Hey all. Welcome (once again) to the new & improved site!

Firstly, I’d like to thank all of my readers. Thanks to you, running this website has been a great experience – both exciting and inspiring.

When I started this project I certainly didn’t expect it to grow so quickly. In less than a year and a half thestyleblogger.com has thousands of daily readers from over 100 countries, the site has needed two separate web upgrades, I’ve recently hired a full-time assistant, we’ve begun the process of shooting video posts, and later this year we will be launching my first menswear design collection via the store section of the site. And this is still just the beginning!

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So what better way to introduce a fresh new site than in a pair of white pants and by featuring my first ever style inspiration – my mom!

Long story short: my mother grew up with 12 brothers and sisters, in a small three-bedroom house in northern Quebec. She left home as a teenager with a few dollars in her pocket and, even though she could hardly speak English, was able to find a job as a bank teller in southern Ontario (where I was later born and raised). In order to keep up with the image and dress code of bank employees, my mother taught herself to make her own clothes – by de-constucting and constucting fabrics from previously manufactured clothing found in thrift stores.

She looks back and laughs: “I’d buy a big men’s wool coat, cut it down to a pair of trousers for the winter, then cut it into a skirt for the summer … I didn’t really know what to wear with what, so I just made it up as I went … My coworkers would wonder where I was getting all these clothes from, I’m sure they didn’t think I was up all night sewing them together”.

What I love most about her style is not only can she make $3 clothing look like $300 clothing (to this day she shops at thrift and discount stores and rarely pays more than $50 for an item), but her style is natural, raw and unstudied.

Here she helps me demonstrate how to wear white cotton pants for three different occasions, before or after labour day.

1. Casual

White pants aren’t just for milkmen, sailors and yacht clubs.

If you’re wearing white pants but trying not to look too “dressed-up”, loosely layer an open textured shirt (like this chambray or mom’s oxford) over a v-neck or tank top, roll your cuffs a little, and pair them with some authentically worn-in footwear. Since they’re white, the pants will look pristine, but this doesn’t mean the rest of your look has to.

Also try some rugged accessories like a rubber or nylon watch strap, and some wooden bead bracelets – and a little facial scruff can help break-up the cleanliness of the white.