愛惠旗艦店

To Torino now, where the irrepressible Tu Ly -- the tip-top tailor to the Canadian Olympic athletes -- is my man on the ground!

Tu, who collaborated with HBC on all those winter-cool duds, has been in Italy of late starring in his own version of Project Runway, which consists, apparently, of flirting with speed skaters, providing fashion advice to curlers ("So, Tu, shirt tucked in or not?") and being a sort of all-purpose sartorial St. John's Ambulance for Canada's medal-seekers!

Of course, he's been having some fun, too -- and on Sunday he even went to a concert in a piazza with that pop flashback Whitney Houston! From there, he BlackBerried me the latest.

"Nowhere close to a gold medal performance, nor even a bronze contender," he pithily proclaimed.

"The Queen is back," was how Whitney was apparently introduced by the Italian host, but according to Tu, it was "a tragic event from the moment she stepped onto the outdoor stage." First off, there was the outfit: Even though there were reports that the diva would be wearing a Russian fur for her anticipated Olympic one-off, it looked to our eyewitness as more "faux synthetic" than "pelle lux." And with it, she had on a cream turtleneck and ill-fitting white nylon pants.

Asks our Tu: "Don't you just hate it when apres-ski whites don't match?"

So, about the singing. Starting off with Greatest Love of All, Whitney "coughed, sniffled and talked her way through the song." She motioned a cough attack and, struggling, asked the audience, "Why did they choose to do this outdoors? I don't sing in the cold. It makes my voice funny," and then made the international hand-gesture for "crazy."

From there, it was on to her massive '80s hit, I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me). Tu's verdict? "Flat, and far from inspiring for anyone to actually dance." Midway, he says, "Whitney introduced her brother Gary Houston to take over so she could do a 'costume change'. He looked surprised and performed a soul track, while wearing a Sean John velour track suit."

Then? Well, "Whitney reappears in a quilted zip jacket and fur military cap." An outfit that, according to our expert, was "marginally improved, but still resembles the quality of H&M." She then thanked and kissed husband Bobby Brown for "loving me and taking me here to the Winter Olympics." Cue the gospel.

Finally, the singer belted out her all-time hit, I Will Always Love You, which quickly became "her all-time low moment during the two-bit concert." Unable to reach the high notes, Tu notes, "Whitney smiled, waved and winked to the fans. Karaoke drag queens can belt it out better! She knelt and bowed her head at the finale to thin applause."

"Bobby," he wraps up, "held her hand and led Whitney backstage. The crowd roared and Ms. Houston rushed out for that quintessential encore, I'm Every Woman."

Meanwhile, I'm convinced that Tu is not every garmento! Word has it that the Canadian shearling trapper has been so popular that Italians have been lining up around the block -- longer than any ticket line at the Toronto Film Fest -- to purchase what they call a capelli Canadese at Torino's HBC satellite shop. The real shearling hats are actually said to be sold out.

Another hat that's even more exclusive? My designer-pal's very own Canadian fox trapper -- not for sale -- which has been giving the Toronto thread-artist plenty of unexpected attention. In his own words, it's "ginormous" and "ultra glam" and more people have been asking to be photographed with him than the actual RCMP mascot! The most fun, though? When a flock of Turinese approached him recently and very politely asked, "Are you Inuit?"

© National Post 2006

AccessHollywood: Billy's Blog
February 20, 2006

I am in my hotel, having breakfast and all of a sudden, Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" came over the in-house PA system and the chatter erupted. You see last night, Whitney came to Torino for a scheduled performance. The best part of it is, she kept her appointment and took to the stage as planned. The bad part is the rest.

She forbid all media to roll cameras on the performance, including the official broadcast. Thus, there is no evidence lying around anywhere. But I went table to table to hear what people had to report:

"Bad karaoke," says one.

"Sang her last song...said goodbye. She came out for an encore although nobody asked her to," according to that same fan.

"Off her game. Not singing well. Not pretty and not very gracious as well," says another.

Feeling badly about commenting on Whitney, an undeniable legend because of her beautiful voice, the original observer swung by my table to add this:

"Her outfits were fierce though...gorgeous."

If you're feeling uneasy about it...It's ok. She got paid handsomely for the performance and there's no sound that's re-usable, so the criticism will come and go.

Source: AccessHollywood Billy Bush's Blog