Fashionably Florence: Fashion and music combine flawlessly for Montreal radio host

Fashionably Florence: Fashion and music combine flawlessly for Montreal radio host



Maybe it’s the mellifluous voice as she hosts her weekly radio show, Planète K, on Radio-Canada. Maybe it’s her deep, dark eyes with a trace of mystery and sadness. Maybe it’s her music — she spins, storifies, and plays piano and sings, with her preferred repertoire a sultry blend of bossa nova, blues, pop and Cuban rhythms.

Florence was one of the Montreal personalities who walked the catwalk at the Festival Mode & Design last week. She also did a DJ set.

“Music and fashion are linked — it’s creativity,’’ she said.

As a performer, she feels obliged to dress up for the audience: “I’m going to give them the best of me.”

The musician and fashion aficionada grew up surrounded by music: her mother is opera singer Natalie Choquette, her father, Hany Khoriaty, was a pop star in Lebanon, and composed and performed in France, then here in Montreal. Florence, now 29, trained as classical pianist, and travelled the world with her mother, but got her musical versatility playing piano at Stash Café in Old Montreal. For four years, five hours a night, while in CEGEP, she expanded her repertoire. By the end of her gig there, she could do three nights without repeating a single piece of music, encompassing every genre from jazz to classical.

“My personal vision of music, I built it at Stash Café,’’ she said, adding that while she did a year of university in Ottawa, she would drive to Montreal on weekends because she loved the gig so much .

Since she made her name and first album, Live at the Lion d’Or, in 2005, she has released four other albums, the latest being Trilogia this year. She is currently working on a new album, writing madly and collaborating with producer Larry Klein and songwriter David Batteau

“I wrote 40 songs — maybe only two of them will make it to the record.

“It’s going to be beautiful.”

On the fashion front, Florence is dressed by Chanel, a pairing that came about on an Elle Québec shoot a few years ago.

“I love Chanel because it’s classic. I’m not like a crazy fashionista. I don’t go shop at the friperies and try to put on my own style. I like basic stuff that’s very good quality and will last long, and that I can accessorize,’’ she said.

In Quebec, she admires Denis Gagnon. “He’s got a style of his own. He’s very polyvalent.’’ There are wild fashions for those who want it, but he also offers simpler items, she added.

The green satin caftan she wears on these pages is by Gagnon. At first, she was skeptical about the piece. “I tried it on and it happened,’’ she said.

“Montreal is very upfront, artistically speaking. People come to Montreal for its arts, its music, the shows. Fashion goes with that, because it’s art as well, with the body as medium.’’

The fashion festival is another beautiful happening in Montreal, she added.

“We need that,’’ she said. “There are so many talented hairstylists, makeup artists, designers and stylists here. We need the scene to be happening, to be blooming, to be known internationally, to be photographed.’’

The regeneration of neighbourhoods like Mile End and Old Montreal is another plus, and in her neighbourhood of N.D.G., she often finds young new designers at Buzz Jeans.

“I like to know what I’m wearing. I like to know it’s not made by underpaid teenagers in Asia. I like to know that the fabric is not toxic for the environment,’’ she said.

“I like to know that it’s made with love, with passion.”