Any fashion enthusiast worth his/her salt is likely to be a expert in contrasts — not just between black and white (a trend that is still going strong this season), but also between modern and vintage, preppy and urban, soft and hard, conservative and sexy, feminine and masculine… the list goes on.
Not that there’s anything wrong with pairing a lace dress with pristine pearls and pink pumps, it’s just a little expected. What makes an ensemble memorable and fashion-forward lies in its ability to subvert the viewers’ expectations, raising all sorts of questions, like, “Was that interesting or just weird?” or, “Can you even wear a silk dress with combat boots?” After all, we’ve been told since we were in grade school that opposites attract. Now you can apply this same principal of physics to how you shop for clothes.
The name Beaufille is loosely translated into English as “handsome girl,” and, as the new name of Toronto label Chloé Comme Parris, it perfectly encapsulates this ideology of opposites. Designed by sisters Chloé and Parris Gordon, every garment from the collection reflects a marriage of diverse interests, with Parris more attracted to feminine touches and Chloé more inspired by menswear.
Sophisticated but tough, modern with heritage elements, soft combined with hard, Beaufille is every fashion buff’s wet dream, and no piece captures this more perfectly than the Dogbowl jacket. Constructed from lambskin leather in the body and soft Tencel in the sleeves, this moto-styled jacket manages to be punk-rock-tough and unmistakably feminine at the same time. For one, it’s soft pink. It also features drawstrings in the back, giving the loose-fitting jacket an hourglass shape if the wearer so chooses. But the off-centre zipper placket and zipped cuffs bring it back to its menswear roots.
$1,195. Available online at beaufille.com