Trendy Thursdays: Notes from Paris: The Art of Illumination

Kimmie Smith — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 07:00:00 EDT

Notes from Paris is a series of posts from Valerie Nahmias, Beauty Editor of Femina Magazine in Paris. Brought together by our mutual friend and fashion photographer, Franco Lacosta, her posts will be featured each month bringing us her insights on beauty from products to fabulous tips! Last time, Valerie talked about the Masculine Revolution! Today she lets us in on beauty's connection with art!

How can a step back in time, inspire our vision of beauty? Shocking gold, true blue or red cracking... the miniature "The Hours of the Virgin" speaks about love, women, deep secrets, and reminds me of the passion of one of the biggest french sponsors of his time, Jean de France, the Duke of Berry (1340-1416).

In 1405, this « Prince of the Arts » ordered young artists Paul Herman and Jean de Limbourg, to create a series of miniature illuminations around prayer and worship. Immediate success. That work is a masterpiece of the means age.

Named « Beautiful Hours », this book, property of Metropolitan Museum of Art, is untied the time of an exceptional exhibition.

How can we express this art in our everyday life? By faith, sure, because Glamour is our religion. To the devil the Puritanism, let's live the beautiful hours! And enjoy gloss and make-up, with these tints "shocking" that support perfectly a personality. From the classicism to the modernity, everything takes place on the art to handle these exuberant colors.

YSL, Shu Uemura, Bourjois, M.A.C Cosmetics, Chanel… inspired by the art, those brands play with mascara blue, cheekbones fuchsia, vermilion mouth, lamé golden varnish. Forget about « nude », nothing is more sexy than true colors for summer. and if it is sometimes necessary to go to draw from pastime to be at the top of our time, never forget that we act today for the tomorrow's beauty.

52 days, 1248, it is the number of those Beautiful Hours that we have, to contemplate, with worship, these magnificent icons.

Valerie is the Beauty Editor of Paris' Femina Magazine and it's blog Redaction Beaute and has spent her years in the fashion/beauty industry. She was an assistant at French Elle Magazine for Carine Roitfeld (who is now French Vogue's Editor in Chief) and wrote the book, Pour Etre Belle.

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Trendy Thursdays: Notes from Paris: The Art of Illumination