| Adding a dash of glamour to fashion not only complements the look, it also creates a sense of allure and stimulates sexual attraction.
Fashion designer and revolutionary John Galliano once said that fashion is about glamour, lipstick and sex. If you are going to spend money on clothes, spend it on looking fucking gorgeous and sexy. Those who are familiar with Galliano’s creations, for his own label as well as for the Parisian house Christian Dior, know that his clothes are over the top elegance suited for a woman who wants to be seen as well as heard.
Keeping in tune with this liberated French approach to dressing, Christopher Talbot, owner of Mixed Emotions Gallery and Real Glamour Boutique, challenges Calgarian women to add a little glamour to their predominately conservative closets.
"Glamour is more about the woman, where fashion is mainly about the clothes," says Talbot, who has a remarkable history in the beauty and glamour industry. Roughly 20 years ago, Talbot dated a few models, which started his career in the modeling industry as a photographer.
"I thought that the photography was very basic stuff, so when I had the opportunity to pursue photography, I picked up a camera and started shooting."
Talbot’s first job was shooting promotional shots for Lancôme cosmetics in Texas. From there he established himself as a glamour photographer and worked with some of America’s most stunning women, such as former Miss USA and Doritos girl Ali Landry, Playboy Playmates Miss April 1999, Natalia Sokolova, and Miss November 1998, Tiffany Taylor. His eye for beauty has given him the opportunity to judge some of the most beautiful women in the U.S. for beauty pageants, which Talbot says was a more difficult task than you might expect.
"You must look beyond her obvious physical attributes and look at who she really is, and consider how seriously some of these young women take these contests," he explains.
Unlike their teenaged high fashion model peers, glamour women are about 26 to 36 years old and tend to be more mature, elegant and have a natural sex appeal.
Using his experience with the "sexier side of fashion," and taking inspiration from his passion for art and collecting award-winning memorabilia, Talbot opened Mixed Emotions Art Gallery on the boutique strip of Mount Royal Village earlier this year. A few months later, he opened Real Glamour Boutique within the same gallery space.
"For years the French have been producing fashion as art and art as fashion – there isn’t a line that divides the two – and the French people epitomize that," says Talbot.
He notes that when people walk into his gallery, they are surprised to see a clothing boutique – a combination modelled after small boutiques one would find in the South of France.
"When you go to places such as St. Tropez, parts of Cannes or Monte Carlo, there are little boutiques, not much larger than this, that are owned and run by designers. I always enjoyed shopping in those places."
Real Glamour Boutique does seem to be a bit out of the ordinary, nestled amongst the conventional fashion boutiques of uptown Calgary. Glamour is Los Angeles, Miami, Sao Paulo and even New York – anywhere that takes a more liberal approach to dressing.
"We have to use a little more caution with what we carry here in Calgary because we want people to feel good about what we are doing," says Talbot, who also has fashions selling in L.A. and plans to set up a shop there in the near future.
Real Glamour Boutique carries an exclusive mix of fashions from Los Angeles, Australia and France, and custom pieces that are designed locally by Bobbi Sue Luther, who designs the boutique’s house brand, Bobbi, and is now designing for the LA brand BeBe.
Ladies will definitely make a statement in a Bobbi lace top and and side criss-cross lace-up low-rise jeans, or show off their assets in a pair of custom designed butter soft indigo lambskin jeans. Exclusive to Real Glamour Boutique are Australian brands Wheels & Doll Baby and Circus Girl, which includes a crystal beaded T-shirt in pastel green or acid yellow.
For those who are more daring, have fun in a cuddly soft, baby blue rabbit fur bikini or a jet black sheared beaver (no pun intended) bikini. The bikinis, as well as most of the custom garments, are designed by models who use the garments for competitions, so the fit is perfect.
And you don’t have to be a beauty queen or pin-up girl to be glamorous – as they say in the beauty biz, a little confidence goes a long way.
Christopher Talbot will be hosting a salon style fashion show at the Mixed Emotions Gallery on Friday, November 15 at 7 p.m. |
