Get ready for some cute overload this Easter! I'm pleased to finally highlight 5 bunny-themed collections, 3 of which were released in spring 2019 (when I was preoccupied with other things) one from 2018 and one from 2016. Interestingly, all 5 are from K-beauty brands.
First up is Colorgram's Miffy collaboration. Miffy is a character created in the '50s by Dutch illustrator Dick Bruna (1927-2017) and is quite well known outside the U.S. I have to admit I had never heard of her until Colorgram launched this collection. It was a pretty massive lineup – while it looks like I bought all of it, I think the Museum ended up with less than half of what was released.
The character was inspired by bedtime stories Bruna told his son while on vacation in the summer of 1955. "Sitting on a rug near the shore, the family spotted a rabbit skipping around in the sand dunes. Bruna’s son Sierk, who had his own little woolen rabbit, was delighted, and Bruna was reminded of his own love of rabbits as a child. Later that evening, Bruna would tell Sierk a bedtime story featuring Nijntje, a shortening of the Dutch word konijntje, meaning ‘little rabbit’…This bunny became the inspiration for Miffy. Later, when Dick began sketching Miffy, he decided he would prefer to draw the bunny in a little dress, rather than a pair of trousers, and so Miffy became a little girl bunny." Coincidentally, Bruna was born in the year of the rabbit.
Bruna wanted to follow in the footsteps of the modern artists of his time, particularly Matisse, Picasso and Léger, but turned to commercial illustration to pay the bills. Nevertheless, the influence of these artists is apparent in Miffy's design, which was unique compared to the illustrations founds in children's books then. "Bruna’s Miffy creation looked more like a flat cuddly toy, with a little bit of Léger and Matisse mixed in. The ears flopped to the side and the eyes were a little askew, not yet communicating so directly with the reader. Over the years, her head became more round, the general shape flatter, the ears sharper and more symmetrical, the eyes bigger and wider apart. Bruna’s clarity, use of primary colour and lack of perspective was a breath of fresh air among the busy, narrative-led children’s publishing that typified the 1950s. But his minimalism was also expansive: by a minute tilt of the head, a blink of the eye, or the relation of Miffy to a particular room or a landscape, he was able to capture much of the emotion of early childhood experiences: celebrating a birthday, visiting a playground, going to school, going to the seaside. Miffy’s eyes and mouth, Bruna explained, always required particular attention. 'With two dots and a little cross I have to make her happy, or just a little bit happy, a little bit cross or a little bit sad – and I do it over and over again.'"
Miffy is nearly at Hello Kitty levels of merchandizing, which, again, why I was surprised I had never heard of her. Miffy's likeness is sold on everything from cookie cutters and baking dishes to chalkboards and book ends, and has appeared in a slew of non-makeup collaborations. And in addition to the Rijksmuseum's collection of over 100 original Miffy prints and several temporaryexhibitions, the character has her own children's museum.
I am so sad I missed the Miffy Chinti and Parker collection! I stumbled across this brand a few years ago while hunting for a mermaid sweater and fell in love. Currently I'm waiting for the Care Bears lineup to go on sale.
Next up is Lilybyred's and IPKN's Esther Bunny collections. Esther Bunny was created by Korean American artist Esther Kim. Kim has a lifelong love of drawing and originally started in fashion illustration, but kept including bunnies in her drawings. Eventually she decided she wanted to focus more on them. The bunny character is Kim's alter-ego of sorts, expressing the feelings of isolation and foreignness that resulted from growing up in several different countries. "I wasn’t conscious of it when I was drawing it, but the bunny really represents me as a person. My parents took me [from LA] to Japan when I was a teenager, so I’m just really used to living in other people’s cultures and always being self aware and sensitive about that…I had so many cultures: Korean, American, Japanese. In any one situation I could react many different ways. It stressed me out. I was like, ‘Should I be American right now? Or Korean? Or Japanese?’ That’s why my bunny is so aware of other people." The big ears and sideways glances show Kim's introverted, sensitive and highly observant nature. "I think I can be very outgoing but I also have a very quiet reserved side that I think my bunnies capture. They are always looking sideways and their mouths are not really open or moving. They are quietly watching the situation, peeking. In some sense a big part of my identity is being an outsider or foreigner always a bit different so I’m watching the situation. It’s hard for me to have a strong opinion sometimes because I can imagine the situation from many perspectives so I take a long time to process my thoughts."
Esther Bunny seems like a cheerful little rabbit at first glance, but a closer look reveals how she captures the artist's own struggles. "Esther bunny looks cute on the surface, but underneath that, I think there’s a lot of sadness and loneliness that I’ve experienced in my life. I have a parent who has been very sick for over 10 years. I worked on my own trying to be an artist for over 10 years. I didn’t have any help. My bunny looks very soft on the outside but she’s been through a lot," says Kim.
Still, Kim concludes that the creation of Esther Bunny was therapeutic for her and led to a new audience. "I'm so happy that I came upon Esther Bunny. A lot of people identify with it. I’m really happy that I’ve made this character that can be so universal… I'm very grateful to my art; it's taken me so long to make it my career, but it’s given me a place in this world."
Like the Miffy collaboration, both the Lilybyred and IPKN collections were huge.
I am really kicking myself for not getting more of the IPKN lineup. I wasn't aware when it launched and ended up with just one palette that was still available several years after the initial release.
Especially this additional summer collection – she looks so adorable in her little pool float and bikini!
Esther Bunny has become a brand in her own right with many successful collaborations under her belt.
This next collection by Innis Free was released in spring 2019 to celebrate the 13th anniversary of their No Sebum Mineral Powder. The company partnered with Korean illustrator Gyung-seon Gu, who created 13 cushion compact designs featuring her rabbit character, Benny. Like Esther Bunny, Benny is a sort of alter ego for the artist, but in a different way. A fever caused Gu to become deaf at the age of 2. She continued to draw throughout her childhood and was eventually inspired to draw a bunny with long, pointy ears so that it could hear on her behalf. In 2007 Benny was officially born. As one article explains: "[Gu] looked for a spokesperson who would carefully listen to every sound in the world. From the animal encyclopedia, she learned that one of the animals with the best hearing ability is the rabbit. On the spot, she chose the rabbit as her character without a hint of hesitation. This marks the birth of Benny and of her career an illustrator, as she illustrates Benny as a very own representation of herself." Benny is also meant to be a symbol of comfort and encouragement in the face of adversity. The 13 designs are titled Follow Your Dreams, No Pain No Gain, Do What You Love, Ace Your Grades, Best Friends Forever, Seize the Day, Crazy Rich Bunny, Upward Facing Bunny, YOLO, Cheering For You, Way To Go, There For You, and LOVE, Bunny (you can guess which are which).
While Benny may not have been in as many collaborations as Miffy and Esther Bunny, they're a popular emoticon in the Korean messaging app Kakao Talk. Gu also had a solo exhibition in 2017 featuring over 120 original illustrations of Benny, which were later published as books, as well as a fragrance. In 2013, Gu was again struck with bad health news. This time she was diagnosed with a rare retinal disease that causes a gradual loss of vision, and the possibility of total blindness at any given time. But Gu refused to worry about her condition, choosing instead to celebrate the sensory abilities she has retained. "[Gu] set her sights on what she still has, not on what she may lose. With her olfactory sense intact, she embarked on assigning a signature aroma to her Benny."
Finally, there's The Saem's Over Action Little Rabbit collection. Like Benny, Over Action Little Rabbit quickly became a popular character on Kakao Talk as well as LINE. I'm not sure if there was a specific artist behind Little Rabbit, but apparently the "over action" refers to the character's exaggerated reactions to, well, everything.
This was another huge collection, with two smaller Valentine's Day and summer launches.
While Over Action Little Rabbit has garnered several other collaborations and a pop-up cafe in Japan, the character's popularity seems to have peaked in 2018.
Overall, I'm kind of in awe of how many bunny characters there are and pleased that K-beauty brands seized the opportunity to put them on their packaging. I'm suffering from collab fatigue at the moment – several American companies have been recycling the same old licensed characters/brands ad nauseum – so looking back at previously released ones that haven't appeared on the packaging of at least 4 different makeup brands was refreshing. Plus, it was great to learn about cultural touchstones outside of the U.S. such as Miffy and Kakao Talk stamps. Speaking of which, stay tuned for makeup collabs featuring Kakao Friends, LINE Friends and BT21. 😉
What do you think? Which little bunny is your favorite? As precious as these are, I would love to see a Velveteen Rabbit themed collection. (Incidentally, the book just turned 100!)
Took a while, but I'm pleased to finally talk about Mikimoto's gorgeous collection from holiday 2020. As with the holiday 2018 and 2019 collections, the company enlisted an artist to create the packaging. For the Twinkle Pearls lineup, Mikimoto collaborated with London-based illustrator (and southpaw!) Fee Greening.
Greening illustrated a charming zodiac theme using her signature dip pen, ink and watercolor process.
As with the 2018 collection, the moisturizer is housed in a luminous, iridescent sphere that imitates the brilliance of genuine pearls.
Strands of pearls border the zodiac design on the palette, while the blush is delicately embossed with stars and an oyster shell opened to reveal a shiny pearl.
Gemstones surround a rather regal goddess wearing an elaborate crown made of pearl strands affixed to an oyster shell in the center. The star motif and wave-like clouds in the background fuse the celestial and oceanic atmospheres.
The interior of the box depicts a disembodied hand festooned with pearl strands, while the goddess perches on a lion escorting her through the heavens.
Both the makeup pouch and travel case display more of the lovely illustrations as well as a quote. I'm assuming the latter is from Mikimoto.
Fee Greening (b. 1990) always wanted to draw. Seeing famous paintings in galleries on travels with her parents, she would try to replicate them at home, with much frustration. But she found the right medium when she received a dip pen and ink as a gift. "I used to go to galleries in London with my family and try to recreate oil paintings unsuccessfully with my crayons at home and get very frustrated," she says. "When I was around ten, someone in my family gave me a Murano glass dip pen from Venice. It took a long time to get used to it. For the first few years it was hard to get the ink to run off smoothly and it would often drip. Now I have developed a muscle memory of what angle to hold my pen and it no longer happens."
As evidenced by the above photo of Greening, intricate dip pen illustrations require a lot of time and attention to detail. The finished product is well worth it, however, for both artist and client. "It is a very slow process, the pen can only draw 1/2cm before you need to re-dip it. I also have to wait for it to dry for couple of minutes so I don’t smudge or drag my long hair across the wet ink. Although there are many wonderful aspects of living in a digital age, it has given us very short attention spans. I think we crave traditional analogue outlets to balance out our scrolling culture. A detailed drawing is not only precious because of its beauty but also because of the time dedicated to making it," she says.
Thematically, since childhood Greening has been fascinated by the common narratives within medieval, Renaissance and Gothic art. "I always had a flair for the dramatic as a child, and loved storytelling. I think that’s where my interest in Renaissance and Gothic art came from…There are so many great heroines and doomed love affairs depicted in those artistic eras that I was really drawn to. I think, even though I didn’t know it then, I was very interested in fate and divine will. Characters fated to unavoidable doomed love like Tristan and Iseult, characters answering a calling like Joan of Arc or characters whose decisions had so many repercussions like Pandora and Eve. Maybe it was something to do with coming of age." This interest is expressed through the fairy tale quality in Greening's work. Take, for example, the story she created for Gucci's Acqua di Fiori fragrance in 2018, which depicts half-human, half-flower girls "blossoming" into women. Greening explains, "I explored the perfume’s themes of female coming of age, friendship and metamorphosis, I wanted the girls to literally blossom into women. I looked specifically at mandrakes in medieval illuminated manuscripts. Mandrakes were said to be half human half plant and when pulled from the soil let out a high pitch scream. I wanted to create an idyllic floral world for the budding mandrakes to frolic in and transform into women. I’ve known my closest female friends since my late teens. Drawing these reminded me of our early years of friendship, lazing around barefoot in a sunny garden surrounded by flowers." The inclusion of butterflies completes the theme of transformation.
What's wonderful about Greening's Instagram feed, in addition to seeing work that's not on her website, is that it occasionally includes the artworks that inspire her. Here are some illustrations of mandrakes from medieval books, along with a detail of the mythical Daphne turning into a tree.
Indeed, the concepts of transformation and magic through the lens of medieval and Renaissance art – whether earthly pursuits such as astronomy and botany or mythical like mandrakes and alchemy – figure prominently in Greening's work. While she delights in the fanciful side ("if money was no object I would happily just draw demons and angels," she notes), ultimately her work centers on revealing the magic of natural processes and phenomena. "I enjoy looking for something hallowed and fantastical in every day life." A good example is the triptych Greening created for Martin Brudnizki's Linnaean spa project. The spa's namesake comes from Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish naturalist who developed a "flower clock" in 1748* by planting certain blooms that opened and closed at specific times of day. The center panel of Greening's triptych combines a joyful rendition of an original flower clock illustration with surrounding flora and fauna arranged symmetrically, reminiscent of those found in medieval manuscripts. While the flower clock is based on various scientific principles, Greening uncovers the wonder of this concept and reminds us of the magic hidden in nature. Who would ever think one could use flowers to tell time?! That sounds quite fantastical to me, like something from Alice in Wonderland.
The same periods in Western art history also influenced Greening's style. "I think my fascination with medieval and gothic styles comes from visiting churches and museums in Italy with my family when I was young," she says. After graduating from London's famed Central St. Martin's in 2012, she received a Master's degree in illustration from the Royal Academy of Arts in 2014. It was at the Academy that she further developed her aesthetic, diving into the plentiful examples of medieval manuscripts and alchemical drawings offered there. "There was such an extensive section [on them] in the library. I was already drawing similar themes and using dip pens, so the more research I did on the era the more it reinforced my style. I tend to use the same straight on perspective, heavily detailed borders, hand written text, natural color palette, botanical specimens and symbology. Alchemical drawings are detailed but laid out in very simple, ordered compositions which is something I try to emulate in my own work." These influences are especially apparent in Greening's capitalized letters, which emulate a modern, light-hearted spirit while distinctly retaining their medieval origins.
These plants fused with jewels and a print entitled "forget-me-not" embody the strange, somewhat surreal nature of alchemical drawings. Seemingly disparate elements floating in the ether – flowers, gems, insects, hands – are merged with text to form a dreamlike yet orderly space.
It's unclear how Mikimoto's partnership with Greening came about, but it's not surprising given her previous collaborations including beauty illustrations for Sisley. Perhaps the company observed Greening's love of pearls, shells and coral. Additionally, Mikimoto may have spoken to the artist's interests: pearls can be considered a symbol of metamorphosis or alchemy, as sand is transformed by oysters into a precious and beautiful material.
Once again, it's great to observe the images that rattle around in the artist's brain as she conceives of her drawings. Here are a few pearly details from Greening's IG page.
The selection of a zodiac theme is a bit unexpected for Mikimoto. Something that looked out towards the sea rather than skyward may have been more appropriate. However, it's obvious how much Greening enjoys illustrating the zodiac and other celestial motifs. It looks as though she slightly modified her Celestial design for Mikimoto to make it more fitting.
I love how she pays homage to and re-imagines some of the details from various 17th century illustrations in the collection for Mikimoto, such as the scrolls, stars and fine line work.
These next two zodiac designs from the 1600s have not popped up in Greening's Instagram feed, but I would be surprised if she hadn't looked to them for inspiration. I'm also certain she owns a copy of this book.
My only complaint about Greening's design is that mermaids were strangely absent. Given that the artist has incorporated them into previous commissions and even chose bathroom tiles with a mermaid pattern for her home, I'm a bit disappointed not to see them on the Mikimoto packaging. Plus, they would have aligned nicely with the mer-folk on Mikimoto's previous holiday collections. These invitations and the mermaids therein are inspired by medieval and Renaissance maps…
…especially the ladies in the invitation on the right below.
Absolutely adore these tiles. The mermaid comes from a volume called Solidonius Philosophus, published around 1710 (there appear to be a couple different versions.) The mermaid is depicted with the 4 elements.
Overall, while it wasn't a perfect match in my eyes, Greening did an excellent job for Mikimoto. I wish the company had come up with any sort of narrative as they did with the previous two holiday collections. While they weren't the most coherent – I think something was getting lost in translation – Mikimoto at least tried to tell a story invoking the magic of the holiday season and tying it back to pearls. Greening is a skilled storyteller so her talents were somewhat wasted in that regard. Nevertheless, it's a visually beautiful collection, and my inner art history geek greatly admires Greening's style and influences.
What do you think of this collection and Greening's work? If she ever makes a mermaid print I'm buying every single item!
As usual, there was no shortage of artist collabs of the holiday season. Kate is an affordably-priced Japanese brand owned by Kanebo, maker of the beautiful Milano compacts. I was immediately intrigued by the packaging for their holiday collection, and when I saw it was the result of a partnership with illustrator Kotaro Chiba, I knew I had to get my hands on it for the Museum. Entitled "Neo-Folklore: Reinterpretation of Japanese Folklore Heroines," Kate's holiday collection features modern reimaginings of the women in three Japanese folk tales who "face and shape their own destinies". There were lip gloss duos, eyeliners and eyeshadow palettes for each story. I just picked up the palettes since the designs were the same for all of the products.
The first story in the collection centers on Japan's vast array of fox-based fairy tales. Foxes, or kitsune, have a long-standing place in Japanese culture – there are entire books written on fox folklore – but the story Kate selected involves one version of the fox wedding, Kitsune no Yomeiri. As the traditional lore goes, foxes would create rain to keep humans away from the forest where they held wedding processions. But as foxes were also known to be shape-shifters, some lady foxes would change into human form and marry an unsuspecting man. Sometimes she'd be able to keep her true form a secret forever, but sometimes she would accidentally let her tail slip out. Once a family member sees that she's actually a fox she can no longer remain with them and must return to the forest (not sure why.)
The palette artwork depicts a woman clad in a black dress with swirls of voluminous fabric in the back (perhaps mimicking a tail?) and a fox curving around the edges. The golden white spheres on the right are most likely hoshi no tama, or star balls. These magical orbs are said to hold the fox's life force. If a human manages to get a hold of one they can control the fox.
The company created a makeup look and brief video to accompany each story. This one is called "Hint of a Wispy Flame," referencing the warm tones of a red fox and Inari shrines.
The video depicts a fox wedding which the bride apparently abandons. The "ghostly forest light" mentioned is known as kitsune-bi, magical fire produced by the foxes during wedding ceremonies and other processions. I'm still scratching my head over the ending…so she doesn't get married to a human but doesn't stay with her fellow foxes either? Where does she run off to?
The second story, known as Tsuru no Ongaeshi (Crane's Return of a Favor), or more specifically, Tsuru Nyobo (The Crane Wife) involves a man who helps an injured crane. I'll let Japan Folklore tell the tale, as it was the most straightforward version I found. "Long, long ago in a far off land there lived a young man. One day, while working on his farm, a brilliant white crane came swooping down and crashed to the ground at his feet. The man noticed an arrow pierced through one of its wings. Taking pity on the crane, he pulled out the arrow and cleaned the wound. Thanks to his care the bird was soon able to fly again. The young man sent the crane back to the sky, saying, 'Be careful to avoid hunters.' The crane circled three times over his head, let out a cry as if in thanks, and then flew away.As the day grew dark the young man made his way home. When he arrived, he was surprised by the sight of a beautiful woman whom he had never seen before standing at the doorway. 'Welcome home. I am your wife,' said the woman. The young man was surprised and said, 'I am very poor, and cannot support you.' The woman answered, pointing to a small sack, 'Don't worry, I have plenty of rice,' and began preparing dinner. The young man was puzzled, but the two began a happy life together. And the rice sack, mysteriously, remained full always. One day the wife asked the young man to build her a weaving room. When it was completed, she said, 'You must promise never to peek inside.' With that, she shut herself up in the room. The young man waited patiently for her to come out. Finally, after seven days, the sound of the loom stopped and his wife, who had become very thin, stepped out of the room holding the most beautiful cloth he had ever seen. 'Take this cloth to the marketplace and it will sell for a high price,' said the wife. The next day the young man brought it to town and, just as she said, it sold for many coins. Happy, he returned home. The wife then returned to the room and resumed weaving. Curiosity began to overtake the man, who wondered, 'How can she weave such beautiful cloth with no thread?' Soon he could stand it no longer and, desperate to know his wife's secret, peeked into the room. To his great shock, his wife was gone. Instead, a crane sat intently at the loom weaving a cloth, plucking out its own feathers for thread. The bird then noticed the young man peeking in and said, 'I am the crane that you saved. I wanted to repay you so I became your wife, but now that you have seen my true form I can stay here no longer.' Then, handing the man the finished cloth, it said, 'I leave you this to remember me by.' The crane then abruptly flew off into the sky and disappeared forever." There are some variations to the tale, such as the replacement of the man for an old couple who essentially adopt the young woman as their daughter, but the overall message remains the same: respect people's privacy.
The palette shows another woman in black holding a cat's cradle of yarn between her outstretched fingers. She appears to be watching the sliding door in the background. The head and neck of a red-crowned crane form a graceful arc over the scene.
The color story for this palette is also a nod to the red-crowned crane, according to the description at the Kate website.
As with the fox wedding story, I'm not really sure what the video is trying to say. At first the crane/woman is upset her trust was broken, but then seems okay with it?
The third story is the tale of Princess Kaguya, which dates all the way back to the 10th century. Move over Sailor Moon, there's another princess from our big round friend! Here's an abbreviated version from this website. "A long time ago, an old and humble man who was cutting bamboo saw that one of the logs he’d gathered was glittering in a strange way as if it was illuminated by the moon. Taking the log in his hands, he realized that inside was a beautiful and tiny little girl, about 7 centimeters tall. The man took her home because he’d never had children, and between him and his wife, they took care of her as if she were their own daughter…The strange girl grew into a beautiful woman of normal size, and over the years, people began to learn of the existence and beauty of this lady. Suitors traveled from all over to request her hand. On one occasion, five honorable gentlemen approached the house of the bamboo cutter trying to persuade him to allow his adopted daughter to marry. He was old and didn’t want to leave her alone upon dying, they argued. But she refused to take any husband, making impossible requests of her suitors in to avoid marrying them. The existence of the beautiful young woman came to the attention of the emperor, who requested that she appear in his court. When she refused, he visited her and, upon seeing her, he too fell madly in love with her. The emperor tried to take the girl to his palace to marry her, but the young woman assured him that if she were taken by force, she would become a shadow and then disappear forever. Each night, she watched the sky with melancholy. It was time to return to her place of origin, and it was then that she confessed to her adoptive father, in tears, that she had come from the moon and that her time on Earth was to end. Upon learning of this, the emperor sent guards to the house of the bamboo cutter, to try to prevent the princess from returning to her place of origin. One night, the moon was covered by a cloud. This quickly began to descend towards the Earth, while the sky grew ever darker. A carriage manned by luminous beings arrived for the princess. She left a letter and a small bottle with the Elixir of Life for the emperor before leaving. Frightened, he ordered that both be taken to the top of the most sacred mountain of that land and there, burned. To this day, it’s remembered that when there is smoke upon Mount Fuji, this is the letter and elixir that the Princess of the Moon left for the emperor, and these will continue to burn at the mountain’s peak."
Princess Kaguya is shown on the palette wearing a black kimono and standing in front of a stylized blue moon. Bamboo stalks in the background represent the princess's earthly beginnings, while the rabbit in the foreground is a reference to another lunar-themed tale, the moon rabbit (Tsuki no Usagi.)
I have to say none of the looks the company came up with seem particularly thoughtful or interesting. The collection allegedly centered on dismantling tradition and setting new narratives, yet the makeup seems rather safe and conventional. I understand Kate is a mass market brand, but something more daring couldn't have hurt.
Anyway, the video changes the ending of the tale, revealing that Princess Kaguya chooses to stay on earth.
Perhaps if I had any sort of grasp on the original tales and understood the videos I might have better insight of how these heroines were reinterpreted. At first I thought the Neo-Folklore collection was telling the same tales but emphasizing the independence of the women, portraying them as active agents of their own destinies rather than passive characters that things merely happen to. In the usual narratives, the crane/woman leaves her husband and the kitsune leaves her family so that they can fully express their true selves. Princess Kaguya, although sad to leave her parents, refused to accept a traditional married life and returned to her celestial home. But the videos the company made complicate these interpretations; the intent was to change the women's actions entirely. The kitsune abandons both her fox family and the prospect of marrying a human, the crane is proud to show her avian form when her secret is discovered, and Princess Kaguya chooses to stay on earth. I'm not sure the revised stories present any sort of significantly more "empowered" outcomes, but they at least attempt to depict these women as setting a wholly new course for themselves rather than adhering to the original story.
In any case, the artist Kate selected to highlight the women in these tales is a perfect fit. Kotaro Chiba is a self-taught artist based in Niigata, a relatively quiet, snowy city in northwest Japan. His father, a convenience store owner turned Buddhist monk, and mother, a piano teacher, were of modest means but instilled a love of art and culture in their son. "My family was poor in money but rich in culture. The little house where we used to live was full of art, music and literature. I started to study seriously the art myself when I worked part-time after my graduation from high-school. Of course, I would have liked to attend an art school, but I wasn't able to make it for financial reasons," he says. Chiba began his career around 2007 making t-shirt designs. He found he wasn't inspired by one particular style or theme, but a combination of manga, modern Western fashion and traditional Japanese style. While his work continues to evolve, the end result is surreal, fanciful and at times unsettling.
Chiba's experience illustrating a book of Japanese fairy tales in 2019 more than qualifies him to take on the Neo-Folklore collection.
His work sometimes takes on a more video-game, sci-fi fantasy vibe while still incorporating elements of traditional Japanese costume, such as this warrior character he created for an app.
Chiba is also adept at modern fashion illustration, particularly for women's dress. "I am not a fashion-addict or a fashionista and I don't have any good sense of trends, but I'm fascinated by fashion design. I just love it. I like the fact that fashion is sexual but doesn't express sexuality directly. I want to mix pop culture and classical sense," he says. Examples of this combination include his portraits of women consuming ramen, some with a decidedly modern appearance and one with a slightly more traditional Japanese style. While you'd never mistake them for antique wood-block prints, their flatness and composition reference the centuries-old art.
Chiba notes that as a self-taught artist, he had no one to help guide his style, so it evolves organically with little input from other artists. "I am self-educated, have no teacher or boss, so no one corrects what I do. My style is not static," he says. And he's right – in looking at his Instagram, it's hard to believe it's the same artist. But some of his pieces seem to be influenced by others. The lines on the woman's hair and the fish's tail in Kuro (2019), for example, are particularly reminiscent of Hiroshi Tanabe's work.
Despite being born and raised in Japan, Chiba says that manga and anime styles don't figure prominently in his oeuvre. I'm inclined to agree. As he states, the surrealist nature of some manga is present in his work, but not so much the aesthetic. "Manga is certainly different from western culture, as it doesn't fit in a logical world. It may represent a kind of surrealism. I carefully watched Dragon Ball Z on TV when I was a child, but in reality, I don't know much about manga. My foreign friends know better than me. Nevertheless, I can't deny the influence of Manga-anime."
Chiba's preference for illustrating women is another reason Kate made the right choice for a makeup collaboration focused on reinventing women's roles within fairy tales. The artist explains, "I prefer to draw female things. In fact, I'm more interested by gender than by womanhood and sexuality. I hate masculinity because it's too simple…My illustrations are often said to be 'too feminine', even when I draw male characters." For the most part, Chiba's female characters are depicted as independent, powerful and sometimes even fearsome. A girl wearing an animal skeleton while nonchalantly observing a six-headed dog growing out of the ground, for example, is not someone to be trifled with.
Nor is a strange bird-vampire levitating in a blood-spattered room above the carcass of the animal she has presumably exsanguinated.
The illustration he created for a cover of a novel earlier this year is similar to those for the Kate collection, with the cat's form cradling the central character in the same way the fox, crane and rabbit – also rendered in white – curve around on the palettes. The skull held by the woman, the cat's skeletal tail, and the floating sperm-like shapes point to a story about life and death, perhaps?
I wish I knew more about Chiba's inspiration for the Neo-Folklore collection and how the collab came about, but my request for an interview went unanswered. Ah well, it's the holidays. But he did shed light on his process during one interview, noting that he creates straight from memories or visions he has in his head, rather than directly referencing a photo. "I like to design all objects in the picture by myself: outfit, furniture, landscape, etc…that is the feature of my works. I don't like to draw something from reference photos (though I'm sometimes obliged to because I'm running out of time). The idea of the design usually only exists in my brain." In the case of the Neo-Folklore collection, it seems that he simply translated his familiarity with these fairy tales growing up and the particular characters and objects associated with them (animals, yarn, bamboo, etc.) to his own style. If it were me, of course, I'd read every version of the fairy tale and look at every illustration before trying to come up with something of my own, but that's why I'm not an artist. ;) Nevertheless, I see some similarities between us. He likes living in a smaller city and set out to do something creative, even though he lacked formal training, just because he thought he would enjoy it. And maybe it's because Chiba is self-taught, but he seems quite unpretentious and relaxed compared to some artists I've come across. "I didn't want to specifically to be an illustrator. I wanted to create something. I knew that this would make me happy…I love that quiet atmosphere [of Niigata]. My favorite place is the Starbucks in the neighborhood! If I had to move elsewhere, I'd chose the countryside. My daily routine is to buy a coffee at the convenience store nearby. I think a good sleep brings better productivity. I don't go to bed late because I want to reduce stress as much as possible. It took a long-time to have self-confidence. I still have just a little confidence, not enough to fight with the world."
What do you think of Chiba's work? And which story is your favorite? They were all kind of sad to me, even the revamped versions, but I love the idea of foxy lady shapeshifters since they remind me of some mermaid stories where they can switch between mermaid and human form.
Normally I'd wait a whole year and do a Ghosts of Christmas Makeup Past post to be more seasonally appropriate, but I simply couldn't in the case of the amazing (mer-mazing?) Mikimoto holiday collection. As with the 2018 collection, the historic Japanese pearl and jewelry purveyor teamed up with an artist to create some incredibly whimsical underwater-themed packaging. Belgian artist and illustrator Brecht Evens had the honor of being Mikimoto's second artist collaboration. I must admit I think I like his concept even more than the one by Emmanuel Pierre in 2018. If imagery of celebratory mermaids and assorted mer-critters having the ultimate holiday party doesn't do anything for you, I question your humanity.
We'll start with the palettes. The details on everything are staggeringly clever. And while the mishmash of characters and objects may initially seem haphazard, Evens' messiness is actually entirely intentional. "When I draw the jumble of the city or I draw nature…errors, spots and little incongruities make it more realistic. Because when you're in a space and you start to look around, you don't take in the whole. You can't. You don't see the world around you like you see a postcard; it's not organized that way. We're moving, others are moving, and the eye makes constant choices, it decides what to interpret and what to identify. So at any given moment, there's a lot of mess in there and, for me, this kind of mess has to stay in. It's controlled; it's never like I'm creating randomness. It's just that incongruities seem to catch the eye better. They're more natural and they latch onto the eye more realistically. Maybe I do play with a lot of stuff. But I only do it when it serves my narrative. It's all part of calibrating things. When I use a lot of detail, it's very calculated – I'm making sure it doesn't obstruct anything essential." The dozens of scenes may still be overwhelming for some, but I personally enjoyed picking apart all the individual vignettes and then seeing how they came together as a whole.
This is a particularly amusing exchange between two mer-folk and a nosy little fish. The addition of text is representative of Evens' background in illustrated books and comics. The humor reminds me a little bit of Danny Sangra, the artist who designed Burberry's spring 2018 palette.
I'm obsessed with this mer-kitty.
The scenes for the eyeshadow palette are equally spectacular. Sting rays take mer-children for a ride, while a sea elf peeks out from some seaweed to admire a blue-haired mermaid.
On the outer box a school of fish help another mermaid primp for a holiday party. She checks out her reflection in a seashell mirror held by two crabs.
I think the imagery on the sides of the skincare set was my favorite.
The set includes what appears to be a very fancy moisturizer (I didn't want to open the sealed plastic) and what I believe are packets of face serum. Each one tells a snippet of the "First Snow of Pearls" tale. Unfortunately I couldn't seem to locate the story at the Mikimoto website as I did last year, so I'm not really sure what it's supposed to be about.
I love that the images are totally bizarre but also make perfect sense. The concept of a sea-dwelling Santa is absurd, but if one exists, of course his sleigh team would be seahorses instead of reindeer and his bag of presents shaped like a seashell. Ditto for the mermaid taking a ride on the jellyfish "bus", pulling on its tentacles to signal her stop. While the underwater realm Evens created for Mikimoto is entirely imaginary, the usual rules still apply. As he puts it: "I do think I use visuals that might be dreamlike, or psychedelic, but I don’t think I use dream logic…you have to believe in the world you're creating."
There was also a lip gloss, the box for which shared the same illustrations as the skincare set.
Some lovely extras were included as gifts, like this silver toned box topped with a manta ray, a gold seashell cardholder and two cosmetic pouches. I noticed the powder brush was a bit scratchy, but 1. it was free and 2. I don't intend on using it anyway.
Let's learn a little more about the artist behind these fantastical scenes. The Belgian-born, Paris-based Brecht Evens (b.1986) studied illustration at Sint-Lucas Gent in Ghent, Belgium. Building on his country's tradition and notoriety for comics, he focuses on these and illustrated books, but has also completed murals in Brussels and Antwerp, created fabrics for Cotélac, and collaborated with Louis Vuitton on a Tokyo travel book.
Stylistically, Evens is influenced by his mentors, illustrator Goele Dewanckel and cartoonist Randall Casaer. You can also see glimpses of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, M.C. Escher and Picasso. Take, for example, the resemblance between the artwork Evens created for French publisher Actes Sud and Bruegel's Battle Between Carnival and Lent. Both utilize a bird's eye perspective and include dozens of different vignettes.
While Evens published several award-winning books early in his career, he is best known for more recent works Panther (2014) and The City of Belgium (Dutch and French versions released 2018; forthcoming editions in English in 2020). In terms of content, most of Evens' narratives tend to be a little dark. Panther is about a young girl named Christine whose cat dies. Her mother also threatens suicide, drives away and never comes back. Panther arrives seemingly to be Christine's friend and help her cope, but ends up being far more malicious than he appears. One reader called it a "apologism of pedophilia, zoophilia and incest". Yikes.
The City of Belgium (titled Les Rigoles for its French audience and Het Amusement for Belgium) is actually part of the same universe as Evens's 2009 work The Wrong Place, and the various versions of the book are meant to be connected. "I wanted something like a paperback copy of Balzac, a whole world that would be portable. But, instead of just one city, I wanted to make it a kind of European amalgam…the fun result would be for everyone to think it's their city."
The City of Belgium also reflects Evens' struggle with bi-polar disorder and gradual recovery from a particularly bad episode. While not as unsettling as Panther, the book follows three characters having parallel urban adventures throughout a single evening, one of whom suffers from depression. Evens discusses how the book came to be and acknowledges the "heavy" themes alongside the humor. "The germ was just me coming back to life. A state of depression never carries any potential or interest. Then, once the interest starts returning – bit by bit – it's like you're back at zero. At that point, it's just lines in old sketchbooks, dreams you have, something you happen to see sitting on a terrace. Because it's so surprising to have ideas again, you notice every little thought and you get them down in a sketchbook…[in 2013 and 2014] things were so messed up; I couldn't ever have considered such a massive project. The book is a product of peace having descended…the themes may be heavy, but I hope the treatment is light. Don't forget to mention it's full of gags and jokes!"
Evens appropriately chose a more lighthearted story for the Mikimoto collection while maintaining the concept of connected times and spaces. The characters and scenes appear disparate at first, but as you look more closely you can see that they're all part of the same underwater universe – preparing for the holiday season and the First Snow of Pearls. If anyone is going to create a fanciful mermaid-laden paracosm or "expanded reality" as one reviewer put it, Evens is the perfect choice, as he had been making these sorts of "imaginary worlds" since he was a child. "Practically all I did was try to make imaginary worlds come to life, which meant: visible to other people, in comics, designs for buildings, fantasy world maps, board and card games, cassette tapes… No teaching, no explaining, no argument, just a portable world, bound together, with maybe a dust jacket around it or even some leather," he says. He also did a fantastic job incorporating the pearls, which appear throughout all the scenes. My favorites are the fish helping construct a pearl garland and telling the lazy sea dog to wake up because it's snowing pearls.
The illustrations were incredibly fun on their own, but the addition of Evens' signature text provided another layer of humor.
"A lot of people, when they write dialogue, just go 'A, B', 'A, B', 'A, B.' They'll have the characters neatly wait their turn. Whereas I don't think our brains really work that way. In reality, it's more of a constant traffic jam – even when we like each other and we're interacting well. When we're interacting less well, it's more extreme," he says. You can see the more realistic dialogue (at least, as "realistic" as this mermaid world can be) Evens was aiming for in this scene depicting crabs and fish wrapping holiday presents.
I have no information on how the Mikimoto collaboration came about. I summoned my courage and emailed Evens to see if he could shed any light. He politely declined to be interviewed, but I'm guessing that Mikimoto approached him as he indicated he does not know much about cosmetics. I believe these are new illustrations Evens created especially for the brand, but I find it odd he hasn't included the collab on his website or IG page. I'm also assuming they were done using his usual handmade techniques. For The City of Belgium, he explains: "All the drawings were done on paper and I write by hand. So the creative parts are all computer-less. Where the computer comes in is for research; when I want things to be 'right' or inspired by actual stuff, then I'll look something up… Ecoline [ink] dominates, but I use a mix. Now I have some different inks and, with the same brush, I'll also pick up gouache to make it what I want. Or, I'll mix it with real aquarelle. It all depends on what I'm searching for, what opacity or transparency I need to have. There will also be some pastels and, often, markers." In looking closely at the lines and the way the colors overlap, it appears Evens did indeed draw everything by hand using a mix of markers and pastels on white paper.
So that about wraps it up. What do you think about this collection? What's your favorite scene or character? I'd party any time with these mer-folks!
I'm thinking there has to be a vintage makeup fan among Les Merveilleuses Ladurée's design and marketing team, since their holiday 2019 collection carries on the tradition of yet another popular motif for beauty packaging: the swan. This graceful bird also ties into the company's commitment to infusing their line with the style introduced by the Merveilleuses. Let's look at the collection and all its downy soft details.
Can I just say how much I love the color scheme? The blue is so perfect – not too bright, not too aqua, not too dark – and plays amazingly well against the pink and white of the makeup shades and swan imagery. First we have the brightening powder. The outer case depicts a swan holding a rose in its beak, while the powder itself is embossed with a white swan swimming in a pastel-colored lake.
Next is this beautiful set containing a double swan-embossed blush and lipstick, housed in a blue embroidered pouch with a tiny silver swan for the zipper pull.
Lastly is the star of the collection, a white swan-shaped jar filled with blush "roses". LM Ladurée is famous for their blush resembling rose petals, but these are next level.
I couldn't bear to open the blush itself, but it looks like this.
Even the box is gorgeously printed with pristine white swan feathers.
So how do swans relate to the Merveilleuses? Prior to becoming Empress in 1804, Josephine was one of the most revered Merveilleuses, possibly even more so than Madame Recamier. While the more over-the-top Merveilleuse trends generally died down after Napoleon rose to power, Josephine was still considered a top arbiter of style. During her time as Empress she also adopted the swan as her signature motif. According to the Met: "At the approach of danger, with feathers puffed up and anxiously hissing, these birds protect their young within the wall of their white wings. Napoleon's consort, Josephine, and her children were frequently compared to a swan and its cygnets. The swan was chosen as her symbol by Claude, wife of Francis I, the French Renaissance king whom Napoleon greatly admired." Thus the reason for the abundance of swan decor at her and Napoleon's residence, the Château de Malmaison.
In addition to serving as one of the Empress's emblems, swans have a long history in the world of cosmetics, most likely since they are one of the symbols associated with Aphrodite/Venus, goddess of love and beauty.1 Vintage compacts with images of swans abound.2
Coty's "Golden Swan" sets were perennial holiday favorites from about 1950-1955. I stumbled across some newspaper ads for them, and lo and behold this great blog on Coty's history had an actual photo.
I couldn't find a real-life photo of this swan lipstick bouquet but it's fantastic. I'm guessing they're copying and expanding on the concept of Max Factor's popular flower pot lipstick set, which debuted in 1969.
I couldn't resist picking up a few vintage swan items for the Museum, including these adorable lipstick hankerchiefs (ca. 1940s-50s) and a lipstick case (ca. 1980s).
I think this vintage powder jar may have been LM Ladurée's inspiration. They came in a variety of colors, and the little niche created by the swans' wings was intended to store a lipstick.
All of these are lovely, but Tetlow's Swan Down face powder and accompanying ads are my favorite vintage swan-themed pieces…and they don't even depict swans on the outer packaging! Tetlow's Swan Down powder was introduced in 1875 and sold through the early 1930s. Collecting Vintage Compacts has a very thorough history of Henry Tetlow if you'd like to read more.
I was so pleased to get this one in good condition for the Museum along with an original ad.
While the one I have is in good shape, I'd love to own one of these boxes that still has the swan insert!
As was the case for many goods in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Tetlow's used small trading cards to advertise Swan Down. The portraits depict various stage actresses and other fashionable ladies of the time. The fan shape is a nice touch.
Another item I've become rather enamored of are vintage swan's down puffs. Before the dawn of synthetic brushes and puffs, in the Western world swan's down was one of the most common materials to apply powder in addition to silk and lambswool. The swan's down really is incredibly soft! (I forgot to take a picture of the vintage puff I bought…stay tuned for an update.)
I would love to try it out and compare it to my softest squirrel hair brushes but it's so fragile I'm afraid it would get ruined. And as I learned, vintage swan's down puffs are not cheap, especially the ones with sterling silver handles (drool).
Fast-forward to the 21st century, when some more swan-themed items joined their vintage counterparts. Here's what I'm sure is an incomplete group. Also, I guess I should give an honorary mention to Etude House's 2015 Dreaming Swan collection, which oddly enough did not feature any swans on the packaging.
Who can forget the frenzy over the makeup for the 2010 film Black Swan? This kit contained each element of the look.
Sugar Cosmetics chose a swan for their clarifying sheet mask packaging.
Finally, here are the other contemporary swan treasures in the Museum's collection: a Paul and Joe eyeshadow from their fall 2010 collection and Guerlain's spring 2018 Blanc de Perle compact, which was a collaboration with Ros Lee.
So that about wraps it up! What do you think of the swan motif both for Empire-era decor and makeup? Which piece here is your favorite?
There's a reason you haven't seen much of Pai Pai at the Museum as of late: unfortunately, the company wasn't doing enough business in the U.S. so they ceased their short-lived shipping here. But the good news is that a fellow collector sussed out another Mexico-based store that carries the line and will send it to the States. After missing out on several really cool collaborations I was finally able to resume adding Pai Pai to the Museum's collection. Without further ado, I introduce their latest release, a collaboration with Ana Leovy.
I had hoped to get the exclusive scoop on the collection and emailed the artist for an interview. Much to my disappointment she did not respond. (And you wonder why I'm continually discouraged – this is the second artist in a row to turn me down). Nevertheless I was able to cobble together some information on Leovy's work. For the Pai Pai collection, it appears she created four different paintings to be used on four lipstick cases. To my knowledge they are untitled.
Here are the colors in case you're not a crazy collector and actually want to use them!
Ana Leovy is a young Mexico City-based artist whose vibrant, woman-centric paintings have garnered the attention from everyone from the likes of Man Repeller to Elle Mexico. Originally trained as a graphic designer, Leovy reignited her love of painting after earning her Master degree in illustration at a university in Barcelona. Upon completion of her degree she moved back to Mexico to pursue painting full-time. She states in an interview, "Although I love graphic design, being an artist gives me so much more creative freedom. People come to me now because they like my style and they trust what I will create for them, whereas from my experience working with design clients, they were a bit harder to please – and I was stressed all the time. Art doesn’t feel like a job at all, it brings me lots of joy and peace, especially when seeing the reaction of people who have bought my work, it’s the best feeling ever!"
Thematically, Leovy's work consists mostly of the female form. Their bodies are often asymmetrical, out of proportion and show a range of colors, reflecting Leovy's commitment to depicting diversity in body shapes, sizes and skin tones. "We all come in different shapes and colors, I think that is so interesting and awesome. We should learn to embrace our uniqueness. I like playing with distorted bodies in order to avoid falling into any specific beauty category. I think it’s important to encourage diversity; my work isn’t about creating beautiful people, but trying to send a message of self-love and empowerment. Perfection is not necessarily beautiful; to me different is more exciting. We already have perfection in photography…I want everyone to be able to relate to my work regardless of their skin color or body shape." While this may seem disingenuous coming from someone as gorgeous as Leovy – I tend to roll my eyes at beautiful, thin women (especially models and actresses) who preach "loving your body" – I believe she is sincere. The proof is in her work; you will not find skinny, conventionally beautiful model types in any of Leovy's paintings. This is a refreshing change from other illustrators, especially the more fashion-based ones. Leovy's women are modern and yes, well-dressed (the artist loves fashion, citing Mara Hoffman and Elie Saab among her favorite designers), but without the reinforcement of beauty and fashion stereotypes. This makes her work seem much less intimidating and achieves her goal of being relatable to the average woman.
Another reason Leovy's work seems more welcoming than other depictions of women we see so frequently in beauty collabs is the overwhelming spirit of camaraderie and sisterhood. “All my life women around me have been nothing but inspiration. I love being able to confide in them," she says. I particularly love this scene of women having a picnic in a lush garden, clearly enjoying each other's company (along with some wine and Vogue magazines!)
I also enjoy the feminist bend in Leovy's work, which shows an awareness of the inequality faced by women. She states: “Sadly we are still a very chauvinist community where you get blamed for being out too late or the way you dress…It has never been my intention to become too political, however I think now more than ever it is important to stand up and support what you believe in. It is amazing to see so many movements all around the world demanding what should be natural; equality, love and acceptance. So after seeing all this it is impossible not to feel vulnerable, getting involved in such topics are a small way of showing support.”
Depicting women by themselves, enjoying their time alone is another way Leovy expresses a more feminist angle. "[Mexico] is a country where most women are raised to be married and have children, nothing else. Even though this has been a year of very feminist-oriented social media, I believe we’re still lacking the day-to-day actions that go in hand with these movements, to really practice what we preach,” she says. Showing women without a male partner, and even happy without a male presence, emphasizes the notion of women's independence as well as a rejection of the societal expectations of marriage and procreation. It's rare that you see women living "happily ever after" totally on their own; single women are generally still viewed as defective, or at the very least, lonely spinsters. That's why I love seeing Leovy's paintings of women in a room by themselves, reading, watching TV in their sweats or simply having a moment with their thoughts, as these pieces fight back against the stigma single women endure. (And even if you're partnered, it's important to have some time alone on occasion to maintain your sense of self.)
Now that we've covered the main themes in Leovy's oeuvre, I want to talk a little about her style, particularly her use of color. The landscape and textiles of her native Mexico as well as the tropical environment of the Caribbean, where she lived for several years, shaped her preference for vibrant colors. The unexpected combinations reflect Leovy's "no rules" approach. "When it comes to color in my work I believe the more the merrier, it's the part of the creation process I enjoy the most, I follow no rule or guideline whatsoever and I love it…Choosing the color palette is my favorite part, I love letting myself flow and see what comes out. I think the colors I choose are sort of a personal journal of my mood swings."
While Leovy's style is uniquely her own, I can't help but notice a striking resemblance to Matisse. Another article points out the similarity between Leovy and Matisse in terms of color, but I'd also argue that the use of a somewhat flattened perspective, background patterns, and overall composition are reminiscent of Matisse's interiors. Some examples, alternating between the two artists and starting with Matisse:
In terms of format, Leovy enjoys both large and small scale. “Every format has its good and bad side, big canvases might feel intimidating at first but once you get started they are so much fun, love a big white space to intervene. However, tiny pieces are the cutest and I also enjoy doing them. So I guess I love them all, I like being able to change formats and not being stuck with only one, I think I would find that boring,” she says. For the Pai Pai collection, I thought for sure the works she created would be large, but they actually look tiny.
So that brings us full circle to the Pai Pai collection. Overall I really enjoy Leovy's work, as it's a change of pace from the fashion illustrations we've seen in various other collabs, and obviously I love the feminist vibe. I also like how Pai Pai switches it up for each collection by choosing artists with wildly varied styles. Leovy's paintings are totally different from, say, the work of Jorge Serrano and illustrations of Pinut Brein. Pai Pai always keeps me guessing and it's another aspect I love about the brand – they never stick to one type of artist. I just wish I could have gotten some information about how the partnership with Pai Pai came about, what Leovy's approach to makeup is (if any – she looks rather au naturel!) and whether anything in particular inspired her paintings used for the collection.
What do you think of this collection and Leovy's work? Which image is your favorite?
Over the years I've become much more aware of brands sold outside the U.S., but this holiday season I discovered yet another new-to-me brand based in Japan. Mikimoto is a historic purveyor of fine pearls and jewelry, founded in 1899 by Kokichi Mikimoto, the first person to successfully create cultured pearls. The cosmetics line was established in 1970 and as far as I know is not available for sale in the States. When a fellow collector alerted me to their holiday lineup, a collaboration with French illustrator Emmanuel Pierre, I took one look and knew it belonged in the Museum. The appropriately themed Wish on a Pearl collection playfully celebrates Mikimoto's heritage thanks to the delightfully strange collages by Pierre.
Can we just take a second to appreciate how beautifully the two key pieces from the collection were wrapped?! A sturdy blue tote bag was also included. This sophisticated wrapping is a refined contrast to the unbridled weirdness that lies inside. Get ready, it's gonna be a wild ride!
The eyeshadow palette has a bizarre scene depicting a winged seahorse, several figures whose lower halves consist of a bird, fish and shells, and a cheeky little boy gleefully picking his nose and wearing a hat made of coral. He sits atop a crescent moon, which is being hugged by a girl-jellyfish hybrid. My favorite character is the lady on the right holding a lipstick above a Christmas tree decorated with coral and pearls.
The palette itself has equally peculiar figures: another half-seashell, half-woman wearing a hat adorned with a tomato and holding a spiral shell sprouting berry sprigs, and a man dressed in 17th century (?) garb with a mandela blooming around his waist.
After spending a solid week looking at these images and others by Pierre, I still couldn't make any sense out of them so I asked my fellow former art history major husband what he thought. He seemed to think they had a slight fairy tale or children's book vibe, and as it turns out, he was spot on (of course). The Mikimoto cosmetics site provides a little bedtime Christmas story for the characters represented on the packaging. As always, Google Translate doesn't help clear things up, but at least I found that there was a brief narrative behind the collection. The first section is called "In the Sea" and is accompanied by one of the images from the palette box. The text reads, "Christmas soon. The pearl sparkled in the sea, It seems to be a star hitting the night sky. Fish, shells, starfish, too. I'm counseling gifts. sand of star. A stone mirror. Coral lipstick. One from a gorgeous conversation. The girl is crying. 'You lost the pearl you kept.'"
The next segment is called "The Shining Night" (which, from when I can deduce, signifies Christmas Eve in this story) and introduces a mermaid. "A pale girl. The mermaid that can not be left alone, Pearls I owned I will give it to the girl. That night, The mermaid woke up with a bright light. The pearls decorated in the Coral Forest raise the moonlight, It seems as if it melted all over. A young man appears from over there. The two danced together." The mermaid on the right appears on the box for the stationery set, which I'll show in a minute.
The final section is entitled "On Christmas Day" and features the couple from the palette: "The next morning. Mermaid is a night event I noticed that it was not a dream. That young man came over. In his hands the pearl that should have given the girl shine. Mermaid's skin looks like a pearl. It was glossy and transparent. This is transmitted from long ago. The sea Christmas story."
I can't say I understood any of that, but I do like the overall sea theme and mention of a mermaid. I'm guessing it's a story about giving the gift of pearl essence for Christmas and how its luster makes one's skin luminous and dewy like a mermaid's? Anyway, there's no mention of the blonde bird lady or little boy, but they do appear again on the face powder box. The powder itself is encased in a pearl-shaped container with an iridescent finish. My photos can't even approximate its beauty. (The palette also has this finish but I couldn't seem to capture it there either.)
There was also a little makeup bag and a set of note cards which came free with the purchase of both makeup items. A brush set and train case were additional gifts-with-purchase, but I was too late to get my hands on them.
Two of the three postcard designs are the same as those on the makeup, while the third shows a half shell/half woman wearing a hat made out of a crab and holding a heart-shaped gift box. Additional shells and pearls are scattered towards her "foot".
The poems on the cards offer no explanation for the images nor do they seem to align with the narrative from the website, but obviously Pierre continued with ocean/shell/sea creature motifs to tie in to the pearl theme.
At first glance, Emmanuel Pierre (b. 1958) seemed like an odd choice for a collaboration with a fairly traditional company like Mikimoto. It wasn't until I noticed his work for the likes of Hermès and the New Yorker that it started to seem like a good fit. Still, I find his work to be incredibly strange. It's one of those "the more you look at it, the weirder it gets" styles. And that's a great thing for me, given my love for all things offbeat and oddball. I couldn't find any interviews with the artist and my art history training is failing me yet again so I can't give a thorough or even remotely accurate analysis of Pierre's work, but I will say I think it has a slight Dada feel to it given the emphasis on collages and absurdist imagery and text. These characteristics provide a different flavor than Surrealism, whose bizarre scenes tended to be rooted in an attempt to represent the unconscious. Pierre's oeuvre also lacks the occasionally unsettling or menacing vibes of Surrealism; I find it more whimsical and humorous than creepy, and the Dadaists were well-known for their sense of humor and quick wit. To put it briefly, I'm thinking more Duchamp than Dali when I look at Pierre's work. So let's take a peek, shall we?
While Pierre certainly proves his mettle at conventional illustration styles, it's his collages – fantastical scenes depicting figures dressed in anachronistic clothing and oddly combined with a range of objects and animals – where I think he truly excels. Take, for example, these ladies engaged in some sort of strawberry/comb exchange…and did you notice the kitty paws on the woman on the right?
And this jellyfish lady made me smile. You can see the lower portion of her bell on the makeup bag.
These illustrations for World of Interiors magazine show that, while Pierre's choice of motifs seem totally out of left field at first, they actually make sense in that they always express the topic they're accompanying. As with the Mikimoto collection, the artist brings together fanciful images to form a cohesive theme that represents whatever subject he's working on – in this case, the food, tea kettle and brick chimneys signal home decor.
The husband's earlier observation about the fairy tale quality of Pierre's work made me wonder whether he's illustrated children's books. Sure enough, he completed a book for kids on the Carnival of Venice. The strange masks and costumes can be downright scary for little ones (and, um, even for grownups such as myself), but Pierre's skillful, whimsical touch ensures nothing but fun through the canals and streets of Venice during the festivities.
I also wonder whether Pierre is influenced at all by late 19th century greeting cards. The human-animal-object hybrids and anthropomorphic figures are reminding me of the more bizarre scenes sometimes found in Victorian holiday cards. Compare a few side by side (Pierre's work on the left/top, antique cards on the right/bottom).
Here are some examples of the animal-humans (human-animals?). The first three are by Pierre, the next three are from the late 1800s.
Those turn-of-the-century folks had some weird tastes, I can tell you that! (Their imagery also goes a lot darker and creepier than you would expect, especially for what are supposed to be joyousoccasions.) These also have me questioning whether Pierre comes up with his own vintage styles for these collages or if he uses authentic vintage sources, i.e. does he come up with all these characters and then draw everything by hand or does he somehow trace or cut out pieces from vintage magazines and other ephemera? I'm very curious about his process.
Getting back to the Mikimoto collection, I'm still wondering how the collaboration came about and why the company selected Pierre. I guess they wanted some charming French flair for their holiday lineup, which is a good choice. I love more modern illustration styles, but for the holidays I find myself craving more quaint, vintage styles since I get so nostalgic. In any case, I'm assuming as with his other clients Pierre created the images used on the packaging especially for the Mikimoto collection, although he never revealed it when he shared them back in April on his Instagram. I have many unanswered questions, but overall I enjoyed the collection. As you know I'm obsessed with mermaids and their underwater lairs, so weird half-seashell/fish people are right up my alley!
What do you think? What's your favorite image from Pierre's work that I've shown here?
As with Gudetama, I wasn't sure what I was looking at when I first laid eyes on Holika Holika's collection featuring a character named Peko, but was definitely intrigued. Japan is known for its adorable mascots and this little gal is one of the earliest ones. Peko-chan, as she's affectionately known around the world, is the official mascot for Milky, a chewy, sweetened milk-flavored candy introduced by the Fujiya company in 1951. Naturally I had to try it for myself…plus I figured the candies would be good for photos. 🙂
Fujiya's fascinating history goes even further back, having been established in 1910, but obviously it's Peko I want to focus on. I limited myself to 3 items from the enormous Holika Holika collection. I love Peko's little pigtails and slightly stuck-out tongue, and her cheeks remind me of those from the Utz girl. (I'm not the only one who sees the similarity in these two mascots).
There is a foundation cushion compact inside this milk container, but obviously I couldn't bring myself to open it.
Who is Peko, exactly? There wasn't a definitive history that I could find, but this brief article states that Peko is an eternally 6 year old girl who was born in the "land of dreams somewhere on earth" in 1950. She stands at 100cm (about 39 inches, so just over 3 feet tall) and weighs 15kg (33 lbs – obviously neither measurement is meant to represent your average 6 year old). Her hobbies include baseball and pogo stick jumping, called "hopping" in Japanese, and her favorite animals are puppies. Her name is inspired by "beko", the northern Japanese dialect for "cow". In 1951 her boyfriend Poko was born, who is also forever a child, just a year older than Peko. Poko comes from the word for "boy" ("boko"). (I bought the hand cream especially for Poko.) Both characters were originally introduced as papier-mache dolls, but proved so popular that they expanded into all sorts of materials as well as outfits and costumes.
From the candy's earliest days, Peko and Poko statues were almost always found outside Fujiya stores, sporting a variety of outfits depending on the season or in honor of special holidays. This tradition continues today (and, sadly, these figures are stolen quite frequently).
Somewhere along the line, in an effort to make sure the character was recognizable despite all her different outfits, Fujiya created a set of rules for company designers to follow. According to this blog: "To standardize the look of Peko, the company created a rulebook on Peko, regulating facial expressions and poses of Peko. The rulebook is considered an important secret document of the company." So while Peko has a seemingly infinite wardrobe and continues to evolve ever so slightly, you can always tell it's her.
I love these mini figurines, they remind me of the ones I had as a child. (I'm dating myself here but does anyone remember Charmkins and Strawberry Shortcake figurines? They were both scented, incidentally…my obsession with things that shouldn't necessary have fragrance obviously began at a young age.) If I were a kid now I'd set out to collect each and every one.
In 1995, Fujiya introduced "Dog" to join Peko and Poko. I'm not quite sure what the point of this rather unimaginative character is. Reminds me a bit of the addition of Poochie to Itchy and Scratchy in The Simpsons.
Anyway, like Gudetama, Peko-chan is the star of a staggering amount of merchandise. You can find just about anything – from phone cases and pens to socks and poker chips – featuring Peko-chan. There are also the wildly popular Nendoroid and Bearbrick figurines.
It's not surprising how much merch Peko appears on, given that she's as widely recognized in Japan as Ronald McDonald is in the U.S. There was even a whole pop-up museum devoted to the character in late 2010 to celebrate her 50th anniversary.
However, some claim there is a rather dark side to this seemingly harmless character. Apparently there's an urban legend that's circulated for years claiming that Fujiya based Peko on a real-life child…who was also a cannibal. Those cute little dots on Peko's cheeks? They're not the innocent blush of childhood but her mother's blood. As the story goes, during WWII there was a massive food shortage in Japan, and a mother and young daughter living in a small village (the father was off fighting the war) were literally starving. The selfless mother cuts off a piece of flesh from her arm to feed her little girl. And then: "When Peko took her first bite of human flesh, she was amazed of how sweet the flesh tasted. She proceeded to kill her mother and eat her entire body. Peko continued her life as a cannibal. They say that the reason why her tongue is always out is because she's licking her mother's blood off her cheeks. The name of the candy is 'Milky', but when you rearrange the sounds, it becomes 'Kill Me', which were her mother's final words. That's why the slogan of the company, when translated from Japanese is, 'Milky tastes like Mama'". Um, that's pretty disturbing. Unfortunately Poko is also part of this very macabre tale. "After devouring her mother, Peko-chan was still hungry. She attacked Poko, breaking open his skull in order to eat his brain. Poco was in such pain that he committed suicide by biting off his own tongue and swallowing it. They say that the reason why Poco-chan never has his tongue out in the pictures is because he doesn't have one, and the reason why he always wears a blue hat is to hide his broken skull and exposed brain." Yikes.
In looking at this collection again, I think I'm going to put the Holika Holika stuff in our off-site storage space because right now I'm a little freaked out and kind of don't want it in the house. I don't really believe this story is the basis for Fujiya's Milky mascots – I maintain they were meant to be totally innocuous and cute characters for children, and the gruesome tale is just one of those stupid fake stories from the internet's nascent days – but it's creepy nevertheless, especially when some of the early versions of Peko and Poko were downright terrifying. I'm wondering if, over the years, Fujiya made a deliberate attempt to show Poko without his hat to defuse these rumors.
Anyway, scary urban legends aside, I'm pleased to see such a well-loved mascot on a makeup collection. As with Gudetama, I'm still scratching my head as to why a Korean brand is presenting this collaboration rather than a Japanese company, but I guess it's good there's a makeup representation at all. I just wish there were more versions of Peko as there were with the Gudetama collection. While the Peko collection was huge, it didn't reflect many variations of the character. I would have loved to see (non-creepy) vintage iterations or a depiction of Peko and Poko playing with makeup. It's basically the exact same packaging as the candy, which is cute, but they could have done a little more. Then again, I might have ended up buying almost all of it the way I did with Gudetama, which is not great for the Museum's budget.
What do you think of Peko? Had you heard of her before? And do you think she's really a ravenous cannibal?
I've been waiting for literally over a year to blog about these amazing mermaid brushes by, funnily enough, a UK-based brand named Unicorn Cosmetics. I finally got them in hand back in December, but wanted to wait until the warm weather was imminent to blog about them. The brushes themselves are incredible, but the packaging was also breathtaking.
Each brush came individually wrapped with a little charm in the shape of that particular mermaid tail. What a great little detail!
All of artwork was done by American artist Kurtis Rykovich, who created four mermaids to correspond to the brushes. Save for this interview, information about the inspiration behind his work and his partnership with Unicorn Cosmetics was non-existent, so I gathered all my courage and reached out to this artist for an exclusive Makeup Museum interview. Initially he seemed very enthusiastic and agreed to provide answers within a week, but after not hearing anything, followed by several gentle reminders via both email and IG over the course of a month, I gave up. This is why my blogging schedule got completely off track recently, as I was patiently trying to give plenty of time to accommodate him. In the end I just couldn't wait any longer. I'm incredibly disappointed, to say the least, because I'm so interested in hearing his perspective and there wasn't any other in-depth info about this collection. Guess it's just another item to add to the long list of Museum failures. And it will most likely be the last time I contact an artist. 🙁
In an effort to not be too salty about the lack of communication on his part – us Scorpios are known to hold a grudge – I'm sharing some of Rykovich's other work, which consists of (mostly female) otherworldly beings. Everything from Disney princesses and fairy tale heroines to creatures of ancient myths are represented. I also find it interesting that they all have such long lashes – you might be aware that Unicorn Cosmetics was formerly known as Unicorn Lashes and specialized in uniquely shaped, fairly elaborate false eyelash sets that resemble the ones in Rykovich's paintings. I can only wonder if the company saw Rykovich's long-lashed beauties and reached out to him.
This magical unicorn princess was used for another Unicorn Cosmetics brush set.
This one was especially created for a new Unicorn Cosmetics palette.
As for the mermaid brushes, the purpose of each one is described on the back of the postcard with Rykovich's image.
We'll start with the highlighting brush that corresponds to Bubbles.
Next up is Korali (all-over powder brush).
Delphie is for blush.
Finally, there's LiLu, used for foundation and contouring.
The brush set also came with a clamshell stand for display – how cool is that?!
I also really loved seeing the evolution of the design. These images are from January 2017 through their release at the end of the year.
Overall, I'm positively in love with these brushes. We've seen mermaid tail brushes before and they're very cute, but they lack the level of detail of the Unicorn Cosmetics set. I also think Rykovich is a perfect match for Unicorn Cosmetics, given the mutual love of magical, feminine creatures that only exist in our imagination.
What do you think? Do you have a favorite?
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Japanese illustrator Hiroshi Tanabe is back in the makeup packaging game! You might remember the lovely flower fairies he created for RMK's 15th anniversary palettes back in 2012. Five years later Tanabe has returned to team up with Addiction, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite brands for their stunning artistcollaborations.
For Addiction's winter 2017 collection, entitled Vanilla Break, Tanabe came up with two designs: a close-up of a woman in profile swathed in her feathery wings, and another winged woman clad in a nightgown atop a winged tiger. I love how the minimal black and white color scheme are the reverse of one another.
I'm obsessed with the rendering of the feathers…so crisp yet delicate.
Because I'm both lazy and in a rush (what else is new?), here is a brief artist bio courtesy of British Vogue (a full one is available at the artist's website): "Born in Kanagawa, Japan, Hiroshi Tanabe graduated from Tama Art College with a degree in Graphic Design. In 1990 he went to study at the Accademia Di Brella in Milan and focused on fine art and sculpture. He began focusing on illustration while studying in Italy. His first project was a T-shirt design for a night-club in Milan. Hiroshi's unique and vibrant illustrations mirror the graphic line work of traditional Japanese woodcuts. His illustrations have evolved into more refined and layered drawings throughout his career. Though constantly changing, his works marry old-world beauty and modernity in a way that is thoroughly fresh." Tanabe has done a countless number of ad campaigns for the biggest names in fashion as well as a slew of top publications, including Anna Sui, Pucci, Bergdorf Goodman, Harper's Bazaar, and The New Yorker.
I was curious to see whether Tanabe had previously done anything similar to the Addiction designs, and it turns out his illustrations of feathers and women shown riding a variety of fanciful creatures don't represent a new direction for the artist. Take, for example, the designs he created for a collaboration with Stussy in 2012 and Gap Red in 2009.
I thought I'd take a quick peek to see what Tanabe has been up to since the RMK collab. Feast your eyes on these beautiful editorial illustrations for Saint Laurent and W Magazine.
This star-studded illustration combines a dress by Anthony Vaccarello, Roger Vivier shoes and bag, and starry makeup by Giamba, all taken from the fall 2015 runways.
Just for fun I thought I'd include the actual items for this one, since you could say I was starstruck. (I know you love my bad word play).
But my favorite work by Tanabe in the past 5 years are his illustrations for Shiseido. These are a fairly different style for him, in my opinion. I'm seeing more Art Deco lines reminiscent of Shiseido's early advertising rather than the woodcut-esque, fine-line work we normally see from him. In fact, the more I look at them the more I'm convinced they're a modern spin on Shiseido's ads from the 1920s and '30s.
Aren't the colors to die for? So vibrant but not garish or harsh – just the right amount of saturation to be pleasing to the eye rather than overwhelming it. And you would think of a combination of hot pink, lime green and dashes of bold red, as shown in the ad below, would clash, but Tanabe's careful design keeps them in harmonious balance.
Here are a few to get you into the holiday spirit.
Okay, these are actually from 2011…but who cares?! They're gorgeous. And a little '80s.
As for the Addiction collab, once again I have no idea how it came about or how the particular images were chosen. I'm assuming the company approached Tanabe and they went from there, but I'd still like to know why they selected these designs for the palettes. Given Tanabe's background in fashion and makeup advertising, I was a little surprised they didn't choose something more along the lines of the illustrations he did for, say, Clinique. I mean, I can't say I see the connection between makeup and a winged woman riding a tiger. Then again, it's a pretty cool image nevertheless, and the art that appears on makeup packaging doesn't have to be beauty-related in the slightest. And that's part of the fun of artist collabs! Initially I was also kind of hoping for something a lot more colorful along the lines of the Shiseido ads, but Addiction isn't really known for bold color. All the collections I've seen, even the spring 2017 collection which contained many colorful pastels, feature more muted shades. Vanilla Break in particular is about a "subtle beige-hued monotone", according to the website. So I think it's appropriate that Tanabe kept it simple color-wise. Plus, you wouldn't want to do the same illustration style for two different makeup brands – for the Shiseido ads, Tanabe is paying homage to the company's own early advertising. It's so distinctly Shiseido that it simply wouldn't work for a different brand.
All in all, I was pleased with this collab. And maybe I'll get up the courage to ask Tanabe himself what his inspiration was for the images on this collection as well as the upcoming spring 2018 Addiction collection. 😉
What do you think? If you're really smitten, there are twobooks of Tanabe's work for you to drool over. 🙂