You won’t see it on any Oscar
ballots, but powder—that
longtime makeup essential—has played a
crucial supporting role in many a Hollywood
movie. In The Women (1939), glamour-puss
Paulette Goddard pulls out a giant shiny
compact on the remote Reno ranch where
she’s waiting on a quickie divorce. In The
Apartment (1960), a vulnerable Shirley
MacLaine powders at the table while trying
to fend off the attentions of a married lover
who is an executive at the company
where she works as an elevator
operator. More recently, streaming
direct to your living room on
Amazon Prime Video, Rachel
Brosnahan’s marvelous Mrs.
Maisel powders up in a 1950s New
York City coffee shop in the wee
morning hours, having spent the
night in jail on obscenity charges.
Though the judge may find her
foulmouthed, her porcelain
complexion will remain flawless.
Yet despite its past glory,
powder’s presence on screens and
in clutches big and small appears
to have recently dimmed. The
sparkly skin on red carpets and on
Instagram feeds—reminding
me, at times, of shiny disco balls
or a swarm of fireflies in evening
gowns—has ushered in the age of conformist dewiness,
suggesting that powder and a matte finish, much like girdles
and hair rollers, be relegated to the dustbins of history.
But if you squint hard, past the ubiquitous strobing
tutorials on YouTube and endlessly glowing Kardashian-
Jenners, new-era famous faces, such as Margaret Qualley and
Puff Piece
In these times of highlighter
dominance, a matte
complexion has become
positively passé. Or has it?
Leslie Camhi makes a
case for the power of powder.
SOFT POWER
ABOVE: MODELS FEI FEI SUN AND MAYOWA NICHOLAS,
BOTH IN TOM FORD. PHOTOGRAPHED BY ETHAN JAMES
GREEN. FASHION EDITOR: PHYLLIS POSNICK. LEFT: FOR
BURLESQUE ARTIST VIOLET CHACHKI, POWDER OFFERS
THE MATTIFYING, LIGHT-REFLECTING PERFECTION OF
A CLASSIC RENÉ GRUAU FASHION ILLUSTRATION, SHOWN.
BEAUTY
Lizzo—the chart-topper with the seemingly
poreless complexion—are carrying the torch for
the beautifully buffed. And consider Chanel’s
widely lauded fall couture show: Creative director
Virginie Viard’s models swanned about in a
two-story mock library inspired by founder
Gabrielle’s legendary rue Cambon apartment,
affecting the parchment-hued demeanor—
complete with eyeglasses!—that comes naturally
(though far less alluringly) to those of us who
have spent our lives indoors reading and writing.
In fact, powder has never really left the fashion
world. “No backstage skin I’ve created since day one hasn’t
involved powder,” the makeup guru (and newly minted beauty
mogul) Pat McGrath tells me. Her new Skin Fetish: Sublime
Perfection the System includes primer, foundation, and
something she calls “the anti-powder powder,” a lighter-than-
air formulation in an impressive five shades, BE AUT Y>114
VLIFE
110 DECEMBER 2019 VOGUE.COM
TOP:SET DESIGN, JULIA WAGNER; PRODUCED BY HUDSON HILL. BOTTOM: RENÉ GRUAU,
VOGUE,
1954.
