative and you can sew won't mean you'll attain instant success. You get recognition and all the hype our media crazy world can provide but to become the next Kors it'll take more than winning Project Runway to become a "House".

Can't wait, can't wait! Maybe, I'll try youtube.

Business to Business Scams

Just like individuals, businesses get targeted by scam artists as well. A while back, someone called the store and asked what sort of receipt paper we were using for our printer and then asked to confirm our address. Weeks later we received a box of receipt paper. Later we received a phone call from a company called NBS or National Business Supplies. They asked for payment on an overdue invoice for some receipt paper. What wasn't apparent at the time was that no one had ordered this box. The price was outrageous too as it was about 4 times the price despite it not being any different from the product at Office Depot or Staples. The money was paid, because it had originally seemed to be our mistake or miscommunication. However, we told them not to contact us again since we didn't want overpriced product.

About 8 months later the scam was tried again. This time when it got to A/P, we had called NBS and asked that they take back the shipped goods. We told them no one had ordered the product. They produced the name of the girl that was working at the time and claimed she had ordered it. Which was rubbish since none of the girls would ever be in charge of supplies. We told them to take back the product at their cost. It's at this point when it became obvious these guys were scammers. They refused to take back the box and threatened that if we didn't pay we'd be seeing the police. Our A/P guy laughed so hard I can hear it from across the office! When the laughter died, it was obvious the other person on other line was agitated, he started making threats about credit bureaus and stuff. Hmm... they just threatened with police action, how can the credit bureau be worse?!?!

We told them that we would deal with this through the Better Business Bureau arbitration. We went online to register the complaint. Interestingly, the BBB actually lists this type of scam. It wasn't really a lot of money but we were going to fight this on principal. The aftermath of this situation is that they stopped calling us and we have had the box of receipt paper sitting in the back for over a year now.

So watch out for NBS or National Business Supplies out of Montreal Quebec. Their invoices look professional so it's easy to mistake them for being legit. However, they don't have a website and that says a lot right there.

Oh So Sexy Ed Hardy Intimates

I've gotten a few inquiries since yesterday's posting on the Ed Hardy Intimates. So here are some pictures and a more detail listing of what we're getting.

We'll carry sizes XS, S, M and L. They're 95% Cotton and 5% Spandex.

Boyshorts

• Geisha Boyshort
• Dedicated Boyshort
• Love Kills Slow Boyshort
• Tiger Boyshort

Shelf Bra Camisole and Bikini Sets

• Geisha Set
• Tiger Set
• Dedicated Set
• Love Kills Slowly Set

Limited edition Ed Hardy Intimates

We're going to be getting some Ed Hardy limited edition Intimates sometime next week. They're gonna be just in time for Christmas! I know it's shocking but we're really not too far off from December.

We're gonna get some shelf bra camisole and bikini sets and boy shorts. Here's a sneak peak.

Looking for our next Window Designer

I'm proud to say we have the best window displays in our mall and at times I really believe we have the best in the city even. So it's sad to say that we're probably going to be needing a new window designer in the coming future. Our existing guy is incredibly talented. Since they've been designing for us, their fortunes have really risen and now do sets for film/tv productions. So now with their success, they've gone and raised their rates so significantly that we really can't afford to stay with them much longer.

So we're on the search for a creative person with a strong sense of merchandising and visual display. There will be the occasional times you may have to paint the background to best show off

We've always let our window designers have total freedom in the way they do their windows and we'd like to continue that with whoever we bring on board.

This person would ideally be able to do windows for our shoe store and possibly the Main St. location as well. It's really something that gets changed in our stores every 3 months or so. It'd be a part time thing for the successful candidate.

So if you're interested message me at girls@trudrama.com.

Some of the great windows we've had at the Kris + Cris shoe store.

Project Runway Canada, the magic has died

Ok, earlier in the week I named Project Runway Canada as my current favorite show. After watching this current week show, I take it all back. I literally fell asleep during the deliberation aspect of the show.

How could I be so wrong? I think it's because I had powered thru all 3 seasons of the US version of Project Runway in a week. The afterglow of those great series bathed the Canadian series in the same light. Everything about the show was slow and Iman's comments seemed so scripted and unnatural. The clothing was uninspiring and even the contestants interaction with each other was boring.

The challenge was downright silly. In teams of 3 they're supposed to go to Winners and create a mini-collection of three outfits based on garments found at Winners for Spring 2008. Think about how utterly crazy that is! They've gone to Winners to get inspiration from product that likely is either overstock or (shudder) isn't from this current season or both. Oh the irony!

This is one of the winning designs.
You don't want to know what the losers look like!

Supposedly this is Winner's flag ship store on Bloor. I haven't been inside but I have walked pass it on the way to the excellent Spring Rolls restaurant a few blocks down . Watching the show, well let's just say I didn't make a mistake passing it by. It is nicer than the local ones we have here but that's not saying much. Personally it just looks like the paint is fresher.

Anyways, back to the boring. Yup this show is slow. I do agree with judges comments that the collection was disappointing. So no drama with contestants and/or judges is bad but no flair with the fashion is unforgivable. I don't know if I can continue watching!

Ed Hardy Sweaters

I guess it's appropriate that on Halloween we got a delivery of Ed Hardy jeweled skulled sweaters. I had snatched up the remaining Canadian inventory of Ed Hardy sweaters. It's none of that plain stuff you find elsewhere. Every piece is a bejeweled piece of art!

Okay, a picture would be nice in this space now. I forgot my camera and I promise a picture will be posted tomorrow!