Who is censoring Angelina's nose?

Unless Angelina Jolie has a not-quite-identical "look-alike" who was sent to pose for the latest Vanity Fair cover, I'd say the person responsible for the digital retouching of the photo has gone mad. Or severely myopic. Or both.

Be it as it may, that person obviously doesn't like Angelina's natural nose: shortish (like her father's), a bit stumpy - and cute as a button. A nose that makes her eyes and her lips look even bigger than they are - and also as sensuous as they look. It may not be a "perfect" nose by certain standards, but it is an unobtrusive nose that helped make her face an icon of sexiness because it doesn't stand in the way of her eyes and her mouth. It doesn't assert itself, if you will. And it certainly isn't a "refined" nose.

Which is perfectly fine, because Angelina's beauty is supposed to be unconventional, if it is to reflect her Sturm-und-Drang-turned-Mother-Earth-placidity public persona.

Which is exactly why the unnatural nose she features on the Vanity Fair cover is so off.
It's about a third longer than Angelina's natural nose, with an uncharacteristically thin tip (I suppose "refined" is exactly the adjective the artist was after), while the also thinned bridge is even slightly crooked.

Unless, of course, Angelina did send a look-alike to the photo shoot and forgot to tell.
In which case it makes sense that the lady's nose grew long...

YSL Forever

"Fashions fade, style is forever"

Yves Saint Laurent (1936 - 2008)

Yves Saint Laurent died tonight in Paris.
From a brain tumor.

He was called an enfant terrible in his youth. And he remained one.
That's the secret of many a great artist: to remain a child at heart.

(You doubt that fashion design is art?
Then have a look at the title of this section of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where some of YSL's historic designs are preserved. Or this timeline.)


We will be writing more on YSL in the near future.
Meanwhile, here is a design or two, from among his more emblematic creations; and an early work.

Enjoy.

That's what they were made for.

Yves Saint Laurent, Evening dress, 1969–1970
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

And here's the description from the MET online catalog:

Diana Vreeland recalled of Saint Laurent, "He struck me right away as a person with enormous inner strength, determination and full of secrets. I think his genius is in letting us know one of his secrets from time to time." The sheer theatricality of this evening dress shows Saint Laurent at his most flamboyant and transfigurative.

Before Saint Laurent was Saint Laurent,
he was already Saint Laurent...







Yves Saint Laurent, evening dress, for Christian Dior, 1958.
The dress is coming up for auction at Christie's (sale no. 2017), in July 2008

... and then rocked on with the times

"There is no attire quite as beautiful as the naked human body. There is no prettier gown for a woman than the arms of a man she loves.
But for those who aren't so lucky, I am there."

Yves Saint Laurent