Perfection Is Boring

The Case For Styling With A Light Touch

I find the endless paparazzi clips documenting celebrities exiting their Escalades banal. Why does anyone care that Kendall Jenner is going to the gym or Jennifer Lopez is having brunch at Sadelles? Or, literally, any time Hailey Bieber steps out the door? Who cares? Apparently plenty since outlets like Vogue.com, when they’re not pushing the before, during, and after hype of the celebrity-soaked Met Gala, cover celebrities' every move.

To obsess over celebrities, to me, is the ultimate in uncool. Up until the early 2000’s New York prided itself on being a haven for celebrities. They walked amongst us in blissful anonymity. Peacefully, they ate amongst us in restaurants with no one daring to interrupt their meal with unsolicited compliments, except for the occasional tourist unaware of the unwritten NYC law to let them be.

Now it’s the classic chicken or the egg story. Did celebrity obsession evolve, or rather devolve, because more social media-savvy celebrities saw an opportunity to make some coin while running errands? Or did the paparazzi seize the moment for the growing demand for content? Probably it’s a bit of both and that genie is not going back in the bottle anytime soon.

One unfortunate consequence of this is the prevalence of over-styling at the expense of true style. Real style has an air of insouciance. In comparison, perfection is boring. It also sets an absurd standard for normal folk without a village of stylists, hair and makeup people, personal trainers, dieticians, and plastic surgeons, to live up to. Bring back the dishevelled celeb keeping it real and the supermodel confident in her ability to style herself. Kate versus Kim. Kate wins hands down.

The transformation and newfound popularity of Pamela Anderson is a perfect example of under-styling to great effect. Her makeup-free journey has been well documented from Paris to California. She looks freer and happy. Anderson attended the recent Golden Globes as a Best Actress nominee and opted to not work with a stylist. She wore minimal makeup and admitted to cutting her own hair! You go girl! In the end, she looked great and looked like herself.

To continue the theme of makeup; less is more. I love makeup and couldn’t live without it, but too much of a good thing is bad. Stage makeup has no place off the stage. As a general rule emphasize either the eyes or the lips, not both. A little blush does wonders and go light with the foundation. On older women, too much makeup is aging. Don’t go Baby Jane Hudson on me!

I’m not suggesting celebrities stop using stylists, or makeup, though I do suggest stylists use a lighter hand. My all-time favorite red carpet look is Lauren Hutton at the 1975 Oscars. A remarkable fifty years ago and hasn’t been beaten yet! If Lauren could time-travel from there to the 2025 Oscars in that same look she would, no doubt, steal the show again. As you can see, the Halston gown is timeless and the natural hair and minimal makeup on Lauren is flawless. A light hand to great effect.

As a designer, I strove to create looks that never appeared to be trying too hard. Whether for day or evening, an effortless quality was essential. That did not mean boring or safe. In my last post, I talked about adding eclecticism to your style using Lou Lou de la Falaise as an example. Her legendary style was fearless, imbued with a sense of ease regardless of how extra she was. Another way of explaining it is: she wore the clothes, the clothes didn’t wear her. This is intuitive; you have to take a hard look at yourself in the mirror, almost an out-of-body experience, and ask, is this me?

I know I’m throwing a lot of concepts at you. Hopefully, the pictures illustrate the ideas better than words. True style is a bit messy and allows for spontaneity, something that can be lost when striving for perfection.

As always, thank you for checking in. I would love to hear your thoughts on everyday style. Do you find we’re leaning towards over-styling? My apologies for not including any links in this post, I didn’t think it was necessary; more food for thought. Style is about so much more than making purchases, but if you are in the mood to shop you can always visit my edited selection here.

xxx Jolain