Held at the Vibiana on October 22nd, Gen Art Fresh Faces, sponsored by smart car, really was the fashion show to attend in Los Angeles this season. Known as the event to debut designers such as Phillip Lim, Geren Ford and Rami Kashou, the event, hosted by Zoe Saldana, was brought back showcasing seven emerging designers.
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On October 14th, Project Ethos’ pink-themed event, in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, was a night filled with entertainment from art to music to fashion. Held at the House of Blues, guests were welcomed to take photos on the pink carpet and invited to sign the Ink It Pink wall, where for every signature, a dollar was donated to the cause thanks to Sharpie.
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After two seasons on the hit FOX series Glee, Jenna Ushkowitz is hitting all the right notes.
ISSUE: FALL 2011
DEPT: Cover Feature
Photographer: Diana King
Wardrobe: Lyndzi Trang
Makeup: Allie Lapidus
Hair: Gaelle Secretin
Photo Assistants: Kevin Burnstein, Kevin Kozicki
Styling Assistant: Jacqueline Nguyen
Location: Park Plaza Hotel
Story: Janice Jann
Two years ago, when I first interviewed Jenna Ushkowitz, she was in the middle of shooting the first season of Glee, an innovative new show with a lot of promise, hype and a heart-stopping cover of “Don’t Stop Believin.’”
Jenna was excitable and chatty, like any other 23-year-old with her first big break would be. I had asked her then if she was prepared for her impending fame.
Jenna replied, “We can just take it step by step. Do we feel that [the show’s] special? Yes. But I don’t think any of us are thinking, ‘Oh, we’re going to be so famous.’”
Flash forward to the present. How things have changed. If Jenna didn’t think she was heading towards fame back then, she has to face that she is indeed famous now. Glee has become a cultural phenomenon, nominated for 19 Emmys and four Golden Globes, its songs topping iTunes every week. Chris Colfer has been named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Important People for his portrayal of gay teenager, Kurt Hummel. And Jenna, along with her on-screen boyfriend played by Harry Shum, Jr., are two of the most recognizable Asians on television.
The now 25-year-old Korean American, raised in New York by her adoptive parents, realized this when the cast headed to the Big Apple to film an episode last season.
“We thought we would go shoot and a couple of fans would be there,” Jenna remembers. “It was insane. Hundreds and hundreds of kids showed up. There were barricades everywhere. It was overwhelming, amazing and kind of wakes you up, going, ‘holy crap, this is my life now!’” For Jenna, life over the past two years has taken her from bartending to singing on Broadway’s Spring Awakening to playing goth-girl Tina
Cohen-Chang on one of the most influential shows on primetime television. And yet Jenna maintains she’s still the same. “Your life doesn’t have to change if you don’t want it to,” she says. I sat down with Jenna at Los Angeles’s exclusive members-only Soho House (one indication of how life has changed — Jenna’s a member),
catching her in between shooting the show’s season 2 finale and the Glee summer concert tour. Just like I would with any girlfriend, we chatted about boys, clothes and Glee.
Audrey Magazine: Life seems to be going very smoothly for you right now. Can you take us back to a time when this wasn’t the case?
Jenna Ushkowitz: In 2007/8, before Spring Awakening, I had just graduated from college and was bartending. I was really unhappy and was like, “I need to be getting a job right now singing and dancing and not slinging drinks,” you know? I was with my friend at lunch in New York one day and he asked, “What do you want to do?” I was like, “I want to be on a TV show and I don’t want to have to give up theatre.” And here I am. It’s weird. I will never forget that.
Because I did it. I don’t understand people who can just sit and be comfortable and not do something about it when they’re unhappy with their lives. I was always, “Get whatever you want, when you want it, and if you’re not happy, change it.” Life’s too short, why not be happy every single day? That’s why I was like, “I have to do this.” Even if it takes years just to get a show.
AM: We’ve heard some of your co-stars’ crazy Glee audition stories. (Lea Michele’s car crash minutes before her Glee audition.) What was yours?
JU: The whole cast [of Spring Awakening] basically went in and read for Glee. AlI I had to do was say “w-w-we’re d-d-d-dooomed” with a little bit of a stutter and Tourette’s. I didn’t realize I had to say another stutter line and they were like, “OK, do the other line.” So I was like, “Uh, yeah ….” I walked out of the audition and was like, “I didn’t get that.”
A month later, Ryan Murphy was in town and they asked me to sing and improvise for them. He asked, “Who do you think Tina is?” I did this whole improv in the stutter about how my mom thought glee club was a really good outlet for me and Ryan said, “I liked how you kept her really positive.” I passed and went to test for the network in L.A. I had to take a red eye and I couldn’t sleep, I was anxious. I had never been to L.A. by myself before. Two hours [after auditioning], they said, “you got it!”
I called my friend and she said that’s amazing [because] her boyfriend had just gotten a [beer bottle cap] and it said “Never flee from glee.” I framed [that]. It’s all about syn- chronicity; it was the right place at the right time. [In] two years I had gone from bartending to Spring Awakening to Glee with no breaks in between. I’m going in the right direction right now, I know that.
AM: I thought one of the breakout moments for Tina in the show was when she made the speech about how there were no Asian sex symbols to look up to, so she wants to become one herself. Did you realize that speech is just as relevant to Jenna Ushkowitz as it is to Tina?
JU: Now that I think about it, yeah! Subconsciously, it’s totally true. When you are a minority, especially in this show, people focus in on that and I’m glad I got that storyline. I never really thought about it, but my idols were Lea Salonga and Sandra Oh and they’re Asian, too! It wasn’t, “they’re Asian so I idolize them.” It’s just that they are amazing and broke barriers and are who I aspire to be. We are the few in Hollywood making a name for ourselves so I do think about young girls who aspire to do what I’m doing now.
We’re acting, but we’re also making a difference and I never thought I would be able to do both at the same time. To make sure that arts in education is pushed and the message that different is beautiful and good. Be who you are and never be ashamed of it. We’re showing the world what most schools are like and what kids in schools are like. Not the Gossip Girls, not the 90210’s, with more of the glamorous lives. I love those shows, but kids are more like, “you were me in school, you’re representing me.” So it’s cool we’re lucky enough to do that.
AM: You seem to get along well with the rest of the cast, always saying, “We did this and we did that.”
JU: We’re a family. We came up creating this thing with Ryan and we did it for ourselves, basically. It’s our baby and now we’re sharing it with the world. We really do love each other. We all hang out, we all go to dinners. We have wonderful relationships outside the show.
AM: Has the dynamic changed now?
JU: We’ve only gotten closer. We now know each other really well. We know how we work, we know what clicks. We’ll have tiffs, we’ll argue, but in the most lovely way. Literally, we are each other’s cores. They’re my family and I’ll be sad when they all go away ‘cause I won’t be able to see them every day like I do now. We’re all lifelong friends.
AM: Who are you closest with?
JU: I have different relationships with everybody. Those girls are my sisters. Kevin [McHale] and I are peas in a pod. We get each other. We finish each other’s sentences. We’re all extremely close. It’s weird, I know people say, “You guys are just faking it, you all hate each other” and the tabloids try to do weird stuff, but it’s just this organic thing and I think that’s why it’s so successful. The chemistry worked, you know?
AM: Speaking of chemistry, let’s talk about Tina’s rela- tionship with Mike Chang.
JU: Mike Chang is amazing. We’re the longest standing couple on Glee now. Not everybody lasts on Glee, as you’ve seen. But I love working with Harry and we have a great time together. I would like to see Tina and Artie get into it. Not necessarily get back together, but we never really resolved [the breakup]. I still feel unresolved about it and I don’t know if they’re doing it on purpose. I’d like to do a triangle, [but] I couldn’t pick which one to be with ‘cause I think they’re both great.
AM: What is it like kissing Harry?
JU: [Laughs] A girl never kisses and tells!
AM: What else is off-topic for you?
JU: Relationships. Off-topic. My family, I won’t talk too much about. You can hit on me all you want, but don’t touch my family. I try not to talk about them too much ‘cause that’s my safety zone. When you go home, nothing changes.
You want to share things with the people who know and appreciate you. I’m a pretty open book. But my personal life is my personal life. The tabloids have plugged me with Kevin and if you don’t give them anything, it just becomes boring to them and they kind of leave you alone. That’s why we Twitter, to let people see a little more into our lives rather than reading a tabloid. We prefer that, saying I had a lovely dinner with my friend rather than the tabloids saying, “walking into a bar drunk.” Once you get to the top, people love to bring you down. I don’t think we should give them a chance to do that.
AM: Do you even have time to date?
JU: Not really. In New York it was a lot easier ‘cause I had a lot of friends. Here it’s really hard — I didn’t even have friends. So to meet a guy? It’s just hard. Especially now. You have to be careful when you meet people and be aware of what they want. You never know. I’ve finally met some friends of friends.
AM: What kind of guys do you like?
JU: I said I would never date actors, but that’s a lie. Who else do you meet then? I’m a very honest and open person and I just hope someone will give the same to me. You don’t have to be successful, you just have to know where you’re going.
It’s weird, I thought I would be married by 26 when I was younger. Now it’s like, “Oh my god, no way.” Just a good person. Someone who makes you laugh every single day.
AM: Speaking of people you like, you’ve mentioned how you idolize Sandra Oh.
JU: I watch Grey’s Anatomy for Sandra Oh. She’s my favorite. She can do no wrong in my eyes. I still haven’t met her, but I’m dying to. I’m trying to get her on my show. As crazy aunt Sandra or something. She plays crazy so well.
AM: Are you hoping for a similar career path?
JU: I want to be remembered as an actor who really cared about her craft and her work. I want to do what Sandra has done, which is make herself an actress and not an Asian Amer- ican actress. And doing great work and people seeing past the, “Oh, she’s not blonde and blue-eyed.” I want to be able to break those walls and make it socially wanted — not “acceptable” ‘cause I think it is acceptable — to see an Asian girl on the cover of any popular magazine. That’s where I want to go.
Purchase Jenna Ushkowitz’s Fall issue here.
My nails were getting a little…janky.
I mean, I know hobo hipster chic is in right now but this was getting a little out of hand. (Please excuse the pun).
Because I’m a poor writer, I couldn’t afford a manicure and was a little too lazy to lather on some new polish myself, I decided to try these Nail Couture LA nail wraps.
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I was first introduced to Thai Nguyen’s work eight months ago at his debut fashion show in March. Back then, he established himself as a designer who creates flowy light-weight dresses so I expected his Spring 2012 collection to be similar. On October 15th, I attended Thai Nguyen’s 2nd runway show for Concept LA Fashion Week and I was certainly surprised by his new collection.
You know a designer is established when you search for LA Fashion Week events and see that her name is singled out with her own private invite-only event and not jumbled into a series of other fashion shows. I’m talking about Sue Wong. Her work never ceases to amaze me – she really has an eye for great taste and elegance. I’m not really the type who goes for dresses with beading and ruffles but when they look so graceful like Sue Wong’s, I will definitely make an exception. She really goes on to perfect every little detail.
Whenever I roll out all my makeup brushes, I’m always met with, “whoa, that’s legit,” and “dang, you’re pro.”
That’s cause I am when it comes to applying my makeup. I’m not going to settle for any little old brushes found in the dinky cosmetic packs with the eyeshadow and lip gloss.
But it sure ain’t easy toting all my brushes around. I roll them up in a striped brush bag my aunt made for me, which has pockets for all the different-sized brushes, eyeliners, and mascaras I use but it’s still a hefty bulk.
So it’s pretty sweet that Japonesque has unveiled their new line of artist tools– an interchangeable, professional-quality, snap-on makeup brush collection.
Using magnets, the brush sets allow you to snap on and snap off the different types of brushes you need to apply your makeup. The brush collection includes:
* Starter Set – Includes Dual-Ended Magnetic Brush Handle which easily connects to all Artist Tools Brush Heads; Foundation Brush Head – its silky soft bristles and paddle-style design ensure a perfect application and is ideal for blending foundation and concealer seamlessly onto skin; Angled Eye Liner Brush Head – angled to a perfect edge for controlled contouring and detailed eye lining. SRP: $12.
* Powder Brush – Dust the perfect amount of powder onto skin to achieve a flawless photo finish. Easily applies your favorite powder, bronzer or shimmer to face and body. Synthetic hair. SRP: $9.
* Shadow Crease Brush – Expertly define and shape eyes for a look that makes you stand out in any scene. Sweep the brush back and forth starting at the middle of the crease and working your way to the outer corner of the eye. This will blend you darker shadow to give you perfect definition and contour. Synthetic hair. SRP: $4.
* All Over Eyeshadow Brush – Perfect for adding color from lid to brow to get your eyes camera ready in a flash. After applying darker color to the crease, use the All Over Shadow Brush to swirl and blend color for a look that really pops! Synthetic hair. SRP: $4.
* Brow/Lash Comb – Create full, shapely brows and dramatically defined lashes with the Brow/Lash Comb. Brush brow upwards and outwards to shape and define. Synthetic hair. SRP: $4.
* Bent Liner Brush – Achieve a dramatic or natural effect with the Bent Liner Rush. Easily lines eyes with precision and control. Tapered to a point to give you the most exact line. Apply more pressure to increase the thickness of the line to get a look that is bold and dramatic. Synthetic hair. SRP: $4.
Artist Tools by Japonesque will be available exclusively at CVS starting January 2012 but we are giving away TWO (2) complete brush collections for our Audrey readers!
HOW TO ENTER:
- FOLLOW Audrey Magazine on Twitter and Facebook.
- SPREAD THE WORD: Retweet the contest to your friends, and repost on your wall: Link @audreymagazine so we’ll see you did this!
- COMMENT BELOW: Let us know what’s your favorite makeup tool to use.
You may enter as many times as you wish! Contest ends Wednesday, November 23, 11:59 PST and we will randomly select 2 winners. You must have a US mailing address to win. Gluck!
For more information, please visit www.japonesque.com.
Kate Bosworth always looks so stunning and impeccably dressed when she’s out and about and I think I may have finally figured out why! It’s her choice of accessories!
So it’s awesome to find that Kate has a jewelry site, Jewelmint, going on with celeb stylish Cher Coulter.
With over 450 guests, NAMI was one of the highest attended shows for Concept Fashion Week this season. Sarah Nami Ahn’s debut runway show in Los Angeles surely attracted a lot of attention and it’s not surprising to see why. Her collection encompasses the current and forthcoming trends while incorporating her own unique taste, making her one of the top emerging designers.
