Our week was filled with much discussion:

I finally put my thoughts down on what I think is beautiful Weekend Observations: How Do I Define Beauty

Why Cate Blanchett inspires me Pic of the Week: Birthday Inspiration

There are all sorts of ways to look good — follow some of these and you’ll end up benefiting in the boardroom Stop the Kvetching, Everyone Can Benefit From Looking Good In The Office

More juicy reading we couldn’t put down More to Love: Additions to the Reading List

Can you taste the summer yet?  I think I can!  Enjoy another weekend in May and start wearing those summer dresses/suits!

Torika Watters: Disqualified Fiji Beauty Contestant

• Weird but fascinating, the beauty of NON-objects

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/05/the-beauty-of-non-objects/

• When William Buffett starts investing in the beauty industry, people start taking it seriously

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47413592/ns/business-motley_fool/ 

• Artist Geoffrey Hendricks dishes it out to NY Times magazine about being an artist in the 70′s

http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/15/visiting-artists-geoffrey-hendricks/

• An example of how beauty pageants provide a window into the good, the bad, and the ugly of culture

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/341383/20120515/torika-watters-fiji-2012-miss-world-pageant.htme

Any more stories to add? Comment or tweet us @Beautyskew 

There’s been loads of stories recently about the effect of beauty in the workplace.  For the most part, the better you look, the better you fare.  Now there’s an infographic that brings it all to light in such a pretty way .

Sure, there’s been a lot of counter arguments, even attacks, on these theories.  After all, what if you’re not a “looker,” does that mean you’re going to end up with a lower paycheck? Of course not.  But let’s face it, looking nice helps.

Where these “challengers” get confused is in their interpretation of what looking beautiful/handsome means.  First of all, it doesn’t have to be one size fits all.  There’s not one way to look beautiful.  Everyone can find a way that fits them.  I used to work with a woman who had a uniform of khakis, sneakers and polo shirts everyday.  It was her way of eschewing fashion.  Yet, she painstakingly ironed her shirts everyday and always wore nice earrings.  In essence, she was looking pretty in her own way!

Second, as a Huffington Post article by Margaret Wheeler Johnson (Beauty Can Affect Your Paycheck) points out, looking good could mean smiling and acting pleasant.  Now is that so hard?

Third, find a style that works for you.  I know this sounds trite, but it’s so true!  I have clothes that I bought because they were in fashion or looked appropriate for my position (e.g., manly suits) but they weren’t “me.”  Even if I’m wearing something relatively casual or out-of-fashion for the season (ah, more like the decade), but I know its “me”, I feel and look great.

Face it, looks matter.  But don’t fret.  It’s not hard.  Make yourself look good in ways that suit you and, if all else fails, just smile.

Share your thoughts.  Comment or tweet us @Beautyskew

Cate Blanchett

Yesterday was Cate Blanchett’s birthday.  She’s 43 and looks fantastic.  Of course Cate is more than just a pretty face.  She’s an amazing actress and a mom.  So why am I focusing on her beauty?  Because I just had a birthday myself. And like many women my age, I have to admit that I’m a little scared of getting older.  Why? Because I fear losing my appeal.

I know, I know, you can’t read a blog or magazine without seeing all the hot 40-somethings out there.  But let’s face it.  The fear still lingers.

And then I see a pic of Cate whose birthday is a week after mine and I’m inspired.  Sure, Cate was born with a nice genetic package but she still gives me hope!

I’m sitting at Starbucks with a Columbia Biz School professor poring over my many presentations on beauty in our culture.  I tend to get into auto-pilot mode when I launch into this stuff since I live it everyday.

But at one point during the discussion he put his hand up and stopped me.  He asked me, “So how do you YOU define beauty?”  I stopped dead in my tracks.  Shit…I never really put my thoughts together on that.  Sure, I express how important I think beauty is or I offer others’ interpretations.  But I rarely share mine.  In fact, my long-time friend, Sarah, used to sent me comments via Facebook begging for my POV.

What’s behind this hesitation?  Is it that I don’t want to commit to one interpretation?  Or maybe I don’t want my critics to pounce on me for not being politically correct?  Or perhaps I don’t want to repeat what everyone else says — even if I believe it — so as not to sound repetitive.

So when he put on the spot, I had to respond.  The first words that came to mind (after “uhhhh”) were “energy”, “a sense of life” as well as “angular features.”  And then I gave up.  I wonder if we define beauty in a self-reflective way.  I am very energetic, for example.  And at the same time, I wish I was more angular.

So instead of trying to find the best words, I picked my icons of beauty from a list we all recognize: Michelle Pfiffer, Sophia Loren, every frech woman I know, and of course my mom!

What do you make of that?  Happy Mother’s Day

Cinqo de Mayo Celebration

My birthday week!  What affected us?  Take a look….

NYC’s High Line is not only a beautiful outdoor gallery but a fashion show too! Weekend Observations: Runway Show on the High Line

Holy Sh%&$T…see how beautifully flexible your body can be Pic of the Week: A Pose that Amazes

A heart-wrenching story of how a tragic disease compelled a mother to seek beauty treatments not just cope but actually SURVIVE When Beauty is a Matter of Survival

More juicy beauty-in-culture reading  More to Love: Additions to the Reading List

Enjoy the weekend!

The Ugly Meter

Check out more great reading we collected:

• New book, “Beauty of the Real” seems worth reading and it launched just yesterday

http://blog.sfgate.com/mlasalle/2012/05/09/publication-day-for-the-beauty-of-the-real/

• While the ugly meter isn’t actually new, its now hot…oy!

http://www.twincities.com/entertainment/ci_20551558/thing-beauty-ugly-meter-app-capitalizes-navel-gazing

• Why “Bike to Work Day” is really, really good for you

http://www.google.com/reader/view/?hl=en&tab=my#stream/feed%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.wellandgoodnyc.com%2Ffeed%2Fu

• Anna Wintour on Stephen Colbert show!

http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2012/05/wintour-on-gay-marriage-and-batter-fried-shrimp.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nymag%2Ffashion+%28The+Cut+-+nymag.com%27s+Fashion+Blog+-+New+York+Magazine%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Any other good stories to add? Comment or tweet us @Beautyskew

I’ve written about the moral, social, personal values of beauty and beautification in many posts over the past few years.  But I’ve never been as moved or inspired by the critical role beauty has in our lives until I read this story by Emily Rapp in the Huffington Post, Beauty:What Does It Look Like?

Like many teenagers, she went through periods of hating how she looked and even experienced bouts of anorexia.  The she decided to give it all up in her 20′s in an effort to express her natural beauty.  While she started putting more effort back into her routine as she got a bit older, she reverted again to going au natural.

But this time it was for a heart-wrenching reason.

Nine months after giving birth to a beautiful boy, she learned he had a horrible degenerative disease, Tay-Sachs.  Within the next two years, her little bubbly baby would devolve into a vegetative state and then die. As a mother you can’t help but tear up while reading her story.  And as you can imagine, beauty was last on her priority list.  She left the house un-showered for days, went months without haircuts and was lucky if she brushed her teeth.

But then a switch flipped.  She realized she NEEDED her beauty and beatification rituals.  They gave her a sense of control and agency.  They gave her some happiness.  They weren’t frivolous acts of vanity.  They were  a matter of survival.  She writes:

“But there I was, I realized a year in, as I looked at my wan face and split ends and weak body, something I could do about how I felt.  I could make myself feel better by making myself look better, according to my own standards.  It wasn’t a superficial, thoughtless act to rediscover  a sense of authentic beauty; it was necessary.  It was about survival.”

Our circumstances my be shit and we may not all have the greatest canvass to work with, but we ALL have the ability to change how we look, even just a little bit.  And this empowers us, affirms us, and grounds us.

Now I’m going to hug my kids.

Want to share?  Comment or tweet us @Beautyskew

Briohny Smyth, star of Equinox’s sexy yoga video

I saw this pic and thought, “Holy Sh$%&t!”   That’s amazing.  I couldn’t take my eyes off of this image from a wellandgood article I just read.  Not only is her body perfectly sculpted, but her pose defies nature!  How the hell can she do that?  I’ve dabbled with the idea of doing yoga but never got my rear in gear to sign up for it.  But hey, if I can look like that and DO that one day, I’m motivated!

Now the only thing I need is someone’s elbow to give me to final shove…anyone volunteering?

Given how nice the weather is becoming, I’m trying to walk the High Line to and from work.  I’ve mentioned the High Line in previous posts but in case this is your first time joining us, the High Line is the strip from 30th street and 10th avenue to 14th street and 10th.  It used to be a raised railroad line and was turned into a beautiful public garden a few years ago. I highly recommend you try it out.  It’s both romantic and awe-inspiring.

As I was walking home Friday evening, I noticed something new about the High Line.  You see, I’ve been so overtaken by the beauty of the High Line experience — the flowers, bird feeder, art work , etc, that I never even realized the beauty of the PEOPLE that walk it! Until then.  The High Line is a on-going, New  York City fashion show.

Once I started to take notice, I saw women and men of all types — hipsters in their arty t-shirts, rocker chicks in black leather pants and Helmut Lang blous-y shirts; dapper young men  in nerdy glasses, spring blazers and rolled up trousers, cute officer workers in head-to-toe Tory Burch, and of course, the European tourists in the latest North Face windbreakers.

I was surrounded by beauty! I don’t mean that all the people were necessarily beautiful per se but that I was able to experience all the different types of people passing to and fro right around me.  That’s the true beauty of New York.  To be able to be a part of a world full of acceptance and appreciation for difference, is amazing.

Next time you’re in NYC, go take a walk on the High Line and see for your self