{"id":4490,"date":"2010-09-16T10:18:53","date_gmt":"2010-09-16T15:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/?p=4490"},"modified":"2010-09-21T06:28:49","modified_gmt":"2010-09-21T11:28:49","slug":"a-love-letter-to-marks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/2010\/09\/16\/a-love-letter-to-marks\/","title":{"rendered":"A love letter to Mark’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

D<\/span>ear Mark’s<\/a> (formerly known as Work Wearhouse),<\/p>\n

You couldn’t have known when you invited me and a handful of other bloggers and journalists for an amazing makeover day just how badly I needed the break. In fact, my schedule lately has been so insane that I first missed the deadline to reply to your offer, then almost canceled, and then begged at the last minute for you to reschedule me to an earlier time slot so I could run home after my makeover to clean the house for back-to-back showings of the House That Will Not Sell. (Because maybe my bad hair was the reason the house was not selling?) And when I had asked if I could bring a friend, you graciously said yes, and then I had to cancel that when the friend I had in mind was my only available child care for the day. (Editorial aside: Thanks, Mom, I really owe you one for that.)<\/em><\/p>\n

All that to say, I was rather stressed when I arrived at my appointed time, sandwiching my makeover between a twice-previously-canceled dental hygiene appointment and a date with a vacuum cleaner, and I was breathlessly flustered with no idea what to expect.<\/p>\n

I had a chance to chat with one of your managers from Toronto, who took me on a quick tour of the store. Since my background is in corporate communications, I was interested in what she said about the the rebranding exercise that the company has recently undertaken, from Mark’s Work Wearhouse to Mark’s: Clothes That Work. Wow, have you ever updated your look and your product lines! I admit, I’ve always thought of Mark’s Work Wearhouse as a place to get basics like plain Ts, khaki pants and winter gear . But you’ve really reinvented your women’s fashion lines and I’m curious to try some of your innovations like Perfectly Pressed shirts (no ironing!) and the 50-Wash t-shirts.<\/p>\n

She convinced me to try on a T-Max winter coat and step into your winter-simulation chamber to see whether it would hold up to a real Ottawa winter with -40C wind-chill, and I was highly impressed with both the simulation and the warmth of the coat. I was also reminded why I don’t wear high-heeled sandals and capri pants in the typical Ottawa winter — the coat I tried on needed a footie compartment for my poor frozen toes! \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

So that was cool (well, actually, that was friggin’ freezing, except for the parts that stayed nice and toasty under the coat!) but the attention from your makeover staff was amazing. I ran into my bloggy friends Lara <\/a>and Andrea <\/a>while I had my hair and makeup professionally done, and had a great time admiring their new looks. I love love love what your stylists did for me — they totally understood me when I said I preferred a simple and straightforward look, but would like to add an extra touch of style.<\/p>\n

And then I was placed in the competent hands my own personal stylist. Did you read all those blog posts I wrote lamenting my need for my own personal Clinton and Stacy? Yeah. Really? Thank you! He picked out a stunning outfit from me, and I couldn’t help but look at your new Ispiri fashion line and think, “Wow, this is so not what I expected to see here.” Now, I won’t even attempt to pretend that I know one thing about fashion, but as the old saying goes, I know what I like and I liked your Ispiri line. Sharp, colourful and — be still my heart! — comfortable clothes that look as good on me as they do on the hanger.<\/p>\n

See????<\/p>\n

\"Lookit<\/a><\/p>\n

Don’t I look awesome in your most excellent Ispiri leather bomber? OMG, I can’t tell you how long I have coveted something like this — and it’s a perfect match with that adorable Ispiri little black blouse.<\/p>\n

But when you add on the Denver Hayes modern-fit black dress pants (seriously, who knew Denver Hayes pants could look so glam?) and these to-die-for kicky little ankle boots, also by Denver Hayes, that are so comfortable and so awesome that I will wear them every single day, even with my shorts if summer ever comes back even though they are fully winterized and even salt resistant? *squeeeee!*<\/p>\n

\"MarksAfternoonFinal025\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I still can’t believe that’s me in that picture. Me, whose fashion signature runs to unflattering striped turtlenecks, in a FASHION SHOOT! And looking, in my very humble opinion, AWESOME!<\/p>\n

So really, thank you, friends at Mark’s. And thanks to Rayanne and Andrea of Highroad Communications, who demonstrated an excellent understanding of how to manage a successful social media campaign, and perhaps more importantly, how to wrangle one distracted but eternally grateful blogger out of her insane life for a couple of perfect hours.<\/p>\n

Now, could we please arrange to have your makeup artist, hair stylist and personal shopper show up at my house every morning at around 6:10? Because this is a lifestyle to which I would like to become accustomed, please. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Gratefully,
\nDaniGirl<\/p>\n

Photo credit: David Kawai<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Mark’s (formerly known as Work Wearhouse), You couldn’t have known when you invited me and a handful of other bloggers and journalists for an amazing makeover day just how badly I needed the break. In fact, my schedule lately has been so insane that I first missed the deadline to reply to your offer, … Continue reading “A love letter to Mark’s”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-it-is-all-about-me","category-product-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4490"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4512,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4490\/revisions\/4512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}