"I've loved pink for as long as I can remember," says Tiffany Pratt. "For me, pink is joy inducing." Her dressing room is proof of her enthusiasm.
The Toronto-based designer and television personality's closet didn't always look like this. It was the last room in her century-old Beaches home to receive a facelift – a much-needed one for the avid vintage collector who spent years building a dream wardrobe only store it in random nooks and crannies in her spare bedroom. "It eventually became a jungle, and the jungle of stuff needed to go away," says the flame-haired Pratt who collaborated with California Closets on an ultimate wardrobe solution. She opted for simple white cabinetry so it wouldn't interfere with her colourful threads or her pink wall. "I didn't want to have the kind of closet where you wouldn't see anything… I wanted half of it to be tucked away and the more beautiful things to have more of a visual spot."
Taking centre stage is Pratt's collection of vintage frocks and caftans, a result of many years scouring eclectic shops and frequenting estate sales. In Toronto, Pratt browses the racks of Courage My Love in Kensington Market and Gadabout Vintage on Queen Street East. Her vast accessories collection was once kept in heaping piles, but now everything has its place: Necklaces are hung, earrings are arranged in drawers and bracelets are stacked on Lucite towers custom built by Wood Studio. "You can pull them down and they just click back into place," explains the designer who also collects vintage and bargain finds in the city's Little India neighbourhood. "It puts them on display where I can appreciate them."
Every dressing room needs adequate privacy from the outside world, but instead of curtains or blinds, Pratt opted for rainbow window film from Wilcox Sign Company. "When the light goes through it, it creates rainbows all over my room," she says.
When someone adopts a colour palette worthy of a unicorn, they are bound to inspire a tribute or two. Over the years, Pratt has accumulated quite a collection of fan art. "People I've never met before will see an image of me on Instagram or somewhere, and draw or paint a picture of me," she says. "They'll post it on Instagram and then direct message me and say, 'I can give you a print of this.' Eventually, I realized I had a collection of them. I framed them and I put them up." The brightest of the bunch was painted by Kristen Ley, owner of Thimblepress stationery company. "That painting of me in the caftan is actually on a greeting card! In gold across the bottom, it says, 'Cheers.'"
Pratt's colourful style inspired another item in the room – the ottoman from Tonic Living bears her name. "The fabric was named after me. It's the Tiffany fabric," she says. With a little help from her fans, the designer has dreamed up not only a picture-perfect closet, but one that is a true reflection of her personality.
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