Toronto…style? Take one.

It was a distinct feeling of being in this city – Toronto. In fact, it couldn’t be more Toronto. Saturday afternoon, wind chill factor in the unmentionable digits, the non-bustle of Yorkville in the winter, everyone scurrying indoors.

I, too, ran for cover and café crème at Le Pain Quotidien after a successful pre-Spring haircut. (On the subject of successful hair-do-wells, Daniel Fung is not quite Michael Barnett, but if the latter is still jet-setting in London-town, what’s a girl to do?)

They say it happens when you least expect it. I settled in with a tartine, dreaming of the LPQ in Paris and there it was – international style all over our very own Toronto streets.

My first sighting was the tall gentleman crossing the street, with a determined walk. Clad in full-on black, leather bomber (brave soul) and elongated boots with an over-exaggerated, upturned toe.

Was there an Indian maharajah in his lineage? That man’s wardrobe comes with a soundtrack – a good one.

Just as I waxed nostalgic for the King’s Road, the aesthetic shifted. A 50-something couple sat at the table across from me. The woman had impeccable Japanese style.

Wide grey ankle grazing (Yamamoto?) pants, muddy, mustardy brown (CDG?) tunic with a tube ringed collar – this is what Persis Kembata surely must have worn post-Star Trek?

Flat buckled, non-mainstream black boots. If they were Westwood, they’d have a Victorian heel, so I am guessing Costume or Bottega, but certainly not Prada. That would be too pedestrian, here. Short, grey asymmetrical hair. Rectangular eye-frames, horizontally spliced in black and banana yellow. All of it, effortless and spectacular for a Saturday stroll.

The gentleman sported jeans and a black turtleneck, not daring to compete with his wife’s sartorial ways, but holding his own in a Norman Mailer meets Lloyd Cole sort of way.

More in Part Two…

Shoe image courtesy of Bata Shoe Museum: www.allaboutshoes.ca. Persis image via IMDB.