9 posts tagged "L’Wren Scott"
Eau De L’Wren Scott
L’Wren Scott’s stock went up this October when it was rumored that the leggy stylist-turned-designer would be making Angelina Jolie’s wedding dress for her highly anticipated nuptials to Brad Pitt. Not that she needed the press; the former Chanel and Mugler model who also happens to be Mick Jagger’s longtime girlfriend has cornered the market on strict tailoring and impossibly feminine silhouettes, which are frequently worn by Nicole Kidman and even MObama, who recently stepped out to cast her presidential ballot in one of Scott’s embellished cardigans. Now Scott has expansion on the brain. After presenting her first eyewear collection for Spring, the 6’3″ style icon with the porcelain skin and long raven locks will debut her first signature scent tomorrow. The premier offering in the Barneys New York Designer Fragrance Collection, Scott’s perfume is a spicy chypre with surprising absinthe, star anise, coriander, and mandarin top notes that segue into a sensual tuberose and jasmine heart with a patchouli and leather dry-down. “I wanted it to have a slightly spicy feel but not in the literal sense,” Scott is quick to point out, revealing just a small window into her impressive perfume know-how, which has its roots in an exotic essential oil collection that spans the globe. “I was completely involved in the whole thing—beginning to end,” she continues of the formulation process with perfumer Ralf Schwieger (he of Atelier Cologne, Etat Libre d’Orange, Frédéric Malle, and Hermès fame), who she hand-picked to help give her scent an individuality that is apparent from the moment you smell it. Which is to say, this is not your average, mass-market designer fragrance but an actual extension of L’Wren’s personal sensibility. “It’s just what I like,” she says unapologetically. Here, Scott talks about what it was like to create a fragrance as opposed to a garment, why the two really aren’t that different, and what’s to come. “This is just the beginning,” she says of her beauty ambitions.
Has a fragrance always been part of the grand plan with your brand?
Yeah. I’ve always been obsessed with scents and [Barneys COO and senior executive VP] Daniella Vitale and I kept talking about how one of the next things I wanted to do with my brand was a perfume. That was a few years ago. And then we started a conversation: I said this was the nose I wanted to use, they said this is the company they wanted to use, I said I wanted it to be made in France. It was collaborative.
As a perfume obsessive, are there certain notes that you find yourself gravitating toward?
Well, I’ve always made my own [perfumes], really, mixing a bunch of oils I’d find around the world. I’ve always known pretty precisely what I wanted [with my own scent], too: something quite mysterious and sexy and dark that wasn’t hyper-feminine or hyper-masculine. I think I’ve had just as many men try this one on as women, actually, and they love it just as much.
Was that intentional, to do something relatively unisex?
I didn’t set out to do something that was based for men or women—it’s just what I like. What I really like about it is that it’s in the chypre family, which is one of the oldest fragrance families. Part of the important thing to me again was that it was made in France. They use different kinds of alcohols, which really affect the end of the fragrance.
Why did you gravitate toward Ralf as your preferred nose?
I like his sensibility. His work always has something that is quite special and unique about it. In my first meeting, I actually had everyone in the same room—including the packaging people—and they said, “This is the first time we’ve ever all been called into a meeting together!” It was so funny; I just told everyone exactly what I wanted, which I thought was a normal thing to do because that’s how I work, much to Ralf’s shock and surprise. I was sending him little things from around the world and marking them. Then, when I started working directly with him, I would bring him my raw materials, he would bring me his, I’d say, “This is from that part of the world, this is from this part of the world.” I’m sure he thought, shouldn’t I be doing this?!
Backstage At L’Wren, Starring Theda Bara
When we arrived backstage at L’Wren Scott this morning, there was a large black-and-white picture of Theda Bara taped up to the wall. “She was one of the first sex symbols,” Lancôme artistic director Aaron De Mey said of the silen- film star. “She’s the person the word ‘vamp’ was coined for—and the woman Scott assigned the title of beauty muse for her Fall show. Working off a sepia image of Bara that boasted a blue tone, De Mey chose to build the screen legend’s classic, round eyes with midnight blue instead of black shadow. “We’re using it as a neutral,” he said of the steely shade of Lancôme’s Le Stylo Waterproof Long Lasting Eye Liner in Minuit, which he drew close to the lash line and up through the crease and then dusted with its Color Design Sensational Effects Eye Shadow in Garment, an equally deep navy, around the edges. To give it a “lived-in” feel, De Mey dotted a clear gloss on the center of the lid. “It’s really all about the eye,” he concluded, beefing up brunettes’ brows with Lancôme’s Le Crayon Poudre in Sable and bleaching blonde models’ arches accordingly.
“It’s one of L’Wren’s favorite colors,” De Mey continued of the prominent blue-black eye pigment—which manicurist Yuna Park capitalized on as well. “It’s custom-made for her show,” Park said of the almost-black, navy polish that was inspired by one of the dresses in Scott’s collection and painted onto both fingers and toes. (Park also hinted that the designer might produce the lacquer if there’s “enough of a demand”).
To finish off the gothic tribute to the twenties, hairstylist Serge Normant created side parts that he treated with a hefty dose of his Meta Lush Volumizer and Meta Luxe Hairspray before back-combing, ironing in a soft Marcel wave and pinning the lengths underneath themselves. Fall’s faux bob strikes again.
The Duchess, Deconstructed Backstage at L’Wren Scott
“It’s a forties-era woman who’s traveled to the French Riviera and has been kissed by the sun,” Lancôme artistic director of makeup Aaron De Mey said of the L’Wren Scott face for Spring. “She’s pretty but she’s not too cosmetic or perfect—she’s a rock ‘n’ roll duchess,” he added. De Mey achieved this ideal by dipping heavily into tawny, earthen tones—mixing shades of Lancôme Teint Miracle Foundation two shades darker than the models’ own skin tones with face moisturizer and sweeping its Star Bronzer in Solaire across the high points of the face to catch the light. On eyes, De Mey drew Lancôme Le Crayon Khol in Black Coffee into the roots of lashes and directly onto the crease, blending it up toward the brows for an I’ve-been-out-all-night smudged effect. He cut the intensity of the liner with dazzling shadows from Lancôme’s 5 Pan Palette in Golden Frenzy, placing metallic pigment into the inner corners and smudging clear gloss (Lancôme Juicy Tubes in Pure) over the lids for a luminous, “deconstructed” effect. A coat of Color Design lipstick in Bronze Show on medium skin and L’Absolu Nu in Satin Toffee on darker complexions provided a rich, chocolate-rosy lip.
Coiffing star Serge Normant played to the deconstructed theme, too, spinning strands into a French twist that looked like it had been hit with a strong gust of wind. “This woman is just getting off the boat,” Normant said (read: yacht). “Her hair is disheveled but it still has an air of sophistication.” He struck that balance by pinning the back portion of hair into the twist but leaving the front out to create finger waves around the face that he misted with his Serge Normant Meta Revive Dry Shampoo, teased, and then brushed for a gauzy texture. “I want to look at the models and still feel the wind blowing through the hair,” he said.
Red Hot
In a season full of brunettes and the occasional platinum blonde, thanks to another go-around of the hard-to-maintain hair color at Balenciaga, the age of the redhead seems to have subsided. But that brief moment circa the Fall 2009 shows when Vlada and Coco went ginger, making the fashion pack take pause and in many cases take up the auburn cause, red was all the rage—and we liked it. There is a lone model who walks among us, though, who is still letting her flame-hair flag fly, ushering in the color’s second coming and, with every toss of her red locks, daring her fellow catwalkers to come and join her.
We are talking about Julia Johansen, the Finnish beauty who has been dazzling on the runway in what she has termed her first “proper” show season. “I did couture,” Johansen told us backstage at Vivienne Westwood yesterday referencing cameos at Chanel and Armani Privé. And of course, there was her opening turn at Mulberry for Spring, where Emma Hill sent an army of Julias down the runway, wearing wigs cut and dyed to match Johansen’s signature style. “Having a fringe and shorter haircut can be a problem,” Johansen lamented, pointing out that long, middle parts are what casting agents are typically looking for these days. But that hasn’t seemed to stop them from putting her in a bevy of shows over the past month, including L’Wren Scott, Temperley London, Antonio Berardi, and Giorgio Armani, which is thanks in large part to her carrot-bright strands. Having experimented with a range of shades since becoming a “real ginger” last year, the freckle-faced natural brunette has embraced a vivid brassy, orange incarnation of late that is really working for her. “It has been quite copper, but it fades quickly,” Johansen admits, mentioning that she relies on the colorists at London’s Percy & Reed for monthly touch-ups. As for everyday styling, Johansen is a fan of all things Bumble and Bumble—”everyone loves them”—and has no intentions of diverting from the russet track anytime soon. When we asked her if she planned on staying the fiery course, she was resolute in her response: “definitely.”
The Pretty Reckless, Backstage At L’Wren Scott
“She wanted something a little disheveled and deconstructed, so I imagined an exaggerated version of her,” celebrity coiffing star Serge Normant said of the texturized, side-sweeping strands he created for L’Wren Scott’s Fall show. “I’m using a lot of my dry shampoo,” Normant added, referring to his recently launched Meta Revive Dry Shampoo with Cedar Bark, which joins a full lineup of eponymous products he now uses exclusively when tending to the tresses of Sarah Jessica Parker, Julia Roberts, and Gisele Bündchen, among other famous heads of hair. Normant’s Meta Lush Volumizer and Meta Sheer Dry Oil Finishing Spray were also in heavy rotation backstage, ensuring that his “loose, second-day hair” didn’t appear too stiff or too dry. “It’s girls who just roll out of bed in the morning—or at night—and just go.”
Lancôme artistic director of makeup Aaron De Mey took a similar inspiration and added Scott’s request for a “dangerous eye,” which yielded, well, Taylor Momsen. “It’s nice to see a teenager experimenting with makeup,” De May said as he sculpted the Gossip Girl‘s signature raccoon eyes onto models’ lids using Lancôme’s Le Crayon Kohl eyeliner in Black Ebony smudged outwards to hold a hefty helping of the black pigment from its Gris Fatale eye shadow palette due out in the fall. “I wanted them to look like femmes fatales—rich, luxurious, and expensive,” De Mey continued, piling layer upon layer of Lancôme’s Hypnôse Drama mascara onto lashes for a clumpy sixties feel. To tone down the Momsen effect just a little, De Mey dabbed Lancôme’s L’Absolu Rouge La Base lip balm onto the tops of models’ cheekbones for a “girly sheen” before swiping it across pouts and blending it with a bit of concealer to make the look “realistic and cooler.” The Pretty Reckless front woman was back in full force with manicurist Yuna Park’s black shimmering nail, though, courtesy of Lancôme’s forthcoming lacquer in Noir 29.