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MY LOOK: ModBox’s Melissa Reeves on how music and architecture influence her personal style

This story appears in the May edition of Ottawa Magazine. Click here to order the back issue or an online edition. 

By Elisabetta Bianchini

Dress by Park Lane, purchased at Roadtrip; Braided Belt: purchased at Roadtrip; Necklace: Purchased on a recent trip to Grand Cayman; Gold Cuff: Purchased in Paris; Shoes: BCBG; Lipstick: "Vegas Volt" MAC. Photography by Rémi Thériault.

You’re the director of marketing for ModBox, the company you and your husband [architect Andrew Reeves] became partners in when you moved to Ottawa a year and a half ago. What is ModBox?

It’s an urban property development company that specializes in high-end urban developments. It’s an alternative to moving out to the burbs — people can stay in the city where the energy is.

How do you distinguish between your workwear and your weekend wear?
When I started working at TIFF [Toronto International Film Festival], after working on Bay Street, I began to meld both closets. I no longer need two closets for my work suits and my day-to-day wear. I just have one wardrobe now.

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PROFILE: From self-published short stories to a trilogy deal, David Whellams launches 2nd book of detective fiction on Sunday, May 5, at Books on Beechwood

Ottawa author David Whellams launches The Drowned Man on Saturday, May 5, at Books on Beechwood

In 2012, Ottawa author David Whellams launched Walking into the Ocean, the first of a crime-fiction trilogy starring chief Inspector Peter Cammon of Scotland Yard. The local launch of the thrilling followup — The Drowned Man — takes place Saturday, May 5, at Books on Beechwood (35 Beechwood Avenue). Travis Persaud interviewed Whellams last year to find out how he came to be a published author.

When David Whellams retired, he boasted more than 30 years working as counsel with the Government of Canada in the Department of Justice and the Ministry of the Solicitor General, working on the Criminal Code in areas such as sexual offences and corrections law and contributing to Canada’s Anti-terrorism Act after 9/11. But though there was no room for grey in his work life, he had no clear vision of how to spend his retirement.

He did know he wanted to explore writing, but he had no plan for where that hobby might go. His first attempts were short stories. “I submitted them but didn’t get them published anywhere, so I self-published,” the 64-year-old says. “I didn’t sell a lot of copies, but it felt good that I got that under my belt.”

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MY LOOK: Talking style with Dominic Coballe, co-owner of the local design house know as N-Product

Dominic is wearing a Joseph Abboud jacket paired with a Hugo Boss button-down, vintage Lee denim jacket, and Levi's cords. He topped off his outfit with a vintage tie and N-Product wooden tie clip. Photo by John Kealey.

By Elisabetta Bianchini

N-Product, the company owned by you and your wife, is basically a small design house for the lifestyle goods you conceive. How would you describe the brand and your designs?
N-Product is a play on words. N speaks to a mathematical equation — to the nth degree — meaning infinite ideas and products, which is our motivation. We don’t want to limit ourselves. Our goal is to make things that are fun and that instigate some sort of reaction with people.

You’ve said you’re a practitioner of the Slow Goods movement, which emphasizes quality materials, sustainable sourcing, and local manufacturing whenever possible. How does that impact what you personally wear or buy?
Both of us like fashion and clothing, but we don’t really like the disposable nature of things — we try to think of everything we buy as an investment. Really look at brands and labels that follow the Slow Goods approach, and you understand why the price tag makes sense.

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MY LOOK: Jonathan Browns, a cultural planner for the city’s art collection, chats about his eye-catching personal style

Jonathan sports a blue pinstripe suit, bought in New York, with a floral Nodus shirt from Paris. On his feet, MoxyMaüs socks and Ansarina shoes. He’s also wearing Anne et Valentin glasses, a Knox Tom ‘n’ Jerry fedora, and a bow tie handmade by an artist from Medicine Hat. Photography by Jonathan Hobin.

Interview by Erica Eades

How does your work as a cultural planner for the city’s art collection affect your style? It gives me freedom to have a more artistic sense of style and to be able to push boundaries in a corporate setting. It allows me to have a bit more play involved in what I wear.

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WINTER READ: Wakefield’s Tessum Weber is the youngest person ever to ski from land to the North Pole

This story appears in the Winter edition of Ottawa Magazine. Buy the magazine on newsstands or order your online edition.

He’s recognized by Guinness World Records as the youngest person ever to ski from land to the North Pole. Wakefield’s Tessum Weber on surviving in the Arctic — and the beauty of an unconventional upbringing in a family of explorers and adventurers  By Laura Zahody

Young adventurer Tessum Weber plans to join the family expedition business when he finishes university. Photo by Harry Nowell.

Tessum weber can light a stove at -60 degrees in the middle of the frozen Arctic Ocean. The key, as with everything done in those extreme conditions, is to take it step by step.

When it’s that cold, camp fuel barely lights. There are no vapours. The rubber seal bottling the fuel in its canister also shrinks, threatening to crack and cause a leak. And though the canister needs to be pumped to force gas out so that the single-burner stove can be lit, the pumping makes the rubber seal shrink even more. “So you have to light a candle with a match — not a lighter, because lighters have a hard time lighting at minus 50 — then carefully warm the pump for the canister over the candle so the rubber O-ring expands,” explains Tessum. “There’s a real process to surviving — a meticulous routine.”

Tessum, now 23, lived this step-by-step routine every second of every day when he skied from the northernmost tip of Canada — Cape Discovery on Ellesmere Island, Nunavut — to the North Pole. The journey, which started in March 2010, lasted 41 days, 18 hours, and 52 minutes. Tessum Weber was just 20 when he made the trek and has since been recognized by Guinness World Records as the youngest person ever to ski from land to the pole. His team was given the distinction of the fastest expedition ever to make this journey. To put the accomplishment into perspective, expeditions of this kind usually estimate about 50 to 55 days to reach the pole. “We only slept for about 15 hours the last week,” Tessum recalls.

The expedition was led by his father, Arctic expeditionist Richard Weber, and attended by two paying clients, David Pierce-Jones and Howard Fairbank. Richard has been to the North Pole seven times, including a trip in which he started in Russia, crossed the pole, and ended in Canada and another trip in which he skied from Canada to the pole and back. He has spent more time than anyone in the world travelling on the Arctic Ocean and briefly held the world record time for skiing to the South Pole (from Hercules Inlet, Antarctica). But the team had no record ambitions when they set out at polar dawn in March 2010. “My dad said, ‘We’re going to the North Pole. Want to come?’ ” Tessum remembers. “There wasn’t a plan to be the youngest. There wasn’t a plan to be the fastest. We just wanted to go to the North Pole.” It was only partway into the trip that the group realized they were on pace to reach the pole faster than any previous skiers. “That’s when we decided, Aw heck, we’ll haul ass and see what happens. And that was it.”

And although he admits it’s definitely a thrill to be able to travel to the North Pole with your son, Richard makes it clear that he didn’t extend the invitation lightly. “I definitely thought about it a lot before I asked Tessum — about whether he was ready and whether he would be interested. Luckily, it turned out that he could get out of school for a short time.” Tessum, who grew up in Wakefield, Quebec, was studying at the time for his bachelor of commerce at the University of Ottawa but was quick to say yes. His family, especially on his dad’s side, has a real spirit of adventure, he explains. His late grandfather, Hans Weber, was a mountaineer and Arctic geophysicist who spent most of his career in the field, investigating underwater mountain chains and the seismology of the Canadian Arctic islands.

MOUNTAINS OF FUN: A Q&A with Canadian Alpine Ski Team racer (and Ottawa boy) Dustin Cook

Meet Dustin Cook. At 23, the Ottawa native already has an impressive list of Nor-Am Cup wins under his belt, not to mention a solid Twitter feed and legend status at his home hill of Mont Ste-Marie. Dayanti Karunaratne chats with the Canadian Alpine Ski Team racer about keeping it fun, preparing for race day, and coming home.

Race day: Dustin Cook in action at the Beaver Creek World Cup in December 2011.

How would you describe your racing career?
I’m happy with it so far. I’m having a lot of fun and learning a lot. Especially in the last year, I’ve learned not to get down on anything. You just have to pick yourself up and move on.

What happened in the past year that taught you this?
I’ve been working a lot with a sports psychologist. When you’re at the Nor-Am Cup and World Cup level, it’s easy to get down on yourself if you don’t do as well as you want to do. But you’ve got to learn to deal with it, and luckily I have.

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MY LOOK: Capital Fashion Consulting’s Rosina Mahlangu chats winter wear, healthy body image, and upcoming events

 

Above left: Rosina Mahlangu is wearing a floral blazer from Rikochet Resale in Westboro, and her dress is from Forever 21. Her jewellery was bought in Barbados, and her shoes were purchased in Toronto. Above right: Mahlangu sports a pinstripe blazer from H&M and a white pleated Moon Collection dress from Milk Boutique. Her vintage jewellery is from St. Vincent de Paul, and the black shoes she purchased in Toronto. Photography by Lucyna Bakowska.



Interview by Vanessa Ortynsky

Originally from Zimbabwe, you grew up in Toronto. What made you decide to establish yourself in Ottawa?
After graduating from Carleton University in business law last spring, I thought, What am I going to do with my life? I’ve always been passionate about starting my own business, and if there’s ever been a time, this is it. People are often surprised that I’m pursuing fashion in Ottawa, but there’s potential here.

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PROFILE: Avi Caplan, dean of Awesome Ottawa, talks dance parties and cadaver machines in the pursuit of awesome

Every month, members of the local chapter of the Awesome Foundation get together to present $1,000 to a creative endeavour that will — they hope — make the city a little more awesome. Avi Caplan is one of those benefactors on a mission. By Drew Gough

Money talks: Avi Caplan sees the Awesome Foundation movement as "an interesting experiment in philanthropy" — a way to connect with people more directly. Photo by Luther Caverly.

There wasn’t any money lying around anywhere. Not a penny. Not on the table, not on the floor, not even — I’d bet, if I’d had the nerve to check — under the couch cushions.

This was more than a little disappointing. I was standing in the living room of Avi Caplan, a philanthropist who refuses to see himself as a philanthropist. Every month, Caplan just gives some of his money away.

I figured him to be a careless spendthrift, a man without a bank account, a man with piles of coins stacked to the ceiling that he idly let fall between his fingers while talking. But no. The apartment is modest, neat, tidy. Caplan too. There’s no air of madcap millionaire, probably because that’s not his angle.

The 30-year-old is the new dean of Awesome Ottawa, the local chapter of the Awesome Foundation. Awesome Ottawa hands out $1,000 each month to a project it deems “awesome,” with each of its trustees ponying up $100 a month of his or her own money to contribute to the grant.

By January 2013, Awesome Ottawa will have contributed $30,000 to our city’s general awesomeness. Yet even though he’s a person who has made a hobby of giving away money, Caplan doesn’t like being called a philanthropist. “What’s interesting about the Awesome Foundation movement globally is that it’s an experiment in new models of philanthropy,” he explains. “I’m not thinking of myself as a philanthropist because, really, it’s a very small amount of money. I’m thinking of it, instead, as an interesting experiment in philanthropy. I’m seeing it as an experience in connecting with people more directly.”

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MY LOOK: Talking personal style with dapper aspiring librarian Kevin Wollenschlager

Above left: Kevin is wearing a Hugo Boss blazer, a shirt by Charles Tyrwhitt, and a Brooks Brothers tie. His pocket square is from Polo by Ralph Lauren and the belt by Dockers Shoes. His pants are Hudson North and the shoes are Barker Black. Above right: Kevin is wearing a Hugo Boss blazer, a shirt by Tommy Hilfiger, and a Brooks Brothers bow-tie. His pocket square is from Gytha Mander MMIV. His pants are Dockers Watch, shoes are Nixon. Photography by Lindsay Ralph.

 Interview by Erica Wark

You’re the only 26-year-old aspiring librarian I’ve ever met. Why this line of work?
I have two degrees in French and history from Carleton University and have worked in libraries since I was 16 years old. It just seemed like the right fit, so I decided to get my master’s in Library and Information Studies.

What’s your dream job in the field?
I worked as a librarian with the federal government for a while and am now working as a page at the Greenboro District Library, which I love. I’d also like to work as a librarian at a university someday. I’ve always loved to learn, and I feel that would be a great environment to work in.

You truly have a dapper sense of style. Where does this creativity stem from?
My dad works for the city and wears suits every day, so I grew up knowing the importance of a well-executed suit. He says that I’m a lot like my grandmother (whom I never met). She had one arm slightly longer than the other — not in a weird, Oh my God way [laughs], but different enough that everything she owned had to be precisely tailored to her frame. My dad says I would’ve been spoiled with threads had she still been around.

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SOCIAL CLIMBER: MS sufferer Martin Laniel hikes to Everest’s base camp to raise money for the cause

BY JEN LAHEY

The incomparable beauty and the man-against-nature battle make climbing Mount Everest an irresistible challenge for many climbers. And 40-year-old Martin Laniel is one of those adventurers: despite the serious risks, the Gatineau man is planning to climb to Everest’s base camp, at 17,600 feet. The catch? He’s not doing it just for the glory of the mountain. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2003, Laniel is dedicating his October climb mainly to raising money for the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada (and maybe a little — well, a lot — to thumbing his nose at the disease).

Martin Laniel with his son at the climbing gym. Photography by Harry Nowell.

Tell me about your experience with MS so far. It’s been on and off. I’m not always affected by it. The main symptom I have is fatigue. I’ve also had vision problems,   mobility problems, spasms, stuttering when I’m tired — things of that sort.

What do you enjoy most about mountaineering? I think it’s the feeling of flow. When I’m actually hiking up a mountain, I get a sense of focus, of being in nature. It’s very spiritual for me. And it’s a challenge. I also kind of like having my butt kicked by weather, which is somewhat strange, but it adds a little challenge to it, you know?

How has MS affected your climbing? I’ve had MS the whole time I’ve been mountaineering. It’s what actually motivated me to start climbing. I wanted to do it because I can. I have to be careful, especially on descents. When we ascend, I’m usually in pretty good shape. When I’ve been climbing all day, coming down is harder. They always say the summit is optional; coming home is mandatory. When you’re at the top, you’re only halfway there. The second half of the day is harder for me. I get off balance. Overall, I think the MS has just motivated me to keep going.

You’ve climbed to 11,500 feet before. The base camp of Everest is 17,600 feet. What will you have to do differently for Everest? Train [laughs]. Train a lot harder. And actually, the summits I’m doing now are short. They’re somewhere around 4,000 to 5,000 feet. But the idea is to get as many climbs under me as possible. I’m doing a lot of circuit training and core training to get stronger for carrying a pack. The crapshoot is the oxygen deprivation. You can’t really prepare for that. Some people can be super fit and be very affected by altitude, and other people may not be as fit but won’t be affected by it at all. It comes down to genetics at that point. And there are drugs that help. I’m preparing to use those if I have to.

What’s next after Everest? My own personal mission is to climb as much as possible, because I can. I know a lot of people that can’t do this, and I have no excuse not to. What’s next is whatever calls me in terms of mountains, in terms of budget, and in terms of health. If anything, this diagnosis has motivated me to go forward and enjoy life. It’s about living and challenging myself.

Learn more about the climb at www.msclimb.ca/climbers.

This story appears in the October edition of Ottawa Magazine. Buy the magazine on newsstands or order your online edition


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