Stare Harder

Though the weather in Hong Kong is still jumping back and forth between hot and cold, there is no delay in the launch of S/S 05 collections in shops. Just like every other spring-slash-summer did, this season embraces low-cuts—tops and bottoms.

Wacoal, the Japanese brand that brought us the Nami Nami T-shirt bra last summer, has just launched its own S/S 05 collection. Its latest ad campaign features a line of “décolleté make” bras. There’s nothing wrong with repackaging the brand’s age-old push-up bras and selling them as the “new” “hot” items. After all, décolleté is what most women have come to expect from 400-dollar undergarments.

What caught my attention was the ad slogan: “Glamorize Your Second Face”. Forget skin whitening. Cleavage is the new blush. A full bosom beats exquisitely plucked eyebrows. And no mascara maximizes volume like underwire and cushioned pads. Wacoal has defined for us, the area from the neck to the breasts as a woman’s "second face".

This explains why some men give reassuring nods to my chest during conversation.