Bobbi Brown Lilac Rose

Love the colours in Bobbi Brown's Lilac Rose range!

Feels like a soft and blushing summer is coming!

(I added some extra flowers, absolutely love flowers!)

K is for Kate

K is for Kate

i-D's Pre-Spring Issue (one of my favourite magazines, and btw love how they make it 'pre'-spring, makes you long for the actual spring even more) - its alphabet issue, is featuring Kate Moss on its cover, in four different looks. It celebrates Moss' 25th anniversary in fashion, and 20 year relationship with i-D.

Photos were shot by Daniele + Iango

K is for Kerastase

K is also for Kérastase as Kate Moss will feature in Kérastase's new campaign for the 'Couture Styling' collection to be launched in May.

You can already watch the teaser here:

Really wish I could get my hear to look like that :)

Maybe I should invite stylist Luigi Murenu to do my hair at my wedding :) What a dream that would be :)

Freedom Passion Exploration Elegance at YSL Beauté

YSL Beauté's website is truly sensational and such a suiting reflection of the brand - Freedom Passion Exploration Elegance! 

The website urges you to explore, create and share, and how gladly I did! The strength of this website is that it manages to engage you  in a way you feel uniquely creative, which really prompts you to then share your creations! Very clever insight! No wonder the website won a Webby Award in the beauty and cosmetics category!

Look how nicely they automatic add your name
to make your Manifesto even more personal!

For example, the above picture is something created with the moodboard tools from the website! You can choose your background, add content like videos, music, tutorials, quotes, interviews and pictures. 

Have a look at the video below, and you'll already understand better what I mean...

Or you can visit one of my creations (yes I got a bit carried away :) ): 

YSL Experience Libre Beauté by Marie-Helene









YSL Experience Manifesto by Marie-Helene

I really like the reflection of the freedom, audacity, elegance and passion of the YSL Beauté brand. I also really appreciate the art and music choices they make. Like Selah Sue - a Belgian performer, in the Manifesto movie! Strong, independent, creative! Daring is an art! - love the tagline of Manifesto - the latest addition to the YSL Fragrances with Jessica Chastain as its muse. (You should really go see Zero Dark Thirty, she won a golden globe for her role!)

Be unique and audacious and go create your own on: YSL Experience
Share your link with me and I will check it out!

Hand and Feet Nirvana in London

Ladies, I have a tip for you if your winter hands and feet need some good pampering and a some stylish colour! Sophie Gass located in between Holland Park and Notting Hill! What a lovely and relaxing hand and feet pampering boutique!

When you arrive, you're immediately offered some freshly made hot tea or coffee to warm you up, and after you have chosen your colour from the stylish Essie range, you are guided to the large white sofa seats where you get your mani and/or pedi from the superfriendly and professional staff! These seats are so comfortable that chances are you will doze off.....if you're not browsing on the iPad made available to you during your treatment that is.  The interior design of the salon is so perfectly matched! From the lighting to the seats, to the bowls in which they wash your feet. It's as close to hand and feet nirvana that you'll get!


 

The cool twist about Sophie Gass' boutique is that she also offers a nice collections of fashionable accessories, home decoration items and flowers!



For more information go the the website: http://www.sophiegass.com/

Alber Elbaz + Lancôme

I am buzzing with excitement to see the cosmetics line that will be conceived by Lancome and Alber Elbaz, Lanvin's artistic director! For now I will have to do with Elbaz's cute teaser video and I will be couting down the days until the 15th of June when the limited-edition color cosmetics collection is out in stores worldwide.

I am of course curious about the colours of the make-up line and I am dreaming of sweet pastels and soft textures, but even more so I am dying to see the packaging design and the campaign! Will they use spokesperson Emma Watson?  I believe she would be a good pick and I think if she had the chance the collaborate with Elbaz on the campaign, that we could see some joyous and fun results! I really hope the campaign will reflect Elbaz' humour, joy and lightness - his joie de vivre that twinkles in his eye! And that it will be that bit more than just a headshot of a beautifully made up model (even if it is the lovely Miss Watson)

Alber Elbaz self portrait

I love Alber Elbaz' vision on beauty and I really hope it will be reflected in this limited edition cosmetics collection! 

Alber Elbaz on beauty: 'It seems as though every time you want to be a modernist you have to make something a little bit ugly. And if you make it really ugly then it's really modern and really cool. But beauty is never démodé. Beauty is the one thing I think everyone is seeking. That's it — to touch beautiful things, to make women feel beautiful. And this is power, you know, to feel beautiful. I always say that women are very strong and men are powerful. But beauty gives you both strength and power. I never think of it. It's just one of those natural things. It's the only thing I know how to do ' from Julia Reed's interview with Alber Elbaz - original article here

Alber Elbaz playing hide and seek

Brilliant Funny Face

Watching old movies on a cold winter afternoon covered in blankets and with some sugary treats in reach, is one of my favourite things to do – and even more so if I am recovering from a New Years Eve celebration ;)

So last Tuesday I watched ‘Funny Face’ (1957) starring Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire and Kay Thompson. And although it is not my favourite Hepburn movie - ‘Sabrina’ is – it is definitely worth watching for all the references made to the world of fashion magazines, for Richard Avedon’s opening title sequence and of course for the classically beautiful Hepburn equally stunning in Hubert de Givenchy’s designs as well as the most simple black pants and tops.

 

In the movie Astaire plays fashion photographer Dick Avery who works for the fashion magazine ‘Quality’ run by Maggie Prescott – played by Kay Thompson. At an on location fashion shoot in a bookstore in Greenwich Village, they meet the intellectual Jo Stockton - played by Hepburn. Avery is convinced that the freshness and character of Jo’s face is what ‘Quality’ magazine needs because Prescott had expressed that she wanted a model who can think as well as she looks. They both decide to turn Jo into a supermodel and they take her to romantic Paris on a fashion shoot and of course Avery falls in love with her.

 

A super sweet story and very endearing, but what really attracted me was the depiction of the world of fashion magazines . I am an avid collector – already since I was a little girl. It all started with the Cosmogirl I received from my family in the US when I was about 10. I soon switched to reading the French Vogue, Elle and Marie Claire my mom bought, and already a good 10 years now my collection has exploded in every direction from UK’s I-D, US’s Nylon, Harper’s Bazaar and Vanity Fair to France’s Jalouse and Officiel …

So I love when the movie starts out with the scene in which the fashion magazine publisher and editor Maggie Prescott explains the essence of what makes a good magazine: “A magazine must be like a human being. If it comes into a home, it must contribute. It cannot just lie there… it must have blood and brains and bozaaz!”

This movie also reminded me of two other must-see fashion magazine references: The September Issue – a documentary on US Vogue’s famous September Issue and The Devil Wears Prada – a movie that could almost be considered as a modern take on Funny Face albeit without the singing and dancing, it is the story of an intellectual journalist starting to work for a fashion magazine’s most demanding and powerful editor-in-chief.

A second reason to watch the movie is Richard Avedon’s involvement as ‘Special Visual Consultant.’ He worked with director Stanley Donen to create one of the film's centerpieces, a five-minute montage of Hepburn posing all over Paris for a fashion layout, as well as the witty fashion sequence in the "Think Pink" number. He also produced the amazing opening title sequence photographs. The most famous single image from the film is the intentionally overexposed close-up of Hepburn's face in which only her facial features—her eyes, eyebrows, nose and mouth—are visible.  

Still by Richard Avedon from the opening credits of Funny Face

Avedon is a fashion photographer pioneer. He started out after World War II and was soon picked up by Harper’s Bazaar’s strong triumvirate Carmel Snow (Editor-in-Chief) , Diana Vreeland (Fashion Editor) and Alexey Brodovitch (Art Director). When Harper’s Bazaar covered the Paris spring and fall fashion collections, Avedon's task was to stage photographs of models wearing the new fashions out in the city itself. Throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s he created elegant black-and-white photographs showcasing the latest fashions in real-life settings such as Paris's picturesque cafes, cabarets and streetcars. Something he did as well for the movie Funny Face (and the character of Fred Astaire is also based on Avedon).  His fashion photography is so new because he was so strong in capturing movement. His models are not static, they move in the clothes as he “dances” with them to take the shot. Avedon worked as a fashion photographer at Harper’s Bazaar for 20 years (1945 – 1965) and then another 24 years at Vogue (1966 – 1990). Besides his fashion photography, Avedon is also known for his portraits and his photojournalism (he became the first staff photographer for The New Yorker)

In 1995 a great documentary on his life and work was made and you should really watch it if you are at all interested in photography! See the link below:

 

 

 

ENAMOURED

The Revlon Woman by Spiros Halaris

When Lorna May Wadsworth wrote me that she was commissioned a portrait of Revlon’s founder which was going to be showcased this weekend for Revlon’s 80 years, I was more than happy to go check it out!

This year, Revlon is celebrating its 80^th anniversary and to celebrate they are holding the exhibition 'ENAMOURED' showcasing contemporary artists’ interpretation of the company’s historic icons – its founder, its products and its advertisements.

Located in the cellar arches of the London Film Museum, the exhibition is curated by Ryan Lanji who specializes in putting together shows that are at the intersection of art, beauty and fashion – and who is also very much a nail art aficionado and sports some very cool tattoos. I absolutely loved his ‘metteur en scene’ tattoo!

I was very lucky to have walked in to the exhibition at the moment Ryan was giving a guided tour for the people of Revlon. I cheekily decided to blend in so that I could enjoy listening to Ryan’s stories about the different art pieces and his many anecdotes about Charles Revson, who he has come to admire a lot.

Charles Revson founded the company in 1932 with his brother Josheph and a chemist called Charles Lachman - who contributed the L to the name Revlon. They created a new nail enamel through a then innovative manufacturing process. Besides the new formula, Revson was especially innovative in his marketing: he was the first to launch so many different colours of nail enamel, he instituted the practice of launching new nail colours in line with the introducion of the new seasonal fashion collections and he launched the matching 'lips and tips' idea.

Let me show you two of the pieces I enjoyed in the exhibition!

Miss Wadsworth portrait of Mr. Revson – ‘That Man’ - is quite the achievement knowing that she had to work with unusual material and go through a very different process.

The whole painting is painted with Revlon nail polish as well as with the little bottle’s brush.

Also, she usually paints her portraits through various live sittings. In the case of Mr. Revson who passed away in 1975, this was impossible. So in order to invoke his spirit she decided to merge the icon of the founder with the brands iconic vintage adverts over which he had such influence.

The iconic ad ‘Fire & Ice’ : the original shot by Richard Avedon in 1952 with model Dorian Leigh and the remake shot by Mario Testino and actress Jessica Biel. Besides the iconic photography, the brilliance of the campaign lay in the questionnaire that was added and which made women interact with the Revlon image as well as their own. 

ARE YOU MADE FOR FIRE AND ICE? You were, the ad stated, if you could answer eight of the following fifteen questions in the affirmative:

1.     Have you ever danced with your shoes off?

2.     Did you ever wish on a new moon?

3.     Do you blush when you find yourself flirting?

4.     When a recipe calls for one dash of bitters, do you think it's better with two?

5.     Do you secretly hope the next man you meet will be a psychiatrist?

6.     Do you sometimes feel that other women resent you?

7.     Have you ever wanted to wear an ankle bracelet?

8.     Do sables excite you, even on other women?

9.     Do you love to look up at a man?

10.  Do you face crowded parties with panic -- then wind up having a wonderful time?

11.   Does gypsy music make you sad?

12.   Do you think any man really understands you?

13.   Would you streak your hair with platinum without consulting your husband?

14.   If tourist flights were running, would you take a trip to Mars?

15.   Do you close your eyes when you're kissed?

Some of the questions probably seem a bit silly to you now, but at the time they were supposedly quite provocative. I do wonder though whether it is ever possible to answer Q12 in the affirmative ;)

What is your favourite question? 

And which questions would you put next to the current day ad with Jessica Biel?

Enamoured: 80 Years of Revlon runs from November 30 to December 2 at the London Film Museum, Covent Garden, 45 Wellington Street, London WC2E 7BN. Entry is free.