Toronto Fashion Week 2018
Category: Non classé
First Pop up shop in Kinshasa
A JOURNEY TO DISCOVER MEXICO
If there’s one girl who’s addicted to flying, it’s me. Some of my friends call me the “travelling girl”. I used to fly almost every 6 months. But you know… when you’re in love (I won’t say more)!
Travelling has allowed me to have a critical mind on many things, travel makes me dream and above all it always gives me new ideas for my projects.
Among all my travels in Spain, Holland, Belgium, Germany, England, Canada and the USA, there is one trip that particularly marked me, it is Mexico! I never thought I’d ever set foot in Mexico and fall in love with it. When I heard about Mexico before, cartels, drugs and murders were coming to my mind. This is why it is important to experiment things by yourself in order to make your own opinion.
Today in my mind Mexico is associated to the beach, history and paradise trip. So it’s been almost 5 years I’ve decided to fly to Mexico. I have a friend who was living there already and she worked in tourism. Needless to say I was very well received.
In Mexico everything is slow and nobody is stressing out. Mexicans are relaxed, nothing to do with Parisian stress. I have a little story that I’d like to share with you. When I arrived at the airport people told me my bags weren’t arrived yet. I’ve started to panic because as a good fashionista I planned on wearing one different outfit every day. I started to get angry and nobody understood my French-Spanish (laugh).
The stopover agents tried to calm me down and reassure me on my bags status. I called my friend and she told me that when you arrive in Mexico it is a common thing to not see your bags on the first day. They normally arrive a day later; Welcome to Mexico 😊
My friend was living in Playa del Carmen, one hour away from Cancun. So I had to take a bus to get there. Landscapes are amazing and it is very it. The atmosphere is so soothing that I could stay here forever. My bags arrived a day later by cab. I was then the happiest girl in the world.
Some days it is impossible to go out until 5 pm because it is way too hot. Playa del Carmen is really magical. Apparently the city was destroyed during the war and was rebuilt afterwards. Now it is a touristic landmark. Tourists are coming from everywhere in the world. People living there are very warm and respectful. I don’t know why but they love black skins. Everywhere we went almost everything was free for us. Very often I was asked to take pictures with them. Sometimes we did not even need to do the line to go to a nightclub.
Above all food was amazing, 100% natural fruit juice, great guacamole. Life is cheap and we can live a good life there with not a lot of money. A particularity of Mexican is there small sizes. One time I was doing the line at the supermarket and I realized I was the tallest…However I am not that tall.
I visited touristic landmarks and beaches and I got the opportunity to go to Cancun but I didn’t really like it as it is just a beach and a casino. Whereas Playa del Carmen is more a living city with a lot of things to see. For instance at night we can eat at the restaurant with a view on the beach and fire-eaters doing the show.
I also had the opportunity to go to poor districts and I realized that people are satisfied with what they have.
With this beautiful journey, I learned to put it into perspective, remain calm when facing certain situations. I also realized how much it is important to travel to discover a new culture and a new lifestyle. I’ve learned to appreciate what I already have. Mexicans are happy and nice people living in peace and family are a very important value to them. I’ve decided I won’t have received ideas anymore and to travel more to discover what this world has to offer and more importantly to stay out of my comfort zone.
Prestila Mak.
HOW ARE YOU DOING GUYS !
If there is any trend I am addicted to it’s the streetwear-fashion combination. I am not really a huge fan of sneakers and I barely wear them only to go boxing (laugh). However I love to wear sweatpants with heels!
Sweatshirts are very fashionable these days. You can find them anywhere and especially on my clothe range ‘BE MAK PARIS’. Don’t hesitate to order yours!
I am really a huge fan of this casual and chic look I love it. Besides the grey colour is perfect for the big cold in Canada.
Nothing better than high heels to get more confidence. I am also someone who like to be different and wear things differently. I think I managed to look different with sweatpants and heels.
I really love accessories so I always try to wear a bag or a hat to complete the look with a nice make-up touch of course.
So what do you think of my look of the day ?
Love you !
Prestila Mak.
I MET PEGGY ! CO-FOUNDER OF THE APÉRO CHIC IN TORONTO.
Please introduce yourself
My name is Peggy and I’ve travelled a lot. I used to live in China and I went to school in Bejiing. After that I went back to France and I managed a small/medium size company during two years. I used to love partying because my parents were doing it a lot with family and/or friends. This is why I now feel close to the event world. I also travelled a lot with my parents.
When I was living in Beijing, I used to party a lot. During the 2000’s the after work started to become a trend! When I arrived in Toronto there were nothing such as after work to break up the routine and do something to meet people ‘after work’ and especially for the french community. So I’ve started to think to organise them but I was not sure of myself. French people are always scared of failure!
But in October 2011, Apéro Chic was launched. Honestly Facebook helped a lot at the beginning! The idea was to create an event with a french touch in Toronto. I was looking for someone to follow me in this adventure and I met Estelle. Things were very natural and easy with her and she became my partner.
How do you juggle with work and family life ?
I manage to deal with both because my husband is a real support in my projects and I know that I can rely on him anytime. Especially now that we are parents of twins.
What is Apéro Chic’s main secret ?
I invested myself a lot and I organised parties in which I can picture myself going. We always tried to organise casual and fancy parties always with a little french touch. As we like to say here ‘less is more’. This is really the Apéro Chic spirit : create relationships in an chic and relaxed environment. those are parties organised during the week with a special theme and a lot of fun. The opportunity to share a nice time with friends or simply meet other people.
What is a day in your life ?
I prepare my children to go to school in the morning and then I walk and enjoy the nature. It allows me to think of new ideas. If I had a big team I would organise my meetings in the forest (laugh). After that I open my computer to look at my emails. It is funny because everything is happening behind the computer. And from here my day is really starting.
What was your biggest achievement ?
To go from 100 to 10,000 members, we received a lot of thank you and when we have fun during the event.
Question 7 : What was your biggest challenge ?
It was to start my own project, I realised that the most important is to not being afraid of failure ‘which is very French’, whereas in Toronto, failure is only an experience. An advice that my dad gave me “never listen to people “
If you had an advice to give to our readers
Don’t be afraid of putting yourself out there and don’t listen to negative opinions.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years ?
I am convinced that Apéro Chic is going to take place in several cities and the team is going to grow a lot more.
Prestila and Peggy.
HOW TO START TO STRENGTHEN LEGS AND BUM?
Women always want to be in a perfect shape! Wearing whatever they want and feel comfortable whether it is in a pair of jeans or leggings. But having shaped legs and a perfect bottom is not given to anybody. For some of us genetic is helping a lot. We all have our own morphology. However some things cannot be changed because every body is different. First we have to accept ourselves and learn how to take up a new challenge. A real transformation is possible with exercises! The low part of the body is the strongest part in a women body. It is also the most difficult part to strengthen or to slim down. Besides all efforts we are doing daily like walking, taking the stairs, running to catch the bus, walking fast when we are late … is not enough…
But where can we start and how to incorporate exercises in our daily life? How to create new and good habits?
We can start simply at home! No need to have sport equipment for this series of 5 exercises targeting every lower part of the body.
- Squat: one of the most popular and efficient muscle-development exercises. It makes you work on a lot of muscle groups such as the quadriceps, tailbone and abs!
- Jump squat: This exercise combines a squat and a jump. It’s an ideal exercise to grow your strength and to help you develop the muscular tone. The jump squat also has a fat burning action, as it requires a lot of cardio-vascular effort.
- Hip trusts: This exercise targets the bum and helps to strengthen and shape the buttocks.
- Kickbacks: This mono leg exercise is perfect to lift your bum and you won’t need a magic pant to make it look good!
- Calf raises: Calf are part of the legs and we want to work everything in a proportional way. It is important to not ignore this exercise.
Do this training three times a week to begin and when your body is used to it repeat it more often:
- 10 Squat
- 10 Jump squat
- 20 Montées de hanches
- 20 Kickback pour chaque jambe
- 20 Montées de mollets
Repeat this 3 times and the exercise of the day is done.
Sylvie D.
Follow Sylvie D.
BC COSMÉTIQUE
I’ve discovered “BC Cosmétique” in June 2017, at that time the shop was specialized only in lipstick. I was really interested in make-up and the beauty environment but I never really wore lipstick. The only times I wore lipstick it was very discrete neutral colors and I was satisfied of my taste.
One day I saw a review about the different BC products and I wanted to give it a try. When it was the time to order I didn’t really know what color to choose; there were so many choices! So I started asking myself a lot of questions. What color would look the best on me? ; Will I be satisfied of the result? Would I be able to go out with those colors on my face? In the end I thought that none of those colors was standing out so I went crazy and I ordered one lipstick from each color! As soon as I received my package I tried every lipstick colors. I was surprised but I liked them all. Ever since that day “BC Cosmétique” became my favorite distributor.
Today “BC Cosmétique” has evolved a lot. In addition to provide shops and professionals, “BC Cosmétique” offers beauty advices, beauty services and is now distributed in several countries outside the EU area.
Precillia
THE CITY OF MY HEART (PART1)
It’s been now 2 years that I settle down in Toronto “the city of my heart”.
I will start with a funny story. When I was 12 during a family reunion my dad asked every one of us (me my brothers and sisters) where we wanted to live in a few years (He didn’t really like France.) My answer was Canada. My brothers and sisters looked at me with a weird face “Does she even know where is Canada on a map??”
But today I really live in Canada.
Moving to Canada has been a long process. I did not leave my sweet France that easily (hot baguettes from the bakery, my late afternoon shoppings in chatelet-les-halles, Ladurée macarons on the Champs Elysées…) All those things were hard to leave behind.
I first started to come to Toronto on vacation. Little by little I fell in love with Canada and more particularly with Toronto. Citizens of Toronto are warm and kind people. You can get lost in the city and you will always find someone to help you. It’s really amazing. Even if you barely speak English they will still try to understand you.
I remember when I was living in Paris and I was meeting English speaking tourists lost in the city asking for help I was answering “Sorry I don’t speak English”. It was the only English sentence that I knew back then. (laugh)
I also thought that I didn’t have time to just answer a question !
Prestila Mak.
