Beauty – Page 2 – Suzanne Wexler

Bodysuits Are Back!

*The article below appeared in the Montreal Gazette and then in-print or online at the Vancouver Sun, the Calgary Herald, The Province, The Times Colonist and others.

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“Oh jeez, please no!” is likely what most women think when hearing the word “bodysuit.”

But it’s time to, er, suck it up: The form-fitting, snap-crotch bodysuit is gaining some major retail momentum. By summer, expect to see the look at more stores than just American Apparel.

This season, a navy blue bodysuit sold out across Canada at Club Monaco in less than a month. “Some things just fly off the racks,” said a baffled sales clerk, pulling out a purple bodysuit instead. The purple version with jersey swooping around varies from the bestselling blue, which had long sleeves and was in silk.

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The Art of the Window Display

This is a kind of holiday-inspired story I wrote, even though window dressers work all year round. It was fascinating to learn was just how artistically driven these crafty workers can be and also how utterly detailed oriented the whole process is. Here’s a gasp-worthy display from Bergdorf’s from the limited-edition book by Tashen, followed by my article.

From new limited-edition book “Windows at Bergdorf Goodman” released by Assouline. A Compendium of Curiosities III: Illogical Lexicons and Convivial Characters, Holiday 2009. With Jay Soonthornsawad. Fabricated entirely in paper. Sculpture by Biak Kerdkan, Matt Northridge, and James Vance. Inspired by “Alice” books by Lewis Carroll.

* This article originally appeared in the Montreal Gazette and online versions in the Calgary Herald, the Star Pheonix, the Windsor Star and on Canada.com.

“Window Wonderland”

Take the imagination of Dali and swirl it into the colour sensibility of Klimt. Then pour the mixture into a curvy mould clad in lingerie, and pop on 24 heads. Only then will you be halfway able to grasp the macabre and magnificence required to dress the windows at Bergdorf Goodman on Fifth Ave. in New York.

“Minimalism is great. Maximalism, too. What we avoid is mediumism,” writes David Hoey, senior director of visual presentation at Bergdorf’s, in the preface of Windows at Bergdorf Goodman, recently released by Assouline. This mother of all

coffee table books (it costs $560) catalogues the awe-inspiring storefront windows created by Hoey and Linda Fargo, senior vice-president of fashion office and store presentation. Displays include two giant polar bears in a wrestling ring, a wedge wearing tightrope walker and a series of enchanted forests, razzle dazzle assemblages inspired by Lewis Carroll’s “Alice” books.

Bergdorf’s elaborately themed window spaces, which span the block between 57th and 58th Sts., are changed almost weekly, revealing a shocking rebirth of imagination. Each space is about four metres high and a mere 1.2 metres deep.

Whether to attract the attention of fast-paced denizens in Manhattan or to please the savvy shoppers of Montreal, window displays are a spectator’s delight. Especially in late November and December, when store owners treat shoppers to the nostalgia of Christmas lights mixed with innovative whimsy.

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Social Photography 101 and the SELFIE; Becoming Master of your iPhoto Domain is all about Planned Casualness

How to pose for the oh-so-casual selfie?

Hair up with whispers of a come-hither look?…. OR

… Hair down and a pearly white, off-kilter smile?

As you can see from my webpage photo, I tend to prefer the sultry look. Regardless, since it took me a zillion tries to even get those semi-decent photos, I think I should practice my casual pic pose a little more!

*The article below appeared, in full or in part, in The Montreal Gazette, The Vancouver Sun, Edmonton Journal, and The Province.

Social Photography 101

The camera doesn’t love me. It doesn’t quite loathe me, either. Occasionally, it warms up to my crooked nose and zigzag smile. But based on the law of averages, I can safely predict that I’d rather see most shots taken of me disappear into the vast digital universe where they came from.

Unfortunately, they often pop up on someone else’s Flickr photo montage or Facebook page. But I’m trying to get over it. Online photo albums and social networking sites are flourishing, and embedded cameras on cellphones, iPhones and computers give millions of new photo diarists endless opportunities to showcase their skill.

And true, the skill can get ugly. Much like most new art forms, social photography — photographs intended to be shared with a large network of people — is one that beats to the most unusual sensibility. Formalities like posing or centring the shot become extraneous. Rather, it’s all about documenting your own real-time narrative, and you don’t even need a third party to help you do it.

According to a recent article in the New York Times, all you need to do is to reach out your arm, aim somewhere around your nose and snap, flash or click! You’ve got a perfectly acceptable self-portrait, aka “Selfie”, to post online. An instructional online slide show running with the piece explained that these shots should look fun and slightly off-kilter. And, like the self-portrait artist Cindy Sherman, funny costumes are welcome, too.

Whether it’s a wonky selfie, or you posting a few action shots of your pals, photography this millennium is certainly not what it used to be. But, like everything else that looks effortlessly cool, major preparation is often involved.

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Flash sales blow up

Thanks to a tip from a friend, the outnet.com is one of my favorite new flash sale websites. Even though the labels are exclusive, the site doesn’t insist upon that “members only” policy. The above patterned dresses by Pucci, Matthew Williamson, and Erdem (respectively), were all available for a very limited time on the website at over 60% to 70% off.

*This article appeared orignally in the Montreal Gazette and on the Canada.com network.

At a large warehouse in St. Laurent, in a newly crafted photo studio, Alisa Pysaryeva, a model from Folio agency, strikes a pose in a Whitney Eve dress. A few doors down in another studio, a mint green Balenciaga handbag is being puffed and positioned for its photo op. Luxury handbags are lined up, awaiting their turns.

Photo shoots like these happen daily at Beyond the Rack, a Montreal company that sells discount Gucci, Juicy Couture and lesser-known brand-name items at online “flash sales.” A flash sale means that bargain items -typically last season’s overstock and sample pieces reduced in price by 40 to 70 per cent -are available only for a brief, limited time.

For Beyond the Rack’s shoppers, that’s a mere 36 hours after the sale opens at 11 a.m., when a mass emailing alerts customers to the latest deals -like the Balenciaga bag going for $1,599 instead of the original $2,095. Buyers then act fast. Not only will the company’s million-plus customers be vying for the same discount items, but when the time’s up, the “flash sale” is extinguished.

Far beyond Beyond the Rack -indeed, over the border and across the sea -similar flash sale websites are scorching through the Internet. Popular sites, all ending with a . com, include Gilt Groupe, Haute-Look, Vente Privee, RueLaLa, Enviius, Ideeli and Fashion Vault (eBay’s latest attempt get into the game). Each has its own photo studios, models and designer labels, and each insists that its customers are really “private members”-that is, to get daily emails about these flash sales, shoppers must be invited to join the website by a friend, or request a membership online.

Even if practically everyone who signs up for most of these sites is accepted, it’s a tactic that helps turn potential waste into a desirable commodity.

“Like a bouncer with velvet ropes, you’ve got to create a fence, a barrier around these clearance items,” says Beyond the Rack CEO Yona Shtern.

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