Living life as a fashion risk-taker
CBC, etalk host Jessi Cruickshank talks personal style
Jessi Cruickshank’s connection with fashion — or more accurately, clothing — is certainly more visceral than visual. Her memories go far back and to a place of a child seeking comfort in her mother’s closet.
And should this suggest something dark, that would be misleading. The memory is a fond one, as is her relationship with her mother, for whom she has great admiration.
The host of Canada’s Smartest Person and fashion correspondent for eTalk says sitting in the closet was her way of reconnecting with her mother, Joyce Resin — also a CBC TV host — when she was travelling for work.
“I would miss her, so I would crawl into her closet and sit under where the clothes were hanging and just touch and smell her perfume on the clothes and feel close to her,” Cruickshank recalls.
“I have this strange relationship with my mom through her clothes. I just loved being in her closet. I just devoured my mother’s closet.”
And so it is not a great surprise that Resin is a style inspiration for the woman who is known as Judge Jessi for her comedic routine of red carpet verdicts on eTalk.
“As I got older and could fit into her clothes, I just started stealing pieces from her closet. And continue to to this day.” she admits.
But unlike her mother, Cruickshank embraces the vintage approach as much as the au courant. The favourite Canadian fashion destination for the L.A.-based Cruickshank is Value Village. And when at home, she scours vintage stores in L.A. for fabulous preloved finds like a Smythe blazer that she will have reworked by a tailor.
“I certainly have a little edgier vibe. My mom never did the vintage thing. She always laughs when I show up wearing vintage clothes from the ’ 80s that she wore when they were actually in vogue.”
But like Resin, Cruickshank likes to take fashion risks and insists her mother can pull off looks in her 60s that she believes is a challenge for herself at 31.
“My mother is not afraid to make statements with her style, and I love that about her. I like to think that I do the same.”
Long before her style extravaganzas on the Hills After Show on MTV, Cruickshank was taking fashion risks. For her graduation prom at Point Grey Secondary — yes, she’s Vancouver-born and raised — she wore a head-to-toe gold sequined dress she made herself.
“It was essentially a tube dress that didn’t require a pattern and it was absolutely ridiculous to wear that to one’s prom. I made a handbag out of matching gold sequins and my date wore a gold sequined suit.”
Ridiculous or not, she has no regrets. Much like when she wore a Michael Kale dress to a Hills After Show Finale party in L.A.
“It was bright green and had cutouts. The next day, the headline was that ‘Jessi Cruickshank’s dress looked like a head of lettuce.’ And in retrospect, it did look like a head of lettuce, but I don’t regret it,” she says, chuckling at the memory.
The no-regrets philosophy means she is not offended by negative feedback. She can take it as well as dish it out as Judge Jessi and insists that getting a reaction is positive thing.
“We used to do a segment on MTV where we would read out all the mean tweets about what I was wearing that week.
“For all the people who follow me as a fashion inspiration, there is someone who thinks what I’m wearing is completely ridiculous. So I would read out all the criticism and all the funny, mean things people would say.”
Cruickshank’s most recent big fashion statement — punctuated with exclamation marks — was the dress she wore June 28 when she wedded longtime-love Evan Gatica. Two things came into play in creating the dress: her passion for everything gold (remember the grad dress?) and a desire for something unique for her and her day.
“I didn’t want to wear a dress (style) that everyone else had worn before,” she explains. “There’s something strange about this day that’s so special and personal and then just wearing something off the rack.
“That wasn’t for me, so I custom-designed the dress with Mark (Zunino). We had these vintage gold metal paillettes shipped in from Paris, and the entire shoulder was Grecianinspired and military embellished.”
And as an aside, “Oh, and it was totally backless.” Not too conventional. She also had two skirts made: One long for the ceremony, and a short one for dancing the night away at the reception.
(Zenino now has the ‘Jessi’ dress as part of his bridal collection.)
Another style twist for her wedding were the bridesmaid dresses, which were designed and made especially for the wedding party by Canada’s Kimberly Newport-Mimran of Pink Tartan — a style guru for Cruickshank. The designer made a point of meeting each one and getting to know her before creating a unique dress for each one.
“I have this view of bridesmaids that is controversial, but I think if you are honouring women in your life for the individual contributions they’ve made to you as a woman, I don’t understand why you would celebrate their individuality by dressing them the same,” she declares.
“Bridesmaids are not infant sextuplets, so please don’t dress them in matching outfits.”
For those fans nostalgic for the days when Cruickshank teamed up with Dan Levy on MTV creating raucous comedic chemistry, he made a guest appearance at the wedding as a bridesman, donning a shorts suit which the bride says was a big hit with the attendees.
These days, it’s rumoured Cruickshank is the most stylish woman on CBC and her wardrobe as host for Canada’s Smartest Person has inspired perhaps a touch of envy among some at the network. An interesting position for a woman who says she has never been hired for her looks — and figures she never will be.
“I still picture myself as the pasty, freckled, red-headed (kid) with an unibrow and bowl cut at Point Grey Secondary.
“I think that’s who I think I am. So I approach interviews like a regular person. I’ll ask stupid questions or questions that people want to know. I don’t care about being friends with the person I’m interviewing. I don’t care about being cool or getting invited to an after party. I just want to make good TV.”
And those are Judge Jessi’s final words. For now. …