Isabel Marant: Next-gen Jane?
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| Birkin with her daughter, Charlotte Gainsbourg |
Marant reminds me of Jane Birkin, her stylistic elder aunt. (Marant is 46; Birkin turned 67 last month.)
While I do not find much in her clothing line for me (tiny minis, rocker-chick trousers) and could not afford them even if they appealed, I like her attitude.
Apparently I'm not alone; she is sometimes referred to as "the coolest girl in Paris", a heavy burden to bear.
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| Marant's mother ca. 1966 |
Marant and Birkin inherited faces that require little help; Birkin's actor mother Judy Campbell was a noted beauty, and Marant's is former model and knitwear designer Crista Fiedler.
Like the idea that you must have tan legs to bare them in a skirt, the necessity of obvious makeup is a remnant of the last millenium. The multi-step application that department store consultants carefully drew on diagrams because you could never remember what to do: over.
Here's her everyday face:
Below, in discreet lip and eye makeup, and maybe a hint of blush:
For evening, an assertive lipstick on lightly-tan skin:
But, according this interview by Kate Finnigan in The Guardian, her usual routine is a bare face (and no off-season tan); this photo accompanied the interview:
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| Photo: Francois Coquerel, The Guardian |
Marant's wardrobe follows the same minimalist route. Finnigan writes:
"Her personal staples are 'a pair of tight jeans, a pair of flat shoes and something that is a bit like a sweatshirt, a jumper or T-shirt. A good jacket, a good coat. 'I'm quite androgonystic. I'm very feminine but I always need to break it with something very masculine.' "
What Birkin and Marant also share is The Smile, a burst of unrestrained exuberance.
Whether we lose or keep our bottles and tubes, an incandescent smile is the most powerful of all facial effects.
Perhaps Marant is my excuse for adopting an ever-less-complicated routine, and rolling my eyes when a new (always expensive) cream promises to brighten and tighten. But I am not sure I'd go completely bare. Is that a privilege of relative youth?
I now find that conspicuous make-up, even when perfectly applied, can look devastatingly glamourous on young women, overdone on middle-aged ones, and downright creepy on seniors.
Comments
I love this tomboyish aesthetic, but find with my shape that it can be hard to pull off. I'm still on the hunt for my shorter, curvier style crush.
One of my students told me--oh, a long time ago--that I really should wear some lipstick. She knew I was totally clueless, so she helpfully added "Buy Revlon Colorstay in raisin. Here's a coupon!" She was right, too.
I think a bit of makeup makes older women look better because it makes them (us!) look they they/we are making some effort.
Even so, I forget to wear makeup a lot of the time..
I TOTALLY agree about creepy eye makeup on older women though. Here in Dallas there are some women who make their eyes look like a Halloween mask.
Love Marant, and her bridge line, Etoile, is pricy but not stratospheric. I have two of her jackets, and a pair of Dickers, and all 3 items always double my feeling of coolth.
Isabel Marant is lovely, vibrant, with and without cosmetics. It's nice to see these photos of her, to picture the woman behind the label. Thanks.
C.
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/exhibition-pearls/about-the-exhibition/
That's Not My Age: I especially dislike lipliner applied beyond the natural lips.
une femme: Juliette Binoche?
Mme: Our age is when conscientious skin care really pays off, and when one is grateful for genetically good skin.
frugal: Oh, I really like Colorstay! The problem with most lipstick, when one is teaching, is that you talk it off in under 10 min. so might as well have never applied it. Colorstay and the one I use, Outlast, are terrific. Colorstay is, I think, a bit less drying.
And she gave you a coupon how apt!
Susan: I think we habituate people to it. one of my friends is a fitness instructor, a fair blonde. She wears absolutely no makeup except for lip gloss, b/c with all the classes, she can't be bothered applying, removing and reapplying several times a day. She looks gorgeous.
hostess: We all have an idea of what we absolutely need!
LPC: Yes, Etoile is great but hard to find. I like your continuum. I once had full evening makeup professionally applied and could not take my eyes of myself, but it also felt very unnatural.
LauraH: That's why I wrote the post- I find it always feels odd at first, and maybe after three weeks, you stop thinking it looks odd. One of my friends told me recently, "I noticed younger women wear less makeup than I do, and I stopped.., I look more up to date."
Cornelia: I like mascara too but find if wearing glasses it is not evident if I'm wearing it or not.
Linn: Maybe; see my comment to Susan. A lot of it is how we are habituated to seeing ourselves- yet I agree with the comment that Marant looks terrific with lipstick.
C.: The care of elders is such a direct way of making them feel better, and this was a generation very makeup-oriented. (The generation before that was more conflicted; my grandmother thought makeup was for prostitutes!)
My mother enjoyed being taken her to get her nails done at 95!
Shelley: Thank you! Various readers have kept me in the loop about that exhibition, and one sent a long e-mail after she saw it. It is sponsored by Qtar. Some stunning pearls on display (including those of Mary, Queen of Scots) and of course some obvious PR for the pearls of that region.
I now use eyebrow stuff, but my eyelids react to mascara and liner, so I tend to go without. Fortunately, I wear glasses, and they add a little color (blue top rim to the frame).
I think of Judy Dench in Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, so marvelous with her short silver hair and drifty, pale, comfortable clothes...at 5'1" she carries herself like a much taller woman. And she's more attractive now, I think, than when she was younger.
Role models are scarce, though. As a gamine-with-thickened-waist, I feel your pain!
C.
Something I've noticed lately, though; even when I think I'm looking really good, with makeup and a cute outfit, nobody really notices me at all. What they say about women being invisible after a certain age, I think that's true. Sigh. On the other hand, tonight my husband told me how good he thinks I've been looking lately. So there's that!
---Jill Ann
I even drew my husband into this topic this morning. He used to say that he preferred me without makeup, but now, he admits a little makeup goes a long way toward making me look a bit more attractive than I do without it.
I also think there are regional preferences. In the south (and I really consider Texas to the be southwest, but still in the south on this topic) most women do wear makeup as a finishing touch. While many are guilty of overdoing it, there is a subset who do manage to get it just right.
I did some looking online at various photos of Marant and found quite a number (in ads etc) where makeup had been applied very very skillfully to give her the no makeup look. And this included lower inside the lash line eyeliner.
I decided just this morning that I need to further alter my makeup routine as my hair is SO light now (turning white) that my face is truly getting lost in spite of the makeup routine I currently employ.
The norm where Marant lives is to wear less make-up for day than in some regions of the US; that is often how the visitor is identified without saying a word.
Marant's features look less 'defined' without makeup, just like most women's. It's an entirely different approach to presenting ones' self, as singular as Diana Vreeland's Kabuki cheeks or Carine Roitfeld's heavy smoky eyes.
It takes unfussy clothes, well-groomed hair and more importantly, a certain attitude to leave the tubes and jars behind. I see women here who do it, and they're attractive but not great beauties.
And of course she is much older than you. Frankly, I can't pull off that rumpled-linen look myself. But in the theater after the movie, I was struck by the number of younger women commenting on Dench's beauty. This discussion really is all about inhabiting one's own skin with grace and authenticity, isn't it? That's something you seem to do very well.
C.
casual. Youthful without being ridiculous.
I imagine this is how women accustomed to corsets felt when they surveyed the first flappers. I am not saying you should change, just that your attitude is the result of entrenched certainties. I truly doubt you would scare anyone.
Nor am I saying women will follow her! But to me, the mix of her cool clothes with her bare face is far more modern than makeup.
And finally (again, not directed to you) if a woman looks so darned tired without makeup, maybe she is indeed exhausted and needs to get some rest and cope with the stress she is making with paint.
Jennifer Connolly: Wondering if you have you ever gone hiking or camping- or another such activity- and left off your makeup? There is a difference between looking tired and looking un-made-up.
In the days when I was in a conservative corporate environment, I would not have omitted all makeup; I wanted to fit in, relatively, and that did not require much at all.
I agree with others that some women are lucky to "go without" because of naturally strong brows, dark eyes, etc.
My mom, at 95, still regularly applies lipstick and blush. She is a beauty.
Thanks for the discussion,
Kathleen
I think it is a personal choice. I would have said that young women wear less makeup but that was true where I lived previously and not where I live now. Despite that I am often almost bare of face but feel that my pale eyebrows and my lips need a bit of color or my features disappear beneath my still-dark hair.