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      in Movies

      Sofia Coppola’s Latest Release? A Lip Balm With Augustinus Bader.

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      The tinted balm was inspired by products that the filmmaker confected as a girl to achieve the “berry-stained lips” of a character in a Roman Polanski movie.As a girl, Sofia Coppola liked to melt down her lipsticks, mixing colors and consistencies to make a tint that conformed to her aesthetic ideal.She was after the look of Tess, the titular character in Roman Polanski’s 1979 film adaptation of the novel “Tess of the d’Urbervilles,” portrayed by Nastassja Kinski. In one scene, Ms. Coppola recalled, the character was nibbling on strawberries “that left her with perfectly berry-stained lips.”That tint, it turns out, is the cosmetic expression of a subtlety that has long been Ms. Coppola’s hallmark as a filmmaker, writer and director. From an early age, she brought her coolly observant, hyper-feminine sensibility to movies like “The Virgin Suicides,” her first film, released in 1999, “Lost in Translation,” “Marie Antoinette” and, most recently, “Priscilla,” Ms. Coppola’s adaptation of Priscilla Presley’s memoir, “Elvis and Me.”The style of her work is all of a piece, Ms. Coppola, 52, said on Monday in a phone interview; her taste, for the most part, is genteelly uncompromising. “I’m making a world,” she stressed, “that I want to look at and share.”With each of her projects, Ms. Coppola, the daughter of the Hollywood titan Francis Ford Coppola and the late artist and filmmaker Eleanor Coppola, aims to create a sense of intimacy. Her low key, insistently gauzy aesthetic can be seen in her films’ costumes and interiors — and now, of all things, in a series of tinted lip balms.The balm is offered in three tints — pink, coral and berry — that Ms. Coppola said suit her complexion.Melodie McDanielMs. Coppola produced the new line in collaboration with Augustinus Bader, a popular skin care brand that she uses. Some months ago, she approached its eponymous founder — a German doctor and professor whose clinic in Leipzig caters to wealthy clients seeking to delay the effects of aging — asking if he would introduce a bit of color to his lip balm. To her surprise, he agreed.The Augustinus Bader x Sofia Coppola lip balm that they developed, priced at $43, is offered in pink, coral and an earthy shade of plum: tints akin to those Ms. Coppola confected in her childhood bedroom.Those colors suit Ms. Coppola’s complexion, she said, explaining that she prefers using subtle makeup to enhance her full lips and aquiline features. She likes the way she looks even more, she added, “when the lighting is right.”Ms. Coppola’s passions for beauty and fashion run deep, and have been informed by her stint as an intern at Chanel in Paris in the 1980s, as well as by her presence in the front rows at fashion shows of New York designers like Anna Sui and her friend Marc Jacobs in the ’90s and early 2000s.She also founded a clothing brand, Milk Fed, in the mid ’90s, that was known for kiddie-proportioned, slogan-bearing T- shirts, jackets and dresses. Today, the label is produced and sold in Japan, but vintage original items, coveted by a new generation of Ms. Coppola’s acolytes, can go for hundreds of dollars on eBay.No stranger to collaboration, Ms. Coppola directed a commercial promoting Mr. Jacobs’s Daisy Dream fragrance in 2014, and last year she teamed with Barrie, a Scottish knitwear label owned by Chanel, on a collection of cashmere sweaters, jumpsuits, pants and blazers.She feels no need to justify such projects. “They are an extension of what I do in films,” she said.“I love collaboration,” Ms. Coppola added with conviction. “But in the end, you get what you want.” More

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      in Music

      Vanessa Williams Releases ‘Legs’ Music Video Featuring Edgy Ensembles

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      Vanessa Williams’s many ensembles in a music video for her new song, “Legs (Keep Dancing),” evoke her knack for portraying a diva with style.It might not come as a surprise that Vanessa Williams, in the music video for her new single, “Legs (Keep Dancing),” can be seen showing off her legs.Some may remember her showing off a lot more in a 1984 issue of Penthouse, that, after being published, led Ms. Williams to become the first Miss America forced to give up her crown, a decision that the pageant’s leaders have since apologized for.Her legs in the “Legs” music video, unlike in the Penthouse photos, are for the most part clothed. Moschino shorts and fishnets, a spangly gold bodysuit and a pink feathered outfit are among the many items Ms. Williams, 61, wears while moving — mostly dancing — between locations that include a white-walled studio, a dimly lit limousine and a nightclub.For certain viewers, Ms. Williams’s colorful wardrobe in the video might evoke other aspects of her career as an actress and singer, say, her past role as fashion editor Wilhelmina Slater in the TV show “Ugly Betty,” or her upcoming role as Miranda Priestly, the Anna-Wintour-inspired fashion editor, in the musical adaptation of “The Devil Wears Prada,” arriving in London’s West End later this year.Ms. Williams, speaking on a phone call on Tuesday after flying from Japan to New York, said that certain attire worn in the “Legs” video had connections to some of her past roles. For instance: A silky chartreuse corset and matching cargo pants by Adrienne Landau, a label she has worn since her days on “Ugly Betty.”Another ensemble of sheer black top and zipper-covered red pants came from Trash and Vaudeville, the punk emporium in Manhattan’s East Village.An ensemble of sheer black top and red zipper-covered pants came from the store Trash and Vaudeville in New York.WMGA spangly gold bodysuit worn beneath a sparkly fringed belt brought to mind Ms. Williams’s reputation as a diva who embraces fashion.WMGMs. Williams, who developed her wardrobe for the video with the stylist Alison Hernon, said the clothes they chose were pieces she feels comfortable in and “that feel comfortable on my body.”She added that her outfits in the video for “Legs,” her first non-holiday-related single in 15 years, were meant to not only highlight the song’s titular anatomy, but also what she described as its underlying message: That her decades-long career is ongoing and ever-expanding.“I’m still here, still standing, still kicking,” Ms. Williams sings on the dance-pop single. “In fact, I’m the best I’ve ever been.”“I’ve got a lot of stuff going on,” Ms. Williams said on the phone. Her to-do list includes plans to release a full-length album on a newly announced record label. She is also a producer of a new musical about the trumpeter Louis Armstrong, which is coming to Broadway around the same she starts performances of “The Devil Wears Prada” in London.Ms. Williams has followed a career path blazed by Black performers like Diana Ross and Diahann Carroll, both of whom also served as inspiration for “Legs” and its music video, which opens with Ms. Williams dropping a cream-colored Michael Kors coat and a Worth & Worth hat — attire nodding to clothes Ms. Ross wore in the 1975 film “Mahogany,” Ms. Hernon said.A line in the song’s chorus, “They say the legs are the last to go,” echoes the title of Ms. Carroll’s memoir, “The Legs Are the Last to Go,” released in 2008. Its cover featured a leggy portrait of Ms. Carroll, who died in 2019.Ms. Williams, who starred in the film “The Courage to Love” alongside Ms. Carroll, said that the title and cover of her memoir reflect how, “with age, comes wisdom.”“She’s realizing and accepting her body shape and all that comes with it,” Ms. Williams said. “And that’s what I think is reflected in what I wanted to say with this phase of my life and also in the music.” More

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      in Music

      What 80 Artists, Musicians and Writers Are Starting Right Now

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      Alice McDermott, 70, writer There are three kinds of novels I’ve never taken to heart: science fiction, murder mysteries and novels about novelists. So I’ve decided to try my hand at each. If I fail, they’re probably not books I’d want to read anyway. Thurston Moore, 65, musician and author I’m putting the final touches […] More

    • 75 Shares99 Views

      in Television

      When Jane Fonda Met Lily Tomlin

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      Alice McDermott, 70, writer There are three kinds of novels I’ve never taken to heart: science fiction, murder mysteries and novels about novelists. So I’ve decided to try my hand at each. If I fail, they’re probably not books I’d want to read anyway. Thurston Moore, 65, musician and author I’m putting the final touches […] More

    • 75 Shares159 Views

      in Music

      How to Begin a Creative Life

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      Alice McDermott, 70, writer There are three kinds of novels I’ve never taken to heart: science fiction, murder mysteries and novels about novelists. So I’ve decided to try my hand at each. If I fail, they’re probably not books I’d want to read anyway. Thurston Moore, 65, musician and author I’m putting the final touches […] More

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      in Music

      15 Looks That Did the Most at Coachella

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      There was no shortage of celebrities onstage last weekend at the first installment of this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Southern California, where Doja Cat, Billie Eilish and even Will Smith performed.Ms. Eilish surprised spectators by joining Lana del Rey for the folk-rock singer’s first Coachella set since 2014. Mr. Smith, who started his career as a rapper, also shocked many in the audience by performing a rendition of his song “Men in Black” with dancers dressed as aliens during the reggaeton singer J Balvin’s set.But some of the highest-profile performers at the festival weren’t there to work: Rihanna and ASAP Rocky, along with Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, came as spectators, even if neither couple could exactly blend in with the crowd.At Coachella — an orgy of brand activations, parties and musical performances — celebrities are but one reliable component. Another is fashion, which typically tends toward the ostentatious. That was mostly the case last weekend, during which these 15 looks stood out — some for being opulent, others for being over-the-top and a couple for being surprisingly simple.Doja Cat: Most Harebrained!Hair with boots to match.Valerie Macon/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesOf the many outfits worn by the singer and rapper during her set, this get-up involving few clothes and strategically arranged extensions might have stolen the show — if only by a hair.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 125 Shares149 Views

      in Television

      In the End, ‘The New Look’ Left Us Wanting More

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      More Dior. More Chanel. More fashion!The last episode of “The New Look,” the Apple TV+ series about Christian Dior, Coco Chanel and the birth of post-World War II fashion, aired on April 4. A fictional take on the choices those designers had to make to survive, the show offered its own new look, not just at the origin story of a dress style, but at the actual characters behind the brands. Here, the Styles editor Stella Bugbee and the fashion critic Vanessa Friedman debate the possible repercussions for the two dominant red carpet names.Vanessa Friedman So my big question, after watching the whole series, is, Will this change how people think about Dior and Chanel? Those brands, after all, bear the names of their founders, and this show is the first time I expect most viewers will have been confronted with the idea of them as real individuals, with many — in the case of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, who is depicted as a Nazi collaborator, even if a somewhat unintentional one, very many — human frailties. What do you think?Stella Bugbee It has the potential to personalize these megabrands — for better or worse, since the show is riddled with factual inaccuracies. While pointing to Mademoiselle Chanel’s Nazi past, the show paints her choices as something almost verging on feminism. It’s a tidy bit of propaganda in a way. And as for Monsieur Dior, it takes pains to paint him as a success almost despite himself.But the best way it humanizes these characters is through the compelling performances of Ben Mendelsohn and Juliette Binoche. I was rooting for both of them. And I found that I wanted to know more about each brand, so that seems like a win.Ben Mendelsohn as Christian Dior and Maisie Williams as his sister, Catherine, who was in the French resistance during World War II. AppleTV+VF Dior comes off as the hero of the series, while Chanel is the villain, even if, as you say, she has a feminist bent, especially when she is confronting the Wertheimers, her backers, about getting a more even split of the proceeds. They ask her how she could use their Jewishness against them, and she asks them if they have ever considered what it is to be a single woman running her own business (a complicated equivalency).We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Music

      Ye Is Sued for Hostile Work Environment at Donda Academy and Yeezy

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      A former employee sued the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, claiming a hostile work environment at Yeezy, his fashion brand, and Donda Academy, his private school.Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, was sued Tuesday by a former employee who accused him of discrimination and creating a hostile work environment by calling Adolf Hitler “great,” disparaging Jews and saying that “gay people are not true Christians.”The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by Trevor Phillips, who says he was hired in November 2022, around the time a series of antisemitic remarks publicly made by Ye lost the artist his major-label record deal and put his businesses in jeopardy.Phillips was initially hired to oversee “projects related to growing cotton” and other plants in an effort to make Yeezy, Ye’s fashion brand, “self-sustainable,” the lawsuit said, and then went on to work for Donda Academy, Ye’s private school in Southern California.Phillips’s lawsuit claims that Ye made antisemitic comments in front of staff members at Donda Academy, including, “the Jews are out to get me” and “the Jews are stealing all my money.” After Adidas ended its decade-long partnership with Ye over his public remarks, the lawsuit claimed, the rapper told Phillips: “The Jews are working with Adidas to freeze up my money to try and make me broke!”The lawsuit claims that Ye treated Black employees at Donda Academy, including Phillips, “considerably worse than white employees.”Representatives for Ye and Donda Academy did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More