A couple of fridays ago we ventured down into my personal favourite neighbourhood in the city, Gastown! And what’s better is that I was down there because The Modline was granted the good fortune of experiencing the tricks and treats of the fairly fresh and new, Rogue Kitchen & Wetbar. The formerly upscale Transcontinental Heritage Restaurant underwent a transformation just half a year ago to become a more hip, comfortable resto-lounge for patrons of every walk to wind down and indulge in.

With the bevy of restos that populate Gastown, it’s truly difficult for the average patron to choose where to grab a bite. Eye-catching décor is a must at any eatery and Rogue definitely takes that concept to another level. There’s 6 sections to Rogue, from the patio to the den, the main room to the wetbar, the east side lounge to the upstairs dining, they all seem to play into a dichotomy of both privacy and openness. Big and small chandeliers adorn both the den and the main room and curtains subtly seperate the seating areas for a little seclusion for each table. The den with its cool sliding, wooden slab doors and the small, intimate east side lounge & bar offer some isolated fun for smaller parties. Or you can seat larger functions in the upstairs dining area complete with a balcony that overlooks the entire restaurant. It’s all meant to let you free from the bustle of the restaurant if you want it to be.

The setting is meant to be quite elegant and catering to the refined crowd, however the cuisine is meant to please both the princes and the paupers. The food reaches all audiences and ah yes, let’s not forget about mentioning the food shall we?

As we sat for a late dinner we were greeted by a casually amiable server, in fact their servers have the freedom to wear any outfit they desire. I’d go so far as to say that Rogue is truly the hipper, no frills sibling of their sister restaurant next door, Steamworks Brewing Company. We went for quite an array of dishes, including the hand cut “Fries x 3″, three generous cups of pomme frites with three delicious toppings: (1) gorgonzola cream & bacon (2) poutine and (3) truffle oil & parmesan. After that, we moved on to the tasty, caramelized Korean short ribs that curbed our hunger till the main plates. I’m kind of a freak for good Fish Tacos and Rogue’s did not disappoint one bit; the seared halibut, avocado cream, mango salsa, and fennel coleslaw in flour tortillas just continued the party in my mouth (get your mind out of the gutter folks). Mario, our Creative Director and fill-in photog for the night, had his sights set for the sweet & spicy, Sticky Caramel Chicken, he’s usually the man with the picky palate but judging by the silence at the table I’d say he was overly pleased and content. As for their Wetbar menu, it’s probably as extensive as the liquor store down the street. We let the taps flow steadily with some IPA’s and Pale Ales that I hadn’t heard of till that night.

From the eats to the looks to the vibes, Rogue Kitchen absolutely stands out as a welcome addition to the ever-expansive Gastown dining experience. A big thanks to Rogue for the warm invite, hopefully we’ll be visiting again soon. Oh and if you’re worried about the horrendous parking downtown, have no fear because Rogue is conveniently connected to the Waterfront Skytrain/Seabus Station! Just another reason to head down!

Written by: Justin Lintag
Photos by: Mario Soriano

In our everyday efforts to upkeep our style with what’s new and hip, it’s easy to overlook the underlying factors in fashion that plateau in between. These days, the media still invincibly floods our sight with a plethora of wishful top brand grabs; and mind you alongside the portrayal of 20 inch waist blondes or 6 footer abs of “everyday people” to go with it. We can’t help but fall trap to the betrayal of obsessive consumerism; the constant need to up one another on the latest trends of the big name retailers.

As such is our lives in fashion, the fixation of feeling on top of the world ensembled in the newest top dollar couture leaves us all (and myself included) ‘naive’ to the fact that we may just be fooling ourselves.

Straying from a large collective is director and founder, Joscelyne Shroeder of Naive Boutiques -a one stop online shop in healthy fashion- who takes into consideration the environment when choosing what to wear.

“I didn’t like knowing how some of the clothes we were wearing did harm to the environment.” Says the graduate of John Casablanca’s Creative Arts and Business Program. “As a child, i was into fashion but i never really thought of designing clothes.” Joscelyne explains. “One day I just thought, forget it, I’m going into fashion design.”

Upon graduation she quickly gained knowledge into aspects of business, taking on managerial roles at a boutique that was once standing in the heart of Whiterock, BC’s downtown district – Pink. After quickly gaining resources into what she was promoting, she began to fall distant with the idea of selling products she couldn’t proudly stand for.

“I found that fashion and nature just don’t jive well with each other. I thought, you know, all this stuff is made in china, from materials that are horrible on the  environment, I had no buying power in the store so…i couldn’t control it. I felt horrible trying to sell this product to customers knowing it wasn’t good for them.”Explains Joscelyne. “…And so i thought, I’m going to build my own store.” Inspired by fashion andnature, as well as keeping in mind concerns for abundant accessibility, www.naiveboutique.com was launched in June of 2010.

Naive Boutique is a beneficial open door to not only consumers, but retailers for exposing the idea to dress in style while sustaining our universal home, planet Earth.
The online shop carries many brands of organic and sustainable clothing and accessories, like Lav + Kush, Nixxi, and Me+You (just to name a few), Joscelyne hopes to lead the ladder as she’s noted on her eco-fashion blog, to “ultimately inspire and educate online shoppers in North America about an environmentally conscious lifestyle.”

It’s never too late to start.
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http://www.naiveboutique.com – “Beautiful fashion naturally.”

Written by: Katrina Peralta

On Thursday, August 26th 2010, One of A Few – Gastown’s beloved boutique shop of unique,Vancouver couture -housed the launch of one of our countries most desired women’s wear brand, lily+jae. The event, what is also known to all anticipating female fashionistas, as the “Pop Up Shop” was reminiscent to me, like the first bite of a fresh baked chocolate chip cookie; warm, sweet and indulging.

As the two-leveled building filled on a warm 20 degree day, women – despite the heat- eagerly rifled through racks oflily+jae’s contemporary pieces in hopes to take home some rare finds. Available to the public were lily+jae’s sample rack featuring their past 6 seasons, a vintage rack which gave shoppers an opportunity to take home pieces that inspired the line as well as a sale rack that starts as low as 9.99 and of course the promised fall/winter 2010 line that boasts the look, “Less is More”.

With complimentary sweet cupcakes washed down with bubbling wine and tunes from DJ Sincerely Hana to add to the night, shoppers walked around anxiously in contemplation of the next piece they could find and then walked out to a courtesy custom manicure by Christina Darling of Pro Nails. -How sweet is that?

Deemed as the “Pop Up Shop” in reason with the exclusiveness of lily+jae stopping by our City, this event along with the line is available to us locals at One of a Few  until the end of December 2010.

Make sure to stop by and tell them TheModline.com sent you!

Written by: Katrina Peralta
Photos by: Amanda Panes

As summer 2010 comes to a close, Yaletown Mini opened its showroom doors on August 19 in a glamorous protest to the end of heat and sun with its Teeny Weeny Bikini Partini. Amidst the shiny new Minis the showroom had been transformed into a Hawaiian Hideaway as wooden pillars became palm trees and the runway in the center was lined with tiki torches. As a crowd compiled of familiar Vancouverites enjoyed their Peroni Beer and Honest John wine from the open bar, they were greeted with the beats of DJ Able. Once everyone was settled in the venue, we watched as gorgeous models strutted along the runway donned in the brightly coloured one-piece and two-piece bathing suits by Vancouver-based Sports Illustrated swimsuit designer Anna Kostruva, and Celebrity swimwear designer Vitamin A. To top the night off, the crowed was spoiled with the ongoing presence of cabana boys sporting Vilbrequin. Needless to say, open bar and models in bikinis ensured that the night was a complete success.

Written by: Jamie Cessford
Photos by: Matthew J. Van Deventer

(Just to nip things in the bud, this is actually not that exciting. Sorry friend.)

So the big news: I love this song by Phoenix – “If I Ever Feel Better.” I haven’t tired of it yet, and I’ve been playing it on repeat. (But then again, I do that with that Taio Cruz song too…”Dynamite,” I think it’s called. BTW, the video concept on that song totes puzzles me. Creative fail.)

Anyways, they’re super cool and am glad to have been introduced to their stuff. Check ‘em out!

I never thought that I’d experience the worst pain in my life, simply from extracting my wisdom teeth this past Friday. Like, wow. Really.

No doubt I was nervous going into the surgery, but I have to admit, I do not remember anything after the surgeon injecting the IV into my right arm, and him telling me that the anesthesia would hit me in a minute, which it did. I felt so high like I was floating above my body, that’s how high my mind was.

However long after (because I have no idea how long the surgery took), I remember being helped..no, carried, into the recovery room. For whatever reason, I became emotional, and started crying (ya ya laugh all u want)…and I remember just wanting to go home.  I tried getting up and walking out of the recovery room, only to have the nurses make a commotion and rush  to my side, reassuring me not to try walking by myself.  I don’t remember much else except when I got home, and the pain and suffering I endured the day after.  I was taking T3’s, but for some reason I took TWO instead of ONE (way to go dora), so that probably contributed to my nauseousness and vomiting the next day, and not being able to stomach even a vanilla yogurt.  My head was throbbing, my mouth was sore, I felt weak, I couldn’t eat…what a way to end summer eh.  Tried going outdoors earlier, but the sunlight hurt my eyes and made me dizzy.

So for the past 3 days now, I’ve been out of commission, and unable to eat a regular meal.  Wow, wisdom teeth surgery WAS as bad as I thought it would be, and though I am not bleeding too much, the drugs have been whats getting the worst of me.

I need a vacation…or a beer.

Dahlia Drive is unique in its colors, textures and just plain feel on your body, making it different from the regular summer dress. It’s the sorta dress you slip on and forgettabout it. But trust me, no one will forget about the gorgeous, vibrant, absolutely stunning jewel tones and stained glass-like patterns on each dress. For a couple reasons, its hand painted and there’s only one of a kind.

Tutta Mia is located on a quaint corner a walk skip and a step away from Commercial Drive. This is where we met with designer Wendy Van Riesen, owner and designer of Dahlia Drive.

The inspiration for this collection is the Issachar window from a collection of stained glassed windows designed by Chagall as a gift to a Jewish Synagogue of the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in 1962.

To make each dress, Wendy hand paints her interpretation from each window pane onto transfer paper and heat sets each painting onto a vintage silk slip. This process takes about 6 hours and uses disperse dyes, not natural but are environmentally friendly because her papers can be reused or recycled and there is no water waste.

For Wendy, the randomness and not knowing what the turn out will be is the favorite part of making this collection. She continues to develop as an artist, and as a clothing designer as she prepares for a charity fashion show, the Vancouver art gallery and her own take on the 11 other stain glassed windows from the Chagall collection.

Here are some photos of our visit: Amanda is wearing a Dahlia Drive: Christian Dior Vintage silk slip hand painted Chagall interpretation.

You can purchase, try on or browse Dahlia Drive at Tutta Mia (1302 Victoria Drive at Charles St).

Butlers perhaps? in character apartment buildings derived from the 19th and 20th centuries?
Fancy places maybe? Like Paris, Italy or New York, where jeebus forbid, pre-modern day, fur wearing, boojie socialites open their own mail. Ok, so maybe that was a little far fetched.

But in the 21st century of tech savvy individuals who have much better things to do like surf the net to find the latest bugs on the new iphone4 or be the first to tweet about a Beiber siting, than perhaps hiring a concierge may just be the savior to our ‘compu-literate’ (lazy a**) well beings.

That’s where Diamonds in the City saves the day – literally.

The Modline.com caught up with founder and CEO of Diamonds in the City (DITC); Vedika Solecki in the heart of Vancouver’s upscale and trendy warehouse district of Yaletown. Situated at the Raw Canvas, with her netbook to the side, an oversized coffee mug on the other and the beloved piece of gadget we call the blackberry smartphone in hand, Vedika Solecki was more than excited to tell all about her journey, her company, her team and her future.

Hand to her heart, Vedika expresses how she proudly followed her mother’s footsteps in PR and how she stepped foot into Vancouver’s competitive business industry with honesty and integrity. “My mom had her own PR company in India when she was young, when I realized that I was also interested in PR, it was kind of meant to be that I followed in her footsteps with Diamonds In The City….and i never had any help, I did this from the ground up!”

Diamonds In the City, as described on their Facebook fan site, is “a boutique company offering concierge services, events planning and management and PR services for fashion, lifestyle and music.” With already a solid year into her bussiness, Vedika Solecki’s success is anything short of falling with the help of Carissa Campeotto and Lucas H.

In just one year DITC has specialized in planning many extraordinary parties for Vancouver’s white collared aristocrats and events like La Femme. Projects with Afoot Magazine, Reach Magazine and Dani Barnes Productions are just a few of the names they are teaming up with as well as working with the up and rising pop star, Peter Breeze.

“It’s so important to know the right people, I’ve gained a lot of contacts along the way but it’s also more important that people know I care about the work that I do.” Says Vedika on her journey through DITC. Her background in hospitality and PR along with her keen dedication has gained her the upright most respect with new and existing clients. And while you may speculate that Vedika has far more miles to run, it’s no bubble-gum fact to her that the industry is as tough as a burnt cookie. “No one said it was going to be easy,” she adds; “but all the more reason to keep going, right?”

Written by: KATRINA PERALTA
Photos by: LINDA DONG

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Diamonds in the City

A Penny For Your Thoughts–Your first impression of the name may have you confused and unsure of what sort of company this is, and maybe you’re considering if they are willing to pay you to know what you are thinking.  Well, think again.

“Wear us around your pretty little neck” . With a name like A Penny For Your Thoughts, this local Vancouver-based jewelry company definitely lives up to its unique profile.  Founded just a little over a year ago by two friends Erin and Janine, A Penny For Your Thoughts, or APFYT is not your average jewelry company, and their one of a kind necklaces each hold their own story as to how they were created.  I had the chance to sit down with the two talented young ladies who are the masterminds behind this jewelry company.  They shared with me the experiences they’ve had so far on this fairly new journey which has proven to have lots of potential, not to mention demand.

We have all heard about hand crafted jewelry designs, but APFYT takes authenticity to an entire different level.  One of the main reasons this jewelry company is called a Penny For Your Thoughts, is because of the special process that each necklace undergoes to reach the final product. Theirs is truly a type of necklace to recognize and not one to forget.  To make each necklace, Erin and Janine actually place pennies on railway tracks and wait for trains to pass over them so that they are flattened into the unique and distinctive shapes that become the centre pieces of each necklace.  For the rest of the necklace design and the finishing touches, Erin and Janine add ornaments and parts from dissembled vintage and antique jewelry, and voila, an APFYT necklace is created!  Talk about dedication and commitment to each product!

The girls told me that they draw inspiration from various things around them—from things that catch their eye while shopping, to right at home where they listen to indie artists such as Feist.  Either way, each necklace has its own story and theme attached to it, and so much thought and originality is poured into its delicate creation.  The necklaces range from $50-$175, depending on what details the girls have included on the necklace.  Some of the necklaces have pure gold pieces attached to them, but it is plain to see that each and every one is priceless because it is not everyday that you can say you are wearing a penny that has been flattened on a railway track and has been transformed into a beautiful piece of jewelry you are able to wear around your pretty little neck!

At the moment, you can find APFYT necklaces at Adhesif on Main Street, and very appropriately, at One of a Few, a small boutique located in Gastown.  The girls would ideally love to see their pieces being sold at Vancouver-based Artizia, or even high end department stores.  But for now, they are taking their achievements one step at a time, and are looking into expanding their necklace line into designing and creating earrings as well.  At the rate that things are going, the sky is the limit for these two down to earth girls!

The response to A Penny For Your Thoughts has been so overwhelming in Vancouver and was reaffirmed earlier this year at their very first and very successful APFYT jewelry party.  Erin and Janine intend on hosting another two more before Christmas, so be sure to check out their updates on the APFYT Facebook page and website, which is slated to be up soon.  In the meantime, get your pretty little penny necklace to wear around your pretty little neck!

WRITTEN BY: EUDORA KOH

Kilmore Place

…What Happened? is a six-song serenade about escapism, mortality, change and many other thematic subjects. The first track “Runaway” opens with a looping guitar  line and perfectly paced drum successions and as the vocal enters smoothly and intertwines with the rest of the instrumentation, I was immediately reminded of “Where the Streets Have no Name” by U2. But as the song and album progresses, the sound of Kilmore Place becomes more established and distinctively different from the styles of the 90’s alternative-era. The most apparent difference was with the beginning of their second song “Lost at a Wedding” which I would not call alternative in its sonic qualities, boasting more folk-pop in its arrangements and instrumentation. It’s straightforward structure and uncomplicated harmony also make it one of the most palatable songs of the whole album. Along with the album’s pop quality and easy-going atmosphere, the songs on …What Happened? are not always up-beat in their sentiments. The songs,”Night’s Forgotten” and “Yesterday, White Sand Shores” are two incredibly dark tracks which may come as surprises to those who are not prepared for the level of bleakness in two seemingly assertive and cheery-sounding songs. With lyrics like “so leave my corpse on the side of the road, leave my bones alone” and “I wanna sing a broken tune, I wanna turn my song to blue”, Kilmore Place paints a different picture with these two songs, and it is one coloured with depth and sensitivity.

To cap off, Kilmore Place’s last two songs of their EP are expressive and intellectual. While vocal melodies meander and crescendo in “Bag It Up”, the deliveries on “The Monkey Song” are crisp and consistent. Although the last two songs are different in their lyrical content but their underlying sentiments are not far off from one another because both songs harbour senses of evolution and anticipation of the future.  With so many different ranges of emotions and poetic imageries, “… What Happened?” is only the beginning of a series of established pop-rock compilations Kilmore Place will be creating in its musical career.

Despite the established sound Kilmore Place has brought with “…What Happend?” the album isn’t without its flaws. Labelling themselves “alternative” and by some critics obscure the real potential of the EP because it sounds better as a pop album than an alternative one and that is just a matter of creating false expectations which, I admit, isn’t entirely the band’s fault. The real disappointment however, resides with the fact that Kilmore Place really has not brought anything unique to the current music scene in terms of sonic manipulations, instrumentation innovations and subject matter. Perhaps it’s because they had such big shoes to fill having been compared to legendary bands such as Third Eye Blind and Coldplay but regardless of that, I really didn’t get a sense that they wanted to be anything wildly creative or innovative. So sometimes the songs on the album can seem somewhat trite and uninteresting.

Whether it’s originality or popularity Kilmore Place is going after, …What Happened? is a flexible enough EP which can be categorized as both. Considering it is the only band’s second album, …What Happened? has exceeded the average of quality of most bands out there trying to “make it”. And that being said, Kilmore Place definitely has a competitive edge when it comes to wooing the mass.

Written By: Xuan Wang