When you visit Cabo San Lucas as a tourist your involvement is quite different than that of a “gringo”. As an expat, one becomes somewhat  inured to the very things that were once the highlights of vacationing here: reams of bougainvilla blooming everywhere, giant cacti punctuating endless desert terrain, tiny newts scurrying down the walls of the house, an avalanche of color drenching the landscape, the ocean and even the absolutely perfect climate. The lust for that margarita, the maharachi players, and crazy beach activities dims. Living here, one begins to blend into and appreciate why certain icons hold so much sway in this environment. One such symbol is Frida Kahlo, whose assent in the art world has added enormous gravitas to Mexican culture.  Kahlo’s anguish and passion emerge from her canvases in a fiery torrent of color and form and are celebrated by feminists worldwide for their portrayal of the female experience and her devotion to the indigenous people of Mexico. Her image is reflected on eatery walls, painted on furniture, embossed on trinkets, printed on t-shirts, glazed on ceramics –I could go on. Her global influence has blurred borders, at least in the creative hemisphere and today, her international reach is not debatable.

Seeing Frida Kahlo’s portrait embedded among blooming cactus on Bedhead’s Frida pajamas only serves to prove this point. A longtime fan of Kahlo’s work, founder Renee Clair Bertrand was inspired to design the Frida print; particularly this season, after unprecedented rain in California created “desert magic”. In Renee’s homage to Kahlo, she has recognized this celebrated feminine force in Mexican culture. Delivering at retail in June, this collection,made in the USA, is a cool and comfortable taste of the warm Mexican way of life. Pictured here are the cotton knit PJ’s fitting XS-XL, already a brand wholesale bestseller.  Not widely recognized in her lifetime, Frida Kahlo would have been pleased to know this.

“Don’t Build a Wall Around Your Own Suffering
Or It may Devour You From the Inside” ~Frida Kahlo

Over the weekend I finished reading F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Beautiful and the Damned”. I haven’t read Fitzgerald since my school age days, where literature courses required that we dissect his writing style. Frankly, I found the task laborious; so much description, so many words to make a simple point. But as I have grown less judgmental and more discerning with age, I decided to take another stab at this author whose books, written in the early 20^th century, still hold sway over the literary world. I am very glad that I did. With Fitzgerald, it is not really about the story; although as character studies they are incomparable. It’s the poetry of the prose. When I first began listening (I listened to the book on tape), I was overwhelmed by the copious descriptive detail and thought perhaps this might be why, in today’s “get to the point” world, Fitzgerald, though studied, was relegated by many to academia. But, every phrase is a so rich in brilliant allegory, that sentence structure takes the rare position of defining the novel. From what well of beauty did Fitzgerald gain such a talent for the English language? His amazing skill with words has elevated a very basic plot-line to a technical masterpiece.

Within one hour of listening to the book, believe it or not, I began to conjure the Wacoal brand. Wacoal is a company, whose expertise in engineering has, for over 30 years, created national best-selling bras that never seem to lose their viability despite the influx of other competitors in the market. They have an uncanny talent for developing intimates that endure in a constantly evolving and show stopping marketplace. Their lingerie has become a mainstay in many retail inventories. Wacoal’s engineering expertise, professional credibility and design infrastructure have produced a font of everyday products, many amplified by fashion. The Visual Effects Minimizing bra proves my point because it is not a typical minimizer.  Although it reduces bust size up to one inch and boasts many functional details, the fashionably engineered lace cups veil this basic foundation eloquently. Fitting 30-44, C-H cups, this bra, launched in 2016, appears by sale’s results, destined to become another Wacoal classic.

“The Wise Writer Writes for the Youth of His Own Generation, the Critics of the Next,
and the Schoolmasters of Ever Afterward” ~F. Scott Fitzgerald

This week Alison finds yet another brand worthy of our Gallery, La Costa del Algodón. This Barcelona based design house founded by Chipi Tornos and Isabel Pedemonte has created a luxurious line of vintage inspired loungewear, some of which was seen on Nicole Kidman in the blockbuster HBO series, “Big Little Lies” …..SEE and READ more here

I remember earlier in my retail career, whenever I felt too bogged down in paperwork, I would abandon my desk and re-merchandise the selling floor. It was like mental yoga, balancing color and form without compromising focus on key items. The challenge refreshed me. Today, a little under the weather and on a publishing deadline, I decided that the best salve for my current physical and mental challenges would be to soak in a little lingerie art and find a visual parallel that clarified my story with a charismatic presentation. My search led me to Christine Designs and Dale Chihuly’s glass installations, both phantasmagorical escapes into another world. While Chihuly’s works explode into the landscape with a fusion of light, color and form, Christine’s prints are exotic compositions saturated with rich feminine narratives. Her canvases, luxurious 19mm silk, are cut into the simplest styles; the fabric, alone, guarantees a totally sensual experience. Shown here and delivering in June is Christine’s La Dolce Vita print in classic Intimate shapes available in XS-XL. Like Chihuly’s magical glass ceilings, these pieces are a seductive diversion for the creative heart. Contact Raymond@christinevancouver.com

“Art Washes Away From the Soul the Dust of Everyday Life.” ~Pablo Picasso

Writing today’s blog presented me with a challenge. I really wanted to due diligence on the Freya Spring 17 swim collection. But since the Eveden brands, of which Freya claims a robust residency, deliver every month; and because I have a personal obsession with visual merchandising, even on-line, I found myself with a choice dilemma. I had to make a decision on what to showcase here, their sleek, solid and stripe swimsuits that appeal to my east coast (New York) taste for black and blue, or the explosion of colors and prints that fit right into the Cabo San Lucas seascape. .  .READ AND SEE MORE HERE

R-E-V-O-L-U-T-I-O-N-A-R-Y……say the word out loud. How does it make you feel?  It gives me goosebumps because it describes people who are fearless, radical, avant-garde, inspirational and on the forefront of a movement to make things better for all of us, whether it be political or creative. . . . Today, in her blog, Tina Wilson illustrates and expounds on the Lingerie that changed the direction of our industry. READ and SEE more in the GALLERY!