14 posts tagged “beauty”

A spot of good news from the pageant world. More good news comes from pageantry than bad, based on what I see. Many of the contestants get a leg up into the areas they want to, thanks to the profile. Others form business networks. Don’t believe the gossipmongers and the sour grapes you might read elsewhere (as I say to the negative bloggers, I was there).
   For instance, the two Wellington-based contestants, Samantha Powell (who won Miss Universe New Zealand) and Rebecca Connor (Miss Wellington) have formed an alliance and this is particularly good for Rebecca’s business.
   Both Sam and Rebecca went to Miss New Zealand to have a bit of fun and to make connections, and this has allowed them to look a bit further than just the pageant, and at their careers.
   This release was sent today and I have my doubts on whether some of the mainstream media will pick this up, since it’s not negative enough. It’s not as big as some of the news posted to the groups that I am sending this to, but it’s a nice piece that deserves an airing.

Miss Universe New Zealand spurs cooperation between former rivals

Wellington and Auckland, May 21 (JY&A Media) Miss Universe New Zealand 2008 Samantha Powell will be getting support not only from the pageant and its sponsors, but from her former rival, Miss Wellington—Rebecca Connor of About You Artistry (www.aboutyouartistry.com).
   About You Artistry, a company specializing in make-up, is owned by Miss Connor. She has agreed to do Miss Powell’s make-up for publicity shots, photo shoots or print work whenever possible during her reign.
   Miss Connor was voted Miss Friendship by her fellow contestants and was in the top five at the 2008 pageant.
   ‘I had a great experience at the pageant and made some true friends,’ says Miss Connor. ‘I really want to support Sam in her bid for Miss Universe and during her year representing New Zealand.’
   Val Lott, director of Miss Universe New Zealand, says the cooperation between the former rivals is an example of the many positive outcomes found in pageantry.
   ‘Many of these girls go to the pageant as a professional choice, to forge not only friendships but create new networks,’ she says.
   Jack Yan, publisher of Lucire, who was a judge for Miss Universe New Zealand for the last two years, says Miss Connor’s entrepreneurship and willingness to reach out to a fellow contestant are examples of the positive effects the pageant brings.
   He says Mlles Powell and Connor are examples of contestants who are ‘keeping it real. This is why they both did so well in the pageant.’
   The Miss Universe New Zealand pageant was held at the Novotel Ellerslie on April 20. Samantha Powell will contest Miss Universe in Nha Trang, Vietnam on July 14.
   Miss Powell represented the Horowhenua at the national pageant.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of visiting the Horrobin & Hodge spa in Manakau, north of Levin, for a future issue of Lucire. These are just random shots; the real 35 mm and digital ones will appear online and in print in due course. You can get great spa treatments there with products from Hema and other top-end lines, and I was pampered with a massage. A big thank-you to Sarah and Jacquie for making me feel so welcome, for an amazing lunch (meat from the farm next door and vegetables grown on site) and for letting me sleep on the day room couch when I was in sublime relaxation!
   Basically you are looking at world-class treatment but country-style hospitality—which makes the hour’s drive from Wellington well worth it.
   The first four shots are from the day room, both inside and the views toward the west and north.

   The reception is way cool: the lights are 110 ml milk bottles in a crate, acknowledging the rural heritage of the site. The old-fashioned telephone is actually push-button and not rotary, but it looks great alongside the Dell computer screen.    And, nearing sunset, one last shot before driving back to Wellington.

[Cross-posted] Lucire editor Laura Ming-Wong, Miss New Zealand 2007 Laural Barrett and I will be among the judges of the StarNow 2008 Australian Model Search. 
   Each time I judge a competition, I get asked what I am looking for.
   The requirements of a fashion magazine for models include talent that can look different each time. We don’t want a Derek Zoolander with a Blue Steel look. We want a model who, depending on angle, poses, mood and just her “look” can convey anything from cool to sultry, playful to dramatic.
   I don’t think conventional beauty always works with models, either. This idea has been helped by shows such as America’s Next Top Model: all the girls on that are stunning but very quickly, Tyra and her judges whittle the contestants down, often starting with the least flexible and most conventional of them.
   When judging the Cadbury Dream Model Search last year, I really liked how my fellow judges were conscious of family and education commitments, as I was. This is important, too: the maturity of the entrant and whether she has the focus that will enable her to succeed both in her education and in her career.
   Modelling, despite the mischief Kate Moss might get up to, is not fun and games. This is work, and usually very hard work. Discipline is key to the job.
   We look forward to seeing what entrants are signing up the competition and if it sounds like you, surf to www.starnow.com.au/modelsearch.

A nice site came across my virtual desk today: Modify, an eco-chic boutique specializing in higher-end fashion, accessories, home items and beauty products. I don’t know the folks behind it, but I am pretty impressed with the home page design. We linked it from the Lucire Shopping Guide—the online one—today.
   Shows there’s plenty of growing credibility to covering eco-fashion, something we pioneered among mainstream fashion titles earlier this century.

It’s 2008 and two of the three Lucire ‘Insider’ entries are about Keira Knightley. It looks like 2007 was very much Miss Knightley’s year, if all these polls are anything to go by.
   From the Press Association: ‘The emerald green dress worn by Keira Knightley in Atonement has been voted the best film costume of all time.’ The remainder of the story as well as the next nine are at the original post.
   The second, earlier post about Miss Knightley was about her being voted 2007’s beauty icon by the British public, beating Kelly Brook, Kate Moss and Victoria Beckham. It also appears in article form on the site.

[Cross-posted] Would you go short? The bob is the “it” hairstyle for 2007 and probably the beginning of 2008, and Ultimate Style convinces one woman to try it out at the Ken Paves salon. The video airs today on the Lucire home page.

On Lucire’s home page today: the new fragrances from Antonio Banderas. My question is: since he is not playing Zorro or an animated cat, but Antonio Banderas, what will Melanie say?

[Cross-posted] As someone who has long championed the Asian subcontinent—and Lucire has been linking Indian and Pakistani sites as they came to light over the years—I was happy to see that Vogue India has made it on to newsstands. The new magazine is a milestone in the rise of the subcontinental fashion industry, which arguably has had a longer tradition than anything in the occident. It also signals a rise in global luxury brands entering India—something which I hope will soon be more of a two-day street.
   The cover, too, addresses concerns that I expressed in a blog post last week, on the ubiquity of the white model on catwalks. There has been some chatter about why Gemma Ward, a blonde, blue-eyed model, occupies a third of the cover, but the answer is fairly simple, I thought: Vogue India is evidently a magazine that appeals to the global nature of the Indian consumer. Her presence suggests that in a shot. But the international girl is usually quite desirable from a publisher’s or licensee’s eyes, too.
   As a man, I have to say that my eyes went to the other models first: Bipasha Basu, Priyanka Chopra, Monikangana Dutta, Preity Zinta and Laxmi Menon grace the cover and gatefold, photographed by Patrick Demarchelier. Perhaps it is the ubiquity that I wrote about, but the south Asian models are stunning.
   The domestic cover girl is very important, as we learned with Lucire Romania. The original cover girl—Karen Carreño—made less of an impact than the first Romanian to appear, Monica Gabor. 
   South Asia is a region that I am keen on getting in to with Lucire. My best wishes go to Priya Tanna and her team at Vogue India.

In 2002, my colleague Nigel Dunn set up a discussion forum at Lucire, originally called ‘StyleTalk’. This was extremely successful and in the years it was up, it logged up thousands of posts.
   Unfortunately, in 2005 and 2006, this forum was hacked repeatedly—coinciding with the staff difficulties I have alluded to on my blogs over the last nine months or so. Eventually, with other issues becoming more pressing and our attentions elsewhere, we regrettably let the forum die. Its database had been corrupted by hackers so, as far as I know, it could not be salvaged. Perhaps it is for the better.
   Interestingly, we have not had any successful hacking attempts since that change in staff.
   I am happy to say that tonight, we put the forum back, albeit without posts from our lovely regulars such as Lata Tokhi and Joanne de Voe. (If they are reading this, please go there!)
   The forum was also responsible for our discovering Doug Rimington, our regular Wellington photographer, who originally posted there as an enthusiastic amateur teaching himself the trade. I responded to Doug and invited him to a shoot that was to take place the following day.
   The StyleTalk name is being used on another new service we are introducing at Lucire, so the revised forum is called a more boring Lucire Reader Community Forum. But it says what it is and I’m happy with that.
   It’s about 99·5 per cent ready—I have noted some glitches to the people at phpBB, who designed the back end to the forum—but I would love for Voxers to hop on over and see what discussions you can get going. (The glitches do not relate to privacy.) What I am saying is that I trust my Vox neighbourhood here more than any other group to be the folks who cut the ribbons. I’m also happy to hear any feedback you may have, too.
   It’s not the only new service we have there at Lucire—I look forward to letting y’all in on the next one soon.
   As for me, I am off to bed, and hope we don’t wake up to too many bug reports! Have a great day over in the US, and a great afternoon in Europe.

Former Lucire US bureau chief and US editor Stevie Wilson recently put me on to her blog, LA Story. For those wondering whether blogs that mention fashion and beauty events and specials are credible, I recommend surfing to Stevie’s one where there’s no such doubt.
   In the years I worked with Stevie, I found that she has very good sources, and this blog clearly reflects that.