OLD HOLLYWOOD BEAUTY ICONS

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This article was originally published on Couturing

Elegant, blonde bombshells, ravishing brunettes, daring, sexy, sophisticated.. old Hollywood stars have given the beauty world their fair share of beauty icons.

Couturing brings you some of our favourites and their most memorable beauty moments.

Grace Kelly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The golden girl of the 50s – later the Princess of Monaco – radiated beauty. As her name suggests she was the epitome of grace with creamy porcelain skin, bright blue eyes, and blonde shoulder length hair elegantly curled and fashioned into classy chignons. Kelly’s beauty style focused on creamy, velvet skin with a light application of apricot blush on the cheeks. Her brows were normally brushed upwards and the inner rim of her eyes were occasionally lined. Kelly’s signature lip shades varied between a pretty peach or classic Hollywood red.

One of Kelly’s best beauty moments was her flawlessly elegant look at her wedding to the Prince of Monaco. The star had her blonde hair swept off her face in a high bun, with creamy skin, contoured cheekbones, apricot coloured lipstick and a strong brow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marilyn Monroe

 

 

 

 

 

 

Synonymous with sex appeal, Monroe was a seductive 1950s movie star. Curvy, glamorous and talented, the world (especially men) fell in love with Marilyn. The star proved that ‘gentlemen prefer blondes’ with her peroxide blonde hair glamorously curled in a bob. Her makeup was all about the wow factor, with porcelain skin, contoured cheekbones and a splash of eye-popping red lipstick. Monroe commonly wore false lashes and black eyeliner for the winged-eye look and sported a beauty spot on her lower left cheek. The luscious blonde bombshell famously declared that all she wore to bed was her signature perfume Chanel No. 5.

One of our favourite looks is Monroe’s version of casual beauty. Her hair was curled and slightly windswept, her eyes winged with black eyeliner and a bright fuschia lipstick gave the wow factor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audrey Hepburn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The movie star who made the world crave breakfast at Tiffany’s is a fantastic beauty icon, as she stood out with her magnificent bone structure and high cheekbones. The beautiful brunette had porcelain skin, full arched eyebrows and deep brown eyes. Differing from the blonde bombshells of the 50s, Hepburn’s beauty style was understated and always elegant. Her hairstyles were normally short and worn up of her face fashioned into chignons and buns. Hepburn’s makeup was normally minimal, with soft peachy pink blush and a soft peach lipstick.

A notable beauty moment was in the iconic film Sabrina. Her strong brows are the centre of her look, with a flick of black eyeliner, blush and soft lipstick.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brigitte Bardot

The sexy, sultry star of the 60s made bed-hair and smoky eyes fashionable. Her long blonde locks were full of volume, slightly waved and made her look as if she’d just rolled out of bed. The star’s blue eyes were normally framed with black winged liner on the upper lid and smudged on the lower rim, with thick lashings of mascara for a true smoky effect. Bardot’s lips were full and plump with her signature colour a soft baby pink lipstick.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elizabeth Taylor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The strikingly beautiful actress was part of Hollywood’s ‘golden age’ leaving behind an impressive legacy. The sultry star had jet black glossy curls, piercing blue eyes and a porcelain complexion. She exuded pure glamour with the help of her elegant makeup and hair style. Taylor stood out with her defined brows, a flick of black eyeliner on the upper lid and creamy rose coloured lips.

Taylor will undoubtedly be remembered for her stunning beauty look playing Cleopatra. Her shoulder length black hair was braided with gold thread and framed her face with a full fringe. Taylor’s complexion glowed with bronze blush conturing her cheekbones and a soft nude-pink colouring her lips. The focus was on Taylor’s eyes, with dark defined brows, blue shadow and a thick winged black eyeliner making her look truly mesmerising.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The wonderful thing about these icons of old Hollywood is that their beauty and their style are classically transferable from them to now. Perhaps take some of their favourite looks and be inspired for a new ‘old’ look for you today. It shows that the old addage is true, Beauty transcends time.

Images via Fanpop, Inspired Wedding,Luscious Life, Topricin and Silver Screen Suppers.

0.4: THE Q&A BEGINS

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This week saw the symposium style lecture put into action! After constant discussion about the new ‘unlecture’ format, it was refreshing to finally get down to business.

These are my key takeway ideas from the Q&A:

//Why bother with design fiction if you’re not a designer?

You don’t need to be a designer in the pen and paper sense to engage in design fiction. Being a designer is about developing a “toolkit for dealing with complex problems”. You can literally attempt to solve problems before they occur in the future by simply asking “what if”.

//What will the future of networked media involve?

It will enable us to “make things and build a reputation in our chosen areas free and easily”. We will continue to publish our own content instantly in an arena that can be viewed by everyone with an internet connection. Perhaps the difficulty will lie in users sifting through information and content overload to find quality content.

//How will we get paid in this industry?

THIS was my favourite point: “You must sell the experience, not the product!” In the modern age where everyone has the ability to be a content producer and self publisher it can be hard to make our work stand out. So we need to sell the fact that we are ‘experts’ in our field and provide something extra that the everyday person cannot deliver.

THE UNLECTURE 03

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Knowledge.

Adrian stressed the point that ‘education isn’t a passive one way transaction’ in this week’s unlecture.

I have to admit I have become all too used to the high-school method of education. You sit and listen while the teacher talks AT you in the hope their knowledge will be poured and stored into your brain. Sure, I realised it was a give and take relationship and it wasn’t just this simple to learn. But I accepted this format of learning without thinking too much about alternative methods.

It was interesting to think about the difference between buying an ‘experience’ instead of buying a ‘product’ in our university education. If we use this analogy between an experience and a product, it’s clear that an experience has much greater value over a product if only for its longevity. Products date, malfunction and need to be replaced when new products are created. So it is only logical that we should aim to buy an experience instead…something long lasting and enriching.

So, part of this course seems to be illuminating the two-way transaction style of education and teaching us to become aware of our learning. This course, is nothing like what I initially expected (thought it would be all about html and IT) but I am starting to see some serious value in alternative methods.

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DAVID WEINBERGER…WHO AM I?!

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In his novel, David Weinberger raises questions about the relationship between self identity and the internet. How do you present yourself online versus the way you present yourself in reality? I found this really interesting to read about because of my work on ‘Augmented Reality’ in Comms last semester (more on that later!)

David talks about the internet offering the promise of anonymity, which essentially means users are free to build a new identity for themselves in the online world. So, the way we construct our profiles on Facebook may be vastly different to the way we present ourselves to our teachers or family. However, having said this, it’s true that humans also present different versions of the self in the physical world. The way you act when interacting with your mum compared to how you act when bar hopping will possibly be vastly different! I think the point is though that the internet makes us actively think about self representation by giving us the tools to easily construct who it is we want the world to believe we are.

The idea of self representation online is really obvious if you look at online dating. Functioning as a mediator between the online world and the offline world, the sites allow users to create their own profiles and find their ideal match. More often than not, many users engage in some kind of misleading self-presentation on these sites to attract more promising partners. In this way, the internet allows people to create their ideal selves easily and project this image through cyberspace.

An interesting term that stuck with me from this reading was “internet intoxication” (Sounds deadly!). It basically acknowledges that the internet has an effect on human lives and can assist people to create new identities.

This constant discussion of identity is again scarily Comms like (WHO AM I?!) But in all seriousness, maybe what is so scary is that the internet asks us to consider who we are, who we want to be and gives us (and others) the tools to re-create ourselves.

Image courtesy of CartoonStock.com

VANNEVAR BUSH ~ COMPUTERS AND KNOWLEDGE

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The Vannevar Bush essay essentially discusses the notion of using computers to expand the knowledge and intelligence of humans. Whilst written in 1945, it is clear that in our present 2013 this notion is ever present and more than a simple vision. Computers are part of our everyday lives, delivering information to their users instantly.

Search engines, academic databases, online journals and online newspapers provide humans with knowledge about the past and present. However, that is not to say that using computers guarantees intelligence or knowledge about something useful. You might be able to easily and quickly find out the benefits of folic acid or the latest celebrity gossip BUT fail to learn information essential for your career path or assistance for learning how to answer difficult equations.

In other ways, while users have information at the tips of their fingertips, this is useless if they don’t understand the way to go about finding the information using appropriate search engines. There is also the problem of information overload.

Although in saying this- my first port of reference for most things would be the internet. Whether it be finding info for a uni assignment, my daily fix of celeb gossip, online shopping, style + beauty info or looking up my train schedule, safari has got my back!

The reading also argued that scientific and technological progress will continue to develop. From 1945 to the modern day this is all too true! It begs the question to speculate on what else will be developed and what our future world will look like as the internet has the power to continue to “expand the mind”.

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BOOK REVIEW: THE CARRIE DIARIES BY CANDACE BUSHNELL

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This review was originally published on The Teenage Girl’s Survival Guide 

Candace Bushnell brings sparkling vivacity and humour to her latest novel and sequel to The Carrie Diaries. Now a hit TV show on the C.W Network, this series is perfect for a younger audience.

Bushnell follows the young Carrie Bradshaw’s summer at a writing course in the Big Apple and all the entertaining travails that come with growing up. Carrie learns some serious life lessons in love, dreams and friendships as she embarks on the most exciting Summer of her life yet!

What’s great about The Carrie Diaries, is Bushnell’s encouragement to follow your dreams and become the person you want to be even against great odds. Carrie’s character is inspirational in that she breaks against the mould by leaving her small town when, like her old friend tells her, “No one ever really thought you’d become a writer”.

Carrie’s voice is entertaining and energetic, matching the fast paced buzz of her favourite city in the world! Her character is realistic and likable as she makes plenty of mistakes in her desire to be a real sophisticated New Yorker. This girl is sure to be a hit among teen girls.

A major plus is getting to meet the real Sex and The City girls, Samantha and Miranda, for the first time. These characters are well developed by Bushnell, with authentic voices and strong personalities that come through the text. Samantha is of course career driven and appearance centered. While she strives to be a rich chic New Yorker with the perfect husband, she reinforces the importance of being a strong woman, “I’ll tell you one thing about Samantha Jones. She can’t be bought. At any price.” Hoping her neighbours die so she can get their bigger apartment and cheaper rent, Samantha is utterly fabulous!

Characters from the original Carrie Diaries also feature, including Carrie’s former BFF Maggie and Walt. Maggie’s character serves to represent Carrie’s old life in suburban Connecticut and the person she will eventually leave behind for good in her adult life. Maggie is flirtatious and opinionated. She constantly complains about New York and disapproves of the new Carrie. Her “All American prettiness” makes her the object of lust which she is more than happy about.

Now let’s talk about the guys! Carrie meets her fair share over the Summer, including the irritatingly arrogant Capote Duncan, sweet Ryan, the playwright and “genius” Bernard Singer and the “infamous” Bobby Nevil. She learns that appearances can be deceiving and love and relationships can be a hell of a lot complicated.

Carrie’s summer is one of self-discovery and a real coming of age story as she develops from being a “sparrow” to “A pigeon. The official bird of New York City”. While Carrie is told “The whole idea is that Carrie Bradshaw never wins”, I think it’s safe to say Carrie is most definitely a winner.

Matt Ward’s food for thought: The interplay between fiction and design

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Matt Ward offers some interesting food for thought in ‘Design Fiction as Pedagogic Practice’. The title sounded scary BUT it was definitely worth the read.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sounds silly but I’ve never really considered the concept/word “design” when I think about writing. And design is essentially what you do as a fictional writer. You design characters, worlds, the plot…everything inside your story.

Ward is fascinated with this ‘interplay between fiction and design and speculation’.

He notes that “all design is fiction”  because designers create ‘propositions for a world that is yet to exist’. It’s actually incredibly interesting to think about this process. I’ve always loved to write so the notion of encouraging imagination to turn fictions into reality is really inspiring.

 

I’m imagining these uber-cool designers living in this amazing fantasy world where they dream up new worlds and gadgets to use in them. What a cool job!

 

 

Finally Ward makes an obvious but important point that “things that work don’t create interesting stories”. This is all too true in fiction! Who wants to read about a perfect world where everyone is happy and nothing interesting or exciting happens?!

He goes onto suggest that the current popularity of dystopian novels stems from this concept. It could prove worthwhile to take inspiration from The Hunger Games, Divergent and The 5th Wave (just to name a few) to get ideas for design…

Images sourced from BlazeDigital   and Blogspot 

Design Fiction and Bruce Sterling

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Design fiction. Edgy, new-age, ‘geeky’, cool…

Something I’ve never heard of before starting this course. And I sure like the sound of it.

Bruce Sterling explains design fiction to be “thinking about potential objects and services and trying to get people to concentrate on those rather than entire worlds or political trends…”

It kind of sounds like being an inventor. Tracy McBean anyone?!

It encourages people to be creative and think outside the square.

Sterling explains “it’s not a kind of fiction but a kind of design. It tells worlds rather than stories”.

In saying that, I think you can find elements of design fiction within stories. Most obviously sci-fi stories. The iconic ‘Back to the Future’ series springs to mind (LOVE that show btw). Hoverboards and time-travel cars could be considered as part of design fiction right?

 

I’d sure like to see the option of REAL life time travel cars become reality…

Images from ABC.Net and DavidDarling