At Jer’s Vision Pride Gala this past Thursday, I got to meet a handful of interesting people, including Adamo Ruggiero from Degrassi: The Next Generation fame. As my sister and I were invited to walk the red carpet at this event, we both felt the need to dress up. Wait we always feel the need to be stylish, it’s kind of like our job. Oh yeah and gays are known to dress up right? Wrong! Very few people bothered to be stylish for this event. There were various attempts at style but all in all we were both very disappointed by the way people were dressed. Urban Behaviour evening wear was in full force – which is not a bad thing because if it’s dressed up properly, it works. However, the way girls dressed up their outfits was really unfortunate. Um, flip flops with that dress? Are you serious? Make sure you were something that is flattering to your shape, there are so many options, please do not opt for the wrong ones! The men didn’t help either. Remember that bartender from Helsinki Youth League and the Spies photographed back in April who likes to wear black, two belts, a fedora, and white shoes? He was there, wearing the same outfit he wore when Youth League took his picture.
Among the guests were the Drag Queens (always a pleasure), various Parliamentarians (including Sheila Copps who had to find out if my sister and I were twins – we years apart actually), local fashion designers, magazine representatives, Mr. Leather Ottawa, and members of the GLBT community.
Let’s talk about Adamo for a moment. Anyone who has watched the show has certainly noticed that Adamo is a total babe, and his outfit was jumpin’ (check out the cool boots). I saw Adamo when I was first entering the Saw Gallery, he was chatting with a few people in the corner. After registering with the staff, we came back outside and then Adamo and I made eye contact a few times and smiles ensued. I hesitated to ask him for his picture because various eccentric teenagers were asking to get their picture taken with him, which is initially why I don’t like to bother people with picture requests because it must get annoying for them after awhile.
I then decided to approach him because he’s so cute and stylish I had to take his picture! “Excuse me, do you mind if I take your picture for Ottawa Street Style?” I asked. “I feel like I should be taking a picture of you guys because I love what you’re wearing, I’ve been staring for awhile!” He replied. Awesome dude. Totally awesome. I already love your vibe. We’ll get back to Adamo a bit later, here are some highlights:
My sister and I walk the red carpet, people snap our picture (which was cool but due to the fact that I am incredibly non-photogenic I am afraid of the results) and we walk in. Although I have participated in many events where I was considered VIP, I never walked a red carpet since I was busy dealing with things on the inside, so this was fun. Inside, my sister and I mingle, but the space is way over capacity and it’s boiling hot. Since my sister has a tendency to sweat (not smell hehe) and I have curly locks that are prone to get frizzy, we opt to stay outside the action and in the gallery where various individuals are also mingling, including certain designers that kept staring at us as if they just found their new muses. I know that this was not the reason they kept staring at us – maybe it was our delightful ensembles? Or the fact that you know who we are but you opt for staring instead of approaching us? If that’s the case, please don’t stare. If you come up to me, I will talk to you whether I know you or not. I would’ve enjoyed speaking to them actually. Why the hate? This is what I dislike about Ottawa, HATE and MONOPOLY. Sorry for the unnecessary caps, wait; I think they are necessary to describe the fashion industry in the city. Hate is part of anything fashion but “the monopoly” needs to embrace people who aren’t competing, they are simply helping the scene in the city grow. But enough about that, let’s move on again.
We mingle with the people from Spade Magazine for a bit and get to know a little about their project, then we move back to Adamo who is taking pictures with people. I ask him to take a picture with my sister and I and he’s totally up for it. His publicist? Friend? I don’t know who the dude was (nice guy though) takes a close up, but Adamo requests a full body shot to get all our outfits because “we look too good!” (ha I love this guy and what he’s doing to our self esteem) and so I give him a street style card, tell him that I enjoyed meeting him and we are off.
Mike the tech guy
Awesome suit dude, purely awesome
Ottawa Street Style 
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