I was searching for swatches of Lancôme's new cushion blushes when I stumbled across these delightful versions of the brand's Miracle Cushion foundation.
Unfortunately for me, these were exclusive to Indonesia to celebrate the product's launch back in October 2015. My only consolation is that the compact cases themselves were not limited edition – the designs were actually stickers to affix to the compacts. Created by Indonesian-born, Dubai-based artist Ayang Cempaka, the stickers were available at various launch events during October.
Ayang's lifelong interest in drawing is influenced in part by being surrounded by a family of artists. “My mother, Dyan Anggraini, is a painter who used to work in a cultural institution owned by the government. My grandfather is a painter and sculptor, while most of my cousins work in the art world—curator, ceramic artist, and even musician,” she says. After graduating from architecture school in 2007, she founded an accessories line called Cocomomo three years later. Then in 2013 Ayang wanted to focus more on her illustrations, so she launched a stationery line named Linoluna.
Some of my favorites:
As far as inspiration goes, Ayang explains, "My mom loves flowers, and I love flowers too. In Dubai, flowers [are] really expensive. Instead of buying flowers and those flowers will be wilt in 3 days, so I draw those flowers. I love pop colors, and pastel. I love pink. My references are old children story books. I love vintage children books. I can’t remember the names. And I love Kate Spade, and J.Crew. My favorite flower is Ranunculus. Besides, I look for inspirations on Pinterest, then search wedding bouquet." I can definitely see all of these in her work.
I really like her work but somehow felt I had seen it before. Turns out that it's quite similar to the illustrations of Anna Bond, owner of one of my favorite stationery brands, Rifle Paper Co.
Ayang is above, Bond is below – the flowers have nearly identical shapes.
Ayang on the left, Bond on the right:
I noticed there's some thematic similarity as well. Both artists enjoy making prints of various destinations.
Even the way they styled these two ladies is almost the same, down to the ribbon both are sporting in their buns, large round earrings and delicately rouged cheeks.
These two illustrators have actually met, according to this Flickr photo. I don't know if there's any other professional relationship beyond that, but I do find it very interesting that halfway around the world another artist has such a similar style. And I'm not the only one who noticed: after posting an interview with Anna Bond, this blogger remarks on the resemblance between the two (at least, that's what I gathered from Google Translate).
Getting back to the Lancôme compacts, a part of me wishes they weren't just free stickers only available at launch events but designs on the cases that were actually sold at counters – this way I might have a shot at getting my hands on them through e-bay! On the other hand, it's a rather novel marketing ploy that Lancôme went with something temporary like a sticker, and it's good that they collaborated with an Indonesian artist for something exclusive to the country. Much as I'd like to track these down for the Museum's collection, it's nice for a country to have something created just for them and not available anywhere else – makes it more special, I think.
Thoughts? And do you have a preference for the work of Ayang or Anna? I can't choose, both are totally adorable to me!
I thought I'd offer a palate cleanser today after yesterday's somewhat depressing post. Let's take a peek at some pretty little watercolor illustrations from Australian artist Kerrie Hess. While the two collections I'll be focusing on were released way back in early spring, I still thought they were worth writing about now since the illustrations are so utterly charming.
While Hess enjoyed her early career as a graphic designer, she soon realized that fashion illustration was her passion. (I'm sure her sister's work was also an inspiration). In addition to her regular graphic design job for London's The Independent newspapers, she also worked on small commissions for her illustrations. It wasn't long until they got the attention of the fashion world, and soon Hess was creating campaigns for the likes of Neiman Marcus, Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Alexander McQueen. Eventually she began collaborating with non-fashion companies like Le Meurice Hotel (where, incidentally, the husband and I stayed for our honeymoon!) and Ladurée. Now Hess has also made her way into the world of cosmetics.
First up is Korean brand Etude House's Dreaming Swan collection. Hess created a lovely ballet theme with loads of feminine touches – lots of pink, bows, even a hint of tulle.
While Hess's work is chic and fashionable (she names Grace Kelly as an inspiration), there's definitely an effortlessness about it. Indeed, as you watch her work on the Dreaming Swan collection, the dabs of paint seem to flow from her brush with great ease. In an interview with TOTOI, Hess states that while her uncomplicated style stems partly from the fact that she's been drawing from an early age, she also never felt compelled to make a "perfect" drawing. "I did weekend art classes from about 5 or 6 (in my fluro bike shorts no less) and I absolutely recall my teacher telling me that you are never drawing things or people, only shapes and lines. I like this, it takes the pressure off trying to be perfect; and it still stays with me. I also think that it’s the imperfections in an art piece that can really make it. A little smudge here or there links back to the piece being done by hand."
Prior to the Etude House collaboration, Hess did a collection for Lancôme in honor of their 80th anniversary. While I'm peeved it was exclusive to Australia, I can't imagine a better match for this collaboration. Hess was born and raised in Australia but lived in Paris for over a year. Calling it her home away from home, she is able to perfectly capture the sophistication and style that are unique to the City of Lights. About being selected for the collaboration, she says: "As my illustration aesthetic is very French, all about couture, beauty and Paris, we were a perfect match…I love the sense of history of the Lancôme brand and have always used the products myself. It was also really wonderful as an artist to be given a lot of creative license from Lancôme. I always feel that I do my best work when this is the case. And with that trust I wanted very much to create really beautiful images to represent a brand that I personally admire. I hope I have really captured the city of Paris in all of the images, Lancôme being so associated with the city of lights and made the products that we have collaborated on, ones that people will want to keep as much as use." I personally think she nailed it, but have a gander at her work below and decide for yourself.
Additionally, the Lancôme collaboration gave Hess the opportunity to add a little more color to her models' faces than she normally does. She explains, "Working with Lancôme has inspired me to become a bit more dramatic in my illustrations, with dark eye make-up and red lips, whereas I used to keep my faces bare to keep the spotlight on the dresses.”
I really like how Hess is able to adjust her aesthetic to fit both brands. The Etude House Dreaming Swan collection was very girly and clearly meant for their teenaged demographic, whereas the more high fashion-inspired, Parisian-themed Lancôme collection would appeal to women in their 20s and older. And she also emphasized the cosmetics aspect in each by adding some color to the models' pouts (pink for Etude House and red for Lancôme.)
I'm currently browsing her Instagram and online print shop…I'd seriously consider buying this one if it wasn't sold out! What do you think of these collections and Hess's work overall?
The much-hyped Lancôme collection dreamed up by Lanvin designer Alber Elbaz has finally arrived! Fortunately, much has been written about the collaboration and Elbaz's vision for it. Here's the scoop: Elbaz was approached by his close friend and Lancôme president Yousef S. Nabi to design a limited-edition collection. Since the company's mascaras are best-sellers, Elbaz and Nabi chose to focus on those. Additionally, said Elbaz, "Eyes are so important
to me…when I think of cosmetics, I think of eyes. For
Lancôme, I wanted to do something funny and a little handmade." He added that he hoped customers "will collect all four" designs (blue stars, pink polka dots, doe eyes and red hearts). While the article states that the designer is "hesitant about expanding and diluting his brand" and that " partnerships are also a rare
affair; he never collaborates unless it makes creative sense", Elbaz actually has done a few collaborations before (see his line for H&M and limited-edition packaging for Ladurée).
As for the story behind the packaging, watch this animated short (drawn by Elbaz) below.
In the June 2013 issue of Elle magazine, Elbaz states that the story was inspired by the makeup looks for his fall 2013 show. "The project is accompanied by an animated short drawn by Elbaz,
featuring a fashion show in which the spectators' faces are dominated by
colorfully made-up eyes. This is apt, he says, as cosmetics played a
key role on Lanvin's fall 2013 runway, where models sported four
different makeup looks…'I asked myself, Why is it I have to decide
whether or not I want mashed potatoes or french fries?' Elbaz says. 'Why
can't I have both?'…'There's something almost naive and childish
about the packaging,' he says, 'but I thought, Maybe if it's like a
fairy tale, we'll all have a happy ending!' The experience of using the
products, he believes, should be a 'joyful' one. 'It's about
light-hearted luxury,' Elbaz says. 'I wanted to do something personal
and kind of funny – but also totally serious. Which is exactly what
makeup is.'"
Now that we've got the development of the collection out of the way, let's take a look at the goods. I picked up two of the mascaras and two of the eye shadow palettes. Lancôme also threw in a free mirror, which, as we've seen with previous gifts-with-purchase, is almost better than the makeup itself. These sorts of freebies are collecting gold!
Hypnôse Drama and Hypnôse Star mascaras:
Doll Lashes Color Design Palette in Rose Croquette:
Définicils Color Design Palette in Mint Jolie:
And the mirror, so cute.
My first thought on the illustrations is that they are similar to those Elbaz did for Ladurée, a playful take on his streamlined, sophisticated aesthetic. And they're not literal – the prints and silhouettes of the dresses seen on the runway models in the animation aren't directly from Elbaz's recent collections – but they still hint at his work through the use of color. Elbaz utilized lots of black and white in his spring 2013 collection, with some red, blue, green and pink thrown in for his resort 2014 collection.
Also, the women in the front row of the fashion show in the video are all wearing some very chic LBDs, similar to the looks he sent down the runway for spring 2013.
Elbaz is known for a slightly more down-to-earth fashion philosophy. "Unlike most fashion designers who operate on a global scale, Elbaz is a
kind of hands-on artisan who specializes in women. He has never been
interested in trends or whether his creations—which are almost always
beautifully constructed classic shapes with a twist—fit a particular age
or demographic. Elbaz is committed to the idea that his clothes be
timeless and, in a way, helpful: He wants to make it easier for women to
dress for their complicated lives. “I am not interested in perfection, and neither are the women who wear my clothes…it is very hard to be a woman today. The media says you have to be
really great in your work, you have to be a wonderful mother, you have
to be a great wife, and you have to be skinny! Women try to be the best
everywhere, and it’s impossible. I want my clothes to give women the
freedom to just be—I want them to put on my dresses and shine.'” (source)
Empathy for women's struggle to "have it all" and whimsical illustrations aside, the video Elbaz came up with depicts a world many women don't have access to. Being in the front row of a high-end fashion show feels unrelatable unless you are actually a fashion editor, and even a little intimidating (I was not fond of the catty eye-rolling behavior of some of the women). Nevertheless I appreciated that Elbaz was having some fun with the collection, even if it's more of a representation of his experiences in the high-fashion world rather than the lives of the vast majority of women who don't work in fashion (which would be too mundane, I guess, for collection coming from such a renowned designer).
What do you think of the collaboration?
You may remember my excitement over the Yayoi Kusama/Lancôme collaboration a few years back. Little did I know the artist also created an even more gorgeous Juicy Tube collection called Awakening of Love late in 2011. (I stumbled across it while hunting down the Once Upon a Week Juicy Tubes on E-bay). From what I understand Awakening of Love was exclusive to Australia, and I was only able to get my hands on one of the six glosses in the collection.
This is Baba Jasmine.
Other shades in the lineup include Crazy Yuzu, Vigorous Fruit, Exotic Bomb, Yoga Vanilla and Peace and Flowers. Upon first glance the designs seem just plain cute, but they get increasingly fascinating the more you look at them. There's a multicolored purse and blue pump surrounded by floating eyes, and a pink bird stacked on top of a yellow chirping bird. The most unusual design to me appears on the gloss I was able to buy. A sunflower with an eye for its center is anchored by an exaggerated, floppy green leaf (which I originally thought was a shoe!) against a background of wavy tendrils that end in tiny buds. All three designs incorporate Kusama's signature polka dots.
About the collection, Lancôme states: "Today, reflecting the mood of her current artwork, Yayoi Kusama is
remodelling Juicy Tubes around the theme of love. She offers Lancôme’s
pop-princess gloss three unique designs that are as poetic as the most
sincere promises of eternal love." Fittingly, the title of the collection is after Kusama's 2010 work Awakening of Love.
The lines, disembodied eyes, random objects, dots and flowers seen in the Juicy Tube designs also appear in several works from 2009-2011, all of which have "love" in the title.
Look at the Gathering of Women in Search of Love, 2009:
All about My Love, and I Long to Eat a Dream of the Night, 2009:
Indeed, these works and the Juicy Tube designs have a strange hallucinatory quality about them, along with a more upbeat feel as compared to the more menacing tone these motifs took on in her earlier work. In an essay on Flowers that Bloom at Midnight from the Queensland Arts Gallery states, "[Kusama] has grouped four of these towering flowers into an artificial
grove, their shiny surfaces, polka-dotted petals and great, staring eyes
recalling animated alien flora of science fiction and fantasy tales…Flowers have long been an important component of Kusama’s oeuvre.
Their symbolism reflects many of the artist’s conceptual preoccupations
as well as her disregard for dichotomies: they connote life and death, celebration and mourning, masculinity and
femininity, while their complex forms — organic, fragile, finding
uniqueness through repetition — find echoes throughout Kusama’s
practice. In plentiful supply thanks to her family’s nursery business,
flowers flourished in Kusama’s first reported visions, consuming entire
rooms and communicating ominously with the artist…They would remain a staple motif in the painterly
experiments of her first decade as a professional artist. Like the polka
dots, they reappeared in her ‘happenings’ of the late 1960s, in the
sympathetic environment of the anti-war counterculture, as they fitted
neatly into the context of the ‘flower power’ movement of the time. Flowers that Bloom at Midnight finds direct precedence in a
series of outdoor sculptures Kusama has executed over the past decade.
Monumental in scale, these works consist of floral forms that are at
once simplified and fantastical, and finished in polka-dotted planes of
vivid colour. Their scale and alien appearance evokes a strange and
overwhelming power. With an air of uncanny sexuality, their comical
styling, pristine surfaces and exuberant tones are decidedly joyous,
contrasting strongly with the darker function flowers performed in her
earlier works." Additionally, I wonder whether Kusama had anything to do with the naming of the Lancôme glosses – Peace and Flowers is possibly a nod to her prolific anti-war activism in the '60s.
Anyway, I thought this collection design-wise was more interesting than the previous Juicy Tubes Kusama created. And I wish it wasn't Australia-exclusive! Lancôme seems to be withholding many of their limited-edition collections from the U.S., such as the aforementioned Once Upon a Week collection, along with the Corno collaboration from last summer.
What did you think of this? Do you prefer the older Yayoi Kusama Juicy Tube collection or this one?
Today's installment of Couture Monday was supposed to be dedicated to Chanel's Mouche de Beaute Illuminating Powder from their Versailles cruise collection, but much to my dismay, I received a very unpleasant surprise when I opened the compact on Saturday.
Yes, 2 fingerprints in the middle-left of the powder!! Hello, trying to run a museum here! Unless they're vintage, the items need to be in perfect condition. So while I wait for a new and hopefully pristine compact, I thought I'd share this collaboration between Lancôme and handbag designer Olympia Le-Tan (thanks to British Beauty Blogger for the heads up on this!)
In honor of the first anniversary of Lancôme's in Love range, Le-Tan made an embroidered clutch that holds six lipsticks and six nail polishes. Says Le-Tan, "I wanted to design the cover of an imaginary novel called 'Rouge in
Love'. My idea was to create a 'mise-en-abyme', a book within a book. It
is held by two hands with painted nails and surrounded by little red
and violet lips that seem to dance around. I love drawing lips, so it
was the perfect opportunity… The clasp and side, instead of having a
gold finish like my other designs, are silver, like a mirror. Perfect to
look into during the evening if you want to touch up your make-up."
You can also watch this charming little video showing how the imaginary novel came to life.
I bet you're curious as to why I have only included stock photos. The reason? This limited-edition item is selling for $1,500! Only 100 have been made, and Lancôme model Emma Watson and several fashion editors have already snagged the first few. I personally think one should be donated to the Museum where it will be lovingly cared for and preserved rather than having it get destroyed by the grubby paws of some unappreciative editor who will carry it once or twice and then carelessly stuff it in the back of her closet, but unfortunately, that's how these things work. If you think about it, $1,500 actually isn't bad for a designer bag, and especially one that's filled with high-end cosmetics. But from a makeup collecting standpoint where most contemporary items are less than $100, it's definitely a bit much.
In any case, if you're not familiar with Le-Tan's work, she is famous for these book-clutches – smallish handmade purses with embroidery and felt that bear her reimaginings of first-edition covers of classic books. As a lifelong bookworm, I absolutely love this idea. Some of my favorite designs:
I thought the Rouge in Love clutch was very well done – even if it wasn't in Le-Tan's signature book-clutch format, the colorful and lively lips and hands design would be instantly recognizable as her work, and it also clearly conveys makeup and the pure bliss it can bring. What do you think of this collaboration?
(image from instagram.com)
(image from instagram.com) 
(image from clozette.co.id)
(images from ayangcempaka.com and riflepaperco.com)
