The Power Puff : When It Comes to Compacts, Plastic Will Do, But Metal Means Business
AFTER YEARS of ignominy as a purely utilitarian beauty accessory, the decorative compact is making a comeback. Candice Bergen carries one that’s an antique embellished with the enameled image of her late father’s dummy, Charlie McCarthy. Raisa Gorbachev uses a shell-shaped version that Estee Lauder gave her when she visited New York last year. Taking the classic design one step farther, Japanese tourists in Los Angeles flaunt wafer-thin, 12-inch-diameter models with mirrors that provide a full-face view.
“The compact is now a means of allure,” says Ira Howard Levy, Lauder’s senior vice president. He calls the powder inside “just an excuse for carrying a sensual object.” Every woman can get by with a plastic case because “it gets the job done,” Levy says, “but a beautiful compact turns powdering one’s nose into something glamorous.”
In the 1930s and ‘40s, metal makeup and cigarette cases were de rigueur handbag accessories, but by the ‘50s, plastic styles came into vogue because they were cheaper and easier to produce. Today, the pendulum is swinging back, and most upscale cosmetics manufacturers are offering a pricey metal alternative to their plastic compacts.
Lancome’s $50 black-and-gold Art Deco design has been available for more than a year, but it is suddenly in great demand, says Simon Critchell, senior vice president and general manager. “Women aren’t leaving their compacts in their purses anymore. They’re pulling them out in public and feeling more sophisticated about it,” he says. Even former First Lady Nancy Reagan has been photographed powdering her nose at social functions.
At Chanel headquarters in New York, spokeswoman Susan Duffy sees the quality compact as “another power accessory that you can pull out of your purse, like a Mont Blanc pen.” And at Bullocks Wilshire and I. Magnin, cosmetics buyer Gary Cockrell says, “When a woman wears an elegant gold watch, carries a beautiful handbag, and then pulls out a plastic compact, something’s wrong with the picture.”
“Many women think of compacts as jewelry,” explains Roselyn Gerson, author of the book “Ladies’ Compacts of the 19th and 20th Centuries.” She also says that more than 250 American collectors subscribe to her Powder Puff newsletter for tips on sales, restoration and repair.
The late Andy Warhol was an avid collector. Twenty-four vintage compacts, including some 18-karat gold styles, were among his treasures auctioned last year. Jewelry designer Paloma Picasso, who now runs her own cosmetics company, is reported to have paid $1,640 for two French jeweled compacts and a lipstick case. Incidentally, Picasso recently introduced a round metal compact that sells for $125 exclusively at Saks Fifth Ave.
Each holiday-shopping season, Paris designer Yves Saint Laurent issues a limited edition of heart-shaped compacts encrusted with faux jewels. According to I. Magnin’s Cockrell, the $125 pieces have sold out long before Christmas Eve for the past three years.
This season, as decorative makeup cases become a sign of handheld glamour and handbag power, the compact may compete with fragrance as the No. 1 gift item.
stylist: Lisa Thackaberry
