BE AU T Y BA Z A A R
T
here are elements peculiar to the female existence that
make it harder for us, but others make it easier, so much
easier. One of the latter is, I believe, lipstick. It’s a real
joy in my life. More than that, now that I am in my mid-forties, it’s
become one of my most important tools.
How superficial, you might be thinking, to attach such impor-
tance to a product that is all about surface. Yet lipstick can have a
profound impact on the way you look and feel; on the way you see
yourself, and the way you are seen. ‘Lipstick is the best cosmetic that
ex ists,’ Joa n Collins once sa id.
However tired or over-the-hill you feel, the perfect lip tone will
fix it, and I am increasingly grateful for this as I age. I intend to grow
older colourfully, elatedly... lippily, if you will, in every sense. Poor
men have no such facility.
There is no day, no mood, no outfit that isn’t improved by a super-
lative slash of the bright stuff. And when I say bright, I mean bright;
game-changer bright. None of those namby-pamby nudes that are- as the nomenclature suggests – too close to what’s God-given to
enact the required alchemy. We need such small yet significant
pleasures more than ever at the moment, one reason why statement
lips were out in force on the autumn/winter catwalks at labels such
as Fendi and Chloé.
It’s precisely the shape-shifting pot-
entiality of lipstick that makes it so rare
in art history – this, as well as the fact that
for long periods it was not deemed
entirely respectable. Pre-Warhol and his
hot-lipped renderings of Marilyn, Jackie
et al, there’s not much to be seen. Lippy
is too much of a distraction for most
artists, which is precisely why – as I said - it’s such a great tool for the rest of us.
One notable exception is the Dutch
Fauvist Kees van Dongen, his charming
1919 portrait The Corn Poppy an exemplification as to how
best to match hat and lipstick. (The latter is a dead ringer
for Dior’s Rouge Dior Ultra Care Lipstick in Bloom, a lovely
slimline stick.) Another is the long unjustly overlooked
Finnish painter Helene Schjerf beck, the subject of a one-
woman show at the Royal Academy of Arts in London,
which runs until 27 October. This master of the self-
portrait regularly painted her lips deep vermilion or – in
one particularly charming 1915 work – the colour of straw-
berry bonbons. (I’ve pulled off a similar effect with Chanel’s
Rouge Allure Ink Fusion in Coral Peach, a liquid applied
with a wand.)
Red lipstick has always given me pleasure, from the moment I
first started wearing it regularly in my mid-teens. Now, at the age of
47, it gives me support, too. It is the least effortful way I have found
to present as contemporary, youthful, interesting. It is impossible to
look dreary in the right hot shade.
I have an incredibly chic barrister friend, who perforce wears
black suiting in court: it’s her lips, her MAC’s Lady Danger lips, that
ensure she presents as anything but dull. Yet this is also the lipstick
of choice for one of fashion’s most determinedly colourful designers
and dressers, Roksanda Ilincic; and it speaks an international lan-
guage, too. I have worn it in most of the world’s time zones, and in
each one a woman has come up to me and said, ‘Ooh, Lady Danger!’
Left: Kees van
Dongen’s ‘The
Corn Poppy’
(1919). Below:
Helene
Schjerfbeck’s
‘The Family
Heirloom’
(1915–1916)PHOTOGRAPHS: LUCKY IF SHARP, IMAXTREE, © ADAGP, PARIS AND DACS, LONDON 2019, HELENE SCHJERFBECK,AUGUST AND LYDIA KEIRKNER FINE ARTS COLLECTION, FINNISH NATIONAL GALLERY/ATENEUM ART MUSEUM. PHOTO: YEHIA EWEIS, ALAMY
http://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk November 2019 | HARPER’S BAZAAR | 239For me, it all began with Robert Palmer’s ‘Addicted to Love’
video, which came out in 1985 when I was 13. It was the singer’s
scarlet-lipped, slick-haired, guitar-wielding henchwomen, as pow-
erful as they were glamorous, who inspired my go-to look for
boldface occasions for years to come. My friend Alice and I would
paint our lips the identical shade; be it on the last day of school
(Look at us! We are wearing lippy! And you can’t expel us!) or at the
Free Nelson Mandela concert in 1988 (Look at us! We care about
making the world a better place, but that doesn’t mean we can’t look
fabulous while doing so!)...
It was nothing but fun for me then, yet when I landed my first big
job, I discovered lipstick wasn’t merely frivolous. This was a role that
was all about power meetings and power egos. I needed to look the
part, because by looking the part I would be better able to feel it; play
it. A lipstick, along with a statement jacket and some great earrings,
became my uniform. (If yours is a deskbound profession, nailing
workplace dressing is all about your top half, because that’s what
gets seen.) A couple of years later, when I was promoted, the first
thing my successor asked me was what
lipstick she should buy. I took this as a com-
pliment, and, henceforth, as a rule for living.
Not that I limit myself to red any more –
I have now discovered that a well-chosen
coral or hot pink will do me the same kind
of favours, if not more. Indeed, now that
I have grey hair I find myself taking this
approach at least as much: there’s an added
quirkiness that makes even the most classic
tailored ensemble just cool enough.
Such is my devotion that I have become
that obsessive who buys discontinued
colours on eBay, (a Kevyn Aucoin coral
called – oh, the irony – Timeless) or laments
their demise with near-strangers. A Dutch
magazine editor and I spent half an hour on
the front row at Tbilisi fashion week earlier
this year sharing our grief for the loss of
a particular hot pink from MAC.
But I have identified my new favourites.
For a coral it has to be Tom Ford’s punchy
Wi ld Gi nger, or Si sley’s f re sh Or a nge I bi za.
Indeed, I have Sisley to thank for showing
me just how flattering a coral can be, whatever your age. It was when
I went to a meeting with the brand a few years back, and every
woman there – aged from their twenties to their sixties – was wearing
a Sisley-approved iteration of the said hue, that I determined to give
it a whirl myself.
As for pinks, for a hot bright, it’s MAC’s Amplified Lipstick in
Impassioned; for a deeper version, it’s Nars’ Audacious Lipstick
in Greta. I also love the Rodin range, which has a complexion-
flattering gloss, whether it’s the mid-pink Pinky Winky, or the
lighter Winks. Rodin does a corking scarlet, too, called Tough
Tomato – because I certainly haven’t abandoned the colour with
which my love a f fa ir beg a n.
Anna Murphy is fashion director of The Times