Fashion Boston - April 2009

BY BETH TEITELL

ILLUS TRATION B Y NATHALIE DION/ AGOODSON.COM

Isn’t it Ionic?

One high-tech hair dryer truly can change your hair, it turns out — and maybe even your outlook.

Am I living a life so shallow it can be changed by a grooming implement? I don’t like to think so. But when you overhear yourself talking like an annoying Amazon.com reviewer — “My new tourmaline dryer has turned me into a different person!” — it’s time for honesty: My name is Beth and I’m not the person I hoped I was. Although, on the plus side, I do have better hair. Shinier, bouncier, less woollike, it looks as if I’ve had a professional blowout — and I don’t even have to tip myself.

And that’s not just the tourmaline talking. Or maybe it is. Eager to understand the magic behind my new $34.99 Conair 213X Infiniti Professional Tourmaline Ceramic Ionic Styler, I called the company. The tourmaline, I was told, contains a high concentration of ions, which eliminate static electricity to make the hair lie flat and look smoother and shinier. And the far-infrared heat generated by the ceramic disk technology inside dries hair faster and more gently than nonceramic dryers, thereby reducing frizz and damage.

That jibed with explanations I’d read elsewhere, but I wanted to fact-check at MIT. Alas, a spokeswoman couldn’t land a professor, although she did e-mail her own perspective: “My theory is that the way one’s hair looks has more to do w/mood, sleep, and changing shampoo from time to time than from anything else.”

Figuring a stylist could weigh in where Ph.D.s feared to tread,

I contacted renowned hair whisperer Mario Russo. He agreed about the ions smoothing the hair, but wasn’t quite definitive. “Do you prefer driving a Mercedes or a BMW?” he asked. “Some people swear by [ionic dryers] and some people hate them.” Most stylists prefer dryers with more powerful motors, he added.

Certain that mine was good enough for civilian use, I began alerting “friends” to the miracle among us. Well, I tried. Almost everyone was already using a tourmaline dryer. “I honestly hate traveling sometimes, because it’s too big to pack!” was a not-atypical comment. Is it small to feel hurt that no one had filled me in earlier?

“I loved mine,” another friend said, blithely adding that she’s moved on to an even better product. I was demanding to know its name when she got another call. “I’ve got to take this.” And with that, she hung up, leaving me wondering what other beauty secrets I’m missing out on — and if my hair really looks as good as I thought it did.

I BETH TEITELL IS A BOSTON-BASED WRITER AND AUTHOR OF THE BOOK “DRINKING PROBLEMS AT THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH,” A TAKEDOWN OF OUR SOCIETY’S OBSESSION WITH LOOKING FOREVER YOUNG. SHE HAS JUST RECENTLY LEARNED TO WALK IN HEELS. SHE CAN BE E-MAILED AT BTEITELL@GMAIL.COM.

THE FASHIONABLE LIFE ISHOPPING

When the Shoe Fits

BEACON HILL’S BELOVED MOXIE BOUTIQUE IS READY TO PUT WELLESLEY ON GOOD FOOTING.

aren Fabbri is a born hostess, a gift she gives full expression in her brand-new Moxie boutique on Church Street in Wellesley.

Alongside glamorously
slouchy bags and curvaceous
stilettos, the store has a cappuc-
cino machine, dog treats stashed
behind the counter, ballet flats
the size of endive leaves for mommy-and-me outings, and
something chilled for grown-ups toasting the perfect pair.

“The white wine will come out at five o’clock, or three o’clock if that’s what a customer’s mood is,” laughs Fabbri, who describes her second store as a big sister to her original Moxie on Beacon Hill. “My vision is that the Moxie girl has grown up. It’s a little more luxurious, sexier, and sophisticated. She’s more confident in her style and skin.”

While the original Moxie on Charles Street is cute, a smidge crowded, and (mostly) merchandised with shoes that could hoof a brick sidewalk, the Church St. store is unabashedly a boudoir. Interior designer Kristine Irving of Koo de Kir designed the purple, glass-beaded chande-

liers, the 14-foot velvet chaise stretching down the center, and the low shelves holding a delectable mix of clutches, wedges, and peep-toe booties.

“I e-mailed about 30 friends who are major shoppers, and the word on mirrors was unanimous: We had to go full-length,” says Irving.

And the tall, well-lit panels, set at the front and back of the store, are ideal for the fine of art of bag-shoe pair-ings. The orange Tory Burch Gareth clutch ($365), for instance, is perfectly prep-cool with Cynthia Vincent’s navy nautical-knot Delphi sandals ($235), while the beige ruffles of Loeffler Randall’s Aspen flat sandal ($595) with a pink shoulder bag from Foley and Corinna ($425) yearns for summer cocktails.

Fabbri’s always felt a kinship with accessories, and for reasons many of us can relate to. “I’m one of [those] girls that’s like, ‘What size am I this month?’ so shoes have always been true blue to me,” she says. “I joke that I dress from the ground up, thinking about shoes first.”

In Wellesley, Fabbri’s introducing Jerome C. Rousseau,
an up-and-coming footwear designer favored by Katie Hol-
mes and influential e-tailer Net-a-Porter. His soaring stilet-

tos, with their wicked curves and handmade fabric details ($550 to $795), will be the priciest in Moxie’s assortment.

Wellesley also showcases lower-cost items to polish up a simple outfit: adding the structured pleats of an Echo scarf ($42) would make a T-shirt seem designer-y; a few of Pono’s opalescent horn bangles (starting at $32) would give a wrap dress a bit of sex appeal.

For bags, she’s picked styles from Kooba, Lauren Merkin, Hayden-Harnett, Rafe, and Botkier, all of which have distinctive craftsmanship, but sell for less than $1,000.

Dividing her time between the two stores does make for more commute time. (Several times a week, Fabbri — a Beacon Hill resident who’s on a first-name basis with many of her customers — jumps into her ice-blue Honda and heads to Wellesley.) But cultivating her flocks at both stores, she insists, is the something she’s even more passionate about than shoes.