Dressing for TIFF: Borrowing glad rags with Emily Hampshire

We hope The Trotsky turns out to be the big break for winsome Canadian actress Emily Hampshire, if only so we can tell our kids we saw her in her skivvies. It was yesterday afternoon. We met our girl-on-the-verge at the Comrags studio for a Cinderella session. She had arrived on the red-eye with places to go—interviews, swank dinners, after parties—but had nothing TIFF-worthy to dress in. Designing duo Joyce Gunhouse and Judy Cornish were happy to lend.

For tonight’s big premiere, a succession of choices was paraded before her: gold brocade, blue-and-violet floral, various dusty-jewel hues of silk. Cornish loved Hampshire in a midnight navy balloon-sleeved tunic, at once blousy and neat. “It has an art-gallery feel,” she says, although admitting it’s tricky to pull off shapelessness.
“But I thought we already chose that one, ” said Hampshire. She pointed to a teal silk number with a nipped-in waist—so Mad (Wo)Men.
“Well, don’t say just yet,” admonished Gunhouse. “The big celebs never tell in advance. They always go, ‘Oh, I’m considering three or four options.’”

For today’s Trotsky press bonanza, the designers suggested a Dorothy Parkeresque dress in rustic plaid. The frock made Hampshire so happy—she twirled, she did the Marilyn, she sighed—that the designers couldn’t help but tell her she could keep it. And suddenly it’s a Comrags-to-riches story.