A series of petit mal seizures overtook Toronto’s fashion and society communities this week as photos of the fabled closet of philanthropist Suzanne Rogers were published on The Coveteur.
It’s another major coup for the website by designer Erin Kleinberg, stylist Stephanie Marks and photographer Jake Rosenberg, who get inside the closets of top editors and fashion execs.
“With Suzanne Rogers, we hit some nerve,” says Kleinberg. . “Check it out, she has (783 at press-time) likes” on Facebook and 13,000 hits on The Coveteur site that day. “We’ve been getting calls of congratulations from the same editors.”
Style Inspiration : Suzanne Rogers, Toronto
icona della moda con un armadio impeccabile..
“That girl has some sick stuff for sure. Incredible! The Rodarte. The custom Nicholas Kirkwood shoes. The Chanel, I die. We’ve been getting calls from New York all week, people shrieking.”
Indeed Rogers, wife of Rogers Communications chair Ed Rogers, has caught some famous eyes.
“We were in Paris for the collections,” says BFF Glenn Dixon, a decorator, homewares designer and host of Daytime Toronto, which airs at 10 a.m. daily on Rogers Cable 10. “And Karl Lagerfeld — Karl Lagerfeld! — leans in to me and gestures to Suzanne. ‘Who is that woman? She is fabulous!’ ”
It is from Paris that the inspiration for the design of her palatial closets sprang, says Dixon. “We stayed at the Ritz, and it was just like sleeping inside Suzanne’s closet.”
This closet is a fantasy of cream and gilding.
Only one or two seasons of clothing and accessories are kept here, Rogers told The Coveteur; the rest are archived and stored.
“Suzanne is very respectful of fashion, and of her clothes,” says Dixon. “She has a heavy calendar of charity commitments, and they require a wardrobe of this scope and depth. She meticulously plans for and buys what she needs with her commitments in mind. She has a tremendous eye. Fashion is hard work.”
Rogers, who declined to be interviewed for this article, has said her style icon is Truly Scrumptious, the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang character, and once you have that in mind, her closet falls into place. Rogers is noted for her bouffant confectionary hair, and penchant for both lace and leather.
The Barbie-like pastels are one pendulum swing of her personality; the Christopher Kane biker jackets are the other.
“She is so knowledgeable about fashion,” says Marks. “But more important, she is just a delight, and so humble.”
Indeed, it was not Rogers who set her pink Chanel bags out in a tea party arrangement; that tableau was the work of Marks and Kleinberg, who have made that sort of whimsy — hanging dresses from hedges and jackets from mantelpieces, putting shoes in vases — the hallmark of The Coveteur site.
Ditto the clutches woven into Rogers’ bookshelves.
But the bookshelves themselves are all Rogers, who balances a love of fashion with some weightier pursuits.
Rogers, her husband and their three young children live together with her closet in Forest Hill.
She has carved a name for herself as a fashion maven on the international couture scene and locally for her fundraising fashion galas. Her Suzanne Rogers Presents event in early April brought the designers of the Marchesa label to town; she hosted Oscar de la Renta in 2010.
The Coveteur is a Toronto-based site with similar international aspirations. The trio have featured starlets such as Kim Kardashian and have collaborated with both Vogue and Elle magazines.