Thinking
Pink
Did any of you guys see Funny Face
the other night on AMC (American Movie Classics)? The 1957
movie stars Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire, and Paris. Funny
Face is a delightful dance and music movie with pure
charm. It is also the ultimate fashion movie, and a
wonderful account of the fashion magazine zeitgeist.
Hepburn stars as a gamine Greenwich Villager working in a
dusty bookshop studying the newest Sartre-like philosophy
called "empathasism." She is discovered by
Astaire, who is the great intrepid fashion photographer of
the moment (utterly based on Richard Avedon, who consulted
on the picture). With Givenchy clothes for Audrey Hepburn,
the rest of the cast costumed by Edith Head, Gershwin
tunes, cameos by the super-models of the day (like Suzy
Parker and Dovima), wit, elegance, romance and sheer fun, Funny
Face is a joy to watch.
My favorite scene is at the beginning of
the movie. The formidable lady editor of THE fashion
magazine, Quality, Mrs. Prescott (played by the
great Kay Thompson – don’t forget, not only a singer
and actress, Thompson wrote all the beloved Eloise
books!), arrives at the office and declares the upcoming
issue is dead as a doornail, dull. Mrs. Prescott is barely
disguised as the ultimate fashion editrix of all times,
Diana Vreeland. Notorious for her sweeping statements and
bon mots, the number Thompson sings in this scene, Think
Pink, is pure Vreeland. She decides, upon glancing
down at her desk at a swatch of peppermint pink cloth,
that every woman in the United States is to think and wear
pink. "Banish black," she sings, "Down to
the kitchen sink. Think Pink!" The song and dance
number is great, with bolts of pink cloth rolling and
rippling into the camera, and Mrs. Prescott’s 6 crisp,
efficient, and perfectly coifed young lady-like assistants
fluttering about. It’s the best send up of the whims of
fashion dictums to date. At the end of the scene, her art
director, who is rather shocked by this whole pink craze,
says to Mrs. Prescott (who is dressed in elegant, matron
dove gray), "But Madam, what about you?"
"Me?" she says, "I wouldn’t be caught
dead in it!"
I love it.
The next morning, sort of as an odd
tribute to the pleasure Funny Face gave me (even
though I’ve probably seen it at least 5 times), I
decided to "think pink" in putting on my
make-up. I decided to go all out in the pink department. I
used a baby pink blush on the apples of my cheeks – Rose
Sablee by T. LeClerc. Then on my eyes, I used a minty pink
color on my lids – Cover Girl Cheekers in True Plum, and
a pale, pale, creamy pink on my brows, and my under
eyelids– Cover Girl Cheekers in Peaches & Cream.
Then, are you strapped in? I took some really hot fuschia
powdered eye shadow – L’Oreal Eyecolour in Hot Pink,
wet my eyeliner brush, painted fushia eyeliner on my upper
and lower lid, and made a little tail at the outer corner
of the eye – a la the 1950’s. I applied a
prune/reddish mascara to top it off – Prune by T.
LeClerc. Then for my lips I used a subtle bubble gum pink
lipstick – Estee Lauder’s Just Blush. Over that I
applied a thin glaze of L’Oreal’s Sheer Mauve Beam to
cyber it up a bit – it’s sort of a glittery/glam dusty
pink lavender, and for that wet look, a dab of Clinque’s
Baby Kiss lip gloss. I have to say the whole effect was
very successful, and believe it or not, subtle, and
flattering. I was quite pleased. If I had the time I would
have done my toenails in the perfect accompaniment –
Persian Pink nail polish by Shiseido.
So, my think pink advice is to
experiment with your dress, defy convention, put on a
"new face" if the fancy strikes you. Thinking
pink can mean go your own way style-wise, just have fun
with it. I’m thinking next of an apricot/tangerine/peach
face, and then maybe a sort of "tropicale" look
with canary yellows, emerald greens, and turquoise blues…..
Gina