Intergalactic Nails / Suburban Dystopia

I have had a reoccurring daydream as of late; I want to get wild, airbrushed nails done. Acrylic, gel, whatever. I don't even know what those terms mean in the world of NAILZ. I just know that "I wanna get my nailz did". The look? A pedi/mani like the last one I had in Hawaii to show off well-tanned feet and open-toed Chanel platforms? No no. An infomercial-ready French manicure, mayhaps? Wrong again. Actually, despite living in the heart of Hipsterville MTL, I want something that screams 'suburban'. I want to lash out against the grain of good taste by going for the nail equivalent of 'mall hair'; bad chunky highlights, garishly false red tones, or chemically-straightened hair that ends up looking dead.

I think the problem with bad 'mall vanity' is that, in its attempt to mask its fakery, it establishes a new norm of falseness that eventually becomes accepted into the fold of sought-after aesthetics. Think: obnoxiously long fake eyelashes, orange self-tanned skin, gravity-defying breast implants and overly hair-sprayed coifs. It doesn't matter to people that these tacky looks are poor copies of the real so much as they communicate, 'I got my (fill in the blank) DID!' which, is to say, 'I am a lady of luxury; a woman with leisure time and money to spend. I can afford a particular level of vanity.'

When I bike back to my hood from the nail salon, I know most people won't get my protest in aesthetics or, they will believe that I'm being 'ironic'. Well, I'm not. I'm thinking of requesting that a whole solar system of planets and stars - heck, maybe even a purple galaxy for good measure! - be airbrushed onto my nails principally because I've been re-watching Carl Sagan's Cosmos and it's got my inspiration station ready to rocket to the moon. And, because my friend Jenny said she would do it with me. And we both grew up in a suburb of Vancouver, BC and now reside in Montreal's Mile End, and as a a curator (she) and a radio host and stylist (me), we've got too much cultural cachet for our own good. Time to check the urbanism at the door. Suburbia: here we come.

John Waterhouse / Conspicuous Glamour

Women, women, women. Did John Waterhouse paint anything besides them?

I recently caught the Waterhouse exhibit at Musée de Beaux Arts in Montréal. From one fantastical oil painting to the next, I saw Waterhouse’s idealized woman, the same woman; beautiful, forlorn, and melancholy, suspended solitude in every single frame.

Among the brilliant jewel-like colors, a certain conspicuous glamor arises – the centrality of the subject and the light cast upon their porcelain faces parallels pages of fashion editorials in some of today’s more ‘classic’ mode magazines such as Vogue. (Below: Photography by Tim Walker in Italian Vogue and Jacques Dequeker in Vogue Brazil). 

I was asked by the Canadian designer, Narcissist, to style her morphable 'Pamela' dress on the open-minded Montréal editor of Vitamin Daily, Marianne Wisenthal. We had fun experimenting with a number ways to make one dress look so different, (click here for the results). On Marianne's excellent Editor's blog, she called me "the fashionista equivalent of matches and a swiss army knife." I must say that I am puzzled, hypnotized, and flattered by her description.

Whether the Pamela dress floats your boat or not, is less relevant than the style lesson it holds for fashionistas: be flexible with how you wear/style your regular clothes too. Buy LESS, but buy well and mix it up!

Strong Shouldered Soldier

This Fall season has seen strong, dramatic shoulders on clothing ranging from novelty sweaters  to leather jackets , and smart Balmainesque blazers. But the bold shoulder trend is not for everyone. The svelte among us with ballet-type posture (and the fashion nerve to boot!), are the ones who will look best in this silhouette. This dress from designer Katie Gallagher may be one of my favorites in the category of football-shoulder inspiration, because the volume takes up the entire upper sleeve. My only trouble with wearing this very sculpted look is a question of what coat to wear on top? I have been burying the volume of bold shoulder tops and dresses beneath my voluminous secondhand fur coat, but I suppose leather, elbow-length gloves and a scarf should be able to do the trick in Fall.

Costume Connect - C'est Halloween!

I went as a bride from the Mexican Day of the Dead for Halloween. It was refreshing to be able to pull off a 'dead' costume without having to wear all black. Halloween, an occasion for DIY costume and excess amounts of toxic candy: YUM. I propose we make it a bi-annual event! Here are photos of some of my creative friends and their impressive costumes...