Thinking Pink
Front Page
Register Now!

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

 

Click Here For More Of Gina's Notebook.

Return To Front Page