I had the opportunity over the past couple of weeks to visit Vancouver and Toronto. Both cities are cosmopolitan centres, with international reputations. I was struck by the sense of style that the people of each city showed and thought it would make a good post to compare.
VANCOUVER
Hands down, one of my favourite cities in the world. It’s beautiful. Correspondingly, so are the residents of this fine city. Vancouver is a young, vibrant city with a mild climate which allows for a broad range of fashion to hit the streets. Strolling along Robson Street, you can see old and young, small and big, male and female, showing a very chic, sophisticated sense of style.
Perhaps it’s the scarf, draped just-so. Maybe it’s the bold mix of colours and prints. Of course, it could be the take-no-prisoners boots. No matter, the people of Vancouver definitely have it going on. It seems like each person you encounter has just stepped off the pages of Vogue.
TORONTO
As Canada’s largest city, known not so affectionately as the ‘centre of the universe’ by the rest of Canada, you would expect the people downtown to also convey a strong sense of style. This is, after all, the corporate boardroom of the nation. Power suits aplenty, yes?
Nah, not so much. The people I encountered downtown were well dressed but not stylish. There was no je ne sais quois; no bold fashion-forward stylings. Instead, some boring suits and nice dresses hurried along the downtown streets. In all, entirely underwhelming and certainly not what I expected. For a city that strives to be the ‘New York’ of Canada, it has a long way to go from a fashion perspective.
Still, the rest of the nation can learn from this and work toward creating their own style personalities. When visitors arrive in your city, what will they see? I welcome your comments.