I was working with the  Rose Tone Summer gal today  and  looking for a right lipstick for her I realized that all  Lancome Campaigns must have been inspired by a Rose Tone Summer type woman.  All images are of  medium value, high context and have strong identification  with rose tones.   All the qualities we find in women of the Rose Tone Summer type.




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I guess I need to mention that it’s been third week that I am in Milan now. Or should I say “A Milano.”

In the Italian language, the correct preposition to use with the city is “A”. Also Milano just sounds more suave, so I am gonna stick to “a Milano” in all my consecutive posts. I hope there will be ones. As, first of all living A Milano so much time and energy that nothing is left for keeping a journal. (not that I am very disciplined with it, when I am in Palo Alto, yet, I update my Russian LJ regularly, that excuses me a bit. I hope)
Secondly, the situation with the internet in Italy is … ehem. Not very optimistic. The wi-fi in Italy only exists de-juro. There is no wi-fi de facto. At least for me, after the Google- powered Silicon Valley, there is no internet in Italy. Though I did bought their special internet device for 129 euro. Non va.

( the ambulance, the Italian language, the fashion course and more.. )

The other day we were at Stanford shopping mall and I asked Alex to take a picture of me walking out of Sephora, and I said: "just make sure we don't scare other people, as they might think yo are shooting them.." the word were still coming out of mouth as I saw this stunning girl, whose picture I would really love to have.

So we literally chased her throughout the mall and near Neiman Marcus I finally approached her and asked whether it'd be ok if we take a picture of her. She was a little bit shy and asked me to join her. I really wanted a picture of her alone, cause she was SO unreal! But...

I didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable.


( So, here she is.  )

I am sorry if you've seen this picture zillions of times in the Russian version of my LJ. I promise it'll be the last one. Well.. almost. As there is another community I plan to post it in. My apologies in advance. Anyway, I wanted to tell about the hairdresser that I recently found who solved all my life long hair troubles.



( about my hairdresser )

Yesterday I went shopping with my girlfriend.  She asked me to purse-shop with her. She got one the day before, black, glittery by Charles David (in fact, he makes great shoes)  but she was not sure whether to keep it or return it and buy another one.  At  Nordstrom she randomly picked a green purse by JC and put it back saying, I need to decide on my base colors first...

Ironically enough, that particular green was very good for her. She has warm undertone to her skin and her hair are of  this nice light camel color (соломенные). I always suspected her for a Tawny Autumn, which I am now sure she is.  That green purse would look good on her, but she was hesitant of how often she would end up using it,  becasue she was not sure about her base colors (i.e. what she really needed)  and decided to stick to black for its will`match`everything quality.   urrright. 

This episode at Norstrom reminde me a scene from the movie "When Harry Met Sally."   When this couple that Harry and Sally unintentionally set up are woken up by the calls from the heart-broken Harry and Sally respectively.  They do the phone-therapy to their yet-another-time-wounded friends, then  they both hang up, she turns to him and says: "promise me I will never have to go back to the dating scene." And he says: "I promise you so." 

I think shopping is like dating, when in the beginning you really don't know what it is that you are looking for, the very first stage called "exploring." What's amazing is how many people choose to stay in the exploring stage in both, shopping and dating realms, though with time it turns from exciting to painful! I still remember myself at that stage and these memories make me chiver.   

  Browsing aimlessly through a store, not knowing exactly what I am looking for and randomly buying things that unconsciously echoed the advertisement  just seen in the  magazine at the neighboring Barns&Nobles and then  ending up not wearing it. Ever.   It's like going to blind dates and online dating.

Now  with a handful of colors that match three of my lipsticks it feels like living in a different world. Three  lipsticks of a very particular hue, not a spec lighter, not a spec darker,  just right for me. All three have very different origins:  one is discontinued, but ordered through Amazon and the supply is kept at the freege, another -  acquired through some random store in Los Angeles and the third one is pretty famous from Nars. All very different, by all share  the same quality, that of my natural coloring. 

Now that I enter any store I just scan the racks for anything compatible with those three lipsticks and if there is nothing, off I go with no regrets.  Should there be a hue that looks promising, I approach the candidate to examine the  fabric and the slouette. It is almost like considering a new member to join your rottery club. 

Finding a right chap is almost like coming across an interesting man, a potential beau,  as rare as it is  exciting to meet. 

A while ago I read a book about Hollywood designer, Edith Head. She dressed Hollywood stars for almost four decades, from the 20s to the 50s. Clara Bow,  Grace Kelly, Gloria Swanson, Mae West, Barbara Stanwyck those were her clients. 

Most of Alfred Hitchcock’s movies were “dressed” by Edith. So, I’ve read the book about her and I got so excited that I found the email of the author, David Chierichetti, who had known Edith personally and I shot him and email. Nothing special, just a couple of words about how excited I was to read his book and what a great book it was.
I did not expect much in return, I thought he must a busy person, and he did not respond right away, but he did responded today. (I wrote him a while ago). Apparently he is one of those people who does not check his email too often. He sent me his number and suggested I called him, which I immediately did.

We chatted for some time and I can’t tell you how excited I am!
The sad part however is that I have virtually no one to share it with. Of course I will tell Alex and a couple of my close friends and they will show some excitement, but since nobody is so deep into the old movies and clothes, I do not think anybody will truly understand.

I just thought of my mom, who loves old movies and who is very close to me. She is not into all the nitty-gritty of which designer dressed Grace Kelly for which of the Hitchcock’s movies and what fabrics they used, but she can appreciate my excitement about talking to Mr. Chierichetii on the phone.

But I want her to appreciate the full magnitude of my excitement. For that I would have to start from scratch: tell her how Edith Head had started back in the twenties when every single costume was made specifically for the role with dozens of fittings, that’s why they look so divine. And that it was Edith who suggested that Academy started giving out Oscars for costume designs and though Edith was an interesting person, she was pretty.. ehem, bitchy. Like how she dressed Audrey Hepburn for the Roman Holiday and considered Audrey weird looking and hid her collar bones. And how when for the next picture, Sabrina, Audrey went to Paris to pick her own clothes. Edith got very  upset and hoped that Audrey would bring something unsuitable. Audrey initially went to Balenciaga, but Balenciaga redirected her to Givenchy who was an emerging designer back then, so she brought all the Givenchy clothes to the Sabrina set and all of them fit. Edith Head still put her names as a designer in the titles and got her Oscar for the Givenchy clothes!!!

So, I would have to tell all of these and many other stories about Edith Head so that mom could fully share my excitement. And I bet by the middle of it my poor mom would be already totally confused, thinking that Givenchy shot an email to Balenciaga and Audrey later called me to tell her how excited she was to read the book about David Chierichetti.

*sigh*

I think I’ll still tell her about what happened to me today. I am sure she'll appreciate.  ;)

In the depths of my imagination, this is how I see myself. Never mind that I am fair skinned, blue-eyed, and destined to blend with the subtle colors of the North European landscape. In my wild imagination I look exactly like this.





( Lindsay, Solaria, Selenia, John and Alex, CLICK HERE. TONS OF PICTURES!!!! )

I am going to New York in three weeks and  I was trying to plan this trip so I could fly direclty from NY to London, where the large IT conference is taking place. I am not attending one, just flying with  Alex, who does.  So I email an old friend of mine in New York that I'll be in the city and we gotta meet.  I was worried about him as  we haven't talked for six months and he is on Wall Street.  Smells like trouble, but  he'd seen it at its worst. 

The guy got campus-recruited at one of the fine Wall Street establishments in 2000. Right after he got his contract, the Silicon Valley bubble  popped, the economy went down,  so his contract was postponed for one year.  The company gave him a lump sum and sent him to his native Ukraine to relax and get ready to work hard. So he did,  lived like a king, travelled the world and got all prepared to work hard.

( under lj-cut )

I rarely get inspiration from the fashion magazines, leave alone copying them.  Yet, this time I did... May be because I happened to have all the necessary ingridients.

 

After my every trip to Europe I rush to my estethitician, I mean I rush to her in between the trips just as well, simply because I make my appointments very last minute and even for these I'm late, yet she never says a word... So, my after-the-trip visits to my estethician are particularly memorable. We meet, we kiss, we agree it's a fine day and our outfits are cut and then she goes: "so, what do they wear in Europe? Tell me what are the current European fashions?"

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Pretty catty. Or am I not.






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This was my daytime outfit for our Catalina trip.





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