What is it about spring fashion this year? Everything is so colorful, so bright, so … downright cheery! I’m feeling positively ebullient (yes, me, the glass-is-half-empty queen), so in homage to one of my favorite feel-good movies, The Sound of Music, here are a few of my favorite things right now.
Milly for Clinique
The epitome of all things happy and bright, fashion designer Michelle Smith of Milly has created an exclusive lipgloss and shadow/blush compact for Clinique called Pretty in Prints. Just looking at the gorgeous compact makes me smile, and the pink lipgloss in a perfect-for-spring hue called Milly Pink is the perfect balance of sassy and innocent and playful. (The color is perfect, by the way, for our yellow-based skin tones.) Available for only a limited time, the set comes in the most gorgeous cloth drawstring pouch. Get it at Clinique.com
Estée Lauder's campaign for their new Idealist Illuminator with models Joan Smalls, Constance Jablonski and Liu Wen.
Earlier this month, Estée Lauder held a press event in New York City to their new philosophy of “Every Woman Can Be Beautiful.” The venerable 65-year-old cosmetics company also unveiled the launch of two new skincare products for all skintones, Idealist Even Skintone Illuminator and Idealist Cooling Eye Illuminator (more on that in our next issue).
Is your closet ready for spring? ‘Cause if you’re on the West Coast, you’ve got a bunch of reasons to get your shop on.
Kicking off in about 10 days in San Diego, THREAD Show, the multi-city shopping event now in its eighth year, will be promoting emerging designers and artists up and down the West Coast. At each show, THREAD showcases 100 of the top independent designers in each market, as well as cool music, art, food and entertainment from local talent.
Some threads from THREAD. Photo courtesy of THREAD show.
And newly added for 2011 are new interactive spaces like the DIY Lounge, Pop-Up Nail Bar, Live Blogger Style-Off Series, THREAD Wellness Lounge and, yes, even a Man Cave so you can shop with your hunnee. Of course, they’ll still have their usual gift bags, photo booths, giveaways and trend showcases throughout the event.
(Keep reading to find out how you can win free tickets!)
Perhaps it’s ’cause I’ve got a serious case of the travel bug, but my feet are itchin’ to move. I mean, I haven’t traveled in more than a year (and Maui for a friend’s wedding last autumn doesn’t count). I’m talking real traveling — India, Marrakesh, Kuala Lumpur. Far-flung destinations to shock the senses and lubricate the mind.
The hubby and I thought Istanbul this spring, but that had to be pushed back. Maybe in the fall? Until then, I’m going to have to be content with travels of the imagination. Thankfully, there are plenty of things to satiate (for now) the wanderlust in me.
FRANCE: Fig + Olive
Now, I haven’t been to Europe since my attorney days, when I used to travel every six months just to get through the next six months of billable hours, endless discovery paperwork and motions galore. Back then, Italy was my destination du jour (everywhere from the Amalfi Coast to Cinque Terre), but I also managed to hit Barcelona, Andalucia, London, the Cotswolds, and even followed the Jane Austen trail from Bath to Rye.
One place I purposely didn’t go, however, was France. Paris I was saving for something — or rather, someone — special. There’s so much romanticism and hype surrounding France, I wanted my first time there to be meaningful.
I’m glad I waited. Not only will I be renting a house in the Latin quarter, shopping at Collette’s, and getting lost in the Louvre, but, thanks to my semi-foodie husband, I’ll now be eating the best France has to offer. And I don’t mean the highest rated or the most to-be-seen-in restaurants. I mean, the local boulangerie, random crepe stands, fresh cheese from anywhere.
Fig + Olive, Melrose Place.
I got a taste of what to expect at the Fig + Olive opening two weeks ago. The New York-based restaurant, founded by South of France native Laurent Halasz, opened its first on the West Coast, on the Melrose Place offshoot of famed Melrose Avenue. They officially opened with three big kick-off parties showcasing different regional specialities — Spain, Italy and South of France. We attended the South of France night and we were not disappointed.
Think you know Bollywood films? Check out the hot trailer and the music promo for the love song “Te Amo” featuring Bipasha Basu and Rana Daggubati from the new suspense thriller film DUM MAARO DUM by Abhishek Bachchan and director Rohan Sippy, the next generation of the Sholay dream team (their fathers are Amitabh Bachchan and director Ramesh Sippy, respectively). Punctuated with a soundtrack that moves from pulsating dance tracks to haunting Konkani songs, and shot right in the middle of the international tourist hot spot of Goa, Dum Maaro Dum follows three lives spiraling out of control to its shocking finale. As narrator Kamat says in the trailer, “Goa … paradise on Earth. But even in paradise you’re bound to find some snakes.”
The film is being released by Fox Searchlight Pictures and will open worldwide on April 22.
Check out for music promo for “Te Amo” after the jump.
In light of what’s happening in the world, rather than give you another trinket from an Asian American designer or some cool gadgets, we decided to ask you, our amazing readers, to do your own giveaway and help Japan in their time of need.
Asian Canadian actress Grace Park may be surfin’ and shootin’ it up in Oahu for her CBS series Hawaii Five-O, but her heart is clearly back home in Vancouver. She’s getting behind PETA to support their latest campaign to save Canada’s seal pups. According to PETA, every year, tens of thousands of harp seal pups — some as young as 2 weeks old — are beaten with clubs, shot, impaled with hooks, and even skinned alive for their fur as their mothers helplessly watch nearby. Get more information at PETA.org.
The devastation in Japan is heartbreaking. We feel so helpless in light of the magnitude of the situation. But every little bit counts. Here, some brands (and a corporation) who are helping you to what you can to help our brothers and sisters across the Pacific.
Evacuees stand around Shinjuku Central Park in Tokyo. Kyodo/Reuters/Landov.
OK, TMI alert. I’m gonna share something with you that perhaps you just don’t need to know.
My locks are more limp than lustrous. I don’t really need to pluck my eyebrows. I got the few hairs under my armpits zapped a few years ago (it’s a part of the job, man) and that’s pretty much taken care of that area. And I haven’t shaved my legs in more than a decade.
Now, I’m not some bohemian wild child. I’m just not a hairy person. Ask my brothers — they don’t have hair on their legs, either.
Of course, as a beauty editor, that doesn’t stop me from trying every new product on the market. The newest high tech ingredients, the latest salon treatment, the trendiest colors — I’ll try them all, being the human guinea pig that I am. If there’s something cutting edge on the market, I’m game.
What I won’t try (and perhaps this is tied in to the whole hairless thing) is anything involving waxing. And, until now, threading.
I had heard of threading years ago. Yes, it’s an ancient practice of hair removal used safely for centuries in Asia. Yes, it’s better than plucking, shaving and tweezing. And yes, it results in lighter and sparser regrowth. But I didn’t get it. It kind of freaked me out. It didn’t help when I saw esthetician Anita Sun’s new at-home threader, the Threader Lux by Karmissie.
I mean, look at that thing. You have to admit — it’s a bit intimidating. My first thought: beauty may be pain, but does it have to look like a torture device?
That is, until I tried it.
I’m a sucker for fast fashion, especially designer collaboration fast fashion (Lanvin for H&M anyone?). There’s something poetic to me about mixing a ’90s Dries van Noten jacket with Isabel Toledo for Payless platforms and my mother’s chunky gold jewelry from the ’70s. So I’ve got a giant red circle on my desk calendar around March 13, the day Target releases its GO International Designer Collective. It’s a retrospective of sorts, a re-release of 34 of the best dresses from 17 past GO International collaborations, in honor of the five year anniversary of Target’s GO International program. The limited-edition collective features dresses from Asian American designers Thakoon and Richard Chai, as well as Luella Bartley, Behnaz Sarafpour, Proenza Schouler, Alice Temperley, Erin Fetherston, Jonathan Saunders, Rodarte, and Zac Posen, among others.
If you missed out the first time, now’s your chance. The funny thing is these dresses are so on trend for spring — yet another testament to the cyclical nature of fashion. Thakoon’s tie-dye print dress and Rodarte’s lace prints are spot on for spring. I’ll be wearing mine with Jonathan Saunders’ neoprene yellow belt from his collaboration with Target a few years back and my floral fedora Eugenia Kim designed for the retailer.
Thakoon for Target printed tie-waist dress.
More styles after the jump.
