A fine frequency

Everlayer seeks to add new chapter to textile growth story

Sanjay Agarwal wants people to think twice about towels.

“You wouldn’t consider towels as a fashion item, but we do,” he said. “We think it can add a lot of colour and personality to the bathroom. So that is what we wish to present to our customers.”

The Winnipeg businessman is the founder and president at Everlayer, which sells luxury bedding, bath linens and home decor. The products are designed in Canada and manufactured in Europe.

Last week, the two-year-old company launched its newest collection of towels, with designs and colour compositions that Agarwal said approach the towel “less like a commodity and more like a considered piece of textile design.”

Staying away to keep the heat on

It’s a tough sell these days for U.S. tourism groups seeking to attract Canadian visitors as tension, tariffs and traded verbal barbs continue to rise between the two countries.

Northern style: WAG-Qaumajuq, CBC series partner for runway show

Award-winning TV series North of North by Inuit filmmakers Stacey Aglok MacDonald (Qanurli, The Grizzlies) and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril (Angry Inuk, The Grizzlies) made a return to the small screen last week on APTN, CBC Gem and CBC TV with its second season première.

North of North is partnering with the Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq to celebrate the way it has propelled authentic northern fashion into the global spotlight at the gallery’s special edition of Crafted on the Catwalk Tuesday night, featuring fashion and design from Manitoba, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, Nunatsiavut and Nunavik.

Arnaquq-Baril and series stars Anna Lambe and Zorga Qaunaq spoke to the Free Press ahead of Tuesday’s catwalk show.

Free Press: The fashion in Season 1 set the bar so high. We’re barely into Season 2 and have already seen so many covetable, stunning looks. What story do the clothes tell the viewers?

Drug recovery centre opens office in ‘heart of the city’

Richard Halverson found his freedom from addiction through Adult & Teen Challenge and, six years later, he hopes a new Winnipeg location will bring hope to the city.

A fine frequency

A family murder-suicide, a child custody battle, a workplace sexual assault scandal, an escape from a remote religious compound, and a punk band’s reunion tour through Japan: each of these could have been a novel plot unto itself, but former Winnipeg author (now of Grande Prairie, Alta.) Annette Lapointe manages to weave them all into her compelling and fast-paced third novel …And This Is The Cure.

After the more experimental bent of her story collection You Are Not Needed Now, Lapointe returns to the longer novel form. While perhaps not as gruesome as her previous novel Whitetail Shooting Gallery, her latest does have a dark and unsettling undercurrent, only pushing above the surface in short but powerful bursts.

Former frontwoman for the riot grrrrrl band The Innocents, Allison Winter lives in Toronto and is the host of public radio pop-culture show The Cure. But even before the success of the band, Allison had some notoriety as a former child bride who had escaped from an isolated religious community in rural Manitoba.

After walking out of the remote community on foot and telling the police that her parents were forcing to get married at 15, Allison effectively cuts herself off from the rest of her family. She does have one remaining connection to that community, though — she and Ethan, who she did not marry at 15 — have an 11-year-old daughter named Hannah. Ethan, his new wife, her son from a previous marriage and Hannah live in Winnipeg. After Ethan and his wife are murdered, Allison must take Hannah in, or lose her to Ethan’s ultra-religious parents.

Winnipeg venues saying no to AI-made advertisements

Although the days when telephone poles and notice boards across the city were thick with gig posters, either slopped up with wheat paste or wrapped tight with packing tape, are behind us, the art of making an appealing visual ad for live music events is still a vital part of the local creative scene.

However, a widespread backlash against a new kind of slop — the use of generative AI images — has been building, especially among creatives when it comes to promoting live music.

“Live music is and always has been a DIY type of scene, especially locally,” says Evan Simpson, who has been working as a graphic designer for nearly a decade.

“For years people have been making their own flyers, or if they have the budget, hiring a designer or artist to come up with some artwork for their flyers. It’s a whole ecosystem, a scene supporting itself. If you take away the visual side of it, the spark, individuality and uniqueness of each gig poster is lost. What a sad world it would be if all art were made by AI.”