So, Maybe Blonds <i> Do </i> Have More Fun
Platinum hair started turning up in European fashion magazines about six months ago. Worn close to the head or long and loose, these ivory locks looked unnatural . . . but nice. Now we’re seeing them all over town. Even Joe Pesci’s a golden boy in “Jimmy Hollywood.”
Diane Keaton recently insisted that her longtime hairdresser, Jonathan Gale at Juan Juan in Beverly Hills, turn her into a towhead. As did actress Kate Capshaw and super-model Vendela. But Keaton, who had cut her hair to play Amelia Earhart, took Gale by surprise. “It’s very hard when you’ve known someone for a long time looking a certain way,” he said, “but she looks beautiful.”
We suspect that baby blond hair is part of the fashion world’s recent penchant for toddler chic. Gale is less analytical: “People just want to have fun.”
Chemical fun like this may be safe, but it sure ain’t cheap: It took five highlighting sessions--$250 worth--to turn a brunette Capshaw into a blonde. Monthly touch-ups range from $95 to $195. And there’s all the new makeup you’ll need to match your hair. (Try Bobbi Brown’s Nude lipstick, topped with Gold Shimmer.)
Is it worth it? An L.A. parking attendant seemed to think so: “I don’t mean to offend you,” he told our newly blond self, “but you are the most attractive woman I’ve seen in two or three weeks.” He liked me. He really liked me.
Ziggy Oil-Control: “David is in London, recording. He won’t be at the press conference,” we were informed by Mr. Bowie’s wife, Iman, Africa’s exquisite export to the fashion runways of the world. In a news conference next week in New York City, squeezed between designer runway shows, she’ll describe her new skin-care and cosmetics line for women of color.
It hits JCPenney stores in July, priced from $7 to $35. It is especially for African Americans, Latinas, Asians and Native Americans. But even the pale Bowie can use one item, a pre-makeup product for oil control.
“When I was modeling I had to be a great chemist, mixing my own things for my skin and color needs,” Iman said. “People would ask me what I used.” Starting this summer, we’ll ask no more.
A Spirited Party: We peeked into a darkened room at Century City’s 20/20 Club on Wednesday night. A stripper was entertaining a handful of businessmen. Quel embarrassing! But just beyond, we found what we’d been looking for: a display of period costumes worn by Glenn Close, Meryl Streep and Vanessa Redgrave in “The House of the Spirits.”
The strip club at the ABC Entertainment Center was the convenient, if incongruous, setting for a Miramax films-Maxfield-hosted reception after the film’s L.A. premiere, which benefited the American Cinematheque. Studying a long, black crepe dress designed for Close, we wondered what her sexually repressed character would have thought of the writhing, G-string-clad cuties who normally occupy the place?
“That was way better than ‘The Piano,’ ” said one of many short, wire-rim-glasses-wearing men who crowded around the groaning buffet tables. Other bachelors, we noted, were busy checking themselves out in one of the club’s many mirrored surfaces. “You look great,” we assured one poor slob, adding a thumbs-up for sincerity.
The costumes can be seen at Maxfield, 8825 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, through Thursday.
Weird Science: Remember Realm? Apparently nobody else does, either. The fragrance--touted as the first to contain human pheromones--was launched last year with great fanfare.
Unfortunately, the perfume’s infomercial failed to excite much response. Manufacturer Erox Corp. recently announced a net loss of more than $4 million in 1993, and revenue from the company’s fragrances was only $111,862.
We suspect that the problem was the honesty of Realm’s claims--the fragrance didn’t stir erotic longings, but rather merely instilled in the wearer “a sense of well-being.”
History Lessons: Edward Maeder, former curator of costumes and textiles for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, takes a new job as director of Toronto’s Bata Shoe Museum this month. But he’s left behind a small, eclectic exhibition that shows off the range, depth and even humor of the items in LACMA’s costumes and textiles collection.
Among our favorite pieces in the exhibit, which opened Wednesday, is a Halston hat from the ‘60s that resembles a crown of enormous pastel rollers. And there’s the 200-year-old wooden doll that solved the problem contemporary toy makers run into with sexist renditions. The gender-neutral figurine could be dressed as a man in velvet breeches and coat, or a woman in a silk dress, embroidered slippers and petticoat. A sexually correct wig and tiny hat complete the look.
“In Celebration: Fifteen Years of Collecting Costumes and Textiles (1979-1994)” runs through July 17.
Cross Your Heart: Thinking of tossing that lacy demi-cup into the wasteland of another bra gone wrong? Send it to San Francisco artist Nicolino instead. He needs 10,000 bras for a planned sculpture called “Bras Across Grand Canyon.”
Nicolino, who’s collected 2,500 bras so far, wants to attach all 10,000 to a steel cable, which will then be hoisted across the vast ravine sometime in July, 1995. He’s on a train tour through the United States and Canada to collect bras and monetary donations for the work, which he says is all about fun and fighting breast obsession in America.
Nicolino’s train pulls into L.A.’s Union Station about 8 p.m. April 29 for bra refueling.
Inside Out is published Fridays.
