Check out the espy fash­ion show @ Oscar Lopez

Sweet Nothing
Treasure Trove
Calgary
(Aug.17.10)

We try and make the stop at fave Inglewood designer dis­count shop Espy a weekly endeavor. And now we’re shar­ing five favourites (with images online) from our most recent excursion:

This multi-coloured Bionic wrap dress ($89) has us wish­ing for at least a few more weeks of summer.

With fall around the cor­ner, we can’t wait to rock these cute black ruf­fle Friis Company booties ($89).

Dresses with pock­ets — a design detail wor­thy of our high­est praise. This charm­ing Supreme Being dress ($79) does them justice.

Elastic waist­bands are our friends — espe­cially when they are attached to this super cute plaid pick-up skirt by Supreme Being ($49).

Soft, flowy and fem­i­nine, our favourite jeans will pair per­fectly with this St– Martins butterfly-esque silk tunic ($79).

Available at:
Espy
www.espyexperience.com
1217B 9 Ave. S.E.
403−457−3779



ready to wear

Calgary bou­tiques and per­sonal styl­ists are chang­ing the face of shop­ping by offer­ing style expe­ri­ences By Theresa Tayler, Calgary Herald June 15, 2010 We’ve all been there, star­ing into the chang­ing room mir­ror won­der­ing, Is this a good idea? Before you know it you’ve got a shop­ping bag full of trendy tops and skinny jeans that look bet­ter on the rack. Those impulse buys will sit in your closet for months, until you make the annual trip to the near­est Goodwill bin and donate that bun­dle of unworn polos, trousers and ill-advised pantsuits.

Megan Szanik — owner of ESPY Boutique, on 9^th Avenue S.E. in Inglewood — and her staff don’t want to see you suf­fer in the name of fash­ion any longer. The style expert brings a wealth of exper­tise as a buyer and mar­keter in the North American fash­ion indus­try to the table, and will have you fit­ted — and in fash­ion — in a jiffy. “It used to be that peo­ple would walk into a store and they get a girl behind a counter, just stand­ing there say­ing ‘Can I help you? Can I help you?’ That’s not what you get with us. We know how to find the right clothes that fit you and make you look fab­u­lous.” says Szanik.

When a cus­tomer comes into ESPY, she’s given the full shop­ping expe­ri­ence. In fact, Szanik — whose bou­tique offers its own line of makeup and, com­ing soon, cloth­ing, accom­pa­nied by women’s and men’s brands such as Aaiko, Boxfresh, Bionic, Ben Sherman, Gsus and Yumi — scoffs in the name of tra­di­tional retail. “I’m not going to try to sell some­body some­thing they look bad in. It’s not good for busi­ness when they go home and their friends say, ‘Why did you buy that? It looks horrible.”

Style advis­ing, as opposed to sell­ing, is a trend tak­ing off across the city. Discerning shop­pers see quick-sale retail as a thing of the past, accord­ing to Jason Krell, a Calgary-based fash­ion mar­keter and pub­lic rela­tions con­sul­tant. “People are look­ing for style advice rather than head­ing out and blow­ing a grand on some­thing then not know­ing how to wear it. There are also more trunk show-type sales that are pop­ping up all of the time,” he says.

Krell says fash­ion indus­try insid­ers — from design­ers to retail­ers and small bou­tique own­ers — are begin­ning to custom-fit their clothes to suit the client’s body and lifestyle. Retailers and shop own­ers are becom­ing increas­ingly aware that it’s time to embrace all body shapes and help peo­ple feel good about how they look, he says. He points to recent exam­ples such as Laura Caravaggio’s Lola and Gigi Toronto-based online bou­tique and trav­el­ling sale show, which vis­ited Calgary on June 9 at Fashion Central. Caravaggio offers style advice and cloth­ing lines for plus-sized women.

Other exam­ples include: — Local styl­ist Kim Flanagan, who oper­ates her Mommy Wear Daily web-site (mom­my­wear. square-space.com)and style con­sult­ing busi­ness. Flanagan advises women (preg­nant and not) how to dress to suit their bodies.

- The Calgary Denim Clinics, which take place spo­rad­i­cally at Fashion Central (fashioncentral.ca).

People attend the work­shops to be fit­ted for custom-made jeans, start­ing at $145 a pair.

- Chic Calgary-based designer Shae Barry, who recently opened his flag­ship design studio-boutique down­town. Barry, who has over 25 years expe­ri­ence as a cou­ture designer, has geared his new shop toward cus­tom fit­ting and tai­lor­ing for each client’s shape and preference.

It all adds up to the new trend: being tai­lored to wear rather than ready to wear.

Carol Tuttle is an alter­na­tive psy­chother­a­pist and the author of Dressing Your Truth: Discover Your Personal Beauty Profile and sev­eral other style and self-esteem books. She says women and men want their fash­ion sense to define them and add to their self con­fi­dence — peo­ple still have a lot of self-esteem issues in the change room.

From weight to body type, bust­line to belt­line, Tuttle says she hears it all from clients who feel hor­ri­ble about how they look. “It makes sense to me that Calgary bou­tiques are begin­ning to offer per­sonal styling as a reg­u­lar thing,” says the Utahbased author. “There’s a lot of peo­ple out there who aren’t happy with their bod­ies. If they’re not happy about them­selves, well they’re not going to buy clothes.”

It’s not just weight issues. Tuttle says peo­ple are inun­dated with style options and pop­u­lar media that spread the mes­sage, “we need to be fash­ion­able.” Szanik agrees that if styl­ists, bou­tique own­ers and retail­ers are going to remain suc­cess­ful, they must stop pay­ing atten­tion to trend and brand and begin look­ing at clothes based on how they fit a client’s lifestyle and body type.

ESPY will soon will offer a 12 and up sized sec­tion, and this sum­mer the shop will begin stock­ing curvy-fitted Cookie Johnson Jeans (designed by Magic Johnson’s wife), up to a size 38.

“We’re less con­cerned about what brand it is and more con­cerned about shape,” says Szanik.

New Review!

espy is a good place to go for some­one who’s not sure what they want, or maybe doesn’t like shop­ping. the owner is essen­tially stacy from ‘what not to wear.’ i went in and tried a cou­ple of things on, and she said she had a dress com­ing in that would suit me. she picked up on my style imme­di­ately and she’s essen­tially size psy­chic. she knows what will fit and look good. the cloth­ing is good qual­ity. the one i bought was cot­ton. i wore it to a party and was accosted by peo­ple demand­ing to know where i found it.

Girls Gone Wild

cal gal Calgary, canada (Dec.16.09)

After vir­tu­ally being dragged kick­ing and scream­ing to the change room by shop owner Megan Szanik, I begrudg­ingly con­vinced to try on a pair—but not before I forced my friend Beth to try them on with me. We emerged in what can only be described as a Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants moment—they hugged our curves in just the right places, elon­gated our legs and tight­ened up our rears instantly. Had it not been for the fact that my butt-crack was mak­ing an unwel­come appear­ance before I even sat down, I would have walked away with at least a cou­ple pairs.

Night Out in Inglewood

In Inglewood, Monday May 10 from 6 till 9 pm, we cel­e­brated all things fem­i­nine with our neigh­bours! For espy that includes: styling, make up appli­ca­tion with espy make up, get­ting “LIT” with Lit Cosmetics, and skin care sam­ples for all! Refreshments will be avail­able, espy style!

Most of the other shops in Inglewood par­tic­i­pated, and these are just a few of our peeps that were in the “hood!”

espy in vit­a­min daily!

I SPY SALE

A lit­tle mix of every­thing is the key to a girl’s heart. At least that’s the phi­los­o­phy of new Inglewood bou­tique Espy, a mecca of all things a woman wants, even a lit­tle some­thing for her man.

At the front of the shop you’ll find a range of min­eral makeup, sparkle from Calgary’s

Lit Cosmetics and skin care line G.M. Collin. At the back, it’s for the boys with shirts by Ben Sherman and tees by Fresh Jive.

In the mid­dle, it’s fash­ion for the ladies with maxi dresses by Jenny Han (pic­tured), tops by Valérie Dumaine and lit­tle jack­ets by Covet.

Each price tag includes a sug­gested retail price and below it, the much bet­ter look­ing Espy price — it’s like a sale every day.

Now that’s a sure way to a woman’s heart.

Espy, 1217B Ninth Ave. SE, Calgary, 403−457−3779

www.espyexperience.com

espy on sweet spot

We love a fash­ion bar­gain. Of course, it’s only a bar­gain if it’s some­thing that we actu­ally covet. At the just-opened Espy bou­tique, find­ing some­thing we don’t desire has become the chal­lenge of the day.

A shop chock full of unique, high-end, lesser known design­ers and brands, own­ers Lisa Marie Sikina and Megan Szanik source out designer clear­ances and offer their incred­i­ble finds at a frac­tion of the orig­i­nal cost. We imme­di­ately spot­ted a vari­ety of just-arrived trench coats: the slim-fitting steel-grey and eye-glass pat­terned coat by Gsus($183), and bright orange Nick & Mo ($109) instantly made our out­er­wear wish list. But what to wear under­neath? Our hands quickly grabbed the cute n’ sassy black spaghetti-strap Yumi sun­dress ($93). (Sun Gods, hear our prayers – and don’t ren­der this pur­chase null and void with more rain.)

With colour-coded siz­ing tags and a weekly stream of stock, designer dis­count shop­ping has been made as stress-free as pos­si­ble.
Now that’s a great deal.

Espy
www.espyexperience.com
1217B 9 Ave. S.E.
403−457−3779

Read more: http://sweetspot.ca/national/sweet_nothing/10451/cal_fashion_frugal/#ixzz0MlgdArAX

http://thesplashfantastic.com/2009/07/14/introducing-espy/

Rave Review for Espy on Yelp!

Accidently brushed upon this store while check­ing out Nectar Desserts across the street. The shop was a flurry with activ­ity, seems it was closed for the evening but they were get­ting ready for Xmas night in Inglewood which will be tomor­row November the 19^th.

Although store was closed they were very pleased to have us come in and browse their wares. I was so sur­prised that every sin­gle item both men and women’s cloth­ing was amaz­ing. Being involved in the fash­ion indus­try in Mexico before mov­ing here I was like what the &^%$%$##? I couldn’t believe my eyes; cloth­ing had avant garde design, was very fast for­ward and in lux­u­ri­ous fab­rics and appeal­ing col­ors. The prices are a lit­tle upper end but not what I would expect from what I saw in this store, items could have eas­ily been priced double.

There are actu­ally only 4 staff mem­bers who work there, but there is such good energy in this store, that friends agreed to come and help the folks at Espy out.
Megan who was obvi­ously the man­ager knows her merch inside and out. She was incred­i­bly friendly and so on her game around styling and mix­ing and match­ing. She claims she can dress any body type that comes into the store and make them look fab­u­lous. She was such a kind, atten­tive and con­vinc­ing sales­per­son that of course we walked out with a great short set.

If any­one wants to step up their wardrobe and add pieces from high end exclu­sive design­ers from North America and the UK, def­i­nitely come here. This is one of the best shops I have seen in Calgary for fash­ion inven­tory with rea­son­able pric­ing and excel­lent sales staff.