Bedazzler
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Bedazzler is a home appliance which is used to fasten rhinestones, studs and patches to material, clothes and accessories.
Contents |
[edit] History
The Bedazzler first appeared in the 1970s as a direct marketing product. It was developed by NSI Innovations in the United States. It is promoted through Television infomercials, most recently by Tana Goertz of "The Apprentice" fame. Television marketer Avram C. Freedberg owns the rights to the product.[1]
The Bedazzler was most notably advertised in a television infomercial hosted by Billy Mays
[edit] Description
The Bedazzler is a plastic device, similar to a stapler. The base has a circular wheel (a "Tiffany setting") opposite the plastic applicators ("plungers"). The device allows users to add various rhinestones and other assorted studs to fabrics and similar materials.[2]
[edit] Reception
The Bedazzler was voted #100 in the Top 100 Gadgets of all time (Mobile PC Magazine March 2005 edition). Craft magazine - 'CNA Magazine' featured the Bedazzler on its cover in the January 2001 edition.[3]
The Bedazzler has appeared in pop culture. In Episode 15 of Season 3 of NBC's The Apprentice a Bedazzler is the focus of the show. Guests at the launch party for Rosie O'Donnell's Rosie McCall received gift bags that included the Bedazzler.[3] Radio personality Danny Bonaduce regularly bedazzles pieces of his wardrobe, which the other members of The Adam Carolla Show often mock him for. It is also a recurring element in The Game Plan. The Bedazzler was also used in the hit Australian movie The Castle (film) with Anne Tenney as Sal Kerrigan, who bedazzles her tops.
Like any fashion item, the popularity of the device and its output has waxed and waned over time. Because of its low cost and the type of glitzy clothes and accessories that can be created using a bedazzler, it is often associated with kitsch and retro fashion.
A commentator in Entertainment Weekly magazine described the Bedazzler as: "The cheap-ass rhinestone-studding tool favored by art teachers and over-excitable soccer moms everywhere, the biggest piece of crap sold on late-night TV since the Thighmaster, the reason women own shirts with glittery kitty-cats on them."[4]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.avramcfreedberg.com/business.html
- ^ Roja, Genevieva. Be Dazzled, Metro Active, September 6, 2001
- ^ a b Cover - Volume V, No. 4, Creative Leisure News, February 19, 2001
- ^ Pastorek, Whitney. Case Dismissed, Entertainment Weekly, April 29, 2005
