Lip Service - FASHION Magazine
Lipstick, the iconic pigmented bullet, is back. Can you handle giving up your gloss for the season’s deep, dark red? By Vanessa Craft
I am being wooed by an unlikely suitor.
In a black lacquered case that opens with a delicate grosgrain ribbon, my Givenchy Rouge Interdit lipstick calls out from my handbag, persuading me to bring it out for display and reapply my raspberry red colour in full view of everyone.
Let me state something for the record: Proudly preening with a lipstick has never been my style, especially at a crowded restaurant. I’m a dedicated “glosser,” set in my quick, one-slick applicator ways. Call me lazy, but the ease and simplicity of gloss, not to mention my love of the pale neutral lip, has kept me hooked. Until now.
This is an object far too gorgeous to keep hidden away. It actually makes one of my girlfriends gasp when I pull the ribbon tag to reveal the silver metal tube embossed with Givenchy’s quadruple set of Gs.
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Hurts So Good - Zink Magazine
Jet lag, wrinkles and needles, oh my! BY VANESSA CRAFT
On a plane heading back to Toronto, jet lagged and exhausted, I wondered how I thought I could do a Las Vegas weekend and survive mentally and physically intact. I dug out my compact with the aim of freshening up before unleashing my eye bags on the unsuspecting crowds at the arrivals lounge when they appeared, a horrifying presence in the clear, unforgiving, 30,000-feet-above-sea-level sunlight: wrinkles.
My laugh lines looked… so very lined, and oh-my-gawd, was that the beginning of crow’s feet? I thought what happened in Vegas stayed in Vegas?
Since I had neither the budget nor the inclination for surgery, and prefer my botulism in a late night kebab rather than my forehead, I searched alternative beauty treatments and discovered Toronto’s best kept secret: acupuncturist Daniel Kanner and his Cosmetic Facial Renewal miracle.
Major benefits of the treatment are tightened pores, improved collagen production and muscle tone, elimination of fine lines, wrinkles, eye bags and acne as well as double chin reduction and an improved metabolism. However, it requires a few needles in your face. There’s always a catch.
I met Daniel at the Body Clinic in the exclusive Yorkville area of the city. “Acupuncture isn’t going to make someone who’s fifty look twenty,” he says, “but generally it can knock five to fifteen years off a person’s face.”
Like magic, my apprehension disappeared as I began planning my new life as a high school freshman…
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British Invasion - Zink Magazine
As Americans we’ve always had a fondness for anything British (after all, they gave us punk rock, James Blunt and Orlando Bloom), but when it comes to fashion the Brits are rapidly invading our shores - one catwalk at a time. BY VANESSA CRAFT
RAG & BONE
It’s not just women constantly in search of the perfect pair of jeans. Frustrated with the lack of laid back yet beautifully constructed style choices for men, Londoners Nathan Bogle and Marcus Wainwright started Rag & Bone, initially focusing on denim and then branching out into a full men’s collection in 2005. This year, they’ve expanded their classic sportswear to a women’s line.
Rag & Bone is best described as “luxury basics” - accessible in design and extravagant in price (a pair of jeans comes with a $275 dry-clean only tag). Winning this year’s Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation (past winners include Zac Posen and Proenza Schouler) has futher propelled the label into the already glaring media spotlight.
Right now, Bogle is excited by the more modern, minimal elements of tailoring in sportswear. “It feels like we’ve stripped back to essentials,” he says, “and it gives everyone a new platform to develop from…
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Swiss Miss - Zink Magazine
SPAS + TREATMENTS
There is much to learn from celebritites: how to have a Vegas wedding with less than ten minutes planning, when to go from blonde to brunette, and what ridiculously decadent beauty treatments are worth getting up before noon for. My latest in celeb indulgence? Instead of eating calorific chocolate, just have an underling slather it on your face. Favored by Elton John, Stella McCartney, Madonna and Gwyneth, Karin Herzog’s Co-cO2 facial is so indulgent it could only be coveted by the rich and famous.
After studying my skin and discussing my cleaning rituals (falling asleep drunk with makeup on is apparently a no-no), my beauty therapist, Rekha, started with a deep cleanse and drainage massage with cocoa bean-infused Monoi oil. Next, an oxygen-rich mask was applied before adding a vitamin-packed chocolate cream full of of potassium, lipids and antioxidants. The last step in my 90-minuted bliss sesh was having a mask of warm, melted Swiss chocolate slathered all over my face and neck.
By this point, most women are writhing in ecstasy and can’t remember their names. I remained (somewhat) coherent and focused - it takes a fair bit of concentration to lick choclate off your face when the therapist isn’t looking. Results? My skin was super-soft and plumped up with noticeably fainter wrinkles. One warning: Depending on the lifestyle choices (and adult video collection) of friends, be prepared for a multitude of responses when you say - with a blissful expression - that you’ve just had the most amazing chocolate facial ever. The Karin Herzog Co-cO facial is available at the Tallulah Beauty Boutique in London. - VANESSA CRAFT
Hurts So Good - Zink Magazine
Nothing comes between a woman and her hair. BY VANESSA CRAFT
From London to Louisiana, hair extensions are out of the closet and on everyone’s head. Whether it’s to make a statement after a bad breakup, blow away the competition on the red carpet, or signify a new stage in your life, the transformative power of hair cannot be underestimated.
The Hair
If you want the best – and why bother otherwise? – you must use human hair. Synthetic is best left to Barbie. Russia provides the most coveted hair: virgin (never processed or coloured), thick, luxurious, and softer than Asian or Indian imports.
Naomi Campbell waist-length gorgeousity comes with a four-figure price tag, and you’re dealing with hair that has a history. Industry insiders warn that the human hair trade is unregulated and hair can come from underprivileged women in China and Eastern Europe who are forced to sell their hair. Urban legends say the rise of the extension and demand for hair has resulted in more exploitative sources: Russian prisons, mental institutions, even (gasp!) corpses.
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SHOWstudio: Show 'Em What You're Made Of - Ideasfactory
What happens when fashion and multimedia collide? SHOWstudio offers a virtual space where creatives can re-code fashion’s DNA through interactive platforms. Viewing fashion from a different angle: VANESSA CRAFT.
“SHOWstudio is based on the belief that showing the entire creative process-from conception to completion-is beneficial for the artist, the audience and the art itself.” Nick Knight: Fashion photographer and Director of SHOWstudio
With most of the fashion coverage we see on television or in magazines, it’s easy to forget that there’s so much more to it than slick catwalk shows with celebrities gawking in the front row or glossy ads for designer perfume with the supermodel of the moment. SHOWstudio are committed to reminding us otherwise. Since their conception in November 2000, they’ve been breaking new ground in making fashion interactive through every aspect of multimedia they can get their hands on.
Behind the scenes
Penny Martin, Editor in Chief at SHOWstudio, explains the company’s dedication to showing the process of creativity. She says: “SHOWstudio was conceived as a space where creatives interested in making fashion editorial that wasn’t constrained by the printed page could come. It didn’t matter what field they were in - fashion, architecture, music, design; the internet was giving us the opportunity to change things with sound and interactivity and motion (film).”
Although initially SHOWstudio was more of an incremental museum collection for their various projects, after the success of the Sleep fashion shoot in 2001 (a web broadcast of nine models in various bedrooms at the Metropolitan Hotel going to bed for the night), they realised there was a massive audience interested in watching real-time fashion imagery being made.
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