We couldn’t contain our excitement when we heard that Scott Schuman, The Sartorialist, was coming to Vancouver for a book signing at Vancouver's Secret Location. We sat down with him to chat style icons, hairstyles, and portraits.

Vitamin Daily: In your new book Closer, you talk about how people need to have style icons that match their body shape. Tell us a bit more about this, when you realized it, and how important it is for women and men to do this.
Scott Schuman: I think I went through the same things as everyone else. You see people like Fred Astaire and Cary Grant, and they look great, that's why they are fashion icons, and I would look at how they are dressed and want to do something similar to that. But it never worked for me, and never looked the same way on me. What you learn is that with someone like that, you have to be inspired by pattern combinations, colour combinations, you have to be more abstract. But then I ran into this guy Alessandro (Squarzi) who is a little bit taller than me but has the same persona, he has a stronger build like me and it was the first time that I had met someone who has a similar body type to me. And I thought, I could learn from him, about what works and what doesn't work. And I was more inspired by him and what was working with him, than I had ever been by Fred Astaire and Cary Grant. Even someone like Armani is built like me, he is more slim than me, but more my height. For most people, it is more of a personal journey. Hopefully I shoot a lot of different types of people, and hopefully people can find someone they can relate to.

Vitamin Daily: What's a big style mistake that you see when you are out shooting?
Scott Schuman: I don't know, I never really think about mistakes. I don’t really take the time to notice things that aren't working, I really try to notice the things that are working. I know it sounds weird, but it is the most obvious thing. I am a positive person, and I don't look at things in the negative way.

Vitamin Daily: Tell us about which city's good style most surprised you?
Scott Schuman: One of the places that I really like is Savannah, Georgia. Also, I was just in Poland in a place called Poznań, and one of things that I thought was really interesting is that for some reason that girls in that city have learned that even if you don't have a lot of money (in Savannah they are mostly college kids and in Poznań they are mostly middle class), it is a good idea to put your money where you are going to get the best results. And the thing I found that these girls did (in Poznań), was that they all had great hairstyles. They had really put their money into interesting haircuts, not crazy, but interesting. Which is brilliant.

When you think about it, you wear your hair everyday. You get a return from it every day. And you have a couple of different ways you can do it, you can wear it up, down, or with accessories. I thought that was a really smart move, and it hasn't really dawned on me that it could have that strong of an effect. I don't really have specific places, but that is one of the things that keeps me traveling, to find little nuggets of truth like that, that aren't about money or expensive things, but how you make something work that is manageable.

Read the rest of Alexandra Suhner Isenberg’s interview with Scott Schuman and get RSVP details for his Vancouver event on our Editors' Diary.

We sat down with Erin Karpluk and Adam Fergus, stars of CBC’s Being Erica, to talk about why the show, now in its third season and showing in 160 countries worldwide, works, what it was like for Karpluk (who plays Erica) growing up in Jasper, Alberta and the duo’s favourite (and not so favourite) '90s fashion moments.

What is it about the show that resonates with viewers?
EK: It’s the universal theme of regret. Regardless of where you are in the world or what age you or what gender, or what class or religion or race, everyone can identify with making mistakes and having regrets. That, and the nostalgia of being able to go back in time…and listen to the music of the '90s-the hair and the fashion alone are really intriguing to some people.

Like the scrunchies you often wore in the first season when you traveled back in time?
EK: Yes, the scrunchies and those awful shirts that clip on that are like swimsuits. Those are a nightmare because I have to wear them on the show and anytime you have to go to the ladies’ room, it’s just an effort: “Production, I will be back in 10 minutes!”

Do you remember what you wore in high school?
AF: Well, I didn’t wear the scrunchies! But you go through so many fads in high school. I had the Red Hot Chili Peppers T-shirt and the Pearl Jam T-shirt and stuff like that
EK: Did you have the Hypercolor T-shirt that changed colour? Those were the worst idea, they changed colours in your underarms. Chip and Pepper was cool. And certainly a big phenomenon in Edmonton and Calgary, and that trickled down to Jasper because we came here to shop, was the Club Monaco shirt, with that iconic circle. I had one in three different colours and the mom jeans, we rocked those out a lot and the Shannon Doherty bangs, I had those.
AF: I had the undercut for guys, the parting in the middle and the undercut on the side and the hair comes over the head and you try to get as long as you can behind your ears.
EK: The music was good in the '90s, I don’t know about the fashion.

You’re often called a Vancouverite because you are based there now but you actually grew up in Jasper.
EK: I’m an Alberta girl through and through. I was lucky enough to do an interview on The View and they said, “You’re from Vancouver,” and I said, “No, I am actually from Jasper!” And corrected them. I am biased but I think the friendliest people are from Saskatchewan and Alberta. And just growing up a in a small community where you don’t lock your doors and everyone knows your name and now going back with the show, it’s amazing the amount of support. You are limited in some respects but it’s good…you are a little bit sheltered…you worry about bears but you don’t worry about people…but you learn.

Read (and watch) the rest of our interview with Erin and Adam on today's Editors' Diary.