On a warm Monday afternoon in Hamilton, the Toronto Argonauts sweetheart neckline wedding dress were preparing for a game in which they would have no shelter from the elements. There was a problem with the air conditioning in the dressing room, a staff member grumbled — there was no air conditioning.The show was titled Tokyo New Age, and contained innovative, fresh looks, including a black suit reminiscent of a martial arts outfit and a skirt of cut-up leather.Learn to Speak Fashion by Laura deCarufel (Owl Kids, $16.95) DeCarufel, executive editor at Elle Canada, offers practical advice and exercises detailing how to sketch, sew and where to start with planning a DIY fashion show, all the while explaining who in the world of fashion does what, and how. In addition to Jeff Kulak’s illustrations, it’s peppered with advice from experts in and around the industry (including some tips by yours truly).Plus size mother of the bride can also go for dresses with chic and style. Wear a longer jacket, wider skirt if necessary but the secret is in the fabric and definitely color. If the mother of the bride gown has great details and trim, you will feel just wonderful. Those fancy embellishments detract and not enhance your body type. If you are plus size, do not focus on that but do focus on the fact that you can look great in a dress cut and altered for your proportions and unique look.You need to look at the entire spectrum of occasions, and offer strapless wedding dress suggestions for pairing slingbacks with outfits for each occasion. If you feel the shoes complement your outfit and you feel comfortable wearing them, let your personal sense of style guide you. People judge others by first impressions, and watches, handbags and shoes play an important role in first impressions. Cut corners elsewhere, but never with your shoes. Regardless of the style you wear, ensure that your shoe are in A-1 condition, with perfect sol. Casual shoes should be kept in the same tip-top, shined-up and scuff-free shape as their dressier counterparts. Do not wear 4 inch heels with a pair of dress pants and sweater. Those types of shoes look better with a dress suit or pant suit. There were stylish highway workers in an orange leather bubble skirt and short jacket, or sheath dresses made out of orange fabric resembling roadwork fencing. Back at the car wash, fringe dresses mimicked the big automated car wash brushes as well as those for the drying cycle. Finally, there was the Cadillac moment: big 1950s swing circle skirts with organza underlays and, what else, big plastic tail lights sewn in the back.She admitted some ambivalence about her activities on Instagram. “It’s so consuming, it takes so much time,” she said. “I hate the process of the Instagram, the contrast, the saturation, the filter,” she said of editing the pictures. “Then I send it out into the world and may not even ever see sexy wedding dresses it again.”The world of fashion literature is overwhelmingly based on dos and don’ts, the tools of advertisers in an industry that is 99% sponsored content. The guidelines are precise and autocratic: this summer, cut your hair like this, wear these sandals and buy this bag. But for most women, the task of getting dressed is a far more complex and varied procedure. Self-presentation is an almost universal concern, even for those who don’t care to be “fashionable,” and yet our conversation on the subject has largely failed to move beyond the prescriptive rule box handed to us from on high, one-sided at best. This is exactly what Women in Clothes is not. Instead, it is a conversation about style that kicks the ostensible rule box in the pants, using history, memoir, art, design, philosophy, psychology, and sociology as tools for discussion. A true conversation, after all, has more than just one side.“Rob, I’m gonna miss you like crazy,” Doug Ford said at the close of a brief speech, with his voice shaking. “I love you more than anything in the world. And don’t worry, Ford Nation will continue.”Last night marked the season premiere of Girls, with the calamity-prone foursome — Hannah (Lena Dunham), Marnie (Allison Williams), Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) and Jessa (Jemima Kirke) — back in full force. And with new plot developments comes, of course, major new fashion