COSMIC FASHION + BEAUTY NEWS: JULY 2016

Material girl, mystical world indeed—Gabriela Herstik rounds up all that’s cosmic in fashion and beauty for July 2016. 

Rihanna rick owens music video black lips on The Numinous

 

Rihanna in Rick Owens
In RiRi’s latest music video, “Sledgehammer,” we’re taken on a journey to a distant planet somewhere far away in the cosmos—where eyebrows are optional and Rick Owens is a necessity. Rihanna dons a burnt orange, draped Rick Owens masterpiece, face tattoos, textured silver cuffs and a matching choker, and the perfect black lips (which you can copy with this Kat Von Dee lipstick.) Who knew, but if anyone can play up the role of galactic fashion alien goddess, it’s Rihanna—proving this Pisces babe to be a truly mystical mama (who’d look perfect on a Starchild Tarot card).

vivienne-westwood- man ss17 on The Numinus

Vivienne Westwood MAN SS17
Aries powerhouse and activist Dame Vivienne Westwood has done it again, creating a genderfluid collection for MAN Spring/Summer 2017. In true Westwood fashion, there were drop crotch velvet trousers in plush scarlet, reworked netted blouses, heart chakra cut-outs, with plenty of layering in the house’s signature stripes. Westwood has always been on the forefront of what’s political in fashion—hello, mother of punk—and, of course, the runway show started with a video message in support of Julian Assange, as he begins his fifth year in unlawful confinement. Who says fashion is all fluff, anyway?

Willow Smith Chanel eyewear campaign on The Numinous

Willow Smith for Chanel
Willow Smith, alien enthusiast and soon-to-be power woman, has been named face of Chanel for the brand’s Fall 2016 eyewear campaign. Smith looks exquisite in the campaign (below) in Chanel shades, an evil eye chain (with plenty of diamonds) and a septum piercing. High fashion is still (!!!) finding its way to being truly inclusive, so signing Smith is a statement to say the least. Last time dreads were featured in a Chanel campaign, it was on a white woman.

SWETE fashion phoebe collings-james on The Numinous

SWETE
Is a new leisurewear label from Parsons-trained, London-based, Aussie designer Emily Nam. Easy-to-wear pieces include t-shirts, sweaters, sweatpants, dresses and skirts, inspired by 1990s street culture and woven with a social mission to boot. All cotton is Australian certified organic, which means grown without the use of pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers, while Nam only works with suppliers who pay their employees a fair wage. And with a campaign featuring British artist Phoebe Collings-James (above), what’s not to love?

Concrete Minerals Black Magic Collection on The Numinous

Concrete Minerals Black Magic Collection
100% cruelty-free, vegan and American made, Concrete Minerals has us under their spell—especially since their “Black Magic” collection, which features names like Séance, Bitches Brew and Arsenic, is a everything a witchy woman could want in a mineral eyeshadow. The iridescent shades in hues of cranberry, rose and violet, are super pigmented and made without any preservatives, and are begging to be worn with your layered quartz necklace and cat eye. Bonus—stare into the pots of for long enough and it’s like looking at an ethereal planet somewhere in a galaxy far away…

Jeffree Star Cosmetics on The Numinous

 

Jeffree Star Cosmetics
The next frontier for celebrity makeup artist and all around bad bitch Jeffree Star is…makeup. Namely his line of cruelty free, Los Angeles-made eye, lip and face products, which are almost consistently sold out already. Perhaps the most noteworthy of his products is his Velour Liquid Lipstick, with names such as Scorpio (a muted lavender/violet), Gemini (a soft brick red) and Dominatrix (a deep chocolate brown). And for a truly otherworldly glow, check out Skin Frost—a highlighter that provides the perfect pixie/ mermaid/alien sheen. On it.

 

THE FASHION WEEK ZODIAC WHEEL: DESIGNERS BY SIGN

The creations of our most iconic fashion designers always reflect the traits of their sign – so what part of the Fashion Week Zodiac Wheel speaks to the fashionista in you?

ARIES: MARC JACOBS

**DARING ** SELF-CONFIDENT ** TREND-SETTING ** EGOTISTICAL ** ATHLETIC ** STRONG **
One of fashion’s true thought leaders, with the show that closes New York Fashion Week Marc Jacobs is pretty much the only designer out of NYC with the power to set trends (not just capitalise massively on them). He also turned high fashion on its head when he invented grunge, and famously spends two hours a day in the gym honing that athletic Aries physique.

TAURUS: DONATELLA VERSACE

Atelier Versace Couture 2014

**SENSUOUS ** AESTHETIC ** MATERIALISTIC ** LOYAL ** LUXURY-LOVING ** RELIABLE  **
The ultimate material girl, Donatella’s vision never wavers – women have red carpets to walk down, and damnit she’s going to give them the glamazon gowns to do it in. When her brother Gianni (a flamboyant Sagittarius) was brutally gunned down in 1997, the Versace family knew they could rely on determined Taurus Donatella to follow in his diamante-studded, gold leaf inlaid footsteps.

GEMINI: HENRY HOLLAND

House of Holland AW07

**ORIGINAL ** COMMUNICATIVE ** QUICK-WITTED ** VERSATILE ** IMITATIVE **
As the sign that rules communication, is it any wonder that Gemini Henry Holland launched his House of Holland label with a line of cheeky slogan t-shirts? This set the tone for a playful streak that runs through every collection – the “House” in question also including his legion celebrity friends / fans always crowding out the frow at his shows.

CANCER: VERA WANG

Vera Wang Bridal SS14

**DEVOTIONAL ** DOMESTIC ** EMOTIONAL ** TRADITIONAL ** NOSTALGIC ** FAMILIAL**
Who else but Cancer Vera Wang could have cornered the market for high fashion bridal gowns? Wang’s name has become synonymous with the kind of wedding that fairy tales are made of – having dressed everyone from Mariah Carey to Victoria Beckham for their big day. As Cancer also rules the home (and by default, wedding gift lists?),  it makes sense that she expanded into homeware in 2002.

LEO: JEREMY SCOTT

Jeremy Scott SS14

** PLAYFUL ** CHILDLIKE ** ENTERTAINING ** DRAMATIC ** HUMOROUS ** FUN-LOVING **
The eternal club-kid, Leo Jeremy Scott refuses to grow up and get serious. This is the man who invented a pair of sneakers with a teddy bear’s head where the tongue should be, FFS. And he walks the walk. His own outfits are as outrageous as his you-cannot-be-serious creations, while in his case the lion’s mane is his signature (sometimes peroxide blonde) quiff / mohawk.

VIRGO: STELLA MCCARTNEY

Stella McCartney SS14

** PERFECTIONIST ** RESERVED ** INTELLIGENT ** PRACTICAL ** DETAIL-ORIENTED ** NEAT **
Smart women love Stella’s less-is-more, demure-yet-doin’ it approach, and, as a health-conscious, righteous Virgo, she’s as  known for her staunch vegetarianism as her catwalk prowess. Hello seriously discerning women paying astronomical sums for pleather bags and shoes. Consistently hailed as a designer who serves the needs of “real women,” she also has a penchant for virginal white.

LIBRA: DONNA KARAN

Donna Karan Urban Zen

** BALANCED ** SOCIALLY AWARE ** GRACEFUL ** REFINED ** RELATIONSHIP-ORIENTED **
Before Donna Karan came along with her ‘Essentials’ line in 1985 – seven easy pieces that could be mixed and matched to create the perfectly balanced work-life wardrobe – there were suits and there were leisure suits and there wasn’t much in between.  She was also being true to her Libra roots when she launched her Urban Zen foundation, selling thousand dollar shirts to aid indigenous cultures and support holistic wellness studies.

SCORPIO: RICK OWENS

Rick Owens menswear FW09

**INTENSE ** SEXUAL ** MYSTERIOUS ** AGGRESSIVE ** TRANSFORMATIVE ** FORCEFUL **
Who else but Rick Ownes would you wear to a high fashion sex party in the backstreets of Berlin? Not only is his all-black aesthetic directly out of some futuristic occult situation (I mean, he has a diffusion line called DRKSHDW), his bondage-inspired creations have the power to totally transform the body of the wearer. And, openly bi, you just know he and his wife Michele Lamy are into some kinky shiz.

SAGITTARIUS: JOHN GALLIANO

** OUTGOING ** EXPANSIVE ** BLUNT ** FORTUNATE ** PROFESSOR ** MORAL **
Outspoken to, ahem, a fault, it’s still unclear where disgraced designer John Galliano will settle following the antisemitic outburst that got him sacked from the top spot at Dior in 2011. After a guest slot at Oscar de le Renta (brokered by none other than Anna Wintour, hello resourceful Scorpio fashion fairy godmother) for AW13, rumors are circulating that he make take up a teaching post at Parsons.

CAPRICORN: DIANE VON FURSTENBURG

** PRACTICAL ** BUSINESSLIKE ** AMBITIOUS ** AUTHORITATIVE ** FOCUSSED ** REALISTIC **
Where would working women the world over be without Capricorn DVF and her iconic wrap dress?? The consummate fashion mogul, when she launched her company in 1970 her decision to “be someone of my own, and not just a plain little girl who got married” made her a figurehead for fashionable feminists. A walking talking brand in her own right she was even named President of the CFDA in 2006.

AQUARIUS: MARY QUANT

** INNOVATIVE ** REBELLIOUS ** INDIVIDUAL ** LIBERAL ** AWAKENING ** FREE **
Nobody but Aquarius Mary Quant could have invented the mini-skirt, and in doing so single-handedly created a uniform for the 1960s women’s lib movement. Although she always handed the credit to her customers; “It was the girls on the King’s Road who invented the mini. I was making easy, youthful, simple clothes, in which you could move, in which you could run and jump, and we would make them the length the customer wanted. I wore them very short and the customers would say, ‘Shorter, shorter.'”

PISCES: ALEXANDER MCQUEEN

**IMAGINATIVE ** FANTASTICAL ** CREATIVE ** VISIONARY ** OTHERWORLDLY ** MYSTIC **
May we all bow down to the memory of Pisces Alexander McQueen, a true fashion visionary whose beautiful, fantastical creations seemed like they were beamed onto the catwalk from another dimension. Taking skulls and religious iconography as his motifs, his work was entirely impractical, darkend by an obsession with the realm beyond the veil, and utterly, achingly, beautiful.