There Is a New Hot Boutique in Town!

By Erika Marucci

It all started with a young woman’s dream and the love for all kinds of art -from painting figures and taking photographs, to designing dresses- that’s how a boutique in Yonge Lawrence Village was opened.

Bisa Bennett is the name of that woman. Not only did she open her own shop, she also designs and sells her own creations in it, as well as carrying other French and Italian designer’s lines.

The store is called Notion Style. The boutique opened officially to the public on August 20, 2012 and her daughter, Tijana Bennett, who co-manages the store and stays “more on the business side,” while helping with the designing process, was very pleased with the success that the opening event brought.

“It was great! A lot of people showed up,” she said. “We had promotions, and even our family friends came in, so it was really nice. There was a lot of good feedback.”

Tijana doesn’t design dresses, but she helps her mother in choosing the style that she thinks will engage the younger crowd.

“I’ve never explored my artistic side. But I do have the eye I think,” Tijana Bennett said. “I help a lot with the line. I used to act so that was my more artistic thing. I think I have something, but I’ve just been in school studying.”

The opening was a big success, but to realize the project, a lot of effort and energy was consumed.

“It took a year of preparation, because when you want to have a brand, of course you have to have ideas and you have to know how you are going to do it,” Bisa Bennet said. “But the production, especially now is a little hard. We don’t have many factories here. We produce in Canada and the dresses are made here and in Italy because we really care to have top quality.”

The Bennetts are aiming at expanding their collection overseas, and at the moment Bisa  is working in partnership with the Italian designer Ernesto Graditi.

“We started this year and we hope to expand,” the designer said. “We are also trying to get the stores in Italy. We hope to start selling there by February or March. I’m in partnership with the Italian designer, Ernesto Graditi, and we have a brand there.”

Bisa Bennett and her daughter are the only ones working and managing the boutique, so when Bisa is out of town choosing fabrics for her creations and dresses made by other designers, Tijana stays in the store and welcomes the clients.

“We remember all the clients that come here,” the designer said. “So when I go and buy a design I have them in my mind. I have their life stories and I know what to bring them.”

Although Bisa Bennett is happy for how the business is going, she doesn’t want to stay blocked in her own store, that’s why she frequently leaves the country in search of new ideas for her art.

“This kind of job is ok, but with only the store is a bit difficult,” she said. “I need to have the opportunity to grow, to travel, to meet other designers, because I’m not carrying just my brand, I’m carrying other ones too. I have to go and choose which ones I like, which ones my clients are going to like, which is better quality.”

Bisa designs for all women of all ages, she wants her clients to be happy with themselves and show the world how strong they are. Through her line she wants to empower women and bring their inside strength and beauty on the outside for everyone to see.

“I don’t think that if you’re a size 40 you’re better, or a size two you’re better,” she said. “When clients put on a dress I want them to feel confident. Even if they are working or

stay-at-home moms they can be always dressed well and carry themselves well. I want to show that they are strong.”

The designer is very confident when it comes to fashion, she makes the achieving of a client’s happiness her goal, and no matter what size a woman is, she puts passion in what she does and gives them all her attention.

“I don’t like seeing a woman that isn’t interested in how she looks like,” She said. “When a customer comes, it doesn’t matter if they are overweight; I can dress them so that they feel good about themselves. As a designer it’s my duty to dress everyone not only the sizes two. I make dresses for the famous people, but also for the stay-at- home moms.”

The owner of Notion Style is not only a designer; she is also a photographer and painter. Her paintings have been exhibited in cities like Toronto, Florence, New York and Belgrade. Her art focuses particularly on the feminine figure and the aura of sensuality that surrounds it. Her photography also concentrates on women.

“I was for a long time interested in women and their lives,” she said. “My paintings were more about showing a woman’s sensuality, while my photography was inspired by  lives  in different countries. I have a series of photographs taken in Cuba and I was inspired by the women’s lives and what they went through. Maybe they were poor, but they were extremely happy.”

When it comes to art, Bisa Bennett has a very solid opinion.

“I’m against people who say they like or dislike a piece of art,” she said. “Every artist paints what they feel inside of them, how can you judge what they feel? I can say that I don’t feel anything, but that doesn’t mean that the artist isn’t good. Today it’s a bit different, people don’t buy art because they love it, they buy it because it fits well with the furniture.”

Being a photographer and a designer at the same time has helped Bisa Bennett a lot with her work. She and Tijana went to Italy to shoot photos for her line. Bisa was the photographer, while Tijana modeled the best dresses of her mother’s line.

“I was the photographer when we went to shoot in Italy,” Bisa Bennett said. “Because I think, the connection between her (Tijana) and myself is very important. She knows my ideas so I can work with her very closely. She knows what I’m looking for. It’s very important for the model to connect with the photographer and the designer as well. When we were there, Ernesto helped me a lot too. He understands me as well. That’s how we work together; there is easy communication.

For now Bisa Bennett has only her holiday line out; she’s waiting for all of her creations to sell out and then she will begin a whole new collection. Spring is only a few months away and we can’t wait to see what new pieces she will come up with!

Bisa Bennett in front of her new boutique, Notion Style

Some of the pieces exposed in Notion Style

Other creations from other designers

Bisa Bennett shows one of the dresses featured in her boutique

BIsa Bennett in her store

Bisa Bennett designer and owner of Notion Style

Other collections

Bisa Bennett and her daughter Tijana Bennett.

Bisa and Tijana Bennett

Bisa Bennett stands close to one of her paintings

For the Love of Jazz and Blues

By: Radina Vencheva

They’ve been friends for over nine years, with whole four years of high-school behind them after their families had introduced them to one another.

Their keen, but different interests in music was what made their friendship blossom throughout time. Dev Tejwani has always had an appreciation for real music, while Ananth Sundara was the one playing it after Dev sold him his own guitar six years ago.

Just as any other two male pals would do in their teens, Dev would always go to Ananth’s house to listen to him play. And sure he thought Ananth was good at it.

But it wasn’t until last month in November when Dev heard Ananth perform live in front of an actual audience in Toronto’s Hirut Fine Ethiopian restaurant on Woodbine.

“He just blows my mind,” Tejwani said. “This is actually the first time seeing him play in front of a live audience. When I’m in California, I just go to his house and he plays in front of me and maybe some friends, but usually I never seen him perform live until now so I can tell that he’s having a better time out here.”

Sure he thought Ananth was good at it, but he never assumed he’d become serious about playing music.

Ananth Sundara Moorthy is a 21-year-old young man who was born in India, moved with his family to Hong Kong until the age of four, but technically grew up in Toronto until the age of 13.

He learned how to play guitar and piano on his own and mostly performs in the blues and jazz genre.

“It was never actually planned for me to play the piano, but one day I was actually playing guitar for a while and I got pretty good at it,” Sundara said. “And in college there was one month that my guitar got stolen at the school’s parking lot and for a month and a half I was without a guitar and it just kind of slowed down my whole process.”

It started off with hip-hop first and it moved to sing/song writing Nirvana-kind-of-grunge music and then he moved towards blues, soul, funk, and eventually jazz when he was 19.

“Jazz if anything gave my sound a little bit more colour, it’s allowed me to expand in terms of what I want my music to sound like, but I think the music that’s always touched me-whether be soul, funk, whatever-is the blues,” Ananth Sundara said. “The blues has always, ever since I was a kid, drew me in.”

According to his friend Tejwani however, the reason why Ananth Sundara withdrew from hip-hop was because it wasn’t challenging enough.

“I think he just got sick with what hip-hop was becoming,” Tejwani said. “I think he also, it wasn’t a challenge for him and he wanted to learn how to play different instruments because it was a challenge.”

At school, he was fortunate to go through two terms of a music theory class that later give him the ability to translate the sounds he was hearing in his head to map onto the piano and whatever instrument he was playing.  Ananth attended an audio and sound engineering college in the Bay Area.

“After that point, I think anytime I heard something or I didn’t know something, I would figure it out because of a combination of all my years training of learning how to play and because of this music theory class.”

His family decided to move again, this time to the Bay Area in California and that’s where Ananth found passion in music. But before that passion could grow in him, years of alienation and frustration would take the better hold of him.

“He was an angry kid,” Tejwani recalled. “He hated being in California and was missing Toronto a lot and he used to get in a lot of fights back in high school.”

For Ananth being in California was like a blessing and a curse at the same time. Having found himself in a new place and pressured to make new friends hindered him, but at the same time, it allowed him to develop a hobby, which later turned into his passion.

“Being isolated, being the new kid, all those kind of things I was dealing with, that made me feel that I can identify with writing lyrics all the time,” Sundara remembered.

Sundara came back to Toronto on his own at the end of the summer because Toronto holds a special spot in his heart.

“With Toronto, I needed to recharge. I always come here to recharge at least once a year in high school and I would come back here to get some piece of mind,” he said.  “Also, just remember what influenced me to come back here.  The music that I was writing needed that almost very redemptive move for me to come back.”

“It’s almost like a cleansing; it was an emotional and practical thing.”

After graduating from his studies in audio and sound engineering  Ananth Sundara pursued his music full-time, performing in different bars in San Francisco and Bay Area.

“When I’m down there, I’m completely different person-I’m quiet and just always anxious all the time,” Sundara said. “And it comes out in my music too.”

In terms of his personal life there however, he feels that he doesn’t belong there no matter what he does. But for the past four months that he’s been back in Toronto, he’s met new people.

“Even when I was child growing up, people out here are always open to one another and nobody hides who they are from you. I’m just saying people are honest here,” he said. “Whereas when I’m down there (California) they’ll still somehow try to find some common ground with you just so they can see what they can get out of you. That’s the mentality down there.”

Tejwani who is an accountant for Maxim Integrated in the Silicon Valley also has his own music promoting and events company- Teambackpack.net-which he started with friends back in 2009, showcasing artists all throughout California and the Bay Area.

When he came to Toronto to visit his long-time friend Ananth Sundara and his family, he was surprised to see the progress he had made.

“I wouldn’t think he would take it that seriously and went to a recording school,” Tejwani said. “I was actually really proud that he took something and he was starting to get really good at it and stuck to his thing.”

What shocked him the most however, was how well Sundara was able to sway the crowd and get everyone to listen.

“When I see him being able to get a whole crowd to become silent it’s inspiring in a way. And that’s why I pursue music the way I do just to see peoples’ faces and reactions to music.”

The reason Sundara does that so well is because he feels the emotional mood of the audience before performing.

“I use the emotional space in the room to my advantage before a show,” Sundara said.

During a performance however, he likes to stay alert and consistent with the timing.

In terms of choosing which artists to promote, Dev Tejwani is clear and determined on who he wants.

“Anyone that’s really passionate and has a message. I think the message is important,” he said. “Something that will make you feel something inside, but anything that makes me feel certain way is what I like to hear and what I’d promote and love to help artists out with.”

Even though Tejwani doesn’t currently promote Sundara, he would definitely consider working with him in the future.

“He doesn’t look like a normal blues/jazz guy,” Tejwani admitted. “All the hardships in life is what makes his music what it is. And you can feel it in his lyrics.”

What they both see in the near future is establishing Internet network for Ananth.

“The thing is that you need to be everywhere these days,” Dev Tejwani said. “You need a really good team behind you to get up there on the Internet and have the whole world see what you’re doing.”

Playing at Hirur Fine Ethiopian Restaurant, located on 2050 Danforth Ave.

Playing one of his songs named “Rotten Apples”

Sundara also plays on guitar.

Ananth, 21, performs along with two other artists at Hirut restaurant.

Ananth playing along with other artists.

The story of a girl

By Angelica Bottaro

Zoe Stewart was a beautiful, young girl when her innocence was stolen from her.

Someone she thought she could trust, her stepfather, sexually assaulted Zoe from the time she was only nine years old up until she was a young woman at the age of 15.

“It started with a lot of touching and taking my clothes off. He would always watch me in my bedroom and in the bathroom. He would chase me around the house and pin me down, so I would try to run and hide,” she said.

At such a young age Zoe had been scared enough to hide in her own home. She had been confused as to why her own stepfather would attack her and force her to do such things.

“When I was around nine, 10, and 11, I didn’t really understand it at all, but then as I got to around 14 or 15 I knew that this wasn’t right and I would begin to fight back. But in the beginning, I didn’t fight back,” she said.

Often when sexual assaults happen to girls at a young age, it is kept hidden in secrecy from those around them. Many women, of all ages, who are victims of these assaults, are just as scared to tell someone as they are of their assailant. Rekha John, a social worker at Women’s College Hospital’s sexual assault and domestic violence care centre sees this fright every day.

“There’s often a real risk to sharing with family and friends because often times women are judged or blamed. Sometimes they don’t even believe them, or they wonder ‘well what are you doing?’,” John said.

Stewart didn’t tell a soul about what was happening to her for years after it began, and even then help was far behind.

“In one incident, I screamed but not trying to and my mom came up asking what was going on. I tried to explain to her but I didn’t tell her anything about the touching that was going on. I just said he was looking in my window, and she didn’t believe me,” Stewart said.

It was years that these attacks went on for Zoe, and during those years she was tight lipped about the incident almost all the way through. It wasn’t until she was beginning to grow into a young woman that her secret couldn’t stay hidden any longer.

“When I got to the age of 15, I had a boyfriend at the time and he was the first person I had told. He was around 17 or 18 and we used to talk about all kinds of things, and I told him about it and he basically pushed me to tell other people because at the time my mom still didn’t really know,” Stewart said.

The man her mother loved had been hurting Zoe year after year, and without meaning to she had told her mother, but what Zoe hadn’t known is that her mother was aware of some of the funny business that was already going on.

“Somehow, I just remember me and my mom going Christmas shopping and somehow it just all came out. It was the worst thing of my life having to tell my mom this because this was the man that she re-married and loved and this was going to ruin our family. Previously, my mom actually caught my stepfather looking into my window and she ended up confronting him and saying don’t ever do this again. The fact that she witnessed it and still didn’t really stop it makes me hold a lot of resentment towards my mom. She tried to make the relationship work. She tried taking all of us to counseling together to make things work; to try and move past it,” Stewart said.

Many women in the same kind of situation as Zoe’s mother, dealing with domestic sexual assaults feel they have to endure what’s going on, for the family. Some women stay for financial reasons, others for reasons such as family, or guilt.

“There are so many reasons that complicate women being able to leave these situations. Financial, safety, or wanting their children to have a father in their life; there can even be pressures from their family or their community,” John said.

Whatever the reasons her mother had to stay in the relationship that was hurting Zoe so much are her own, but the scars that were left on Zoe’s psych are irrevocable and something she must live with for the rest of her life. Her confidence had been shattered, relationships with men from then on out had been negatively affected, and even her trust in her family had been ruined.

“I have huge trust issues. All growing up I pretty much allowed every boyfriend I had take advantage of me and use me for either money, or because I drove and I would drive them places. Even sexually I would let them use me even though they didn’t love me and would never commit to me. I just felt like that was the way it was supposed to be. I’ve always tried to act more bubbly than I felt to hide what had happened to me,” Stewart said.

Among her low self-worth, women everywhere that are victimized by similar incidents have their worlds shattered. It’s something that a woman, no matter how strong she is, must deal with every day after the attack. John speaks with women everyday who have gone through similar circumstances, and there is no clear way of getting over it.

“We talk about the concept of getting over it with clients but its more of a working through and a finding your way through the impacts. There’s no set time. It could be weeks, months, or even years; everyone has his or her own process and pace. If they’re supported by family and friends, have financial support and if they don’t have further types of victimization, but the process is really impacted by their own personal circumstances,” John said.

Certain situations can lead a person to make decisions they wouldn’t have otherwise decided on. In Zoe’s case, not only did what happened affect her relationships with men, but it also affected her relationship with herself, and led her to drug abuse as a teen.

“I’ve had a lot of problems with drugs and alcohol because of this; not caring about myself and basically doing drugs to the point where I almost killed myself. I had no self worth. I was addicted to cocaine and ended up having to go through everything that ties to being addicted to a drug like that because I didn’t care about myself.  I had given up, and that was a big thing I had to overcome. I had to get clean from drugs and that was a really tough time for me. I feel I had only done that because of what happened, if I had grown up with a normal life I don’t think I would have gotten into all of that,” Stewart said.

Despite the drug use, and her lack of self worth, there is progression for the life of those that are affected by something like this. It can’t be gotten over, but it can be dealt with.

“I think there will be aspects throughout my entire life that there will be little quirks about me that will just sort of be stuck there. The more I grow and move past and accept what happened it’s gotten better. Knowing not to be afraid all the time, knowing to have more faith and strength is something I had to learn. I started going to church and that has really helped me get past some things because having faith in something and having someone to be able to gain trust back in life and the world. I think there will always be things that might be a little off,” Stewart said.

Many things can be done to help women that have had their lives severely impacted by domestic and sexual abuse. John, an expert on the subject matter, sees the lives of the women, though severely impacted, can be positively better as long as help is available.

“We go into it with a sense of believing them and acknowledging that what they experience wasn’t deserved and in no way are they to blame. We really explore and try to normalize whatever impact they’re experiencing. We help them to reconnect to their values and their sense of self and all of those things that they hold dear,” John said.

Among normalization, the way women are told this is not their fault, and the reconnection to the woman they used to be before the attacks, the issues they face on a day to day basis is something that cannot be forgotten. The problems that have accumulated for Zoe are that of which you only hear about when hearing stories of something devastating happening to someone.

“I have post traumatic stress disorder now, so some things really affect me still to this day. Things will bring up my memories. For example, I have problems with windows now. I always have to make sure the blinds are shut, bathroom and showers I have issues with. I have to make sure the doors are all locked. I also have anxiety disorder and panic disorder. I’ve been on anxiety medication since I was 17 for it.  I went through a time where I was having panic attacks left, right, and centre and couldn’t go out in public,” said Stewart. “I’ve also put on weight, because when I was younger and it was happening I used to eat and eat, intentionally trying to put on weight so that he would find me unattractive. Now, because of that, I have no control over food and I think I have an addiction because of it.”

Zoe Stewart faces a battle with herself everyday because of what happened to her. She now has to deal with consequences that were undeserving, and not her fault. Although her experience is something that can never be forgotten, it’s something that she can always move forward from, as well as those who have or are experiencing the same thing.

“You definitely need to find someone you can trust and if you can’t there are a lot of resources out there especially for females, such as help lines, and crisis centers. It’s hard when you’re in the situation to reach out for help but after you’ve come out to a couple people it’s easier to find more help. It’s really good to talk about it, the more that I talk about it the better it seems. It just makes you more okay with what has happened. It makes you more comfortable with telling people about it, and accepting it. You can never really hold it against someone. Yes, people make mistakes but you can never hate someone for what they’ve done. You have to forgive or you’re never going to be able to get past it. I find that, to forgive and accept what’s happened can help you move forward,” Stewart said.

For the full interview with Rekha John, listen here:

IT’S YOUR MOMENT

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend, and in the case of the “It’s Your Moment” event, not only are they going to make women look better, the money raised will make them feel better, too.

 The event, organized by Centennial College PR students and held at The House of Moments on November 14, 2012, was sponsored by Stella and Dot, a company that does trunk shows with their jewelry.

 “We decided to have them at our event and do a fashion show with all their jewelry to highlight how women are really individual and can accessorize to show that,” Brittany Cornish said, one of the college students responsible for the event. “If you buy any jewelry at our event, 20 per cent goes back to the charity we’re working with called Look Good Feel Better, which is a charity that helps women go through cancer treatments.”

 The charity event was very personal for the students organizing it because of a friend they had who passed away due to leukemia.

 “One of the members that is organizing it, her name is Sheryl, and one of her good friends, Emily Duff, just died this past September. She had leukemia since she was 7-years-old and was diagnosed three times in her life,” Cornish said.  “She was one of the first teens spokeswomen for the Look Good Feel Better charity, so it’s kind of a personal decision that we all really liked for a charity and had a personal connection to as well. So the whole event is in memory of her.”

 The memory of their friend is what helped make this happen for the students in charge of the event. Even Miss Canada Petite, Roushelle Green, a  graphic design-media student at Centennial College, felt the need to be involved.

 “My role here is because of the type of pageantry that I’ve been assisting, we mostly dig to within these girls and find inner beauty of the shine to your other half,” Green said. “So that being my platform, I came here to enforce with the Look Good Feel Better program and to let these women know how truly beautiful they are. So I’m just like an enforcer-that beautiful enforcer.”

 

 

TOMS Holiday GIVE shop

On Saturday Dec. 8,2012, Toms shoes hosted an experimental event held at 461 King Street West.

Toms shoes is a company based in California. It was founded in 2006 by Blake Mycoskie, the company sells shoes and every time a pair is sold, the company gives a new pair of shoes to a child in need.

GIVE is the message and the motto that the TOMS event wants to spread. Visitors can enjoy fun things to do, music, food and hot chocolate.

Here are some photos of the event.

TOMS cushions and a screen playing a video

The TOMS event was filled with Christmas trees

A nice TOMS sign. One for One.

Try some cupcakes!

And here is a close caption of the TOMS cupcakes

Working at the cupcake station

Decorating a cupcake

Christmas cupcakes!

TOMS signs

glass jars for making snow globes

Photos of people ready to go in the snow globe or become a Christmas card

TOMS shoes

This is a board where people pinned their pledges

Preparing the snow globes

Opera concert opens “Incidental Music” book launch

People gather at the Gladstone Hotel for the launch of “Incidental Music” a new book written by Lydia Perovic.

One of the planners of the event posing with copies of the book in front of her.

“Incidental Music” a book by Lydia Perovic

Opera soprano Erin Bardua and mezzo Margaret Bardos getting ready to perform

Margaret Bardos and pianist Christina Faye

Soprano singer Erin Bardua introducing her first song

Soprano Erin Bardua and pianist Christina Faye

The opera singers starting their performance. They are joined by the the pianist Christina Faye

Let the singing begin!

Veteran’s Day, 2012

The battle at Dieppe during the Second World War has, until recently, been seen as a pointless bloodbath of Canadian soldiers.

Until the recent release of the documentary ‘Dieppe Uncovered’, Ron Beal, now 91, had spent years believing the raid was nothing more than a waste of 907 Canadian soldiers who lost their lives attacking entrenched German  defenders along the coast of France in 1942.

“I had thought that the men that went to Dieppe died for absolutely no reason at all. There were bodies flying ll over the place, and a stairwell jammed with the dead. Three hundred men wouldn’t have had to suffer their wounds,” he told students at Centennial College’s Remembrance Day observance Friday, Nov. 11.

The Toronto veteran, a member of the Royal Canadian Regiment, described his mission at Dieppe off the coast of France as a mission that up until arriving on the ship neither he, nor his fellow soldiers knew anything about.

“The overall objective of the raid, we did not know,” said Beal. “I thought, oh boy, we’re going to get it. We were to fight our way through town, but we never got that far.”

After trying to fight their way through town, Beal and fellow soldiers were captured by the Germans. Beal spent three and a half years in a prison camp following his service in Dieppe, and upon arriving back on Canadian soil could think of only one thing.

“First thing I did when I got home was ask for a rum and coke,” he said.