Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Hysan High




The grand-opening shindig for the new I.T mega-boutique on Hysan Avenue was, expectedly, a little bit crazy, a little bit crowded, a whole lot of creative and a new level of cool. The four-floor space was transformed into a playground for the It crowd -- in the bottom-floor VIP area, celebs and social types mingled around a custom-built boxing ring that periodically featured live boxers duking it out for the honour of not looking like a loser in front of everyone. People were dropping their name cards into boxes as bets on who would win, with prizes made up of I.T gift certificates in denominations of $1,000 and $2,000. I cursed myself for (again) forgetting to bring mine out.


Up two floors, there was an ice-cream cart with free mini-cones, peddled by an overly excited gentlemen who told all the ladies "if you come to i-Scream, look for anyone with blue eyes, and ask for a free ice-cream cone" -- and told my brother, twice, "this offer doesn't apply to you, only beautiful women." Smooth. Speaking of smooth, there were smoothies or slurpees, a fun alternative dispensed from machines alongside the usual champagne and beer, as well as their their non-alcoholic event brethren, OJ and cola, (sadly for some, the slurpees weren't spiked).

And of course the jewel in the crown of that floor, a space carved out to make a mini nail salon, with two technicians applying Minx nails to lucky patrons. By the time we discovered this aspect of the party, there was a long waiting list and they weren't accepting any more customers, no matter how we begged, cajoled, flashed our namecards and batted our eyelashes. Instead, we went back to ground level, where statue-like army dudes in full camo-green paint and fatigues stood clustered as part of a floor display, occasionally and subtly moving to point those AK-47s at unwitting revellers.

Word is the top floor housed a magician with a funny ball thing that appeared magnetically attached to his body (which my brother insisted is not magic, but a home-shopping trinket purchasable off informercials that air in the 1am-5am slot, and cost no more than $20 for not one, but two.)

Of course the main point of the evening was the clothing, though we all know already that I.T is the city's leading purveyor of dramatic, alternative luxury labels. But in case we didn't, there were lovely displays that reminded us. I decided to do the photo-blogger thing and lugged the SLR down with me, which hung sexily off my shoulder for the evening. Enjoy the shop photos here, though if you saw me that night and want to see photos of yourself, hit the Tumblr here.









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