YOU ARE A BABE
MAY 17.2012
by AIMEE BLAUT
"I’m a jewelry designer and I have a couple of lines of jewelry. It really started as a fine jewelry collection — or our take on fine jewelry. I went to RISD, not for jewelry — but I quickly fell into doing jewelry. The jewelry studios were really gorgeous. They were so the opposite of a south Florida upbringing; like this building from the 1860’s with original tools; I was really seduced by the whole alchemy part of it. And I think I really found a voice there. I developed this hybrid technique of using iron and gold together. There weren’t a lot of people doing jewelry at that moment. So I started working for all kinds of different people doing home ware and restorations. More and more, I started doing that kind of decorative art and that is when Courtney became my business partner. In 2001, we started the collection. We started with Philip Crangi and developed Giles and Brother as this sort of less expensive, easier to produce line. Over the years it has really become the driving force — a much bigger enterprise."
“I try to go the gym or do something five days a week. I go running or work out and if I do those things, I get out of bed, eat a crazy breakfast and go. Then I will just shower at the gym. I like the Body Milk for Men by Santa Maria Novella. It smells like Christmas drinks a little bit. I love the spiciness of it. That’s the most complex scent I wear. It is really light so it is good for this time of year.Dermalogica makes a really great daily exfoliant powder and I use that to cleanse my face. I do believe in moisturizing. I use Dr. Dennis Gross Age Erase Moisture, I think it’s important the older you get. I have this Florida skin that gets real dried out up here. I also really like to be tan [laughs]. I didn’t when I lived in Florida but it happened to me later in life, so it kind of dries me out too. Right now I’ve still got my winter tan, which is just being pale [laughs].”
“I spend a lot of time making it look like I don’t do anything to the beard. I trim it just about everyday, just keeping tight. I don’t use trimmers, but scissors and a comb so it takes a while. I am pretty lucky — if I won any lottery, I have great hair. I have a full head of it [laughs]. My friends who are losing their hair are really pissed. I shave my head now but when I had hair I didn’t do much to it. I personally don’t find it attractive in a man to be overly groomed. I love having a shaved head though, it’s really nice. I can go to any barber and just get my head shaved for twenty bucks.”
“I never loved a complex, cologne-y scent. I like a lemon with a pepperiness of patchouli or something. I’m into Aqua Di Parma, which is really fresh, and that Santa Maria Novella Patchouli. I always have Santa Maria Novella Patchouli and I layer something on top of it and make it my own scent. It is really important to me the way things smell; there is so much memory there. When I met my boyfriend he always had Santa Maria Novella potpourri, and I never grew up even thinking about potpourri [laughs]. So he always had this potpourri and I had an almost nostalgic deep connection to it, like something I had always been wanting to smell or smell like. That really affected me, I love that scent.”
“I go through these phases with tattoos where I get like three of four in a month and then I won’t get them for years. It’s been that way since I was sixteen. The most recent ones are ones that I’ve wanted for so long. They’re from ‘Woodstock’ by Joni Mitchell, also by Crosby Stills and Nash. It says ‘We Are Stardust, We Are Golden.’ It’s multi-layered to me because in the true sense of the word we are all stardust, literally. And as inspiration moves through your body and out of your hands it’s almost like a magician with sparkles coming out of the tips of his fingers [laughs]. I have this image of that. When the ideas are really moving and I am immersed and drawing them, I feel most alive. I have this visual component that is part Jem and the Holograms and part Peter Pan.”
“I did so much work outside of jewelry and fashion and that really appeals to me. The thing that was so great about jewelry is that it’s so contained. And New York — just the spaces and everything about it, the bigger it gets the more difficult it is. I felt like I really had something to say that was small. And now I’m feeling like I might have something to say on a larger scale. The idea of doing something in the world of home but super high-end luxury could be next. I want to make things that people are just so seduced by they must own them, and not because they were told to buy it in a magazine. I want it to be beyond trend.”
Photos by: Aimee Blaut
Tags: Aqua Di Parma, Dermalogica, Dr. Dennis Gross, Giles and Brothers, Jem and the Holograms, Joni Mitchell, Philip Crangi, Santa Maria Novella
YOU ARE A BABE
MAY 07.2012
by AIMEE BLAUT
"I’m a fashion designer and I like it because I get to make things all day long! When I was growing up what I wanted to be would change from time to time: an artist (this meant a painter), a gymnast, a sculptor, a runner, then back to a painter. It was never anything conventional or realistic."
“When I wake up in the morning I eat a snack and drink a cup of tea. Then I head out for a run followed by the gym or pilates. My beauty routine starts out with Cetaphil moisturizer and then RoC under eye serum.”
“For makeup I use Chanel Sheer Illuminator or Makeup Forever’s HD Primer, but only if I will be wearing makeup all day. Next I use some Bo-iing concealer by Benefit and Bobbi Brown Pressed Powder in white. I line my eyes with black pencil liner and then use Estee Lauder’s Lash Primer Plus. I alternate between Givenchy Phenomen’Eyes mascara and Maybelline Great Lash, the one that comes in the pink and green bottle. And finally I use MAC liquid liner to make dots and lines around my eyes and I’m done.”
“My favorite beauty brands are Make-up Forever, Bobbi Brown, Benefit and MAC. I can’t live without eyeliner, candy corn and raw nut mix.”
“When I think about beautiful memories I often think about a walk that my grandma (Bear) would take me on as a child. We would leave her house and walk up the road past two different cemeteries and then turn left onto a hidden dirt path that wound through the forest. It led to an open field of daffodils and an abandoned wooden shack. She’d tell me that ‘Old Man Lochi’ had lived there years before.”
“My favorite salon is Dop Dop. My friend Cesar is the creative director there and is the only person who can get my hair this shade. Cesar and his team also do amazing work on my fashion shows.”
Photos by: Aimee Blaut
Tags: Benefit, Bobbi Brown, Cetaphil, Chanel, Dop Dop Salon, Givenchy, Katie Gallagher, MAC, Make Up Forever, Maybelline, Roc
YOU ARE A BABE
MAY 01.2012
by AIMEE BLAUT
"I design jewelry—or you could call it body jewelry. I've just started working in colored stones and fine metal, which is really fun. I started out as a bag designer and had a line for five years before relaunching as a jewelry designer. I studied apparel at Parsons so my background is a bit all over the map! I also teach an Accessory Design & Brand Strategy class at Parsons with Jasmine Takaniko. It's a beautiful moment to help someone develop the skill set and ability to translate their ideas and then communicate them to people."
“Every day, even on Sunday, I always start the morning with braiding my hair. It’s been a few years now! It’s a small personal challenge each day when I try to think of a new braid. Then it’s lotion, makeup and the last thing I do is my eyes with Bobbi Brown.”
“I think, because I was a handbag designer, I have these leftover definitions for what time of day different bags should be worn… and I realize now that has carried over to my makeup routine. I always do a nude lip in the morning and then add color (Guerlain Rouge G in 04) at some point midday. It’s kind of like a cup of coffee in the afternoon to perk me up.”
“I have super sensitive skin and it’s taken me a while to discover all of the products I’m allergic to. Trust me, it was not a fun experience. Simplicity is the best thing for me at the end of the day. I take a long moment to wash the day off of my hands before touching my face. I love New York but it’s dirty and I touch things all day running around town. Then it’s gentle eye makeup remover, cleanser and lotion.”
“Right now I’m working on a project with DTE Studio for their issue on Lunacy. May 5th is a supermoon, meaning the moon will be twenty percent larger that night than usual, so we put together a limited edition design in sterling silver and onyx to offer on the Dream The End art platform. The video and shoot are so beautiful! I’m also really excited for the Mad Museum Ball because I’m making a piece of object-art that will be featured.”
(Bliss gets her manicures at Sakura)
Photos by: Aimee Blaut
Tags: Bliss Lau, Bobbi Brown, Body Jewelry, Dream The End, DTE Studio, Guerlain, Jewelry, Parsons, Sakura
