LIPSTiCK TrACeZ

Laduree opens tomorrow on the second floor of the Ginza Mitsukoshi.  The place has a great view of the Ginza crossing and it's pretty amazing to look outside at modern Tokyo from their Marie-Antoinette salon.  Saint Honore pistache, Mont Blanc, Mille Feuilles, and of course Macarons! They are all there.  Here's a sneak peak from my visit yesterday.

Ah, Tokyo...  Don't ever leave your apartment without your camera or you won't be able to share the fun!!!  While you're too busy doing who knows what in the U.S., here's what you're missing.


You eat tiny sushis.
























You find giant ice cubes in your Whiskey.
























You play bowling with a pink Hello Kitty bowl.
















                                                                  







Porsches are Barbie pink.
























The sign for the Citibank's ATM is an old tiny piece of paper taped on the inner wall of the elevator.                                                                                                      

If like me you're obsessed with saving everything and anything, from the Blue Iguana in the Cayman Islands to the Nubian Dragon Tree of Somalia, and even the San Acitos Dirt Shrew (Weeds, Season 3 anyone?), and you happen to be in Tokyo this upcoming Thursday you might want to swing by the Graham London - Aqua Love charity gala.  The Anglo-Swiss watch company has teamed up with the WWF's Shiharo Coral Reef Conservation Center in Okinawa to help protect the coral reef and promote responsible diving off the island of Ishigaki.  For the occasion Graham has created a unique watch, the "Chronofighter Oversize Diver Blue Seal" that will be raffled off that night.  100% of the proceeds will go to WWF. 

The other weekend I went to Naoshima, an island in the Seto Inland Sea of Japan.  Naoshima is home to the Benesse House Museum and the Chichu Art Museum, both designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando (Morimoto in New York, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Texas, and about a billion things in Japan).

You can sleep in the Benesse House museum itself (yes they have rooms, you don't sleep on a rest bench) and have breakfast across Andy Warhol Flower Prints and a view of the sea. It doesn't really get better then that in terms of fancy tea sipping and croissant munching (oui, they have croissants).
 
The Chichu Art Museum features only 3 artists (4 if you count the museum itself) and is completely underground.  Inside you'll find 4 paintings by Monet (the water-lily, the water-lilies and more water-lilies), Walter De Maria, and an amazing work of light by James Turrell - you literally walk towards the light, it was by far my favorite thing.

Unfortunately, no photos were allowed inside either museum.  But I guess that's sort of ok since there's plenty to play with outside. Sculptures by Nikki de Saint Phalle, Yayoi Kusama (you got to love that pumpkin) and a bunch of others that my uncultivated self didn't know (George Rickey, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Shinro Ohtake...).

I also have to give a special props to one of their restaurants, The Terrace. The food was simply delicious, although the lighting at night was a little obnoxious, so knowing how to say "please turn down the light" in Japanese may come in handy.


Yayoi Kasuma's pumpkin. I just wanted to take it home (got a mini one instead, way less expensive).

























Walter de Maria "See /Unseen Known/Unknown.














Unfortunately, the jacuzzi was closed so no splish splash.














































The Oval, where the coolest hotel rooms are.
                                                                                                       

I guess once a beauty editor, always a beauty editor.
I'm not a big fan of powder foundations since my skin is too dry and usually, these kinds of products just make it worse. In the summer, I find it hard to wear liquid foundations (so so hot!), but sometimes there is no way around it (too many parties, too much work, too much stress, etc..) that you just need to hide your real face behind makeup. Recently, I came across Guerlain Parure Compact Foundation with Crystal Pearls and I just looove it! So I thought I'd be a nice girl and share my new discovery with you. This little baby doesn't dry my skin - it's extremely light and covers perfectly. Apparently, they use "crystal pearls to replace some of the talc that goes into the composition of powder foundations". Well, I have no idea what this crystal pearl thing is, but it definitely works for me. Oh, and it has a SPF 20. What else could you ask for? By the way, I hope none of you are running around with no SPF...

Then we headed to Nyanpan the Hanpanda's funeral (seriously). But don't be sad guys, she had a long beautiful life (she was 84 years old). It was a lovely farewell, all her family and friends were there to say goodbye one last time. Sayonara Nypan!

Nyanpan the Hanpanda

























 

The family.

Yesterday was the kick off party for a new Shu Uemura exhibition at the Mori Arts Center. "Opening the Atelier after 25 years" celebrates - you guess it - the opening of the very first Shu Uemura boutique in Omotesando.

If you're obsessed with makeup like a certain someone, this should make your day. Lots of pictures, sketches, old makeup cases, tons of colors and videos. It was also very moving since Mister Uemura died last December and a tribute was held in his honor. The creative team was there and showed us how to really do makeup. It was pretty amazing.

Indian artist N.S. Harsha, winner of this year Arte Mundis prize, was in Tokyo yesterday to present his new show "Leftovers" at Maison Hermes in Ginza (sorry about the "e" in Hermes not having an accent, I'm still trying to figure out how to include it without getting this é è). The exhibit is largely inspired from the fake food displayed in most of Tokyo's restaurants, which Harsha noticed in a previous trip to Japan.
It took about 3 months to the Japanese workshops to create all the food.

The result is pretty realistic (we had to poke it to make sure it wasn't real). Check it out!





















FYI, (for the fans), he also created a Carre Hermes for this Spring Summer collection with his signature miniature figures on it. Although I'm not sure if they are selling it in Tokyo. I guess it would make sense but you never know. Unfortunately, it wasn't in the gift bag...

Just want to share some Monday morning cuteness with you (that is, only if you like cats). I've recently covered a cat cafe in Tokyo for  Weekender. Yep, it's a cafe, with a lot of cats hanging out. And no, it doesn't smell or anything. This is Japan - everything is spotless (they clean subway stations with toothbrushes). The concept is simple: you go there, have coffee, and play with the cats. There are about 20 of them, different breeds and ages. You can pet them, feed them, take pictures, and if you're anything like me, you'll try to put kittens in your bag and run away (good thing fashion is all about giant totes, you can stack quite a few kittens in them) .
If you're in Tokyo and want to check it out, email me I'll give you directions.
Website here.

KONICHIWA!!

I've been in Japan for 11 months now, which, in this country makes you as knowledgeable as a newborn baby. In Tokyo, everything you know or see is just not quite what you were expecting. So I've learned to suppose nothing and accept all things. In this blog you will find anything from music, fashion, art, beauty, architecture, food, to the everyday normal-craziness of the city. Most of it will be about Tokyo; some of it about whatever crosses my mind that I think you could get a kick out of.
I hope you like what you read.

Ironically, I will not start this blog by taking about Tokyo.

Goodbye Yves.

In 1976 the media announced that Yves Saint Laurent was dead. The news was neither confirmed nor denied, and the editors almost had strokes when he walked out from the backstage area at the end of his show. So when I heard about Yves Saint Laurent passing away - again- this Sunday, I wasn't sure if I should believe. There had been numerous rumors about the fact that he was really ill, but the media today are so desperate to break the news that I rarely trust what I read. Sadly this time it's true.


You will probably be reading a lot about him in the following weeks and I wouldn't normally add my two cents if it weren't for the fact that my mother had the extraordinary luck to work for this great man for 33 years. De facto, I spent a great deal of my childhood at the Maison de Couture observing the work, wrapping myself up in dresses and fabrics, trying on stilettos as tall as I was, and hiding from an unfriendly dog named Moujik who didn't like children. I didn't set out to write a eulogy, but saying that YSL changed my life is an understatement. He ruled it. Whether it was conscious or not, for the first 20 years of my life, every aesthetic choice I made was directly or indirectly linked to his work. Even now, I feel the influence of the great man following me everywhere. So I just wanted to say a proper goodbye to the genius who changed fashion for the best. Au revoir the tuxedos, the safari and the Picasso jackets, the Mondrian, the Lalanne and the Russian dresses.


"My Couture House is my spine" Yves Saint Laurent often said, and I think it's safe to say that his work inspired and helped build numerous other "fashion spines". It's truly the end of an era (sorry guys, no other way to say it). Of course fashion is still there but now, pressured between the investors and the fashion editors, the fashion world is much a different one than the one I grew up in.


I always secretly hoped he would produce one final show. I guess that won't be happening now. Goodbye Monsieur Saint Laurent and merci. Merci a billion times.

My YSL photo album

PHOTO CAPTIONS
Picture 1: Because this is about Japan after all, here's s super hot model (aka, my maman) rocking the catwalk in Tokyo. (oups- erratum: the show was in Paris, the magazine was Japanese)

Pic 2 Yves Saint Laurent and his army of angels (way before Victoria's Secret)

PIC 3: Yves Saint Laurent and my mom circa 1988