Confabulation & A Bit of Smack!

The ultimate girls guide to Toronto – but without being girly.

Poised and confident, Jen Newton breathes new life into the Toronto scene with her newly launched website: Bras and Ranties. With bold, sarcastic wit, she writes to us daily about fashion, gossip, events, and everything else women might be enlightened by. She is our blog-bestie, our glamourous gal-pal, but most of all: she is our voice when we’re scared to use our own. Now let’s find out how she does it.

Pony: What made you decide to launch Bras and Ranties?

Jen: It literally started on a whim. I had recently left my job as a brand strategist and suddenly had way too much time on my hands. I’ve always been a more opinionated and vocal person and because I’d been working in a creative space I was always exposed to interesting people. But I was only using my creativity for other clients rather than myself. So that’s when I started Bras and Ranties. I wasn’t a writer beforehand and I wasn’t even sure I could do it but I knew the importance of words and flow to a story – so applying that skill would be a new journey for me.

Pony: And since you’ve launched (last March) how has the site evolved?

Jen: I think the evolution of the site was a direct result of a revolution within me. To publish your voice for the world to take in and interpret – that’s a big step in itself. A lot of the time my words would end up sounding cryptic cause I’d be writing it at 2:00 in the morning, but that learning curve has forced me to become more sure of myself as a person. And as a result, the tone then became bolder and more assertive. I’ve lost those initial nervous feelings about expressing my opinions on tender subjects. I live out loud whether its my literal voice or my writing voice.

Pony: That writing voice is a strong one. Do you get inspiration from other sites to fine-tune your style?

Jen: Oh, what I end up posting on the site is my point of view after I’ve calmed down and processed my emotions a bit haha. But the best way to describe it is that’s just how I talk. I like being straight up with people and sometimes the truth hurts, but unfortunately, I can’t be any other way as a person. In regards to inspiration, I find whenever you try to absorb someone else’s style it immediately sounds inauthentic – or contrived. So the easiest thing for me is to just write how I feel and live out loud. We have to speak the truth because the magazines aren’t. That’s where the ranties come in I guess.

Pony: But your voice is all that you reveal about yourself. Why do you choose to have such mystique over your identity?

Jen: I’d like to think I’m speaking for all of us out there. The idea that it could be coming from anyone around us I thought was quite nice. Plus, when you’re putting your whole life out there in print – a little bit of mystery visually is refreshing. It seems to work fine as well; the number of newbies I get from Twitter is astounding, and in its essence, it also is quite mysterious in terms of identities. But look at the success from that social network: mainstream news is about eight minutes behind what gets posted on Twitter.

Pony: And it’s also helped gain readership I presume?

Jen: Oh yea. It’s such a non-committal way to engage with a brand. It’s a bite-sized Bras and Ranties really.

Pony: So before the madness of the site and your Twitter, tell us a little more about your background.

Jen: Well, with my experience in branding I had some knowledge as to how to connect with the consumer. That’s really all there is to it. Plus the work I was doing in that space required you to identify with consumers on a regular basis – that’s where the intrigue came from. And I love encouraging other women to chase their curiosity and start doing things a little differently in terms of attitude, style, and pop culture generally. It’s been a huge part of who I am for a long time.

Pony: I loved that post about the Alexander McQueen shoes by the way. Unreal.

Jen: They’re amazing. Shopping’s my hobby. I enjoy getting dressed in the morning because it’s part of my identity, and it changes every day along with my mood. I’ll change three times if I have to depending on my mood. It’s what’s on the inside coming out through fashion.

Pony: Agreed! So what’s your biggest challenge day-to-day? With the site?

Jen: The biggest challenge is blogging so often. I am a huge procrastinator; so everything always has to be at the last minute. I don’t even start blogging until about 11:00 or 12:00 at night. It’s quite incredible to see how long it takes to sort through your content and images and figure out exactly what you’re going to post. It’s hard to do. And from being a consumer of it, I know that if there isn’t enough posts then I get disappointed. The other challenge is making this my job. It’s hard to monetize this and make it my life. I enjoy the conversation that happens with blogging so I’m hoping for more people to start interacting with me and respond to what I write about.

Pony: What do you hope to accomplish next?

Jen: I need to take the site from being something small and cute to really seeing what its limits are. I have such a great support system in place in terms of discovering my creativity and taking risks; six months ago I didn’t think this would go anywhere. It’s so humbling, the Internet really makes this world one place. If you keep your eye on huge goals and over-shoot then you get somewhere pretty cool. So I’m just going to see where this can go in terms of making it a cooler place for readers to be… That and throw a nice big party…

After the interview, we thought we’d quiz Jen on some of her favourite spots in Toronto for coffee, dates, and everything in-between:

Favourite Coffee Shop: Dark Horse on Spadina
Favourite Place for Brunch: Niagara St. Café
Favourite Dinner Spot: The Harbord Room
Favourite First Date Spot: Rodney’s Oyster House
Favourite Special Date Spot: Amuse Bouche
Favourite Place to Party: The Drake, Marben, Reposado,
Favourite Vintage Shop: 69 Vintage, Public Butter,
Favourite Beauty Spot: Gee Beauty

XoXo
– The Cowgirls

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