26 posts tagged "Jason Wu"
Jason Wu Burns One Down
Three months ago, Jason Wu announced that he was entering the beauty category—for real this time. That nail lacquer collection he did with CND two years ago? Just getting his feet wet. For his grand entrée, Wu decided to go the fragrance route—the home fragrance route. “It’s an untraditional route for a fashion designer to enter the beauty market,” he admits while calling his collaboration with scented candle maven and Nest Fragrances founder and CEO Laura Slatkin, “a dream come true.” The two visionaries crossed path when Slatkin learned that Wu was actually a fan of her votive line. After she sent him a whole bevy of candles, including Wasabi Pear—”it’s one of his favorites,” she says—they got to talking and a partnership was inevitable. Using Wu’s preferred scent as a jumping off point, the duo added a host of exotic flowers to ‘pick [the fragrance] up a bit” only to find that most floral notes overpowered the pear. Except one: a rare category of orchid that imparts a subtle hint of powdery sweetness. Wu describes the resulting Orchid Rain scent, which is blended with leather notes, blond birch woods, and peppercorn, and officially launches this month, as “completely personal, completely satisfying, and really beautiful.” Could the house of Wu focus its energies on something spritzable in the coming years? “Definitely,” the designer says. “I love the beauty industry. It translates the experience of an entire collection into one little object,” he continues, pointing out the synergy between the hue of his candle’s gold lid and a near identical gilded belt buckle from his Spring collection. The print on the ceramic container also revisits a fabric from his runway. “This just may be the start of something new for me.”
$48, available April 2012 at Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman.
Cara Delevingne Takes Manhattan
Since signing on as the face of Burberry a few seasons ago Cara Delevingne has gone from Poppy’s little sister to the girl with the mega brows—in our book at least. Delevingne opened Christopher Bailey’s Spring show in London in a world exclusive for Burberry, but that was last season. And, well, this is this season. After turning up on the Chanel couture runway in January, the 19 year old Brit has officially crossed the pond and is getting ready for a Fall coming out party. “This is my first time in New York. I haven’t done any other seasons ever,” she effused at Rag & Bone after making a runway turn earlier in the day at Jason Wu. “Im so happy to be here—I’ll be doing Paris and Milan, too,” Delevingne explained—after her Burberry exclusive in London, of course. As makeup artist Gucci Westman touched her up last night, we asked Delevingne what she brought with her from home to help keep her complexion in shape for the long road of shows ahead. “I’ve never been very good at taking care of my skin,” she insisted (although her radiant, completely blemish free face suggested otherwise). “I just use Simple Face Wipes and Skinceuticals serum,” she told us. “And my eyebrow gel. I need a shit load of that! I either use MAC or Anastasia—the clear one. I don’t need any more dark in my eyebrows.” Look out for more of Cara and her enviable arches at Carolina Herrera and Derek Lam this week.
Ming Dynasty Meets Old Hollywood, Backstage At Jason Wu
After making its debut backstage at Marc Jacobs two seasons ago, the “dominatrix ponytail” has been getting a lot of backstage play. But the high, tight, and totally intimidating updo at Jason Wu this afternoon came with a message that was less fetish and more fighter. “Be strong! Go for it!” was hairstylist Odile Gilbert’s battle cry as she applied waist-grazing extensions to models’ hair and coated them with Kérastase’s Fibre Architecte to smooth and treat dry ends. “Jordan loves this stuff,” Gilbert effused of the lightweight serum that repairs damage as she finger-combed it through Jourdan Dunn’s hair. Pulling lengths into a super-high ponytail, Gilbert wrapped strips of black latex around the base of the style for an additional element of toughness before spritzing it with a halo of Kérastase Double Force Hairspray for hold. The only girl that didn’t get the ponytail treatment was Tao Okamato. “Jason wanted Tao to represent the boy in in the film In the Mood for Love,” Gilbert said, explaining Okamoto’s sleek, Cary Grant-era iconic men’s pompadour that appears throughout Wong Kar-wai’s classic film.
Makeup artist Diane Kendal was working within a similar cross section of warrior-meets-old school glamour, which manifested itself into a strong, diffused, emerald-green eye. “It’s Ming dynasty and 1940′s Hollywood,” Kendal said while building up lids using MAC Powerpoint Eye Pencil in Tealo to create a base for its Eye Kohl in Minted, a light green, that she layered through the crease. To add texture and dimension, Kendal blended MAC Eyeshadow in Club and its Pigment in Kelly Green outward toward the temple before tracing the lash line with its Eye Kohl in Blooz, a dark blue, and a black cream liner to extend the elongated shape of the pigments. “The actual shape is the Hollywood part,” Kendal said of the classic cat’s-eye silhouette. MAC Haute and Naughty Mascara amplified top lashes only, while lips were left bare, save for a touch of its emollient Lip Conditioner.
As for the models’ complexions, they needed very little help in the way of makeup, thanks in large part to skincare guru Sunday Riley, who was on-site to provide mini facials. Fashioning impromptu masks using her Ceramic Slip clay-based cleanser and a good helping of her Good Genes treatment cream, which contains lactic acid and lemongrass to clarify and smooth skin while stimulating circulation, Riley was able to create a totally natural, healthy glow.
Chloë Moretz Nails It
Chloë Moretz may be refusing fashion campaign offers for now to give herself “room to spread [her] wings and grow up and become a young woman,” as she recently explained to New York magazine, but that hasn’t stopped her from becoming a fashion—and beauty—darling in the process. Over the past few months of premieres and awards shows, the Hugo star has doubled up on Proenza, sported a black Chanel frock, and slipped into a Suno wrap dress while working her hair into everything from a chin-grazing bob to a boy-meets-girl quiff. And then there was that Jalouse cover, which features the 14-year-old in a long, lavender-streaked wig with two barrettes placed just so along her hairline. It should be no surprise then that Moretz was first in line to flank Jason Wu at his Target collaboration launch party last night, an impressive coronet of knotted braids and a glossy black manicure in tow. We assume we’re not alone when we say that we can’t wait to see what she’s got planned for the Oscars. Thoughts on her look?
Lips And Tips, A Love Affair
Nude nails made a comeback at the Fall shows and continued to dominate more outlandish, allout nail art experiments for Spring—with a few notable exceptions, that is. Missoni and McQueen got minxed and Sophy Robson etched individual hieroglyphics onto tips backstage at Topshop Unique, while Jin Soon christened the “slim silhouette” backstage at Prabal Gurung. But as the battle between neutral and next-level manicures raged on, we noticed another trend rearing its pretty polished head: matching lips and tips. Before Mary Quant started picking nail lacquers according to clothes rather than lipsticks in the 1960s (the British designer revolutionized more than just hem lines), it was all about corresponding pout and polish colors. Both Jason Wu and Donna Karan reprised the tradition with classic crimsons and deep burgundies at their shows in September—and makeup artist Maud Laceppe and manicurist Michina Koide have modernized it in the new issue of Numéro with an electric blue mouth and fingers lacquered in the same powdery shade. We’ve personally moved on from the-crazier-the-better varnishing acts, but we’re always plenty happy to give credit to creativity where credit is due. Would you do blue?