MEMORY LANE
I’ve been blessed—or perhaps cursed—with a rather hazy memory. I tend not to reminisce, and looking at old photographs often makes me melancholy. Since I was a kid, it has always been about “What’s next?” or, if I discipline my mind, “What’s now?” I thought of that the other day while en route to a wedding-themed event at the Shangri-La Hotel in Toronto. It was the first warm spring evening, and the cab driver—like all good Canadians—was elated by the shift in weather. “It’s good that we forget the cold,” he said, “because if we didn’t, we couldn’t enjoy the warm days.” “Yes, memories can interfere with moments,” I added, to which he replied, “Sometimes, yes, but it’s also how we know who we are.” His philosophical—and contradictory— quip resonated with me: At what point does memorializing our past hinder who we can become? It’s an idea that features editor Aliyah Shamsher raises in her piece “Retromania: Where Did All the New Ideas Go?” (page 84). “Somewhere between what was and what could have been lies a hazy exercise in remembrance and makebelieve—and this is precisely where nostalgia lives,” she writes. But does this hazy state induce or hinder innovation? (You will have to read her piece to find out.) Other sepia-hued stories in this month’s nostalgia-themed issue include the interview that fashion features editor Lisa Guimond did with Barbara Atkin, Holt Renfrew’s fashion director (“The Wonder Years,” page 58). From Franco Moschino’s and Tom Ford’s last shows to Madonna’s barechested romp down Jean Paul Gaultier’s runway, Atkin has seen more fashion moments than most and has left her mark as one of Canada’s style arbiters. In “Time Warp” (page 136), managing editor Christina Reynolds heads to Napier, New Zealand, to attend its world-famous Art Deco Weekend. Then there’s the “ELLE Canada Editors’ Guide to a Stylish (& Sane) Wedding” (page 77). While beauty director Vanessa Craft is a newly minted bride, I had to forge back two decades to recall a few details from my own wedding. I hadn’t thought of that day for quite some time, but it came back to me at the Shangri-La dinner, when the band played Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon.” That was a tune I listened to repeatedly in the days leading up to my wedding. It’s a tender song that is very much about being in the moment—but knowing that the moment is only possible because there has been a beautiful past. Noreen Flanagan Editor-in-Chief Follow me on Twitter and Instagram @noreen_flanagan We love hearing from you! Please write to us at editors@ ELLECanada. com.