Art – Suzanne Wexler

Barbie Expo Montreal: The Only Review You Need to Read

*This article was first published on fab feminist site Bust.com

I loved Barbies as a kid. Then as an adult, I learned that the dolls were an embarrassment to humanity. Now, I’m back: I heart Barbie. My change of opinion happened after visiting the new BARBIE EXPO that opened mid-February in downtown Montreal. The must-see exhibit claims to boast the largest permanent collection of Barbie dolls in the world, from JLo and Duchess Kate Barbies, to Chanel and Vera Wang Barbies, to Steampunk Barbie with green hair and a long frightening coiled neck.

After perusing the expo’s mind-boggling array of 1000+ high-fashion Barbie dolls, I was reminded that Barbie is just a fun dress-up toy to inspire the imagination—and is probably not a symbol of all that is evil in this world.

After Hijab Barbie and Mattel’s tall, curvy, and petite Barbies created recent media stirs, now in proper Montreal form, Barbie gets reinvented once again as a cool-girl with a fantastical fashion streak. This depiction manages to transcend Barbie’s locked and loaded reputation as an icon of conformity—a reputation Mattel has long tried to reinvigorate after she was introduced in 1959. But Expo Barbie likely succeeds in transforming her image because the collection was put together by independent curators, and not by Mattel. As such, these dolls don’t look like they’re trying to sell anything—they simply appear as fixtures of private life, and reflections of whoever bothered to collect or design the elaborate outfits in the first place (some garments went through 200 hours of fittings with their designer.).

With Barbie as fashion muse, the exhibit is flying high with entertainment: There are Barbies à la Beyonce, Kimora Lee Simmons, Cher, Farrah Fawcet, Marilyn Monroe, and Princess Grace. There are dolls outfitted by Dior, Armani, Bob Mackie, and Ralph Lauren. Then there are Barbies donning feathers, kimonos, a sari. There are even underground alternatives tattooed Barbies. In terms of diversity, there are Barbies of various races and complexions represented, although the majority of dolls are white, though not necessarily blond. Barbie’s body proportions from head shape to height are even toyed with—though again, she’s almost always skinny, or in the case of Flashdance Barbie, gaspingly thin.

Even with the expo’s all-encompassing lens, the doll still gives off an unrealistic body image.

But overall, the expo creates a more forgiving impression of Barbie, allowing the doll to come across as whimsical and playful—a woman of reinvention like Madonna, or an eccentric style blogger of sorts—rather than a blond blue-eyed bombshell who mothers have come to protest against, not to mention who has attracted a string of tacky plastic-surgery enhanced followers. And like me, you may end up leaving the expo remembering Barbie as that childhood doll you adored because it was simply fun as heck to change her outfits—not because you were somehow brainwashed and misguided by the Dreamhouse fantasy.

The Barbie Expo was put together by the administration of Les Cours Mont-Royal, a shopping mall in downtown Montreal that was once regarded as the city’s mecca of fashion, but now has an unfortunate vacancy rate. Looking to bring-in a high-style attraction, the administrators created a committee of curators, architects, designers to collect the Barbie Expo dolls from around the globe. The team purchased some of the Barbies outright from collectors, while others were donated. The free-of-charge Expo gives 100% of proceeds from the suggested donations to the Make-A-Wish foundation of Quebec.

Many of the Barbies featured were once sold to the public as limited-edition dolls by Mattel. Others were created by artists or private collectors themselves, allowing Barbie to surpass market barriers and enter more expansive spheres, such as the one exhibited by Hijab Barbie (a.k.a. @hijarbie), sewn by 24-year old Haneefa Adam of Nigeria (Hijarbie is not part of the exhibit).

“Pure coincidence,” Valerie Law said of the expo’s timing, which opened on Feb. 10, right on the heels of Barbie’s new silhouettes featured in Time, and moments after Hijab Barbie became an internet darling. Law is the VP of marketing for the Soltron Group that owns Les Cours Mont-Royal. “We brought this exhibition here to Montreal because it is a fashion capital. And no one is really highlighting that about the city.” Law cites the elegant Zuhair Murad Barbie as her favorite.

As Montreal’s Barbie Expo is not affiliated with Mattel, the exhibit is likewise sans bubble gum pink displays. (The much-maligned gender-specific sales presentation found in many toy stores is a stigma Mattel also tried to overcome by featuring a boy in a 2015 commercial.) Rather, at the expo, the backdrop is a fresh white and black, with swirling crystal chandeliers. This more classical, and far less dizzying environment is more suited to dragged-along daddies, brothers, or even not-quite-so girly-girls visiting the expo. Meanwhile, Barbie aficionado’s will have their eyes popping out at every turn. They may even find themselves manically posing in the Barbie selfie booth with #ExpoBarbie. (umm… guilty.)

Heads-up: There are no actual Barbies for sale at this independent charity exhibit. Also, curvy, tall, and petite Barbies and Hijarbie have yet to make their debuts at the Barbie Expo.

Once upon a time, while at The New School, Suzanne Wexler wrote her M.A. thesis on “The Erosion of Public Discourse: The Martha Stewart Trial and Other Provocative Tales.” It was supervised by the late and great Christopher Hitchens, along with linguist Melissa Monroe. After moving back to Montreal, she wrote feature articles and trend reports for major Canadian newspapers. She also got married and had some super-cute kids. Now she’s working on a book of humor essays. Find her at www.suzannewexler.com.

There’s Something About Seniors

***Images from PowerHouse books.

These days, women 70 and older are expanding our gaze to appreciate one of the most often forgotten forms of physical beauty: old age.

That’s right: Our obsession with youth and smooth skin has just been given a wrinkle that may never be Botoxed. A stunning book called Advanced Style (PowerHouse Books, $40) by street style photographer Ari Seth Cohen released this month captures New York City’s most elegant grandes dames. They sport glamorous hats, gold drop earrings, oversized glasses and colourful vintage scarves. Many are regulars on Cohen’s popular blog (advancedstyle.blogspot.ca), on which the book is based. There is also a third prong to the project, a documentary, which will be released this summer.

“I’ve always been interested in style and fashion, and I thought it would be a great way for people to have an inspiring image of what it is to grow older,” Cohen, 30, said of the project, which he started four years ago as an homage to both his grandmothers.

The book’s cover art features the glorious Gitte Lee, a former model revived in an Italian Vogue 2010 editorial.

A few pages later, there is the simply named Rose, wearing a purpled print kimono dress. At 100 years old, she insists no outfit is complete without an eye-catching belt or elegant strand of beads.

Marc Jacobs was so inspired by Cohen’s blog, he based his Fall 2012 collection on it, the designer revealed to WWD and the New York Times.

“I hope I’m like this when I’m older,” Kim Kardashian tweeted upon viewing the YouTube trailer to the Advanced Style documentary, a playful four-minute clip featuring mega-stylish seniors praising colour, leopard print and larger-than-life accessories.

To them, fashion is a vibrant form of self-expression and an unrelenting source of creative freedom.

“I get emails from younger women all the time saying, ‘I can’t wait to get older’ – that’s the most amazing thing to me,” Cohen said. To him, Advanced Style was always about more than capturing golden- and platinum-age fashion: It was about showing how his muses are advanced in many aspect of life. “Style is a reflection of their vitality and spirit,” he said. Many of his subjects experience daily pains and have suffered through tragedy, but they still enjoy their lives brilliantly. Fashion is simply one of those ways.

Cohen adds quotes to the photos in the book, and posts videos of seniors on his blog, where their personalities come through, and are ultimately where Cohen’s project really hooks you.

“I’m old and nobody has to like (what I’m wearing) as far as fashion is concerned,” says Ilona Royce Smithkin, a 92-year old artist-turned-cabaret performer (who still performs), in a video.

With bright orange hair and long matching eyelashes, Smithkin is one of Cohen’s more eccentric dressers and wittiest personalities. “As long as I look in the mirror and (see) – AH! – this is me,” she says, everything is all right. A Q&A with burlesque star Dita Von Teese and Smithkin is printed at the end of the book.

Once entrenched in Cohen’s old-timey world, and peering through his rectangular looking glass – whether in blog, book or video form – one’s eyes are changed for good. Even Beatrix Ost who wears a vibrant emerald turban (for fashion, not religion) with a matching flower appliqué suddenly doesn’t seem, well, so kooky anymore. Rather, personal style becomes an invitation into someone’s autobiography.

Style strata

Since most advanced-style women shop within their own closet, Cohen says, their wardrobe not only reflects their personal style, but also the era they come from.

“Women in their 80s, 90s, and 100s dress very differently from women in their 60s and 70s,” he points out. “This sense of elegance of grace, and putting on hats and gloves, is definitely more alive in the older, older women.” During the Depression, he says, style was ultimately a sign of dignity and not giving up. This mentality continued in later life.

Meanwhile, women in their 60s and 70s “went through feminism, and they were influenced by hippie culture,” he said. As a result, some wardrobes tend to have ethnic and even punk influences.

Seventy-four year old Montreal model and actress Francine Lacroix still has a talent agent: Sybille Sasse, one of the few who will represent models 60 and older. Lacroix has fond early memories of fashion. She is also amazed about how much has changed over the years.

“My fun growing up was looking at my mom before she went out at night,” Lacroix said staring off wistfully. “I thought she was beautiful, and she was.” Her father owned well-known furrier J.K. Walkden on Sherbrooke St. downtown, and she can remember the pair heading off to the opening of the Queen Elizabeth (1958), the opening of Places des Arts (1963), and, and then to Expo 67. Her mother often wore custom garments by Leo Chevalier, Marie-Paule Nolin and Michel Robichaud.

As her everyday dress code, her mother used to wear a tweed skirt, a cashmere sweater and pearls. But only a generation apart, and outliving her mother by a number of years, Lacroix says she is deeply influenced by casual dressing. She wears Hue jeggings to the mall.

“There were all kinds of balls with the long white gloves,” she recalls of her own glamorous past spent with her late husband, who worked in advertising. Yet today, for openings at the Musée des Beaux Arts, or at La Maison Symphonique, which she still attends, Lacroix dons a nice slacks suit and cape. Because of arthritis, she says she avoids heels (“I wish I still could!”), and says that pants look better than skirts and dresses with the sensible footwear. Rarely does any event she attend require greater formality than a pantsuit.

Lacroix acknowledges that many Montrealers still live glamorous lives but there is a certain formality that is gone. For instance, people here once danced and dined at the piano bar, which has been uprooted by loud, casual restaurants. New York women, like the ones Cohen photographs, are the rare few who can still enjoy that element of life.

“We hope elegance lasts,” she says, noting how daughters used to copy her mothers’ fashions and now it’s the daughters who tell the mommies what to wear. Today, Lacroix also tries to mix and match like young women do. She’ll toss together a blazer, a pair of pants with Hermès jewels and scarves she collected on exotic trips with her husband. “I think it’s so much fun,” she says of the approach, even though she grew up wearing matching skirt suits, and regards formal style with nostalgia. But however casual Lacroix deems herself to be, her style, her jewels, and her radiant complexion (she swears by Lancôme beauty products) tells of her glamorous past.

Facts of life

Living to a certain age, where arthritis becomes a problem for the feet, and buttons become a challenge for the hands, there are certain wardrobe tricks many seniors turn to. Namely, elastic waistband pants, slipover tops, shirts with Velcro, long sleeves and mock turtlenecks. Clothes tend to be less clingy, too. But true advanced-style women, such as the ones selected by Cohen, tend to gravitate toward fine fabrics regardless of physical constraints. They’re also masters at making a stylish impact with bold palettes and accessories.

Cohen’s Valerie (part of the Jean and Valerie fashion duo) may wear head-to-toe leopard print; Mary says “sunglasses are better than a facelift”; Joyce wears gold chandelier earrings and carries Chanel bags; and elegant 80-year-old former dancer Jacquie Tajah Murdoch wears a long black dress, an oversized hat and boasts sharp red painted nails. But in general, there is a formula, Cohen says. “They love accessories and tend to be very good with colour, which helps them feel ‘less invisible,’ ” he says. But their biggest trick, he says, is knowing what they are comfortable wearing.

The hats, the gloves, the confidence, the glamour – there are many reasons why Cohen’s muses and senior style in general seem to be impressing upon younger generations. And while senior fashion fever may not have picked up much beyond Vogue’s annual Age Issue just yet, trendsetters sure seem to be paying attention.

To get a taste of Cohen’s Advanced Style documentary: visit youtube.com and enter the keywords: advanced style film trailer.

Electro-fabulous Snowglobes

* The design story below detailed a winter light installation piece on display in downtown Montreal until about March 2011. The best part of doing this piece was how utterly enthusiastic designer, Bernard Duguay, was about doing the project, called Spheres Polaires. (I-heart-enthusiasm, btw. It’s a sentiment oftentimes lost in ultra-cool Montreal!). Duguay wanted to create a winterland of snowglobes, an abstract bubble-icious microcosm of the city, and totally succeeded.

This beautiful shot of the installation was taken by Dario Ayala, one of the my favorite Montreal Gazette photographers.

*The article below appeared in the Montreal Gazette and the National Post.

Electro-Snowglobes

An outdoor light installation featuring 25 giant glowing bubbles is set up in Montreal’s Place des Spectacles and the adjoining Place des Arts area, inspiring hordes of photo-happy tourists and passersby to interact with the urban landscape this season.

“It’s land art for winter, plus it makes you feel like you’re in the future,” explains Bernard Duguay, the art director of the project, Spheres Polaires. Duguay conceived of the electrofabulous snowglobe scene in response to a contest, open to the public, organized by the Quartier des spectacles Partnership.

“They wanted to populate the outdoor space with something dream-like and interactive,” he says. Duguay is founder of multimedia installation company Lucion Media, which has put on shows during Canada Day festivities and produced interactive displays at the Science Centre in Old Montreal. After hearing about the contest, Duguay quickly envisioned the micro-city of spheres. But at first he was hoping to do something high-tech with the bubbles, such as having people electronically paint on them. “After a lot of [research and development], we decided to go more artistic, which meant we had to be crafty. We thought of shadow theatre,” he says. Duguay’s winning project, Spheres Polaires, executed in collaboration with his colleagues at Lucion Media and with musical director Pierre Gagnon, is among three light installation works on display at three locations along St. Catherine Street in the Quartier des spectacles.

The visceral, magical-style bubbles of Spheres Polaires are made of white, reinforced vinyl hollow domes, which Duguay says appear ” E. T.-like” during the day (they’re meant to be viewed in the evening or night).

These inflated domes, or bubbles, range from three metres to 10 metres in circumference. Their interiors are lit and have one-metre-square speakers. Some contain a rotating mobile for producing special effects.

From the exterior, the bubbles boast three different themes — winter light, urban winter and winter games. These themes determine whether the bubbles are aglow with disco-like projections activated by sensors (winter lights), or covered in swirling shadow puppets featuring the Jacques Cartier Bridge or an airplane zooming by (urban winter). Expect to see abstract scenes of children playing hockey in the winter games theme.

Spectators can control the position of the lights in a few bubbles with the swish of a hand, thanks to a one-metre-tall puck-shaped sensor on the outside. The bubbles also emit sounds ranging from New Age whispers to exuberant roars. This unexpected audio helps shake you to the core.

“We made the bubbles close enough so they feel like the squeeze of the city. And like a dance with traffic lights, sound adds to the experience,” Duguay says.

– Spheres Polaires will be on display at Montreal’s Quartier des spectacles until Feb. 27.

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.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

Graffiti Avant-Garde Art

SKAM painting Louis Vuitton store (*This article appeared, in full or in part, in The Vancouver Sun, The Montreal Gazette, The Edmonton Journal, The Calgary Herald, and more.)

It’s been sprayed on trains and scrawled across skyscrapers. This year, it was even splattered on Louis Vuitton handbags.

When, exactly, did graffiti get so glamorous?

Painters like Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) and Keith Haring (1958-1990) first brought graffiti into the avant-garde art world during the ’80s, though both passed away as their careers were launching.

Today, second generation vandals-turned-artists are earning critical respect and commercial success in the worlds of art and fashion in Canada and worldwide, leaving many hooligans with trickster smiles on their faces.

One by the name of Banksy (b. 1974) from the U.K. fetches up to $500,000 for his graffiti-inspired artwork. His pieces include a reproduction of Andy Warhol’s portrait of Marilyn Monroe, but using Kate Moss’s image instead; another piece features a live elephant painted like wallpaper. Despite his successful tongue-in-cheek gallery work, Banksy continues to post his graffiti all over the world in places like New Orleans, London and Israel. He keeps his identity secret to evade police and border patrols.

Continue reading →